brotherbean
Member
This thread has been fantastic so far, I love seeing the design evolutions over time. I have to say MK9 is my personal favorite as far as that goes, followed very closely by MK2.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
The visual evolution of Mortal Kombat's roster
- Thread starter Slamtastic
- Start date
- NSFW
Smoke's MK9 design is phenomenal.
toastyToast
Member
Tokubetsu
Member
Outside a few designs from previous games (sub zero shredder example), I definitely agree with this sentiment. Johnny Cage is probably my least favorite design from 9 and its mainly because of that tattoo.
MK is weird like that though. They either do too much, or do very little design wise. They rarely ever do some kinda middle ground thing.
ThatCrazyGuy
Member
Great thread. I love most of the male ninja designs in MK9, especially Ermac. I need to go through methodically though and look at everybody again.
Makes you sad, because all the women designs suck (imo).
I do miss MK 1 &2 Raiden though, he hasn't felt the same to me.
Makes you sad, because all the women designs suck (imo).
I do miss MK 1 &2 Raiden though, he hasn't felt the same to me.
Slamtastic
Member
Which ones specifically?
RedAssedApe
Banned
Ugh. They really need to work on their female character designs.
undersakura
Neo Member
The old MKs really capture a moment in time. Great thread.
Makes me a bit sad that there's no MK at Evo.
Makes me a bit sad that there's no MK at Evo.
Just having browsed the images in this thread, it seems obvious that the series hit it's first design high at MK3, then goes into wilderness years before coming back with stronger designs than ever in MK9.
Female designs are terrible, as others have said. Over-sexualised without even reaching their goal of making them sexy. Just horrible designs. Put some clothes on at least some of the women, and get their faces right.
Female designs are terrible, as others have said. Over-sexualised without even reaching their goal of making them sexy. Just horrible designs. Put some clothes on at least some of the women, and get their faces right.
The big problem with the females(outside of bad face modeling), is they don't seem like they were designed to be cool looking, or make you want to play them because they are badass, they were designed to be sexy looking, but in a pretty sleazy way.
Most of the male characters(especially the ninjas) feel like a lot of though and effort went into making them as cool looking as possible, in a 90's kind of way at least.
The females just look kinda bland in comparison, Sonya has some lame military outfits, and the ninja girls are just wearing bikini's and heels. The only real exception is Sindel, who feels like she actually has a costume. It's still pretty revealing, but she actually looks cool. Mileena's secondary is almost not terrible I guess.
The female cast in Injustice was a huge step up in comparison, but I'm not sure if that's a new found respect for woman, or a respect for an IP that is not theirs.
Most of the male characters(especially the ninjas) feel like a lot of though and effort went into making them as cool looking as possible, in a 90's kind of way at least.
The females just look kinda bland in comparison, Sonya has some lame military outfits, and the ninja girls are just wearing bikini's and heels. The only real exception is Sindel, who feels like she actually has a costume. It's still pretty revealing, but she actually looks cool. Mileena's secondary is almost not terrible I guess.
The female cast in Injustice was a huge step up in comparison, but I'm not sure if that's a new found respect for woman, or a respect for an IP that is not theirs.
RedAssedApe
Banned
they also all look like they have botched boob jobs...you know that bolted on look lol
Shang Tsung
Man, that original shang tsung is the way it should be. Ominous, creepy and mysterious. The way he is now is almost like a caricature or cartoon character. Everything needs to go super creepy and dark. Shang Tsung's screaming fireballs and weird floating around was fantastic, he made an excellent boss
You know what happened right? He absorbed a bunch of souls to restore his youth in Mortal Kombat II.
Yeah I know. I just like the crazy old sorcerer and feel like, at least in mk9, his character even when old is, not as interesting as it could have been. I feel the same way about the youthful Tsung, and many of the other characters in more recent releases. I think I just have too much of a connection to the original mk, and really like the inherent creepiness of mk1 and mk2
Nemesis121
Member
No Kano?
AllIsOneIsNone
Banned
Cool thread. Honestly Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 is my favorite (mortal kombat) game, and some of the character models are pretty sweet too. I remember seeing Cyrax shoot grenades out of his chest for the first time as a kid and being sort of amazed.
Man this is why I love MK. An old character is announced in any other fighting game and theres pretty much no surprises, everything is expected. But in MK theres so much to get excited over. The primary costumes evolve AND they brand new or updated secondary costumes. You may hate Cages tattoo but how can you hate that fly suit! Characters get new special moves and lose old ones. There was so much hype that Sub-Zero got his Ice Clone back. But I miss his Ice Shaker (MK
A). The special moves themselves get redesigned. We could totally do the visual evolution of Scorpion's teleport (my fav. being MKvsDC's). And in MK9 they made his spear a chain, woo that was crazy. People get real passionate over what Fatalities characters will have, and any other -alities. I think they managed to keep Babalities a secret for MK9. And as of recently we now have intros and outros to look forward to, and MK's are far more elaborate than other games. Seriously so much work goes into every MK to keep it fresh and new.
A). The special moves themselves get redesigned. We could totally do the visual evolution of Scorpion's teleport (my fav. being MKvsDC's). And in MK9 they made his spear a chain, woo that was crazy. People get real passionate over what Fatalities characters will have, and any other -alities. I think they managed to keep Babalities a secret for MK9. And as of recently we now have intros and outros to look forward to, and MK's are far more elaborate than other games. Seriously so much work goes into every MK to keep it fresh and new.
Daffy Duck
Member
MK2/MKT had the best character designs for me.
Probably those rose tinted nostalgia spectacles though.
Probably those rose tinted nostalgia spectacles though.
Unspeakable Evil
Member
MK9 made like human Cyrax and Sektor more than their cyborg forms. ....And Cyborg Sub-Zero more than regular Sub-Zero.
clearly the worst designs come from that game :x yikes
RustyNails
Member
Raiden's MK1 form still shits all over every other iteration. All those gewgaws and meaningless details they leave out the lightning! It's like they forgot he's a Big Trouble In Little China expy or some shit.
Yeah, not feeling that one myself, but I do like the one where his arms glow ice blue. Neat touch.
HAY PAPA BEEAAAR
Would have loved to see this concept materialize
SPACECADET
Member
deadly alliance and deception's character designs are terrrrible T_T
Dusk Soldier
Member
Li Mei
Deadly Alliance
Deception/Armageddon
Mortal Kombat 9
Deadly Alliance
Deception/Armageddon
Mortal Kombat 9
That Dude John
Member
I'd be okay with Li Mei in MKX. They could make her interesting.
You all forgot the best MK design ever:
So hot <3
Wow, some MK characters are really over designed, even Sub Zero have some atrocious designs.
It's interesting that they always changed the design in MK while in japanese fighting games they usually are the same (even Athena in KOF that changed in every game the changes aren't so extreme). But most of the 2000's designs are hideous.
The biggest problem in MK series is that the gameplay always changed. Even in MK 9, I think is terrible that sub-zero ice move is with the "LK" button. It's very confusing for me, so even if I see some these old games and I wanna play just for fun, I feel I have to learn so much that I give up.
So hot <3
Wow, some MK characters are really over designed, even Sub Zero have some atrocious designs.
It's interesting that they always changed the design in MK while in japanese fighting games they usually are the same (even Athena in KOF that changed in every game the changes aren't so extreme). But most of the 2000's designs are hideous.
The biggest problem in MK series is that the gameplay always changed. Even in MK 9, I think is terrible that sub-zero ice move is with the "LK" button. It's very confusing for me, so even if I see some these old games and I wanna play just for fun, I feel I have to learn so much that I give up.
That Dude John
Member
It appears there's a conflict of interest here, my friend.
I like the designs that gave them their most distinct look.
Sub Zero - Deception (though I also really like the MK9 look)
Kung Lao - MK9
Mileena - Deception
Smoke - MK9
Shang Tsung - MK2
Kabal - Deception
Rain - MK9
Noob Saibot - MK9
Sonya - MK3 or MK4 ( I feel like they never really got a good design with her after that)
Kitana - Deception (really like the MK9 one as well)
Jade - Deception
Kano - MK3
Lui Kang - Mk3
Johnny Cage - Shaolin Monks
Baraka - MK2 ( The one that scared the shit out of me when I was a child lol)
Jax - MK2 or MK9
Raiden - MK2
Reptile - I prefer the Human Reptile but I liked the Shaolin Monks one as well
Scorpion - Armegeddon (Primary, I like the alternate as well.)
Stryker - MK3 (Armageddon design was the worst shit lol)
Those are my personal favourites for each character. I wish they brought back the unique designs like shredder sub zero for alternates in the sequels.
Sub Zero - Deception (though I also really like the MK9 look)
Kung Lao - MK9
Mileena - Deception
Smoke - MK9
Shang Tsung - MK2
Kabal - Deception
Rain - MK9
Noob Saibot - MK9
Sonya - MK3 or MK4 ( I feel like they never really got a good design with her after that)
Kitana - Deception (really like the MK9 one as well)
Jade - Deception
Kano - MK3
Lui Kang - Mk3
Johnny Cage - Shaolin Monks
Baraka - MK2 ( The one that scared the shit out of me when I was a child lol)
Jax - MK2 or MK9
Raiden - MK2
Reptile - I prefer the Human Reptile but I liked the Shaolin Monks one as well
Scorpion - Armegeddon (Primary, I like the alternate as well.)
Stryker - MK3 (Armageddon design was the worst shit lol)
Those are my personal favourites for each character. I wish they brought back the unique designs like shredder sub zero for alternates in the sequels.
spindashing
Banned
DA Jax lookin' goofy as hell, but not as goofy as his hood life look
if you in the club and this guy smacks your girls ass what do you do
You all forgot the best MK design ever:
So hot <3
Wow, some MK characters are really over designed, even Sub Zero have some atrocious designs.
It's interesting that they always changed the design in MK while in japanese fighting games they usually are the same (even Athena in KOF that changed in every game the changes aren't so extreme). But most of the 2000's designs are hideous.
The biggest problem in MK series is that the gameplay always changed. Even in MK 9, I think is terrible that sub-zero ice move is with the "LK" button. It's very confusing for me, so even if I see some these old games and I wanna play just for fun, I feel I have to learn so much that I give up.
R.I.P. Kano.
Anticitizen One
Banned
Liu Kang
Mortal Kombat Deception
You can only evolve Bruce Lee so many times
This is actually how he looked in Deception:
User 73706
Banned
Heard you were talking shit.