Mortal Kombat 9

[Niji Superfan]

Akuma didn't have a dive kick in SSF2T

 

Nigga I was referencing his godly air fireball, which had ridiculous coverage just for its angles. Cyber Sub's dive kick works in the same way (as does his X-ray), and he can come in from two different angles at that. It's quick, it's safe and the EX version is pretty fucking beefy. When it comes down to the wire, you can kill someone with chip alone using a couple of those.

 

Stryker CAN still zone, and as of yet, he's probably the best at it. Noob has more options and of the two, he's the only one who seems to have some decent strings (he has one fairly accessible string for 25%, which is decent for a proprietary zoner). Still, as I said, I see Stryker declining somewhat as the metagame fleshes out. Those moves are never NOT going to be good, but people will start formulating strategies to beat it and as your options for countering his attacks increase, Stryker's viability decreases. He really only has three moves, and while they're extremely sound, that severely limits his options. Still, if played right, he can zone like a motherfucker.

 

How are you playing it, Viv? Didn't they ban this on pain of death? I heard there was a steep fine even for importing it.

[Vincent210]

Do not have yet. Is Stryker's X-Ray worth anything?

[Niji Superfan]

Do not have yet. Is Stryker's X-Ray worth anything?

 

Not really, no. It's not worthwhile enough that I'd use it over the EX versions of his moves. About the only time you'd want to use his X-ray is to catch someone jumping in, or if you're under constant pressure. Any other time, you'll want to spam the guns and use BK -> EX Gun -> Roll for anti-air. All in all, his X-ray just isn't as useful as his EX moves or the breaker, something that is all the more important to a proprietary zoner.

 

Sub Zero has this problem to an extent in that the EX versions of all his moves (with the very pronounced exception of the ice clone) are a godsend, and even though his X-ray is functionally useful, you'll usually get more use out enhancing his attacks. If you use the ice beam at a safe distance while someone's in the air, there's really nothing they can do to avoid getting frozen, save for a preemptive teleport. His EX ground freeze reaches from where he's standing across to the other end of the arena, and similarly, you can catch someone coming out of the air with this for a free setup. It's a great way to counter turtling as well, and the advantage to the ground freeze is that it immobilizes them without freezing them (via ice ball/beam). You can't freeze someone twice in one combo string for balance purposes, so while there are obvious benefits to catching someone with a freeze, it does limit what you can do in your ensuing punish. The ground freeze gives you the same setup (grounding them as well, which is just slightly more accommodating) while still giving you the opportunity to freeze them mid-combo, which is really useful. Lastly, the EX slide is just really good for ending combos, as pretty much all of his combos will end in a slide or an X-ray (yes, I realize this contradicts everything I said here).

 

Oh, and for those not in the know: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZaTz7-nncQ

 

Stryker's X-ray.

 

Every time I do this to Jax or Nightwolf, I pretty much laugh til I cry, then feel really, really bad.

[Vincent210]

Oh, and for those not in the know: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZaTz7-nncQ

 

Stryker's X-ray.

 

Every time I do this to Jax or Nightwolf, I pretty much laugh til I cry, then feel really, really bad.

 

POLICE BRUTALITY!!! POLICE BRUTALITY!!! POLICE Brutal... er, Fatality.

 

Also, whenever I see him do that to Rayden the irony makes me crack-up. The god of Thunder blinded with a flashlight.

[Niji Superfan]

It's going to be even funnier when Kenshi gets added as DLC, he's fucking blind.

[Vincent210]

[strykers thought Process]

 

I wonder this dude is really blind.... (Flash)... FUCKIN KNEW IT. HE'S JUST IN IT FOR PARKING & SYMPATHY!

[Shirtless Crackhead]

Is this worth getting?

[Niji Superfan]

Is this worth getting?

 

If you don't like 2D fighters, this probably isn't going to be a gamechanger for you. If you do like 2D fighters, I can't recommend it enough. It's deep, fast-paced, involving and - get this - ACTUALLY well balanced. Pretty much every character in the game has something going for them, and even the especially good characters aren't "cheap" (well, Raiden and Cage can be to an extent). Sub Zero and Cyrax are easily better than 90% of the roster, but they won't do shit for you if you don't know how to use them. All in all, this game is SF4 on meth.

 

P.S. I should specify that when I say pretty much every character, I mean everyone but Baraka and Sheeva, so far.

Edited May 3, 2011 by Altaire

[Shirtless Crackhead]

Oh?, it's 2D again?

 

I might get it then.

[Niji Superfan]

Oh?, it's 2D again?

 

I might get it then.

 

Yeah, I figured you knew that. Youtube some gameplay, it's all 2D now (not even the weird 2.5D shit that MK4 used). Like I said, it's basically SF4 on meth.

[LlamaHumper]

Man I'm so hype for Cyber Sub Zero. Just rented it today. So you're saying his Dive Kick is god like? Man even more reason to want to play him, I love Akuma.

[Vincent210]

@ Alt

 

I'm curious. You say Johnny Cage CAN be cheap. How so?

[Shirtless Crackhead]

Those "x-ray" moves look pretty sick, but like 33-41% damage for a single attack seems rather OP.

[Lenin]

X-Ray's are mostly stupid. You get more damage off combos with enhanced attacks, having a breaker is nice too. Some characters honestly don't have a huge reason to not store an X-Ray rather going for enhanced attack, but everyone benefits huge from breakers and that's your better bet.

 

They're popular online though because they all come out incredibly fast, do good damage, some have armor, some counter projectiles, shitty netkode makes it hard to avoid and everyone playing online has about four brain cells between them on a good day. Breakers are a better use of meter.

 

Sub-Zero and Cyrax are not better than 90% of the roster. Sub-Zero is an upper-tier character, 25th percentile for sure. Cyrax? Solid mid.

 

My honest prediction of the tier list is like:

 

Top: Kung Lao, Kabal, Reptile, Raiden, Jade

Mid: Everyone else

Bottom: Sektor, Baraka, Sheeva

 

They took the smart path of balance by basically making everything retarded. It's hard to be OP when everyone is broken; they all feel like they can do pretty much whatever they damn well want. Tiers in this game go entirely towards damage output and field control, basically. The exception to this is Kabal, who finds himself at top for his ability to get a perfect 50/50 mixup scenario off of essentially any situation.

 

It's a good game. Netkode really, really, really needs a buff, though. The issue with the actual gameplay that irks me the most is the aerial hitboxes in it. Absolutely EVERYTHING is anti-air, which is a little obnoxious. It'd be better if cross-ups were a thing in this game.

Edited May 5, 2011 by Lenin

[Shirtless Crackhead]

Jade was always high-tier.

[Niji Superfan]

xfd at Cyrax being "solid mid". It's like you really don't know about the bomb trap. Realize that Cyrax has a command grab that's basically a free setup for a launcher so he can get in and do whatever he wants to you. <-1 2 1 2 + Mid bomb. On top of that, if you block a jump-in punch, he can get you with the command grab no matter what you do, and this will repeat. On top of having good strings, a well-balanced movelist and some of the beefiest anti-air in the game, he can repeatedly destroy you if he gets in close. Cyrax is like an African robot Zangief who can force you out of a corner, which might be the most horrifying concept in fighting game history.

 

Sub Zero is the best character in the game, period. I won't even settle on that. He's more or less empirically proven to be in the top three, and at the absolute worst, he's top five. To start, Subs has some of the most practical high-damage combos in the game, and an Xray that is 1) extremely accessible and 2) largely unaffected by scaling. You can deal a solid 49% 4 1 2 X-ray, or even 30% with a 4 1 2 EX slide. Not only that, but Subs can build meter like nobody's business. He can very safely freeze and clone his way to a full bar, and pretty much all of his EX attacks (sans clone) are fucking awesome. If he freezes you even once, guess what, you're losing a minimum of 30% health. Considering how many ways he has to do this, on top of the fact that he has god-tier mixups and some of the best corner pressure in the game, I'd say "25th percentile" is really, really undercutting it. Sub Zero is bar-none one of the top three characters in the game, and I'd say he's the absolute best without hesitation. He's not broken by any means, but in the hands of a good player who can read well and take advantage of his pressure, he's a fucking monster. Clearly, you didn't see Tom Brady absolutely destroy everyone with him on the tournament stream over the weekend.

 

Your tier list seems suspiciously unaware of Cage and how ridiculous he is, by the way. It also seems unaware of Cyber Sub's dive kick, Kitana's wake-up square wave and Nightwolf's, uh, everything. This is just to name a few obvious characters you missed. The top ten, as far as I'm concerned, is something like Subs > Raiden > Cage > Cyrax > Cyber Subs > Kung > Reptile > Kitana > Sindel. Ermac and Noob were skimming this list for me, even if Ermac is one of the hardest characters in the game to play extremely well.

 

P.S. Sektor is fucking awesome, even if he is boring as shit. His teleport is an amazing punish, and wake-up Xray missile is pretty goddamn ridiculous. I wouldn't put him anywhere in the top tier, but I sure as SHIT wouldn't put him anywhere near the bottom tier.

 

Man I'm so hype for Cyber Sub Zero. Just rented it today. So you're saying his Dive Kick is god like? Man even more reason to want to play him, I love Akuma.

 

Cyber Sub Zero is godlike, period. I wouldn't really compare him to Akuma beyond the dive kick being comparable to his air fireball in vintage SSF2T, if only because it's quick, it's safe and the angles give it ridiculous coverage. Basically, if I had to summarize, Cyber Subs plays like the bastardization of Cyrax and human Subs. He has Cyrax's teleport and bombs that work in the exact same way (three different inputs for close, mid and far), though Sub's can freeze in addition to doing damage. The EX version is different, however, since Cyrax actually shoots a missile for his EX bomb where Subs just fires three bombs at once, covering all three ranges (this is such a good trap). His strings also feel somewhat like Cyrax's, much more so than they do human Sub's, though he still plays quite a bit differently from either. He does, however, have Sub's standard freeze and slide, albeit slightly different; the freeze has a little more startup time than Sub's, though the EX version is still just as fast. The slide is ostensibly identical, except he follows up with a kick instead of a palm strike at the end of the EX version; I'm pretty sure this is just for looks, though I haven't compared the damage yet. If I had to contrast the two Subs more directly, I'd say human Subs has the better mixups, better corner pressure, better traps and more accessible high damage combos overall. Cyber Subs has launchers in some of his strings while Subs doesn't have them in ANY of his, so he definitely has the more potent juggles and much better air game. The dive kick is such a good shutdown, and it's basically mid-air Johnny Cage.

 

That was a tad lengthy, but hopefully I covered all my bases. All in all, I don't think you'll be disappointed with Cyber Subs, he's definitely one of the coolest characters in the game. I'm probably going to start learning him in greater depth once I feel I've mastered Subs and Ermac for the most part.

 

@ Alt

 

I'm curious. You say Johnny Cage CAN be cheap. How so?

 

His flip kick. It's not really gamebreaking, but it's one of the best specials in the game and the ONLY way to shut it down is with Raiden's torpedo (you know, the Superman) or a really fast uppercut. If there's another special in the game that can even shut it down, no one's found it yet. At any rate, some characters uppercut faster than others, and anyone on the slow end is going to get shut down. Ermac, for instance, has a slow uppercut, and gets absolutely demolished by this. If he can't keep Cage out, he's more or less 100% fucked. I'd say Cage has arguably the best pressure in the whole game. Even outside of this somewhat cheap attack, he's still a solid overall character and he has an Xray you can combo off of, which makes for some fucking ridiculous damage potential. When you get in all your big damage before scaling starts to take effect, you can build combos that'll really hurt.

 

Those "x-ray" moves look pretty sick, but like 33-41% damage for a single attack seems rather OP.

 

Well, 35% is probably the average damage for a single Xray, and their functionality varies. They all trigger in different ways (Sub Zero's is a dash that can be delayed, Sektor's is a missile, Kano's is a throw, etc.) and some are more useful than others. You can combo into some Xrays, but not others. Damage scaling also has a drastic effect on X-rays, so even if you do combo into one (which isn't even possible for some characters), the damage gets shut down pretty hard. I used it at the end of a 9-hit combo with Ermac, and it only added another 9%. They're really not as broken as you'd think. Ultimately, they're just MK9's equivalent of supers.

[LlamaHumper]

Thanks for the DL on Cyber-Subs, Alt. I'm hitting the lab hard with this hauss.

[Niji Superfan]

Thanks for the DL on Cyber-Subs, Alt. I'm hitting the lab hard with this hauss.

 

Word of advice, since Cyber Subs will need this more than human Subs: The EX freeze (the beam) is a good way to link combos, since it's the only way to catch someone mid-air for more beatdown time. Human Subs has to freeze someone before he can launch in the first place (unless he catches them with an empty jump punch) and you can only freeze once per combo, but Cyber Subs has launchers in his strings. The ice beam is a great way to keep a chain going like that.

[Vincent210]

You said Nightwolf is good at, well, stuff, but won't drop details. Speak moar.

 

Also, I'm thinking Cage+Stryker/Noob for tag. Go from Zoning-splosion to deadly pessure. Trip them up & provides an out should my zoning game fail.

 

Can I have Cage enter mid-flip kick?

[Lenin]

Both CSZ and Smoke's combos seem to work better online. Sektor is awesome to play for funsies too. Scarecrow fatality is so hardcore.

 

Been playing so much CSZ lately. I feel very powerful vs. other characters. Same with Smoke. You really gotta work your ass off for it sometimes, though. But I don't feel like I'm ever at a massive disadvantage.

 

NRS's lack of communication regarding the netkode situation is really inexcusable, though. I got into a really heated series of matches with some poor bastard and the game just kept desyncing. We went into a private match where the issue actually got worse.

 

Which is to say nothing of the lag which at times can be so bad fairly basic combos just aren't going to happen. It's depressing.

[Lenin]

Double post faggotry:

 

Anyone catch this video?

 

In addition to manipulating blood, she has a crappy looking X-ray that only does 29% damage. Hope that get's fixed or there's some combo opportunity somehwhere in there. Still want her, though... Bloody Money Shot fatality is pretty dope.

 

This is also worth posting up. It's just a rumor/rumor. It could be nothing, but if they're following Capcom's model of leaking content checklists and calling them "rumors", then it's a different story. One that ends with me hype for Frost.

 

You know, honestly, Skarlet probably should've been in the game at launch. Seriously, first non-sucking MK game in 14 years and we get... CySubz as the only new character? Simultaneously lame and cool.

Edited May 20, 2011 by Lenin

[Shirtless Crackhead]

Both those bitches need a sammich.

 

Anywho, how come none of the "fatality" videos show all the fatalities?

[Lenin]

You mean like

?

 

...or what?

[Shirtless Crackhead]

That's better.

[Lenin]

You honestly only had to type what you were looking for into Youtube, dood.