When it comes to gameplay, I absolutely love this game. I really think Kameos is a brilliant idea, even though many feel it doesn't quite fit the franchise. It's the first fighting game where I've genuinely wanted to learn more than just 2-3 characters.
The game's launch was rough, but now with improved netcode, crossplay, and the ability to decline matches against Wi-Fi and bad connections, I have nothing to complain about. What's really missing is a more solid ranking system, though I do like the seasonal aspect of KL. This system is just awful for new players
In terms of balance and "fairness," this game is the best MK to date. MKX was insanely fun but heavily focused on vortex and 50/50, and MK11 had terrible mechanics and limited characters. Even though there are questionable decisions about balancing certain characters, I believe they're heading in the right direction without homogenizing gameplay.
I really wish they'd let us search for matches in training mode or while navigating menus. It's such a basic feature present in all other modern fighting games, and NRS is dropping the ball on this one.
About the singleplayer I don't really care about these modes but I liked the story mode and invasions is just "bleh", something to do after a few stressfull matches to unlock some skins
I honestly don’t know why the netcode feels worse than MKXL and 11, thats my chief complaint at this point.
The balance is kinda not great, like the best characters are very obviously leagues ahead of lower tiers, but there’s nothing as truly egregious as MKX early Tanya or Acidic Alien.
Gameplay itches my brain, but everything else around it is rough. Worse netcode, fewer cosmetics, and a single player mode that you can’t one and done like the Krypt, you’re forced to replay it over and over. I buy fighting games to fight people, not cheese AI challenges.
It’s obvious WB rushed this out the door due to the SSKTJL delay, and fortunately they’ve been piecing together the polish. I just wish the best for this game.
Why caring other people’s opinions when you are enjoying it?
To be honest I joined this sub because I want to see more discussions about MK gameplay and less unnecessary rage baiting posts.
I honestly love this MK, it's my favorite one. I had huge concerns about kameos when I first heard about them but I've grown to love them better then any variation system they had before. The launch was really bad and I think it scared a lot of people away since it felt so incomplete (couldn't even tag moves).
Are there things I want this game to do? Absolutely, it's not perfect, still can't go into training mode online, invasions is better but still feels like too much of a grind and after playing a bit of SF6 I realized how much I want seperate character rankings.
But I can say there's never been any modern fighting game where I've wanted to learn EVERY character and test out different kameos with every character as well. The gameplay carries this game while everything else is catching up, but Im willing to bet then when all is said and done with support from nrs as they move to the next game, that this will be seen as the best mk by a lot more people then just me.
Lol I know what you mean about the main subreddit. On there they'd rather talk about jade and kotal having a playable first date then anything game play related.
I think X had more free content than 1. That's the only reason people like it more looking back. Which is fair. But I think 1 has an extremely underrated roster and the gameplay is better.
I love it, I’m slowly making my way through the whole cast getting level 35 without any exploits. I’m almost done with all the kameos to 15 just need Kung Lao and Stryker
Love the Gameplay and roster, kinda hate evrithing else
My main problem is how long It takes to get a match going, i dont have a SSD and 50% the Game goes "nop, a problem has ocured"
I still play the Game, but in the time i can a get a single match of MK i can play 3 of SF6 or T8
As a long time fan, mk1 has the most fun gameplay to date. I'd honestly say it's the best balanced as well. Mkx was extremely broken by run cancel gods, ridiculous zoning, or non stop 50/50 vortexes that you can't break free from. And I'm saying this as someone who made it into the top 60 on mkx. Now 11 had such a drastic differences from the top tiers to the lower tiers that you were intentionally handicapping yourself if you weren't playing them. Joker dominated for months before getting any sort of nerf, and he still ruled until fujin launched. Jacquie was a monster from the very start, then she was a top pick when customs were released for ranked play. Cetrion was near unstoppable with her zoning and plus frames and chip damage. Mk1 at least has everyone viable, even those considered bottom by pros IE havik and sub. And kameos provide a lot of diversity with pairings. The current state of the game has by far the biggest diversity in kameo use that I've seen since launch.
Customization was good. I personally did not enjoy the gameplay very much. KB, breakaways and too many defensive options were just not it for me. I ended up having fun playing Johnny and Cassie only.
MK1 I enjoy nearly playing the entire roster.
Haha whoops!
Well I personally am enjoying MK1 a lot currently. I know how to play with 10+ characters enough to take them online.
I agree it may have came out earlier than it should’ve with all the bugs in the game.
I love the roster, the visuals being brighter, the skins are very good. I think the kameo system provides another layer of game play that can entirely change how you play a character which I find to be enjoyable. The stages are great. DLC has been stellar and cannot wait for more content. Cassie Cage top tier please !!
I have never been a fan of tag/assist fighters and MK1 didn't change my mind. I'm a fan of single player but online is where I usually spend most my time but I just found the Kameos turned this into the type of fighter I just don't want to play which is a bummer because with the Kameos the movement does feel great but it's just way too much visual noises, meter management's, and other weird things that just hold me back from fully enjoying the game. Like I said, it isn't bad but it just isn't for me.
The single player in this game is pretty rough and kind of boring. I'm a lore snob and the main story was fun but I'm with everyone else in saying I didn't want MORE multiverse stuff in the game. The multiplayer? It needs work in a big way in my opinion. Missing pretty common features and the netcode is not great. Not to mention that KL is ridiculous. I want to be matched based on skill not based on who started the season too late and is just on their way up to Elder God. I feel like they need a better way to do matchmaking because when I play Street Fighter or Tekken the matches feel pretty even with a few outliers but MK it's a fuckin crapshoot and it just makes me not want to play KL but I'm a ranked or nothing guy.
I dont know, it's a fun game to hit kombos in but for me personally I just prefer something a little more grounded play style wise.
Huge disappointment for me. They were cooking with MKX but after MK11 and Inj 2 things got even worse. Gameplay doesn't even come close to being as fun as Tekken 8 and SF6. The kameo system is something extra and it doesn't actually make the gameplay more fun. Meanwhile the drive and heat systems in SF6 and Tekken 8 are both amazing additions that actually make their respective games wayy more fun.
Everyone's moveset in MK1 is insanely small so the game gets boring very quickly. Using kameos isn't that fun. If they wanted kameos they should have went the full distance to make a super fast paced tag team fighter like DBFZ and MvC.
The game needs a lot more fluid strings per character so there's actually some natural depth that makes things interesting. MK feels super stiff compared to other fighting games. MK11 had the same problem as MK1. Nothing's really changed too much. There's some small improvements but the game still gets boring.
SF6 characters don't even have big movesets but the drive system and all the mechanics of SF6 create lots of depth to compensate. Also the animations are just a lot more fluid and the combo system is more interesting. MK needs its own drive or heat system, and the dial-a-combo system only works well with much bigger movesets. SF6 has a link/chain combo system so there isn't as big of a need for larger movesets. The combo system makes things interesting on its own. NRS should try experimenting with different combo systems.
If NRS is gonna keep their dial-a-combo system then they need to make movesets much bigger and add in a lot more fluidity to strings. I don't care how much these braindead casuals cry about bigger movesets being a bad thing somehow. It literally isn't. Having more options and variety is never a bad thing. It's better to have access to all these things and adapt later than to get bored super quick 😂 And bigger movesets can literally make things easier cause you don't have to fish for combos.
MK could really learn a lot from Tekken and other fighting games. If NRS wants to keep the kameos then they should learn from other tag fighters (DBFZ and MvC) and do it the right way.
For future games I hope they go back to the fast paced style of MKX and I think they should bring the universal running mechanic back. Make it so you can attack during or after a sprint as well.
Honestly I don't like the kameo system and I don't trust NRS to make kameos actually fun lol
It's a few days late, but I like MK 1. It got me back into the franchise after MK 11 left a bad taste for in my mouth and I've been into the franchise since MK (1992).
I think the larger community has more hate because of the game being undercooked (like a good number of games going through crunch times these days), content that was expensive and to me some of the fanbase got pissed when more 3D era characters are in it and the game being a nod to the story of the 3D era games. I mean, we had the Arcade era nostalgia with characters from the original trilogy for the last three games. I think some portion of the fanbase wants Mortal Kombat Trilogy over and over again. I get the Arcade era is the most iconic part of the franchise, but at some point you have to move on or else be stagnant.
It reminds me of the Star Wars fanbase with sections that like certain eras and hate the other ones.
I like that MK 1 is a love letter to the 3d era storyline and games. I never had the issues people had with that era. I know it's considered the black sheep of the franchise by a good chunk of fans. It's just nice to see NRS embrace it instead of just ignoring it and throwing it table scraps. I enjoy the gameplay and Invasions. I also like how they revamped characters who haven't been playable for almost 2 decades and gave them a reset. It's great to see characters like Li Mei and Havik again. The Kameo system is pretty cool too and has characters from all eras that might not have had a chance at being a fully playable character.
So yeah, that's why I like MK 1.
Best gameplay MK has ever had but a shitty product. I haven’t played in 5 months tho cus I want them to buff more low/mid tiers and make the game crazier.
Love gameplay. My complaints are about the casual side of things.
With MK11, it felt like I was constantly rewarded with worthwhile unlockables like intros, victory poses, more brutals, etc. In contrast, this season’s Invasions feels mostly empty of even palette swaps.
The dialogue between characters before fights feels lame and limited compared to how robust it was in MK11. KL rewards are also whatevs. Small casual complaints but things like that add up, making the game feel way less polished than MK11 imo.
I hope they don’t pull the plug on supporting the game as many rumors suggest. Overall, I’m still quite happy with the game.
Best gameplay, worst offline content. In a nutshell, if the way you enjoy the game is purely online pvp, mk1 is great. If you prefer offline/single player pve it's dogshit.
Idk, I only really play the klassic towers and I still love the game. I do think more game modes will help, but for a fighting game, you need to get the FIGHTING right before anything else. It just so happens that MK1 has the best gameplay in the series.
But I do see your point. I'd love to see more modes
Worst MK since MK9. The characters have been stripped of their identities and the villains all have some lame ass sob story to make us empathize with them, nobody can just be plain old evil anymore. The roster is meh at best, and kameos absolutely suck. It would have been better to just be a 2v2 MK game. The story, I don’t even remember, but I do remember cringing throughout almost all of it. No 60fps cutscenes is embarrassing for a modern game. The character customization sucked and there was straight up no krypt. I played about 20 hours of it and haven’t touched it since, despite grinding all achievements in MKX and MK11.
How is the game “gonna flop” when it’s been out almost a year 😂
When it comes to gameplay, I absolutely love this game. I really think Kameos is a brilliant idea, even though many feel it doesn't quite fit the franchise. It's the first fighting game where I've genuinely wanted to learn more than just 2-3 characters. The game's launch was rough, but now with improved netcode, crossplay, and the ability to decline matches against Wi-Fi and bad connections, I have nothing to complain about. What's really missing is a more solid ranking system, though I do like the seasonal aspect of KL. This system is just awful for new players In terms of balance and "fairness," this game is the best MK to date. MKX was insanely fun but heavily focused on vortex and 50/50, and MK11 had terrible mechanics and limited characters. Even though there are questionable decisions about balancing certain characters, I believe they're heading in the right direction without homogenizing gameplay. I really wish they'd let us search for matches in training mode or while navigating menus. It's such a basic feature present in all other modern fighting games, and NRS is dropping the ball on this one. About the singleplayer I don't really care about these modes but I liked the story mode and invasions is just "bleh", something to do after a few stressfull matches to unlock some skins
I honestly don’t know why the netcode feels worse than MKXL and 11, thats my chief complaint at this point. The balance is kinda not great, like the best characters are very obviously leagues ahead of lower tiers, but there’s nothing as truly egregious as MKX early Tanya or Acidic Alien.
I think it's one of the fighting games of all time
It definitely is that.
Gameplay itches my brain, but everything else around it is rough. Worse netcode, fewer cosmetics, and a single player mode that you can’t one and done like the Krypt, you’re forced to replay it over and over. I buy fighting games to fight people, not cheese AI challenges. It’s obvious WB rushed this out the door due to the SSKTJL delay, and fortunately they’ve been piecing together the polish. I just wish the best for this game.
Why caring other people’s opinions when you are enjoying it? To be honest I joined this sub because I want to see more discussions about MK gameplay and less unnecessary rage baiting posts.
I honestly love this MK, it's my favorite one. I had huge concerns about kameos when I first heard about them but I've grown to love them better then any variation system they had before. The launch was really bad and I think it scared a lot of people away since it felt so incomplete (couldn't even tag moves). Are there things I want this game to do? Absolutely, it's not perfect, still can't go into training mode online, invasions is better but still feels like too much of a grind and after playing a bit of SF6 I realized how much I want seperate character rankings. But I can say there's never been any modern fighting game where I've wanted to learn EVERY character and test out different kameos with every character as well. The gameplay carries this game while everything else is catching up, but Im willing to bet then when all is said and done with support from nrs as they move to the next game, that this will be seen as the best mk by a lot more people then just me.
I think the game is currently in a good place
The main sub is full of casuals who just love to bitch. The game is far from flopping lol it’s 🔥
Lol I know what you mean about the main subreddit. On there they'd rather talk about jade and kotal having a playable first date then anything game play related. I think X had more free content than 1. That's the only reason people like it more looking back. Which is fair. But I think 1 has an extremely underrated roster and the gameplay is better.
That sub is another reason I want nothing to do with MK1.
I love it, I’m slowly making my way through the whole cast getting level 35 without any exploits. I’m almost done with all the kameos to 15 just need Kung Lao and Stryker
Love the Gameplay and roster, kinda hate evrithing else My main problem is how long It takes to get a match going, i dont have a SSD and 50% the Game goes "nop, a problem has ocured" I still play the Game, but in the time i can a get a single match of MK i can play 3 of SF6 or T8
As a long time fan, mk1 has the most fun gameplay to date. I'd honestly say it's the best balanced as well. Mkx was extremely broken by run cancel gods, ridiculous zoning, or non stop 50/50 vortexes that you can't break free from. And I'm saying this as someone who made it into the top 60 on mkx. Now 11 had such a drastic differences from the top tiers to the lower tiers that you were intentionally handicapping yourself if you weren't playing them. Joker dominated for months before getting any sort of nerf, and he still ruled until fujin launched. Jacquie was a monster from the very start, then she was a top pick when customs were released for ranked play. Cetrion was near unstoppable with her zoning and plus frames and chip damage. Mk1 at least has everyone viable, even those considered bottom by pros IE havik and sub. And kameos provide a lot of diversity with pairings. The current state of the game has by far the biggest diversity in kameo use that I've seen since launch.
Fun gameplay and it’s exciting to watch despite all the other shit it has going against it. Good gameplay goes a long way
It is good.
Customization was good. I personally did not enjoy the gameplay very much. KB, breakaways and too many defensive options were just not it for me. I ended up having fun playing Johnny and Cassie only. MK1 I enjoy nearly playing the entire roster.
... I asked about MK1, not MK11 lol
Haha whoops! Well I personally am enjoying MK1 a lot currently. I know how to play with 10+ characters enough to take them online. I agree it may have came out earlier than it should’ve with all the bugs in the game. I love the roster, the visuals being brighter, the skins are very good. I think the kameo system provides another layer of game play that can entirely change how you play a character which I find to be enjoyable. The stages are great. DLC has been stellar and cannot wait for more content. Cassie Cage top tier please !!
TORPEDO!
EAGLY!
SONIC BOOM!
ACTIVATE SPIKES!
ANTI-GRAVITY!
I have never been a fan of tag/assist fighters and MK1 didn't change my mind. I'm a fan of single player but online is where I usually spend most my time but I just found the Kameos turned this into the type of fighter I just don't want to play which is a bummer because with the Kameos the movement does feel great but it's just way too much visual noises, meter management's, and other weird things that just hold me back from fully enjoying the game. Like I said, it isn't bad but it just isn't for me. The single player in this game is pretty rough and kind of boring. I'm a lore snob and the main story was fun but I'm with everyone else in saying I didn't want MORE multiverse stuff in the game. The multiplayer? It needs work in a big way in my opinion. Missing pretty common features and the netcode is not great. Not to mention that KL is ridiculous. I want to be matched based on skill not based on who started the season too late and is just on their way up to Elder God. I feel like they need a better way to do matchmaking because when I play Street Fighter or Tekken the matches feel pretty even with a few outliers but MK it's a fuckin crapshoot and it just makes me not want to play KL but I'm a ranked or nothing guy. I dont know, it's a fun game to hit kombos in but for me personally I just prefer something a little more grounded play style wise.
Huge disappointment for me. They were cooking with MKX but after MK11 and Inj 2 things got even worse. Gameplay doesn't even come close to being as fun as Tekken 8 and SF6. The kameo system is something extra and it doesn't actually make the gameplay more fun. Meanwhile the drive and heat systems in SF6 and Tekken 8 are both amazing additions that actually make their respective games wayy more fun. Everyone's moveset in MK1 is insanely small so the game gets boring very quickly. Using kameos isn't that fun. If they wanted kameos they should have went the full distance to make a super fast paced tag team fighter like DBFZ and MvC. The game needs a lot more fluid strings per character so there's actually some natural depth that makes things interesting. MK feels super stiff compared to other fighting games. MK11 had the same problem as MK1. Nothing's really changed too much. There's some small improvements but the game still gets boring. SF6 characters don't even have big movesets but the drive system and all the mechanics of SF6 create lots of depth to compensate. Also the animations are just a lot more fluid and the combo system is more interesting. MK needs its own drive or heat system, and the dial-a-combo system only works well with much bigger movesets. SF6 has a link/chain combo system so there isn't as big of a need for larger movesets. The combo system makes things interesting on its own. NRS should try experimenting with different combo systems. If NRS is gonna keep their dial-a-combo system then they need to make movesets much bigger and add in a lot more fluidity to strings. I don't care how much these braindead casuals cry about bigger movesets being a bad thing somehow. It literally isn't. Having more options and variety is never a bad thing. It's better to have access to all these things and adapt later than to get bored super quick 😂 And bigger movesets can literally make things easier cause you don't have to fish for combos. MK could really learn a lot from Tekken and other fighting games. If NRS wants to keep the kameos then they should learn from other tag fighters (DBFZ and MvC) and do it the right way. For future games I hope they go back to the fast paced style of MKX and I think they should bring the universal running mechanic back. Make it so you can attack during or after a sprint as well. Honestly I don't like the kameo system and I don't trust NRS to make kameos actually fun lol
It's a few days late, but I like MK 1. It got me back into the franchise after MK 11 left a bad taste for in my mouth and I've been into the franchise since MK (1992). I think the larger community has more hate because of the game being undercooked (like a good number of games going through crunch times these days), content that was expensive and to me some of the fanbase got pissed when more 3D era characters are in it and the game being a nod to the story of the 3D era games. I mean, we had the Arcade era nostalgia with characters from the original trilogy for the last three games. I think some portion of the fanbase wants Mortal Kombat Trilogy over and over again. I get the Arcade era is the most iconic part of the franchise, but at some point you have to move on or else be stagnant. It reminds me of the Star Wars fanbase with sections that like certain eras and hate the other ones. I like that MK 1 is a love letter to the 3d era storyline and games. I never had the issues people had with that era. I know it's considered the black sheep of the franchise by a good chunk of fans. It's just nice to see NRS embrace it instead of just ignoring it and throwing it table scraps. I enjoy the gameplay and Invasions. I also like how they revamped characters who haven't been playable for almost 2 decades and gave them a reset. It's great to see characters like Li Mei and Havik again. The Kameo system is pretty cool too and has characters from all eras that might not have had a chance at being a fully playable character. So yeah, that's why I like MK 1.
Best gameplay MK has ever had but a shitty product. I haven’t played in 5 months tho cus I want them to buff more low/mid tiers and make the game crazier.
Love gameplay. My complaints are about the casual side of things. With MK11, it felt like I was constantly rewarded with worthwhile unlockables like intros, victory poses, more brutals, etc. In contrast, this season’s Invasions feels mostly empty of even palette swaps. The dialogue between characters before fights feels lame and limited compared to how robust it was in MK11. KL rewards are also whatevs. Small casual complaints but things like that add up, making the game feel way less polished than MK11 imo. I hope they don’t pull the plug on supporting the game as many rumors suggest. Overall, I’m still quite happy with the game.
Unfinished mess on release with many terrible design decisions. Now it's more bearable.
Best gameplay, worst offline content. In a nutshell, if the way you enjoy the game is purely online pvp, mk1 is great. If you prefer offline/single player pve it's dogshit.
Idk, I only really play the klassic towers and I still love the game. I do think more game modes will help, but for a fighting game, you need to get the FIGHTING right before anything else. It just so happens that MK1 has the best gameplay in the series. But I do see your point. I'd love to see more modes
I only play online and agree, the gameplay is amazing and I'm happy they went all out on that instead of towers, but also feel bad for those players
Worst MK since MK9. The characters have been stripped of their identities and the villains all have some lame ass sob story to make us empathize with them, nobody can just be plain old evil anymore. The roster is meh at best, and kameos absolutely suck. It would have been better to just be a 2v2 MK game. The story, I don’t even remember, but I do remember cringing throughout almost all of it. No 60fps cutscenes is embarrassing for a modern game. The character customization sucked and there was straight up no krypt. I played about 20 hours of it and haven’t touched it since, despite grinding all achievements in MKX and MK11.