Mortal Kombat 9

[Lenin]

You'll rape faces.

 

Avoid the ice clone.

[Niji Superfan]

MK is all flow charts in every aspect.

 

Nightwolf's is the funniest. Shoulder. Did it work? Yes. Shoulder. Did it work? No. Did you get punished? No. Shoulder. Did it work? Yes. Shoulder. Did it work? No. Were you punished this time? Yes. Wake-up shoulder. Did it work? How could it not? Do two hatchets and juggle them with a shoulder. Do another shoulder. Are they running away and crouching without block? Enhanced lightning, juggle with shoulder. Are they not running away and crouching with block? LOL SHOULDER. Repeat.

 

Nightwolf.

 

Here's a funny story for you:

 

I had a tag match with some scrub last week. I brought Sub and Cyber Sub (what can I say, this is my star team). He brought Nightwolf and... I THINK Scorpion? Honestly, I'll just assume it was Scorpion because that's always the safest bet, I just remember his second character was Ermac. By the time it got down to Cyber Sub and Nightwolf, he started overusing the wakeup shoulder, I caught wind of that pretty quick. I anticipate it and parry with Cyber Sub. He gets knocked down, uses another one, and I think "Really? This is how you're going to play?"

 

tl;dr this story ends in wakeup shoulder -> parry knockdown -> wakeup shoulder, which repeated until he died. This is seriously how he lost the match. It was something like six wakeup shoulders, in a row, none of which were successful. Gotta love them scrubs.

 

By the way, I played a grand total of about ten games tonight. Wouldn't you know it, three of them were Raidens. One of them went to Raiden after I beat his Liu Kang twice, and managed to beat me by doing nothing but teleport + same retarded string + superman spam. I came back with Cyrax and shut him down in the worst kind of way. He sent me a host of hatemail, absolutely RAGING about how I'm not that good, despite the fact that I beat him across three different characters. The best part: He told me I was using cheap characters. I brought Subs, Cyber Subs and Cyrax against him, none of whom are even remotely cheap. He gave me some shit about how I used "bullshit ranged characters". This is a guy who immediately came at me with Liu Kang and spammed high/low fireballs the minute he was more than half a screen away; I'm not complaining about this, but where does he get this idea that I was using a "bullshit ranged character" at any point? All any of those characters have projectile-wise are traps so they can get in, and I play all three of them on rushdown.

 

Better-than-best part: When I pointed out that I corner comboed him for 42% with Cyber Sub, which kind of implies that I didn't beat him because I used a "bullshit ranged character", he said "Congrats, you did a corner spam combo, anyone can do that". Wellll, for one, there is virtually no reference material out there for Cyber Sub, so these were combos I had to do on my own. Two, that particular combo is pretty intricate, and it took a lot of trial and error to work it out. Three, this guy literally used one combo with Liu Kang and the same two strings in a row with Raiden.

 

Oh scrubs, never change.

[Lenin]

A couple days ago, I fought this Scorpion player whose ass I handed back to him with CySubz > reg. Subz > Kung Lao > Johnny Cage > Raiden, he stayed in taking beatings all the way through until the sixth match when I picked Ermac, he raqequit out the middle of round one and sent me the message "ermac=cheap".

 

Scrubs are scrubby. Their brains just don't work. But they make me smile so I keep playing.

 

EDIT:

 

Skarlet is dated for the 21st, Rain confirmed. Fourth character teased.

 

That's also the date for the Cyrax/Sektor klassic kostumes apparently. I assume this means 360 will finally get the patch then or sometime before.

Edited June 14, 2011 by Lenin

[Niji Superfan]

I love the kids who don't understand dash + block to get in against zoners. Like, this isn't fucking Street Fighter, use your head.

 

I saw the article on LL, and the free costume downloads with every new DLC release is a really nice touch. Boon said he'd try to keep the DLC as cheap as Microsoft's shitty regulations would let him, so it's cool that he's giving some free handouts to balance the price of the paid content.

 

I'm a tad put off by the fact that Rain's silhouette looks like his MK7 alt costume. For anyone who needs a reminder, this is not a flattering outfit for him:

 

http://images.wikia.com/mk/images/2/25/Rain06.jpg

 

I'm really hoping that the new design is going to look cooler than I think, but in either case, I'm optimistic that his alt will look more like his traditional outfit if the primary doesn't already. They did that with Smoke, which was a good move on their part. On that note, I am seriously crossing my fingers for Cyber Smoke to be the fourth character, FUCK YEAH.

 

Also also:

 

noobde noobde

RT @Joebelmont @noobde Which Upstairs asshole said you couldn't have and exclusive 360 character Noobde: Our studio is all 1 floor.

 

Idunno why, but I get a kick out of watching Boon fuck with people on Twitter.

[Lenin]

I think his costume will probably be in line with the other ninjas.

 

What you posted is better than what he was dressed in through... Armageddon, I think:

 

http://images.wikia.com/mk/images/1/1c/Rainmka.png

 

He looked like an ice dancing assassin of heterosexuality.

 

With Rain, even if they fuck up on his costume all I need to see down the line is something like this and I'm good.

 

Though honestly, I like his MK:A costume. I'm more interested in how he'll play rather than how gay he'll look, however. But the biggest question regarding his costume is whether or not his alternate will be brown. Because it has to be. Rain stays dry while scrubs feel the pain.

 

And with current MK-affairs, I'm playing more Kabal. He was my main in the long long ago, before I had a soul. And he's still pretty soulless in this game. So what if I may discover some bad match-ups with him. I'm a couch warrior and I have a perfect 50/50 mixup off of every poke that says I go 10-0 vs your internet.

 

EDIT: 678 wins + 319 losses = 997, yet it tells me I've played 1000 games. Don't know what happened to those missing three games...

Edited June 15, 2011 by Lenin

[Niji Superfan]

That outfit is basically the less gay version of what I posted, which is what the silhouette looks like. At least his primary from Armageddon had a cool "exotic" look to it to balance out that he looks nothing like a fucking ninja. His alt gives him a ninja mask with a Carson Daly haircut.

[Lenin]

Honestly, he'll probably get the similar treatment to Sub-Zero and Scorpion. The 3D Mortal Kombat days are something NRS would rather everybody forget about.

 

Hopefully he'll be badass and I can be all "what does it sound like when scrubs cry?" and shit when bitches ragequit on me.

Edited June 15, 2011 by Lenin

[Niji Superfan]

Not true at all. Look at Smoke and Ermac, neither of them look anything like their classic renditions. Ermac looks more akin to his MK6 appearance (which I'm kind of okay with, even if it's not nearly as cool as that appearance was), and Smoke looks completely different. I'm pretty sure his primary was meant to be something along the lines of "Hey this is what Smoke's equivalent of MK3 Sub Zero would be", which I'm pretty okay with. I honestly think it would've been better if they'd used that facemask for his alt and just never put one on his primary, though. It'd fit the whole design better, and if you really want masked Smoke, you have a costume for it.

 

I'm confident Rain will have at least one good costume to work with. Even most of the characters I was disappointed with had a pretty cool alt (especially Ermac), and the ones that didn't look as good were just retro to a fault. Baraka, for instance, looks straight out of MK2. That might be fine if they didn't give him a really kickass overhaul in MK6, which kept his overall image while making him look a whole lot fucking meaner. Still, all in all, MK9 did a good job of getting everyone up-to-date and still making them look badass.

 

...Except for you, Reptile, you scaly bird-looking motherfucker.

 

P.S. For anyone who didn't notice, the retro costume pack that's out now is officially titled "retro costume pack #1" or something to that effect. Either way, it has a number one at the end of it. I think it's safe to say that we'll see another pack before Kenshi is released, and with the way the fanbase has been clamoring for UMK3 ninja retros, I have a feeling we'll be seeing those.

 

P.P.S. I still say Cyber Subs should be able to use the MK3 cyborg skin. It's no more left-field than Ermac using an MK1 costume when he wasn't even in a game before UMK3.

[Lenin]

I really don't see a massive difference between Smoke's default costume and the other ninjas, save for Ermac. Who's not really a ninja and looks different now because the budget for this series is no longer zero dollars.

 

He doesn't have the same head gear or a crotchflap. That's not a big difference, and regardless the Scorpion/Sub-Zero/Smoke costumes are all stylistically similar. To the point they could've honestly changed the colors, swapped them, and they'd probably still have worked aside from Smoke's flowing hair. For Rain, though, I'd love a new take on his MK:A costume for his default and a more ninja-y option for an alternative.

 

And I actually just want any alternate for CySubz at all, be it a classic style robo costume or the brain-in-a-jar-for-a-head-on-a-Mr.-Freeze-type-body style costume I hoped for in the beginning before I was disappointed to learn he didn't have an alternate, period.

 

Edit for FUCK YEAH and WIN:

 

"Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and NetherRealm Studios are excited to announce the Mortal Kombat Season Pass which will offer Mortal Kombat fans an added incentive to buy all four new Add-on warriors at one time for a reduced price instead of when purchasing them individually. The first Mortal Kombat downloadable warrior, Skarlet, will be available for download starting June 21st and will be followed by Kenshi, Rain, and an unannounced new entrant to the Mortal Kombat tournament! Each warrior will come with a full move set, a ladder arcade story ending and two fatalities.

 

Available for purchase starting June 21st, the Mortal Kombat Season Pass will allow users to buy all four downloadable warriors as a package for 1200 Microsoft points. Each individual warrior can be purchased when they release for 400 Microsoft points. Each warrior will become unlocked for download as they become available throughout the summer.

 

Further, in order to allow for seamless online play with the new downloadable warriors, free compatibility packs will be required to download with the release of each new warrior. As an added incentive, each compatibility pack will come with two FREE klassic skins - the first of which are being released with Skarlet will be Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 inspired Cyrax and Sektor. Gamers who purchase the Mortal Kombat Season Pass (or individual Add-on content) will automatically get the free klassic skins when they download each warrior. Those who do not purchase the Mortal Kombat Season Pass or the Add-ons, will be able to download the compatibility packs for free and have access to the klassic skins as well. Please note: The Mortal Kombat Season Pass is only available for purchase on Microsoft's Xbox LIVE. PlayStation users will also have full access to the individual DLC warriors (for $4.99), the compatibility packs, and the FREE klassic skins."

 

So that's pretty ballin'. Also: "... and an unannounced new entrant to the Mortal Kombat tournament!" I wonder what the definition of "new" is here...

Edited June 18, 2011 by Lenin

[Niji Superfan]

If their definition of new is old, so much the better. I'm happy to hear Rain is the third inclusion, even if I've been saying he'd be one of the first DLC characters for months and months. It's not hard to tell that he was one of the last characters to hit the cutting room floor and the fanbase wasn't pleased to hear that he lost out to, say, Sheeva.

 

Also:

 

Originally Posted by Tom Brady

if there were a tier list right now based off of the tweaks heres how it looks..

 

S tier:

cyber sub, raiden, kabal(block inf), sonya(block inf), kano, cyrax, nw, cage, ermac, kl, sub, shang

 

A + tier:

kit, mileena, reptile, Noob, scorpion, liu kang, smoke

 

A tier:

sindel, jade, sektor

 

B tier:

stryker, jax, quan chi,

 

C tier:

sheeva, baraka

 

after a full patch coming in a few weeks..

 

S tier:

raiden, shang, kano, nw, cage, ermac, kl, cyber sub, sub

 

A+ tier:

cyrax, sindel, scorpion, liu kang, kitana, mileena, reptile, noob, sonya, kabal, scarlet

 

A tier:

jade, smoke, sektor, stryker

 

B tier:

jax

 

C tier:

quan chi, sheeva, baraka

 

I figured some of you might find this interesting. I really had no idea Skarlet was going to be so good. I thought she'd play pretty well, but A+ tier is better than I'd hoped for.

 

Also, for anyone who hasn't heard, the 360 side is going to be releasing an all-access pass deal with Skarlet on tuesday. Basically, you can pay five bucks for her, or fifteen bucks to get all four of the announced DLC characters as they come out. Ultimately, you're just paying fifteen bucks for what would normally cost twenty and getting the characters downloaded for you automatically, but it's a pretty sweet deal if you were planning to get even three of the four. I'm probably going to wind up going with this.

[Lenin]

Yeah... Why was Sheeva in this game again? I don't think I've ever seen anyone even try to play her legitimately... ever. I'm going to get that fourth character no matter who it is, but I'd be the happiest girl in the world if it was Frost. New characters are always nice, though. I just want another female character in this game following Skarlet... such a sausage fest this game is. But I'm digging this free classic costume thing with every character. I'm foreseeing Liu Kang/Kung Lao, Kabal/Stryker and whocares/nobodygivesashit classics released (probably) in that order alongside the characters. Maybe Noob/Rain for the fourth because that's clearly the asskickingest option.

 

I knew about the Skarlet thing just from watching her gameplay. She looks like a missing link between Scorpion and Mileena, with like three times the projectiles and her telepunch is fucking lightning fast. Options out the ass. Everything she does actually just looks really goddamn fast. Except the giant blood orb thing, that looks slow... but it also looks like she can either change the trajectory a la Kung Lao's hat toss or it has two different command variants like Cage's fireballs.

 

She's got an air fireball too. And that's pretty awesome since I'm loving me some instant air fireballs lately.

 

And speaking of Cage way up there, he gets combos off his sweep in the 1.02 patch. Also, armor on his enhanced dash kick. Nightwolf got armor on his enhanced shoulder too. So Nightwolf was buffed to deal with the zoners he wasn't having any trouble with, and Johnny Cage was buffed to deal with zoners he probably should have had trouble with. Kind of a funny story.

Edited June 18, 2011 by Lenin

[Griffon]

Alright, I got a stupid question for the players of this game. I recently got it myself, and rather than power through it I got some player data online. Now it says that since the data is from another user I can't save progress or unlock trophies, big deal. I mean not being able to save in story mode may be a pain 'cause I heard it's long and seems pretty cool.

My question however is will DLC (Klassic Kostumes and whatnot) work if the data isn't mine?

 

EDIT: Tried it anyway, it worked. Huzzah.

 

EDIT #2: Does anyone know why unlocked fatalities seem to disappear, and how I can fix that?

Edited June 19, 2011 by Griffon

[Lenin]

If you can't save your data, you can't keep your unlocked fatalities.

[Griffon]

No, I understand that, but the save data I loaded already has them unlocked. I suppose I phrased my question badly.

When playing 2P with my friends, at first it seemed like they simply remained locked for 2nd player, but when my friend won with the 1st player controller his were locked then too, but only that one time. Went to the fatality training mode with the same character and the fatalities were unlocked again. In 2P mode they just seem to lock and unlock at random. Its very strange.

Edited June 19, 2011 by Griffon

[Lenin]

Hm. Don't know what to tell you. Sorry man.

 

Unrelated: this DLC seasons pass thing being exclusive for the 360 has PS3 MK players so angry. It's pretty funny.

 

EDIT: one of the artists who worked on this game in the late stages of development posted up this Kenshi concept render:

 

Spoiler! --Click Here to View!--

http://www.fdmk.net/gallery/mk2011/kenshi_concept.jpg

 

Pretty standard Kenshi. It's only a concept, but this is probably very close to what he'll look like when he gets a reveal if this guy's Skarlet renders are anything to go on.

Edited June 20, 2011 by Lenin

[Niji Superfan]

Well fuck me, I was going to post this.

 

That's pretty much spot on to what he looks, actually, because it's literally a non-CG version of his reveal pic before release. It was that exact design with that exact pose, just as a render. That's pretty much what we'll be getting three or four weeks after Skarlet. I think it's a good look for him, and I'm really curious about his alt now.

 

Also, I busted out some new Cyber Sub technology that I've yet to see ANYONE figure out: He can follow his splits kick (up + 4) with specials. No, I'm not fucking with you. You can use this mid-combo for a fucking 40% midscreen BnB, no meter. Hit confirm a 2 1 into freeze, jump in punch 2 1 1+2, dash in ^4 slide. It's awkward to get a feel for; oddly, I got it perfectly the first time I tried it and only started fucking it up after a couple hours of doing it. It's fucking meaty, though. I'm still finding out good setups for this, but pretty much anywhere you could use an ^4, it can be followed with a bomb for potential traps. Considering

 

Before you get your hopes up, no, you can't follow the same kick in the ->1 ^4 string with specials. I found this out COMPLETELY by accident due to lag. I tried to do standing 4 after a jump-in punch; this all got lost in the latency, and all I got was an up+4 and SOMEHOW, a slide. It looked so fucking weird I thought it was a glitch, so I had to go hit the lab to try and figure out what the hell I just did. I think the fact that you can't follow it with specials in the string is probably why I never thought to do anything with the naked ^4, since I figured they had the same properties.

 

I also have a 52% corner X-ray for anyone who gives a fuck and wants to try it.

[Lenin]

u+4 being special cancelable is old news on a few forums. That combo you posted has been my go-to mid-screen BnB for a while now when I'm feeling latency is low enough in whatever match I'm in. I usually just end it with f+1,4 though because it's easier and does 5% less damage so I can leave them alive longer and spend more time divekick trolling.

 

You should lay that X-ray combo on me though. I'd actually use it for 52%.

 

Also... there was a Kenshi reveal photo? I totally fucking missed that somehow. I only ever heard "HERE'S SKARLET, YAY BOOBS. Oh, and Kenshi's gonna be in too", and I never actually saw a photo for him.

 

EDIT: Just downloaded the patch... Lets see if it rapes XBL like it did PSN.

 

EDIT 2: It does not. Playing some games, barely anyone on right now (9:05 AM EST) but I'll be fucking damned if this isn't as smooth as butter. I did get two "Game Session Is No Longer Available" notifications in the first two matches, but one happened after some dumbass got his ass handed to him three consecutive times and the other happened about ten seconds after I picked Kabal. So I assume they both ragequit that bitch via hardware disconnection.

 

NRS did good here. They even added a clear and distinct sound for when you find an opponent in player/ranked matches. And matchmaking seems improved too.

 

EDIT 3: But the DLC costumes are gone for some reason...

 

EDIT 4: Kung Lao's spin is so retardedly punishable. Some poor bastard whiffed it on me and I was able to dash in and embarrass him from half screen.

Edited June 20, 2011 by Lenin

[Niji Superfan]

u+4 being special cancelable is old news on a few forums. That combo you posted has been my go-to mid-screen BnB for a while now when I'm feeling latency is low enough in whatever match I'm in. I usually just end it with f+1,4 though because it's easier and does 5% less damage so I can leave them alive longer and spend more time divekick trolling.

 

Not believing that til I see a source.

[Lenin]

http://testyourmight.com/forum/showthread....ull=1#post56898

[Niji Superfan]

Well fuck me, that's a letdown. I still doubt anyone has come up with my corner combo, considering the only corner X-ray I've seen from him is TylerLantern's, which is 62% and impractical to a fault. You will seriously never pull something like that off in a real match.

 

Anyway, the combo is (from memory) 2 1 Freeze, jump in punch 2 1 1+2, NJP, standing 4, jumpkick X-ray. Solid 52% to close up a match as soon as you get your guy in the corner. Make sure the jump kick after the standing four is a forward jumpkick, because it won't work from a neutral jump.

 

Also, FIRST PICS OF RAIN FUCK YEAH:

 

http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/8224/im...10621060511.jpg

 

Also also, the next two free costumes, coming with Kenshi in July:

 

http://img802.imageshack.us/img802/9338/im...10621060533.jpg

 

What's interesting is that the free costumes are based on the MK2 outfit instead of the MK1, which is weird. I think it looks a lot cooler, but at the same time, I think it's really dumb that they're doing these before the UMK3 outfits. Whatever, hopefully they'll be up next. I have a feeling we're going to get a Kung Lao and Liu Kang pair at some point, though.

 

Rain looks fucking sweet, nothing more to be said. I was so skeptical about his silhouette, but I was pretty fucking impressed with this shot. He somewhat resembles his MKA design, but they kept it more traditional this time around and it's really working for him. He almost gives off a Magneto vibe, to me.

[Lenin]

Playing some Skarlet right now after I totally got fucking SCREWED by somebody. Season Pass and still had to pay 1200 points for her, I don't care since I had a fuckton of points and it's really no skin off my back but goddfuckingdammit.

 

She's got Shao Kahn's hammer, only REALLY FUCKING FAST and it doesn't set up for a combo. Gotta pay for it with 7% of your health to do 15% of unblockable damage to your opponent. You can also change it's trajectory similar to Kung Lao's hat. It'll fizzle out at range if you aim it down, and it'll turn into Johnny Cage's d,b2 (but unblockable) if you aim it up.

 

Teleport is fast as fuck too.

 

Scrubs are going to be crying about this bitch endlessly.

 

Only combo I've really bothered figuring out so far is 2,1~d,f2 dash 2,1,2. 22% and fast. 2,1~d,f2 dash 2,1~d,f2 dash 1,1,4~d,f3~4. 35%

 

I'll figure out more later when I'm not so tired. Probably not. She's not really my kind of character, as good as she obviously is. BRING ON KENSHI AND RAIN.

Edited June 21, 2011 by Lenin

[Niji Superfan]

I got Skarlet for free last night due to a glitch xfd

 

I really don't know where the hell you're getting this unblockable blood ball idea from, because it's not. I don't even see it being an especially useful move apart from anti-air or guaranteed punishes, and only if you want to close the gap when you have someone down on their last legs. Skarlet's biggest asset so far is her dash mixup, as far as I'm concerned.

[Lenin]

In training mode, when the blood ball hits, you get big letters that say "UNBLOCKABLE"

[Griffon]

Holy crap, her Blood Ball is unblockable?

[Lenin]

I haven't pulled it off in a match yet. She's got some stuff that put you at a good range to toss it off as a meaty, but you'll get fucked by advancing wake up moves. And the startup is painfully slow and it'll probably just get stuffed if you just throw it out and you'll eat a punish + the 7% you did to yourself just throwing it out.

 

Also, I fucked around with her more. She's got buttfuck easy, meterless, mid-screen combos that do close to or upwards of 40% so the nerfhammer is going to come down pretty hard on her in either a patch/hotfix when that happens.

 

Her teleport definitely has invincibility on wakeup. I think the startup to it is a little hooky too. I've done it right in my opponents face as they were pressing buttons and it just totally ignored their attacks. I'll have to experiment with that a little more. It's just difficult since they didn't release the compatibility patch along side her so I can only play her against people who also bought her.

 

EDIT: MOTHERFUCKER. The "Unblockable" is the damage you do to yourself. Fail.

Edited June 22, 2011 by Lenin