Mortal Kombat always dies. It never has staying power. The lore is always kooler than playing the game.

The criticisms are global, here in Brazil the same feeling: a game released in a hurry, without the respect that the franchise deserves, money always talking louder, the consequence, a game without soul.

Kameo system killed this for me. That and lack of single player content. Seeing all the cool stuff in Tekken 8 makes me want to pick it up. Haven’t touched MK1 in months

It's the monetization for me. First mk I skipped on. Fed up honestly.

It's not just casuals. People want a better MK game.

Japanese developers have finally brought in both casuals and competitors to a great online experience. Good luck NRS

Mk9 is the last Mortal Kombat without some form of “gimmick”. MK X started the variations, MK11 expanded it with customizable ones, and now MK1 has cameos. I just want a normal base Mortal Kombat fighting mechanic built from the ground up with ONE full fighter against ONE full fighter. That’s my big issue with MK1 other things aside.

It’s the fact everyone was talking bad about mk11 when mk1 dropped but shii at least the shelf life of 11 lasted longer 😂

The fact that this game did not launch with cross-play is simply indefensible and inexcusable, a hard deal-breaker for me.

idk why a $70 game with a fifth of the characters locked behind a $40 pass within the first year is failing at all. SHOCKING!!!

Make MK9 available to play again! Shame on Ed Boon!

As a strictly offline player,the lack of single player content really hurt the game,the invasion mode is fun at first but having it as the only three offline playground make it dull insanely fast. The grindy nayure of it doesn't help too

I’m a casual fighting fan and MK1 lost me really quickly. I played MK11 for WAY longer. It’s awesome Max also is so aware of the casual community he draws.

Welcome to The King of Iron Fist Tournament 8

The monetization in MK1 is embarrassing. As someone who adored the Krypt from Deadly Alliance - 9, not having it has removed so much of the replicability since I'm not a competitive online guy.

MK9 Was the reboot we all needed and closer to MK perfection that makes this fighting game so unique

Honestly, I think the Kameo system really hurt the game more than helped it. It's just strange that we live in a world where actual full team-based fighters exist, but NRS decided to make, like, a half-team game. A whole set of characters purely relegated to assists. It's one thing to do that in Marvel vs Capcom, where a lot of those characters are obscure weirdos people have never heard of, but every assist in MK1 was a fully playable character in a different installment. No matter how you look at it, it feels like a downgrade, like a demotion. It makes sense from a development perspective; it's a lot easier to develop and balance for a bunch of extremely limited half-characters than to effectively double the roster size. But it terms of how it feels from a player's perspective... it feels bad, man.

Player 2 (local) not having access to all fatalities and brutalities really sucks.

Gotta be honest I've NEVER fallen off of an MK game this quick.

Fortunately there is only ONE MK1 and it was released in the 90s.

I stepped away simply because 70% of my matches were against johnny and i just got burnt out

The $12 Fatality didn't help

I am a casual gamer for fighting games, and for me what kept me playing MK11 was collecting "loot", customizing and trying different combinations of skills. MK1 has none of that, invasions are just barely recolors, there's only 1 gear piece per character that is just visual, there's no stats or skill customization whatsoever. So yeah I was done with it in a couple weeks after first season, I had no intention of doing invasions again for just recolors.

It's a real frustrating shame as well, I was honestly hoping MK1 would have potential and promise, but after seeing the microtransactions and live service handling thanks to David himself (WB CEO that made the decision to make the game's live service) I can definitely see why people are already dropping out. Surprisingly I am seeing a bunch of people wanting MK9 back and honestly I'm down for it!

As a big Mortal Kombat fan who loves this franchise so much with all his heart, it’s heartbreaking that WB/NRS are treating this game so poorly right now. While there is a lot that I still enjoy about MK1, something about feels really off at the moment. I really hope WB/NRS will get their shit together and start caring about the quality of their MK games. I’m fucking sick of them caring more about the “Pay for this DLC” micro transactions bullshit when they should be focusing on fixing gameplay issues that fans have with MK1 instead of constantly charging us for content we shouldn’t have to pay for. Which is why the game seems to be going downhill even though it’s only been out for a few months now.

I know this is not the entire player count but the fact that this game has as of me writing this, 1.3k players while street fighter has 23k players on steam is absolutely mind blowing. Edit: Apparently this triggered every single mortal kombat fan in existence Jesus..calm down it aint that serious I just wrote a single comment

I really liked how mortal kombat 11 had so much to do

The fact that in 2023, a fighting game launched without core features like waiting in training for matches, no crossplay and other such things i've heard it hasn't gotten is insane to me. But yeah, Kameos are cool and all, but it feels like an artifical way to have changeable movesets. I liked the idea of chracter styles more, plus the customisation from what i've seen back then was kinda neat... and y'know, not nickle and diming the playerbase

Definitely, kameos are fine but they should’ve given us the option to play the kasual 1v1 and choose between playing with kameos or not, instead of forcing kameos on the ones who enjoy the game more with the klassic 1v1

“People don’t like the team stuff.” nailed it.

I feel they've been going downhill since MKX.

MKX was fast and exciting. Pro play was extremely fun to watch which has not been the case in 11 and 1. In my opinion Mortal Kombat X was the last real MK. They are injustice games now with MK characters.

No Content, no variety in playstyles, no stability off and online, greedy devs, no communication. How is anybody surprised?

The game feels unfinished or is forcing you to do things you don't want to. Hell, when playing locally, player 2 can't even select an outfit or perform brutalities outside of the klassic one.

I still go back to watching old MKX plays every once in a while that game is so fun to watch

And to think some people thought MK1 deserved to be Fighting Game of the Year 2023 LOL

I just can't believe we didn't get a Krypt mode. It's like a chocolate chip cookie without the chocolate. An MK game without a Krypt mode doesn't and will never feel right.. and it's not as if they went out of their way to give us something better or at least on par, they give us a seasonal capped slot machine and a mode that's so gross and tedious I wouldn't wish 5mins of play time on my worst enemy. There's so many amazing casual based modes that would foster a community we could of had that were in previous MK games. Chess Kombat, Konquest, Create a Character, Kart Racing. Any of those game modes would be popular with the casual. But no, everything these days has to be some seasonal based boring grind-fest to make sure you put in them hours or you won't get that palette swap skin you don't even like. Say what you want about 3D era MK but those games had soul and felt like they were made by fans for fans. This game especially and maybe the previous to some feels like it was made by apathetic developers under the thumb of ruthless businessmen trying coast off the back of a popular franchise.

WB is making stupid decisions alot. I can see it dying fast, Idk how no one else can see it. The fanbase is on the copium needle hard!

Bring back the gameplay from deception and Armageddon! The arena fighter with interactive backgrounds

Also why is this game over 150 GBs?!? Infinite Wealth is 50 and its a Yakuza game + animal crossing and pokemon💀💀💀

Invasions is a slog. If you’re a generally casual player like me, you can tell just how different it feels from MK11’s Towers of Time. I’ll break down the biggest gripes. - With towers, there was options of what you wanted to work towards. You could see the rewards at the bottom, and know you weren’t wasting your time grinding for nothing. There was variety, allowing you to pick which towers to pursue - There was no terrible character progression system. MK1 essentially wants you to pick one character per season and grind like hell in invasions to unlock their stuff, when it was MUCH simpler just to play specific character towers in MK11 and unlock stuff that way. It was faster, and you could change out your tower for a new one at any time. The challenges in character towers to progress did get a little roadblock-esque as they went on, but it beat trying to finish matches with the same brutalities EVERY TIME to progress as fast as possible. - The rewards in invasions are awful. Since almost everything in the shop is based around the season, all the shop skins fit the same theme. There’s no magic in buying an ice themed skin for every character. If everyone is an ice themed character, where is the fun in that? Also, the shrine coins are garbage. You can grind for hours on end, only to be able to afford less than ten pulls from the shrine, getting items for characters you don’t play, profile icons, and concept art. What a crock. - Finally, intro dialogues. I know this seems like a nitpick, but there was something super easygoing about being able to grind a tower with a new character, and hear the voice lines play out between characters. It added incentive to try new characters, and hear some lore or funny jokes. Now, since the intros are in the loading screens of local matches, not invasions, you can’t even hear them when playing alone or grinding. It makes every match boring and samey, especially when you’re fighting the same characters over and over again.

The Kameo system killed this game before it even came out. I was called a hater before the game came out, and I am still prepared to die on this hill. Had the game not have Kameos, and the cast had slightly more things to do because of that removal, the game probably wouldn't have died as fast.

You know there was a sale for a bundle on the series X where you get injustice 2 legendary edition and mk11 ultimate for just $10 (all dlc ever released for both games included) & mk11 ultimate had so much to offer. The story, the krypt, the aftermath story, the return if friendships, & the secret challenging towers that give you kombat league skins or gear. Mk1 had a great story, some boardgame mode, & no krypt.🤷🏻‍♂️

MK1 iliterally feels like the Marvel Infinite of Mortal Kombat Games. Right down to their half assed execution, and from overcharging us for DLC that should've been included in the game day 1 as unlockables. Add onto that, the game's stupid Always Online DRM that. *NOBODY FUCKING WANTS*, but they *Insist* on forcing every game to be "Game as a Service." all because some rich, out of touch executive just HAS to buy another Yacht.... This game deserves every bit criticism that it gets from how little respect NRS/WB have for the fans. They clearly do not care about us anymore. And as a diehard MK fan, thats fucking depressing. Mortal Kombat deserved better than this, Bottom Line.

If they give the option to fight without kameos, I'll come back

The Kameo system should have been a game mode and just gave us our traditional 1v1 gameplay.

Casual players wish the Kameos were actual fighters we can play with because it’s all our favorites

Make all the color options for every type of skin free to choose. Not lock it behind coins/ character progress.

As a casual fighting game fan my biggest issue was with the online play. It discourages you to try new characters because you keep the same rank with everyone. It's too hard to compete with a character your learning I wish it had a system more like SF6 where I can experiment more with different characters.

Living in a timeline where Guilty Gear has more active players than Mortal Mombat is so wild to me

Great video especially now that everyone is just piling on. BUT IMO everyone posting content on this topic is missing some obvious call outs on gameplay. Especially if you are like me. I started with the original MK at the age of maybe 14 in the arcade and have progressed ever since. I am honestly hurt inside and in disbelief this is a Mortal Kombat game. I've played various iterations, starting from Raiden to characters like Baraka, Liu Kang, Kabal, Ermac, Sindel, and lastly Fujin in MK 11. Despite not being active on social media, I've consistently enjoyed the series. However, my experience with MK1 has been rather frustrating and downright sad for a few reasons: The game IS slow, as many have pointed out. Additionally, it seems to have deviated from the fighting timing aspects found in previous MK games, making moves like pokes, uppercuts, and combos less intuitive. It is clearly obvious when you simply try to learn and do the combo challenges. Its almost like the creators made it more like we dont give a fuck try anything and it may work. The introduction of characters and Kameos, with more emphasis on juggling and aerial combat, aims to add complexity (I Get it) . However, it's clear that the gameplay lacks variation. Playing as Kitana, I find the character options unappealing, and the overall design lacks depth. It feels like we're all experimental subjects for new versions of Mortal Kombat, resulting in an unbalanced and one-dimensional experience. LAST STRAW ! Chameleon feels like a desperate attempt to inject novelty into the game without considering balanced gameplay. While it may be intriguing, it raises concerns about the overall quality of the game. I am sorry ! Seriously Chamaeleon ! All of a sudden its ok to have a slower cool down and more moves except its just a bit not controllable, while other cameos take two days to cool down, WTF I may make a channel of all the videos of gameplay that show its just shit! Sad Day! BUT cut to the chase the gameplay SUCKS for a MK game! especially after watching tekken , killer instinct and street fighter which I also played at the age of 14! Going Home and landing back at Killer Instinct! Peace and you cant see me / dont care! MK1

Casual here, I definitely hate the team ups. You’re spot on

As a semi-casual player in fighting games, and admittedly a professional filthy Scorpion main, I couldn't help but feel disappointed with how the kameo system was implemented. When I first saw the trailers, I envisioned something like MK11 but with a faster pace, where kameos would add to the intensity. I decided to step away from the game around December 1st, mainly due to my frustration with the fact that most characters seem heavily reliant on kameos. I expected characters to be strong on their own, if not stronger than their MK11 counterparts, with kameos serving as an extra layer of intensity. However, it turned out that many characters struggle to perform without a kameo, making it feel more like a crutch than an enhancement. One exception I noticed is Johnny Cage, who people consider to be OP (S tier), because of his instant fast recoveries. He can execute 90% of his combos independently, and the taunting mechanic is often ignored because he's already formidable in his default state. His S tier status is attributed to his ability to stand alone, with the kameo acting as a bonus to extend his combos. On the other hand, some kameos are so powerful that they elevate a trash-tier character to S tier. Watching tier list videos, I observed Omni Man languishing in lower B tier until the introduction of the Kung Lao hat, catapulting him to A+ or even S tier. It's frustrating to see a character's weaknesses, like long recovery times, vanish simply because of a kameo that instantly recovers them (in this case, the Kung Lao hat after any attack with a long recovery time) then we find ourselves submerged in a sea of players incessantly spamming the Kung Lao hat or something equivalent. I don't want to be an Omni Man spamming a hat every 2-3 hits; I just want to be Omni Man, the super powerful buff character who can fly around like some sort of god.

They lost me when there was no dialogue between characters in Towers. It feels so empty without it, so I haven't replayed since beating.

People buy mortal kombat, people play street fighter.

*THE TEA HOUUUUUUUUUUSSSSSSSSSSE* I will remember it fondly and with respect.....

The exact same thing happened with MK11. That's why I skipped MK1. Exact same marketing and promises as in Mk11. I can guarantee the game will be put on support mode next year. Just like MK11 was put on a year after release. Neither NRS nor Wb want to make a healthy fighting game, they want to sell you a product, have you consume it, then move on to their next product.

At least we got Tekken 8 to look forward to.

I wish the kameo cooldown was seperate for each ability for the majority of the characters, would speed it up while also being able to nerf certain strong kameo abilities without effecting all of them

MK9 characters, art style, and gameplay is still the best.

As a casual player I can’t agree more about how bad a choice the kameo system is from a “fun” perspective. My cousin wanted this to be his first MK game he went all in on since he was attracted to the reset concept and he missed out on the first run. I told him, “kameos will make it not fun for you because everyone will find out who the “best” kameo is and every match up will force you to take that Kameo or lose to it. Sure enough, he quit because he got sick of fighting Sareena.

Grinding each character in the invasion mode killed the game for me and made me wish we had the challange towers from MK11 back(which I wasnt a fan off) the fact I have to reach rank 15 with each fighter to get all the brutalities and fatalities hurt the experience and the all the lackluster all costumes with the tacked on and useless gear system. MK11 felt more robust in terms of everything compared to MK1

To get the best out of one aspect will curse another aspect .

I wouldn't want kameos to disappear. I think it would be good to have options to play with or without kameos though

Undercooked is the only word that springs to mind. I know it’s a bit of a meme at this point but “Koming soon” feels almost symbolic of the MK1 experience. I play competitively in pretty much every fighter and MK has always been my favourite. I love the grind. I try to play all characters. I’m a lab rat. Playing online is the reason I buy fighting games. With how rocky the game is technically this needed at least another half year in the oven imo. It’s just missing on the basics whereas coming from SF6 to MK1 was such a shock. SF6 just gave everybody everything you could ever want from a fighter.

"..And anyway... I started playing Tekken 8.."

I feel like they should've had tag team like MK9 but still have the various assist moves for the characters.

My biggest complaints are mainly invasion based. It is such a DRAG, it just feels like a lot of random small fights that ultimately mean nothing and it just takes forever to get to the final boss. It could lose a level or 2. I feel like what they shouldve done as well is make the kameo characters playable, and make the main characters available as kameo options, because i find it ridiculous that there's 2 scorpions, sub zeros and kung laos.

The issue with all the kameos I find is this, one that this newest kameo exposes about the whole system. Khameleon forces you to use her entire kit by switching all the time. And in turn, forces you to change your approach/strategy or lack there of depending on which one she is currently in. The issue with every other kameo, is that rather than a kameo's entire kit helping to enforce a playstyle or shore up a weakness your main character may have. Everyone is just picking and using whatever let's them focus on a playstyle, centered around using 1 move and spamming just that. So in turn, why would I use a character that can't capitalize on said move when I can just pick the character that can? Low hat. Kano Ball. Old Cyrax. The kameo is not the main character, hell your primary fighter isn't even thought about pretty much. It's just that one specific move that is the gameplan and the entire strategy revolves around just that. Nothing else. And that is what is killing this game from a gameplay standpoint imho.

MKX was by far my favorite fighting game to watch since 3rd strike back in the day. The competitive scene for MKX just seemed like the peak of NRS competition. People really seemed to lose interest in MK11, and MK1 it seems like nobody gives a shit anymore. Its sad I had really high hopes for the game and the competitive scene, but everyone just seems down on it :(

What’s happening to MK1 feels like and seems like is happening with our country… like WTH happened!!!!???

IMO the problem is with the art direction these days. The realistic character models are very surreal and lack any personality when you compare them to fighters like Guilty Gear, SF, and Tekken. MK just never found it's "style" and now has settled on a very bland design. Then you have the animations which are and have always been ugly and stuff. Mix this with heavy emphasis on Zoning and teleports and it makes for a boring fighter that just isn't as fun to watch or play compared to the big 2. SF is always oozing with character (rather or not it's good character is debatable) and Tekken has the incredible sound design that takes it to another level. MK has...fatalities and not much else to stand out in a positive way.

I can attest that I have absolutely seen and felt the MK kommunity deflate, and pretty fast. During the build-up to MK1 there was so much hype, and within 6 weeks people just kinda checked out. It's been sad, but I feel like MK1 is a great game that nobody really wanted.

The most frustrating thing about mk1 for me is how bad the shrine rewards are… I’d have a bunch of coins from grinding online only to get lame kombat cards or concept art. The character skins you do get aren’t cool looking at all and are mainly color palette swaps. I remember the krypt not only being fun to explore, but also legit cool rewards regularly

1. WB Games is always nosedive since Arkham & Shadow of franchise died. 2. MK already heading to this way since MK11. Like how they tied everything on online. They even tamper the SP experience and local MP where casuals cant even enjoy it escept the story mode. Worst move they did for a fighting game. 3. Idk if Im the only one but character designs heavily toned down and uninspiring after MK10. They aim to realism a bit too much. Scorpion, subzero, the ninjas design isnt cool as past games, they look like cosplayers of themselves. Other characters also the same, nothing really standout except they isnt humanoid and its getting smaller and rarer since MK10. Major turn off to many of my friends including myself really. 4. The story also come recyling in same story. Human vs Netherrealm. Always shao khan as final boss. Liu kang the hero except MK1. They rebooting the story 3 times now. MK1-armageddon, MK9-10, MK 11 multiverse and now MK1. It just repeating exact same story with small twist. They run out of creative ideas by this point. 5. The gameplay while compared to MK prior MK9 is more competitive, but its get more complicated each release and isnt enjoyable enough compared to SF, Tekken, DoA, etc. turning off newcomers/casuals. I liked they utilize every button on controllers but its tedious compared to other fighting games that only use directional and 4 main buttons is enough to play. 6. Again, they gatekeep everything online and rely on DLC for skins that also parody of their supposed to be cooler design. You dont want to pay grind it with same characters until you get bored. Those skins look nothing compared to the OG game design looks. Also the guest fighter is talking spotlight too much compared to MK characters fans wanted. Those who dont watch Omni Man or Peacemaker dont really care about the character feel they wasted spots for more relevant characters. So yeah this is also the 1st MK I skipped after hating how MK11 cant be really enjoyed for local multiplayer for me. So its a good call. NRS its doomed judging how WB Games clearly chasing monetizations and trend to get money as much as possible but eventually they just parody of whatever trends currently happening. Now Palworld is viral and if they survived against pokemon/nintendo. I bet WBD will make similar games and the game will die in 2 years time at the most. They also do the same in movies and series. They dont deserve their major positions in entertainment business anymore by this point.

The need to bring back the environment interactions. And the random x ray moves.

The drop off’s gonna be even more exponential next week when Tekken 8 drops. RIP.

SF6 had more content at launch for one thing

MK 11 I played forever. MK 1 I played it sometime time with my son and now it’s deleted.

I’m legitimately just waiting for the guest characters and that’s it.

The cameo feature should have been characters that can actually be playable but also work with assists, being an upgrade from the tag mode of mk9 and also there should be 2 player tag mode.

My biggest issue is the Living Towers i played so much in MK11 are gone. They are technically there in Invasions mode but i dont want to use the rock, paper scissors system they made for Invasions in the Living Towers. Not to mention not knowing what your reward is until you finish one. So far after finishing story mode ive waited for a new character, played them in Arcade mode tower a couple times then get bored and wait for the next character. It just doesn't feel like i have anything to really do outside of the Invasions mode they push so hard. Im just not into that mode and it feels like its the only thing to do post story mode.

My reaction to this is the same reaction Max had during sparking zero blank faced

Tekken 8 really got me this year, it's hard to want to come to mk1 with such a lack of content.

I have never regretted a game purchase as much as MK1. Going right back to the convoluted timeline bullshit is the laziest, most egregious shit ever. Hate it.

I think Hector Sanchez was a BIG reason of MK9’s success. His role and touch with the fans did many positive things for the game.

I don’t see why they don’t just make a Deception 2.0. That was the best MK with style of fighting, mini games and conquest.. how hard could it be for them?

The biggest problem with MK1 is it feels like they rushed this game out for some reason. It game doesn't look finished, the combat looks stiff and seems like it's a drag to play. If it feels like a chore to play then your casual audience will definitely falter.

MKX was prime MK

The Mishima family is looking at MK1 and laughing

I wished they continued with the krypt but a new longer bigger map

True, all you see now is havik VS havik or Reiko VS havik... That's extent of it

They just need to make a sequel to shaolin monks. I would buy that instantly. Loved playing that with my brother and friends back on the ps2.

I think the thing that kinda turns me off, its not a great game to watch because it feels like every character does 1 specific combo over and over, nothing looks different or interesting every character looks like its doing the same thing over and over

Honestly when I watched competitive for this game for the first time I just saw everyone using the same 4 characters and just using the same combos back to back to back. I was really disappointed because it felt pointless to keep watching if I’m just seeing the same stuff over and over again 😢

I think you really nailed a lot of good points.

Seems pretty natural for things in Mortal Kombat to die a lot.

As a filthy casual with MK, I bounced off hard from MK1. I know the competitive scene hated the gameplay of MK11 but I enjoyed it a lot more. A stupid but fun story mode, so many more and better gear, skins, brutalities, intros and outros that could be unlocked through regular play with more frequent rate of unlocks, the krypt was fun to explore, and if you were short on time but still wanted to get some unlocks, you can let the AI take the wheel in Towers of Time. MK1's story felt rushed, there's just overall less things to unlock and is a massive grind to do so with a lot of the best skins being expensive microtransactions and not really digging the Kameo system. They're just not as fun to use as assists in MvC or DBFZ and it could just be me, but it feels like some of the characters are really incomplete on their own. Also Invasions is an overall net negative and never want to touch that mode again.

Removing the run cancel mechanic from mkx has been the biggest fall for mk11 and mk1

I just really miss having tag modes. MK with some tag modes would be fun. Same with Tekken.