Yossarian1507 said:
Finally. I was really worried there would be no MK review at all.
So... Glad to hear it's good, but I have one important question - how's the balance? Is there any overpowered character, or one who you shouldn't even bother playing with? It's important to me, because every time I pick up a fighter, it turns out I'm taking the crappiest guy of the bunch (Anji Mito in GG, Tager in BlazBlue [although I managed to skill up with him, so at least I'm able to beat up my friends and sometimes even compete on-line], Rock in Soul Calibur III & IV etc.)
I would say the fast characters are ridiculously overpowered, if only because they can lock you in 10 hit+ combos. I'm mainly talking about online, though, and if you don't know how to get even a single hit on a fast character online then there's just no hope for you, period.(I'm looking at you, Sonya Blade and Johnny Cage). There's also slow but heavy fighters that don't really utilise combos, but instead block and dodge and move in for one or two powerful hits at a time. Every character is useful, though, because every character generally has some utility that can counteract the enemy. For example, you'd expect Stryker to be one of the worst (he sort of is, but i still play him anyway) but he has grenades to stop both high and low attacks, a ranged attack, and a dash-grapple which gives him good utility. He's big and slow though, so you need to make sure you time your baton twirls and uppercuts just right, because if they block it you leave yourself open to nasty retaliation.
I'd also like to point out that The Computer Is A Cheating Bastard [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheComputerIsACheatingBastard] is also back in full swing. The AI will manage to predict and block nearly every single attack, while following up with its own impossible to break out of combo that can sometimes turn a winning match with you at over 50% life and them at 10% life to a defeat within a few seconds. Also, Shao Kahn and Goro are unbelievably cheap. You can't block Shao Kahn's attacks, and neither him nor Goro stagger or have their attacks interrupted when you hit them, so you have to rely on cheap tactics like Scorpion's teleport to win on difficulties above Medium.
Susan Arendt said:
It knows it's being silly and is just fine with that - exactly the right attitude for this series.
I didn't think the game or the series as a whole was trying to be camp or silly. I think there is a serious story in there, it just got lost under the two awfully bad movies that came out of it. As for the babalities, i think it was only 'winking and nodding' to past games. Specifically, Mortal Kombat 2 and 3. I also think this is in part due to the fighting system being most similar to MK3. I can see how it might appear so grindhouse, cheesy, and 'B-rated Kung fu movie' to be seen as silly, but that's not really how i hold the MK series. I'd say it was eccentric and over the top, but not camp.
Edit: I'd also like to add that the fatalaties are by far the easiest to pull off in the entire series. Very simple button presses ( Like right, down, right, down, kick ) and they give you almost quadruple the time you originally had to pull them off.
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