5 Steps To Enjoying Mortal Kombat 9

Push A To Start: In order to enjoy Mortal Kombat 9 (or should I say Mortal Kombat, because this iteration of the series has the exact same title as the original for no adequately explained reason) there are certain preparatory steps you need to undertake before you commit to it.

In the interest of providing people with a fair starting point, I thought it would be useful to construct this handy step-by-step tutorial in order to give people some idea of the sacrifices they’re going to need to make in order to have fun with what is, at its heart, a very solid fighting game.

[Pozzle]

"Forget about the potential of videogames as a storytelling medium.
Narrative has no place in Mortal Kombat, and if you go into the “Story Mode” expecting a moving, character-driven tale of drama, suspense and konflict, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. If it makes you feel better, imagine each fight as its own little narrative, and make up all the backstory in your imagination."

Wut? Maybe I'm alone here, but I loved MK9's storyline. True, it wasn't an overly deep or intricate plot, but it's a fighting game- I don't expect a lot of depth.
Though it's easily one of the best storylines in a fighting game since...well, ever.

And it might not have been deep, but I was still pretty invested in it. I genuinely wanted to know what would happen after each fight, and I'm looking forward to MK10 to see how the new reality will have changed MK4's plot.

[FEARprototype]

your not alone^^

[csreynolds]

Agreed. I thought MK9's storyline was excellent for a beat 'em up. DoesNotKnowWhatHesTalkingAbout .com.

[LightofDarkness]

I wasn't a fan, it all too often felt like one of those cheap "SyFy" channel movies. It didn't carry the same dark tone that the originals managed to convey, without even having cut-scenes.

[Pozzle]

"It didn't carry the same dark tone that the originals managed to convey"

Did you play all the way through? Holy shit, the plot in the last few chapters was one great big kick to the gut followed by a hundred more kicks to the gut. It was far more dark and depressing than I expected it to get, that's for sure. :(

Hell, even MK9's intro was dark. It's canon that Shao Kahn won the events of Armageddon. :(

[LightofDarkness]

Yes, I beat the game in a single sitting :p But the plot became entirely off-the-wall around the third act. I mean, what happens for the next game? We have Raiden, Johnny Cage and Sonya (among a few villains). I have no fondness for any of them, bar Raiden. So what now, is he going to go send another message back in time again? A whole new cast of hero characters wouldn't go down too well (think Street Fighter III).

Other things I disliked: villain characters seemed to lose just about every fight they became involved in. Who the hell would continue to send these obvious losers into battle, time and time again, against people who will more than likely whoop them? The bad guys have to win sometimes too, otherwise they become uninteresting and you don't consider them a threat. I mean, they build up Ermac to be a very dangerous/powerful force, yet he's beaten at every opportunity. By people like Stryker. FREAKING STRYKER. And Reptile? He may as well have been left at home.

The whole Sindel scene was more than a little stupid, too. Where did this come from? Since when is Sindel such a superstar that she can take on everyone... well everyone except NIGHTWOLF. I mean, Nightwolf, really? Since when is he so much better than everyone else. Again, this whole section felt rushed together in order to create some shock and emotional connections that weren't really there.

I could go on, but this story wasn't very well put together. Many characters' motivations for doing what they do are unclear and seemingly random, story events feel tacked on just to include people. I'd also liked to have played as the bad guys at least ONCE.

[Pozzle]

I won't comment on the next game since I have no idea what they plan to do with the plot from here (though apparently the devs do have some plot ideas for MK10 already), but I have faith that the devs aren't going to create a completely new cast of heroes. That would just be a dick move.

As for the Sindel thing, that was Raiden's fault...

-SPOILER ALERT FOR ANYONE WHO HASN'T PLAYED MK9 YET-

Raiden tried to save Johnny Cage from being killed by Motaro by killing Motaro first, so in retaliation Shao Kahn gave more of his power to Sindel when he revived her so that she'd be strong enough to take on the Earthrealm warriors without getting killed off herself. That was also a retaliation to the fact that the characters on his side continuously kept losing to the Earthrealm warriors.

I personally loved that Nightwolf got a chance to be badass in this game, instead of staying as a random sub-character. Heck, I loved that alot of the minor or 'joke' characters got a chance to be badass. And yeah, it was silly that a lot of the plot and characters' motives were random, but this is a fighting game after all. There's only so many ways you can come up with reasons to make the same 20-or-so people fight each other. I found most of the reasons for their fights funny (e.g. Jax kicking Johnny's ass because Johnny was being a dick.)
For what the plot was, I liked it.

[Parasyte]

I liked MK9's storyline as well. I don't know whether they borrowed from the Legacy web series or vice versa, but I thought that the two shared a lot in common.

[maxmill]

MK has the best story out of all Fighters

[krazykombatant]

LOOL looks like someone is pissed off of the spam fest that is the online. GET OVER HERE!!!.... and the stupid ass wake-up attack shoulder charge of nightwolf...

I know I sound like a whinny little bitch, but seriously a whole match of just using special moves.... sad and pathetic.

And for those that said that kenshin would be cheap think again.

[Bounkass]

5 steps? Either you do like mario-fighting games or you don't... It's as simple as that.

[JonathonWilson]

Hey all, I just wanted to clarify something.

This was never intended to be taken seriously. I like MK9 a lot, and I agree that the storyline is good for a fighting game. This isn't a serious list of 5 things that you must do to enjoy it, it's just a joke.

When I wrote this, I was poking fun at the people who, when they talk about games, insist that a good game must have things like artistic value or narrative maturity or whatever. The intention was to show that some good games don't need all that stuff, as long as they're fun. And MK is.

Reading it back, maybe that didn't come across too well, but that was the point of it, so hopefully that clears things up a bit.

[csreynolds]

Understood. Sarcasm and humour is easily misinterpreted in text form and some people (myself included, in this instance) might not always see that you're trying to be funny. Thanks for the clarification :)

[FEARprototype]

the problem with the article is very simple. its very random. to us, you looked like douchebag trying to bash the game values. i couldn't really see it as a joke. try to make it obvious next time^^

[Robotronfiend]

Yeah that does clear things up a bit, but it looks like between here and your original post, you've had to type more letters explaining the piece than are actually contained in the piece. ;-)

My issue with MK was the physics and how the character models looked awful when moving.

Too bad with that online pass deal, more people are going to see that "story" than actually play other people online, which is a shame (unless they haven't fixed the netcode yet and reduced lag - if its still the same as launch then the game has both a bad story and bad online play).

[Sidewinder-]

The way to enjoy MK9 is for you and a bunch of mates (4-5) congregate at a friends house with lot's o' fine drinks, having a mini local multiplayer tournament before hitting the town on a Friday night to get hammered.

It kicks ass!

[swishersweets20031]

best way to enjoy mk dont play online