Mortal Konfusion

Despite the well-received Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe of 2009, I have to say my interest in a new Mortal Kombat... ANYTHING was pretty low. The series may have, gameplay-wise, supposedly gotten back on track (I personally enjoyed the feel of Deadly Alliance and Deception a lot better), the series' characters and mechanics just seemed extremely stale at this point. After Midway Games died, I figured the next time I saw Mortal Kombat, it'd be an extremely different looking game than its predecessors. If I was being really honest with myself, though, I really didn't care.

That is until earlier this week when I saw this crazy... trailer? Fan film? Thing? Well, whatever it was, it was live-action and Mortal Kombat related. AND IT DIDN'T SUCK! In fact, it was pretty awesome. The short version is that, essentially, Mortal Kombat's shit just got real. The story involved was in a gritty approximation of a real-world city, one where psychopaths, underground assassins, and just overall nasty people were running amok. Luckily, it seems like a familiar face (among many others) was holding a blood-sport tournament for all these crazies, so the police of the city decide to send their own plant in the form of a highly trained assassin (wink wink) to kill all the trouble-makers in one fell swoop. If none of that makes sense, just know that it was an exciting new direction for the series and, for all intents and purposes, looked like it was something almost the entire community of fans agreed looked "bad ass"?

Since you likely still have no idea what I'm talking about... just take a look yourself!

I KNOW, RIGHT?!?!

So, after everybody got excited about this... thing, it was revealed that HEY this thing is really... nothing. Nope. All this little bit of awesome was was a pitch for a potential Mortal Kombat and nothing more. An effing PITCH. More like an effing tease.

Oh well, I personally decided to just move on and go about my normal non-MK life when today I see yet ANOTHER video. Another Mortal Kombat video in two days! Don't adjust your calendar, we are indeed in the year 2010. Well, this one was actually about something that exists; a new Mortal Kombat game! Does this game have the same oomph and impact that the fantastically produced movie trailer we just saw had?! TO THE VIDEO SCOPE!!

NOPE!

I mean... don't get me wrong, this seems like a decent enough throwback. It seems like a decent-looking and decent-playing addition to the Mortal Kombat pantheon of decent-looking/decent-playing games.

But that's the problem. This series isn't dying off because people are wanting the "good old days" of the classic MK's. There are plenty of new-er iterations of those games that, if we wanted, we could GO BACK TO those good old days in a second. This series is dying off because there is just nothing exciting about it anymore. The series is not evolving or refining, it is simply existing.

Play a 1990s Mortal Kombat game. Now play a 2000s Mortal Kombat game. Now tell me what the problem is. Is it that the later iterations changed the franchise too much? That there isn't enough old MK flavor in the newer installments? The answer to both questions is no. So then why is the series dying off? It's because all the installments are TOO similar. It's because the series hasn't changed in any meaningful ways for all the years. There is a reason why games like Mega Man 10 and Super Street Fighter II HD Remix are less expensive niche titles on XBLA.

I don't want it to sound like I am judging this Mortal Kombat on a minute-long trailer (although I totally am). I really want this game to succeed, and I plan on playing it. I just think gamers should be honest with themselves.

And honestly, Mortal Kombat 9, if that IS your real name. You have a lot to live up to coming in the wake of Black Dynamite playing Jax...