MK11 Is the Best Game In Existence by Hypno-Scream on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

Now, I'm gonna be honest here, the only NRS game I ever touched was Injustice 2, and even then, I was staying away from the story mode because I could barely beat Superman in a normal fight. That being said, I make it a point to research stuff if I'm gonna riff on it, so here we are. I learned a lot about Mortal Kombat from people like Phelous and The4thSnake, and it really helped me appreciate the franchise. I recall when I was little, I'd try to censor EVERYTHING in my Lego Dimensions fanfics. Duff Beer would become Duff Root Beer, the black spots around Freddy Fazbear's eyes would be erased(Which may actually look creepier), and this was all especially funny because I was planning on adding franchises like the Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, and AMERICAN HORROR STORY......Yeah...

Anyway, I was turned off from Mortal Kombat due to the gore, and told myself if I ever did play it, I'd just play with the robots...which probably wouldn't work out in hindsight. Anyway, NRS made their best storyline yet in Mortal Kombat 11, and its Aftermath expansion. Now, a good story raises a bunch of questions, a bad story raises a bunch of different questions. Luckily, MK11 only raises the bare minimum of questions, and they're so minuscule, I can list them right here and nobody would care.(Deep inhale)

-If Sindel was always a psycho-bitch, why did she cast a spell to protect Earthrealm, a realm she didn't care about? (Someone commented a common theory that Shang actually brainwashed her upon revival, so her memories aren't reliable. Fair, but I doubt NRS thought of that.)

-If Quan Chi killed Sindel because she was distracting Shao Kahn, why was he okay resurrecting her? I'm sure whatever Psycho-Sindel offered that distracted Shao would be offered by a brainwashed Sindel in droves.

-Why would Quan Chi give a Tarkatan's ass about Shao Kahn's priorities? Isn't he working for Shinnok?

-If Sindel was already lustfully loyal to Shao Kahn, why did she need to be brainwashed upon Resurrection? Does he just like mind control like I do? Come to think of it, if he really did love Sindel, WHY DID IT TAKE SO LONG FOR HIM TO DIG UP AND RESURRECT HER!?

-Sheeva has been around Sindel for a millennium at least, and she didn't notice anything wrong her behavior? Either Sindel is the best liar in the universe, or Sheeva's the biggest idiot.

-If Sindel's loins were burning for Shao Kahn this much, why did her Arcade Ending show her giving him brain damage?

-If Kronika needed Shang Tsung to design a crown to properly use the Hourglass, what was she doing with it before he came into existence? Shang Tsung hasn't been around nearly as long as Kronika, was she just waiting for him to be born, staring at the Hourglass? She said she crafted his destiny, and I thought she needed the crown, or did she not, and it's just Liu Kang and Shang Tsung who need it?

-If Ermac's MKX ending is the reason Shang Tsung is back, why isn't he young like he was in that ending? Did Kronika or someone else just take some of his souls and not bother to finish off the walking disaster magnet that is Shang Tsung? (Someone commented that she might have wounded him then banished him. Of course, they also said it was dumb of her not to kill him.)

-Also, if Ermac really did die that way, why are his eyes and face-crack still glowing when he's impaled in the Krypt? Shouldn't the light in his face die out when he loses all his souls?

-If the Kollector can snap his fingers and unlock doors with magic, why couldn't he do that in those moronically designed stocks Kotal had him in?

-What the hell did Jerrod see in this new Sindel that made him want to marry her?

-If Kronika can stop time, warp people into chains, and cast people into the void, why hasn't she done that to other threats, like Raiden? Is there a limit to her power in that regard, or is my gag-dub portrayal of her as a celestial retard more accurate than I thought?(I'm not really sure what retard scientifically refers to...I'm ashamed of how funny the word sounds...)

-If the void protects people from time-warping, does that mean Kronika just stuffed a lot of different characters there over the timelines? Were they all crowded in there until she died, and Liu Kang just released like 50 Shao Kahn's into the beginning of time?

-So Kronika's void captives are freed at the beginning of time when she died there, then the trio gets sent back in time, at the time they were trapped in in the void, so are Shang Tsung, Fujin, and Nightwolf just stuck sitting there and watching themselves f-ck around? Also, since Kronika gets eaten by Shang, then wiped from existence, what happened to the trio of this new, new timeline? Were they freed too? So after getting wiped from existence, Shang Tsung is right back a second later, and now knows not to buy into Liu Kang's scheming again. But even if Liu Kang had the foresight and power to go and wipe out that Shang too,Fujin and Nightwolf are running around this new timeline, at least for a while? Because Nightwolf ain't immortal. Or did Liu Kang wipe them out too? If so, WHY!?

-Also, how were the big bad guy, Liu Kang's accomplace, and third one who could've been replaced with Smoke, Stryker, or good Sindel watching everything go down from the void? Were they scattered across the realms in particles, or was the void just full of magic screens showing these specific events?

-Shang Tsung needed training from Bo' Rai Cho when he got Shao Kahn's soul in his MK9 ending, but here he can use the souls of Sindel, Raiden, Fujin, Shao Kahn(TWO SHAO KAHN'S PLUS JERROD IF YOU CONSIDER THAT MKX ENDING), and Kronika without any issues?

-Also, what happened to those souls when Shang Tsung turned to sand? We don't see them get freed like that scene in the film.

-Why is it that Kingdom Hearts 3's "Go back in time to save the day!" DLC was much harder to follow, yet was a more satisfying and wholesome experience than the Aftermath?

-Where does the One Being fit into this? Shinnok wanted to bring him back, was Kronika fine with this? I don't think so.

-If Kano can feel a kick to his gut from ages ago, why is it that every fight between a past and future character doesn't end with both coughing up blood?

-So the undead, magically-revived Revenant Liu Kang can feel his past self getting the "I am Oscar Martinez" treatment from Shao, but Fire God Liu Kang can't? I get that he's a god and in the past...sorta. But as soon as he steps into the present to out-gambit Shang Tsung, he should be feeling the most excruciating knee-related injuries in history, unless Shang Tsung rewound time to a point before that, but we don't see how much he gets to affect time before Fire God Liu Kang shows up. (It has been commented that his godly status prevents him from feeling such effects.)

-Tell me, NRS, if the entire story is just erased, what was the point of writing in emotional moments, character development, satisfying or depressing deaths, the fates worse than death you dished out especially hard in the Aftermath, or any moment in the story that was actually good?

-Geras can teleport, right? That anchor-chain combo shouldn't be an issue. Come to think of it, neither should that forklift.

-Can Kronika make more of Geras? If she can, why not make an army? Sounds like it would help her out a lot.

-Who or what exactly did Kronika get toasty with to spawn Cetrion and Shinnok? More importantly...

-Did it occur to Kronika to actually try and be discreet about her rewind time trick? I'm sure the heroes would probably find her eventually, but a little stealth would go a long way.

-If Kronika can turn into Guest Fighters in her final boss fight, does that mean that Spawn, Joker, Robocop, the Terminator, and Rambo really are just running around this time-crashed story? Where the hell are they!? Does Robocop know Sonya kill-stole Kano!?

-Kronika has access to portals and teleportation, why does she need Cetrion to make a bridge across the Sea of Blood? Is there some forcefield around her fortress that keeps teleportation out? That would explain why the heroes don't try the portal trick they did in NetherRealm at the beginning of this story.

-So Fujin let Shang Tsung f-ck over everyone because he was in on Liu Kang's "He Must Win" plan, but what's everyone else's excuse for dropping all their braincells when Shang heel-turns?

-How is that NRS has enough attention to detail to put in a million references, get voice-acting from the MK movie cast, replicate Sylvester Stallone's face via computers without mocap, and perfectly emulate human anatomy...but can't be bothered to notice that Jax still has organic arms in Spawn's flaying fatality!?

-Where the f-ck is Baraka in the Aftermath's final battle? I don't know if I saw any Tarkatans on those ships. Did Shang Tsung dumping that guy in acid break Baraka's trust in this alliance? If it did, why doesn't Kitana have a few more issues trusting Sheeva after all that? (Okay, so there ARE Tarkatans on the ships. Kinda devalues Kitana's whole thing trying to reason with them, eh?)

-Also, where are Scorpion and Sub-Zero during Aftermath's final battle!? You'd think Ed Boon's favorite character and the guy who's on the poster of this game(and the other one) would be somewhere in the final battle, but no, things go to hell and these two are off playing Spy Hunter or something.

-This is something I read from TV Tropes, but why didn't Shang Tsung shapeshift into someone more trustworthy so the Aftermath trio can actually go places without everyone going berserk? Not everyone has a Tarkatan nose, you know. Come to think of it, why the hell does he insist on being the biggest, smuggest asshole on the face of the Earthrealm!? I know he's a prick and a sadist, but Shang is supposed to be smart, right? People aren't going to listen to someone who rubs the fact that he tortured you in his dungeon with a condescending tone!

Now, people are quick to tear into something and some treat it like the worst thing ever. More often than not, I find this kind of seething hatred unfair. I'm not gonna pretend stuff like RWBY, Kingdom Hearts, Steven Universe, and the Simpsons are perfect, but I put my days of fan-bashing and impassioned rants behind me. What really earns my anger isn't a weird plot or dialogue, or sudden diversity. What really enrages me is a legitimate middle finger to the audience, stuff like turning a good character into a charmless, irredeemable monster, or forcing the player to play as someone who murders the characters you adore. Luckily, NRS would never make those mistakes! Their stories are as flawless as my bulbous asscheecks!

NRS knows that if you want a big, multi-plot storyline, you can't waste time on stupid stuff like character arc resolution. Screw Kingdom Hearts, Adventure Time, Gravity Falls, and numerous Disney films for showing what happens to every character you met up until that point, nah, just drop the character from the story after a few fights, not do anything with them, and just cast them into the void with Shang Tsung, Fujin, and Nightwolf. Noob Saibot has a connection to both Sub-Zero and Scorpion, but he only interacts with them once, and that's it. Cetrion is openly stated to be conflicted, and she dies helping her dipshit mother. Not to mention 99% of the character arcs that are resolved don't matter either, seeing as Kronika hit the reset button.

If you'll let me be real for a second, Kingdom Hearts is a very difficult story to understand. I need my little brother to clarify some of the tougher details for me, and I still know nothing. But, even if Kingdom Hearts makes no sense to you, you have to at least admit that it doesn't forget characters ever existed out of the blue.(Shows Xion's demise)THAT DIDN'T COUNT! Heck, I'm not sure Kingdom Hearts ever forgets a character...

The marketing of this game's DLC, Aftermath is ingenious. A good chunk of the story and commercials make it look like they're bringing the good Sindel back. Then it yanks the dog's chain so fast you'd swear it saw AM from "I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream" and decided, "Yeah, I wanna toy with my prisoner's emotions like that!" Now, some people might say that this was supposed to be a twist despite Sindel's DLC coming before the Aftermath, and her beloved arcade ending had gained popularity the moment it was made public, so this wouldn't be much of a shock, and others say it was an attempt to bait fans into buying a DLC that just throws a middle finger at them. Personally, I follow the theory that this will all be explained when "Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Mileena" is released.

Now, as you can see, the new Sindel is far superior to the old one. She went from a kind and noble queen to a reprehensible backstabber that one internet commentator described as "Tanya dressed as Sindel." Now, in the Aftermath's finale, Shang Tsung takes Liu Kang's place as the protagonist, seeking to end the main bad guy; Shao Kahn takes Kung Lao's as the lancer, contrasting with the main character, yet working with them; and Sindel seems to take Kitana's place as the girl of the group. Now, an idiot would say that if they wanted a female villain for this trio, why not go with Tanya, Mileena, Nitara, Skarlet, Frost, or fan favorite D'Vorah? A genius would take an adored character who was a caring mother, fighting for her people and daughter, and turn her into Scorpion from "Defenders of the Realm".

Defenders!Scorpion: "BY ALL THE POWERS OF EVIL!"

Now, the Aftermath allows you to watch Shao Kahn, Injustice Wonder Woman, and Shang Tsung brutalize and murder all the heroes. This would'a been a great way to make us hate them, but some people praise this story for giving Shao Kahn his villain cred back, but I'm pretty sure you could say Shao Tucker turning his daughter and dog into Clifford the Big, White Beast was giving him villain cred. This didn't make me like Shao Kahn, it made me f-cking hate him, and Shang Tsung and Not-My-Sindel. No, I don't care if it's realistic. If Wonder Woman slashed Batman's throat, he would realistically die. Do you wanna see that? Do you wanna see Robin get angry and fight with all his might to defeat Wonder Woman afterwards, only to die? No?

Not since the first season of Pokemon have I wanted to throttle the three main characters/antagonists(Shows Ash, Misty, and Brock, then Team Rocket)so badly...Well, 4 characters if you count Pikachu, he was a bag of dicks in the first season. You might say I'm being harsh, but people think Shao Kahn forcing the Cages into sex slavery is satisfying, so I think I'm in my right to say otherwise, and chastise the story that's needlessly mean-spirited in a game where Johnny Cage can use his wife and daughter's corpses as puppets. The point I'm trying to make is that these three(Shows Shao Kahn, Sindel, and Shang Tsung)didn't die soon or slow enough.

The idea to make Shao Kahn and Sindel a battle couple is phenomenal, anytime they share a romantic moment, I'm reminded of other romantic stories it's on par with, like Twilight, or Sakura and Sasuke, or me and that cardboard cutout of Misty I keep in my basement to torture.......Forget that last part. Anyway, there are plenty of other romantic pairs they could'a gone with, but nobody cares about-Oh let's go through the list...Ahem...

-Liu Kang and Kitana
-Jade and Kotal Kahn
-Kotal Kahn and his wheelchair
-Scorpion and Mileena
-Mileena and Tanya
-Jacqui and Takeda
-Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade
-Noob Saibot and Sareena
-Kollector and Shao Kahn
-Sindel and Ermac
-Kano and Kano
-Kabal and Kira
-Shinnok and the Jinsei
-Raiden and Cetrion
-Erron Black and Skarlett
-Reptile and Khameleon

All of which pale in comparison to this beautiful pairing that started out as a lady being unwillingly taken as a sex-slave, driven to suicide, and resurrected under mind control. Truly romantic. I joked about Schezo and Arle's first encounter making possible romance awkward, but any interactions they have would be legitimately more healthy than these two.

On a more optimistic note, let's talk about the Fatalities. People might say they're needlessly violent, beating a dead body, but considering Bi-Han, Scorpion, the Revanents, Johnny Cage McCormick, Jade, Shao Kahn when he was still smart, Kano in Defenders of the Realm, Geras, D'Vorah the Elder-Godmode, Zombie Liu Kang, and Shang Tsung, I think it's perfectly reasonable to utterly destroy someone, to make sure they are as dead as possible so they don't come back to kill you.

Present Jax goes through one hell of an arc here. He sides up with Kronika to prevent Jacqui from willingly joining the Special Forces, even if it means resetting the universe. I read that his behaviour makes sense when you consider the last things he probably heard before communications went down was that Sonya ate Netherrealm dust and the base was being raided by Kano and his husband. That being said, Jax doesn't seem to have any reservations about working with Quan Chi's spawns. Even for a desperate father, you'd think he'd at least question it, especially when he goes and faces his own daughter...alongside a guy devoted to the man who made Jax a Revenant. Does he know he was working on the same side as Shao Kahn and Kano, because I bet even if the heroes decided for whatever reason to hold a gun to Jacqui's head, Jax would have a hard time siding with those guys. And don't tell me he didn't know about them, Fujin mentions them, and Jax doesn't brush them off as lies, no, he just says, "You don't get to play that card when you're hangin' out with Shang Tsung!" That response gives off the impression he's fine working alongside his DEAD BEST FRIEND'S LONGTIME ENEMY and the GUY WHO WANTED TO CONQUER HIS HOMEWORLD! It's not even his daughter who brings him back from the dark side, it's Raiden telling him that Kronika gave birth to Shinnok. No evidence, he just takes it as fact and turns over, and then he proceeds to get his ass kicked by some robots. Congrats, Jax-Off.

Present Jax: "Candy-ass bitch..."

I'm not really surprised Jacqui didn't get to bring him back. NRS doesn't go and say "Look at these cool, new characters!", they throw in a bunch of new characters, and treat them like sh-t, just like they do the old ones. Speaking of treating people like sh-t, I've heard that NRS forced their workers into shellshock making these gory fatalities. Maybe when you traumatize your workers, it's time to reconsider the hyper-realistic stuff and maybe settle for something less graphic. Anime enjoys making people human-blood geysers, maybe that? No? Okay.

All that said, let's talk about another thing about MK11 that kinda has me scratching my head, the crown Shang Tsung created for Kronika. Now first things first, did he have to make that crown in every timeline, or is it unaffected by timey-wimey wing-wong? I guess it's not considering it wasn't immune to being glass'd and shattered. Of course, there's a much bigger and more glaring issue I have with it, and that is the fact that it is powered by souls! I mean nobody even bats an eye at the fact that this thing is perpetually filled with a bunch of souls crying out in pain! I get this is Mortal Kombat, where you can throw an old lady at someone to make them explode and a riot cop can just blow up anyone and everyone he fights with a grenade, but seriously, no-one bats an eye!? I get using the crown is necessary, but none of the heroes even acknowledge this! Not Jax, not Jacqui, not Fujin, not even Liu Kang, they all just seem to shrug at the fact that they're wearing a bunch of damned people screaming in agony!

Actually, Liu Kang has me scratching my head on something else as well. So he set up a huge gambit, letting Shang Tsung deliver the crown to him. Okay, but why? What was so important about all of this that Liu Kang couldn't just send Shang and co. into the island, like they planned for him to, get the crown, then waltz in and kick Shang's ass and take the crown. Then neither Shang nor Kronika have the crown, Shao Kahn is still locked up like a bitch, and Liu is free to undo all this madness. You can't say it's a dirty move to betray Shang, but it's Shang Tsung! Killing him is preferable to letting all your friends suffer! You can't say it's because the crown wasn't fully charged yet, because it's been in a well of souls for what may have been centuries. You can't say it's because Shang is too strong with the crown because Liu Kang is perfectly capable of beating him when he's not only wearing the crown, but has the souls of literal Gods and a Titan! You can't say the souls of those Shang killed in Aftermath went into the crown, because that would make Liu Kang look even worse by wearing Fujin and Raiden's writhing souls on his head, among many others! "Oh but if he alters the timeline, he may not be able to beat Kronika!" Well maybe that butterfly effect would hold water if Liu wouldn't be holding the very key to her victory! If the good guys get the crown, Kronika is screwed! And even if they don't, Liu Kang already beat her once when she had the crown, he can do it again! He put so many people he considers friends through hell and made his crown fetch-quest even harder, and it may not have even been necessary!

On the subject of questionable character behaviour, you ever notice how everyone treats Mileena like crap? I get she's not the face of mental and moral stability, but Kitana's MK9 ending proved she could turn around if she was just accepted. Then again, that game also said Sindel was a good person, and NRS kinda forgot about that. However, another thing is just how everyone aside from the villains just treats her as an abomination simply because she's a clone. Kitana, Jax, Kotal, everyone, they act like Mileena's very existence is unforgivable. You'd think with how diplomatic Kitana is with man-eater Baraka, she'd at least consider the very idea that if she tried to be a bit reasonable with the person who keeps saying "LET US BE A FAMILY! I HAVE A TEA PARTY WITH YOUR NAME ON IT!", maybe they could get a new ally, but instead she goes the Ninja Turtles: Next Mutation route of poking the bear even when she's dead. The fact that they just keep bringing up the whole "Shang Tsung cloning Kitana is the worst thing he's ever done!" argument really feels sketchy. Heck, in MK9 Kitana flips out before Mileena even does anything, she just runs to the best dad in the world and says Shangy did a baddy. You know, people felt the Nobodies in Kingdom Hearts were treated to unfairly, they were people too...half of people anyway. Later games treated the Nobodies more reasonably as a result, but in the entire span of MK's history, I think there's only been one instance where Mileena got the same chance Ermac(ANOTHER INSANE-KAHN-POSSIE-SPAWN)is in a non-canon arcade ending. Wonderful. Oh, and if you're wondering, part of the reason Nobody's got a lot of surprise sympathy was because our look through their eyes came through Roxas, and contrary to what IGN says, a lot of people care about Roxas. I know, IGN being wrong even by the standards of opinions, shocking.

Some Asshole At IGN: "I think we all need to admit that Sonic was never good. That's a fact, and if you say otherwise, you can call the police."

Now what exactly does this game say about future Mortal kombat games? Where is the franchise going from here, now that it's pretty much been rebooted again, after only 3 games? How will this timeline be any different from the other ones? Well, chances are...they won't. No really, think about it, to really change this new timeline, NRS is either gonna have to ditch some of its biggest villains or change them, which is unlikely. Seeing as Liu Kang is now a god, and in control of time itself, I think it'd be reasonable to assume he'd at least try to prevent all of, or at least some of the disastors that caused a lot of problems in MK stories. The good ending of Aftermath implies Mortal Kombat is still a thing, suggesting that Shao Kahn or someone in a similar position like Onaga is running around. I don't expect him to be able to stop everything, even as a fire god, but I'm gonna be a tad flumoxed if when the next game turns around, it turns out Liu Kang did nothing to prevent stuff like say...(Deep breath)

-Shao Kahn rising to power.
-Onaga rising to power.
-Sindel getting brain-damage and thinking she's the Baroness from G.I. Joe.
-Bi-Han getting wrongfully killed.
-Hanzo's clan getting wrongfully killed.
-Smoke or Kuai Liang getting roboticized.
-The whole damn Lin Kuei getting roboticized.
-Frost making an ass of herself on a boat in the middle of a pool of blood.
-Annhilation from being made.
-Jerrod from dying.
-D'Vorah's birth.(However that works.)
-Kabal from flip-flopping, so he just stays on the straight and narrow.
-Kano from killing Sonya's partner.
-Jax from losing his arms.
-Kotal Kahn losing his father.
-Kotal Kahn getting trapped in the Fleshpits.
-Skynet rising to power.
-The Joker doing everything he's ever done.
-Rambo's PTSD.
-Any real-life disastor that's happened in the MK universe.

Now, yes, this would mean we get to go through the same stories for the 3rd time......yay...But from an in-universe perspective, WHY THE F-CK WOULD YOU WANT TO RECREATE ALL OF THAT!? JAX'S ENDING SHOWS IT'S POSSIBLE TO MAKE A MORE PEACEFUL TIMELINE, SO WHY PUT EVERYONE THROUGH HELL AGAIN WHEN YOU KNOW YOU CAN STOP IT!? THIS WHOLE GAME HAS BEEN ABOUT PREVENTING A BAD FUTURE, HASN'T IT!?

What about the characters they introduced in their new timeline? Will they make a comeback, or will they be relegated to a bunch of throwaway lines like a lot of others before them? Let's see, we got the Kombat Kids, who might be born, but I don't know if they're as popular as someone like Scorpion, so maybe they'll just be erased from existence. Kotal and his buddies might show up again, but do you think NRS will actually make use of them? D'Vorah will probably come back because NRS hates its audience. How about the newbies in this game? Well, we got Cetrion, who got eaten by Kronika, then Shang Tsung, who was wiped from history, so that's one possible new ally wiped away to nothing. Good job, Liu. Oh, if Kronika is gone, then logically, Shinnok and Cetrion can't be born, unless their spirits got freed or something. I feel like only Shinnok will come back because he's not the new character, so he barely matters in NRS' eyes. I mean, maybe Cetrion's soul got freed when Shang went down, but that gives the possibility that Shao Kahn's did too. Then we got Geras, who was seemingly killed for real by Shao Kahn because shut up, f-ck you, you're not in the writing team. But assuming he actually did survive that and just f-cked off for the rest of the story, and wasn't affected by the time-reset, what's he gonna do without his boss, the character HIS character revolves around? He could sacrifice himself like his arcade ending, but that would mean he's dead for real. Then there's the Kollector. When NRS inevitably decides to bring back Shao Kahn, because like hell they'd have the balls to ditch someone from the first 3 games so easily, it's likely the Kollector could come back with him. So if NRS ever cared enough to bring everybody back for a second Armageddon(Everyone when I imply NRS could possibly care that much), the only character that could logically come back from this game is the most worthless one. Great.

However, I'm not really surprised. It becomes especially apparent that NRS doesn't care about this franchise or its characters. They don't care what they do with the original timeline's characters, they don't care what they do with their own original characters, they don't care how many plotlines and arcs get dumped out of nowhere, they don't care about possibly redeeming a fan-favorite like Mileena, they don't care about assassinating Sindel's character, they don't care about the fact that they've made their own worthless character on-par with Hsu Hao or Mokap in the form of the Kollector, or someone who screws everyone over like Shujinko in the form of D'Vorah, they don't care that even by the standards of this franchise, they've made a setting so cruel and difficult to sit through, that someone as gentle and kind as Takeda can lose both his parents, then get killed by Shao Koahn or tortured by the Joker, while the aformentioned bug-lady gets away scot-free. They just care about flashy action and gore, kinda like Death Battle. And while I swore off Death battle because I hate watching good people murder each other, plus the debates following each video are a death battle on their own, even Death Battle isn't as disresepctful as what NRS spews out. NRS just wants to pull the same crap that stuff like BlazBlue or Skullgirls or Psycho-Force does, in that they give you a bunch of cool characters, put them through hell, then yank away whatever happy ending they could've gotten, while the villains get their happy ending. But hey, at least they got Rambo in the game. Now you can take a man broken by war, ostracized by society for protecting them, and brutally murder him. Simply wonderful. I think I'll end it with a quote that sums up NRS' Mortal Kombat world.

Rambo: "What kind of place is this?"

No fan-bashing or flame-wars please

This may be my most successful attempt at mimicing internet critics ever. Not something I plan on repeating regularly.