First of all, Im going to drop all my bias regarding the MK franchise (because I love 1-3). Now, Im going to try to stay as honest as possible.
Ok, MK was the US answer to games as Street Fighter and Fatal Fury. It featured 2D combat, and a lot (I really mean a lot) of blood. They introduced finishng moves, called Fatalities (later on we got brutalities, babalities, animalities, etc). What made them good was that they were easy to play (special moves were really easy to pull) and it focused heavily on the finishing moves.
By doing that, the core gameplay was neglected, and even though we had an amazing time playing them, more "hardcore" gamers that were playing Street Fighter at the time would normally insult MK for its shallowness. And from a gameplay point of view, they were right. MK was shallow. Most moves were pulled in the same way with every character. There was almost no difference between the fighters and there were no monstrous combos in that regard. Whereas SF and FF were already using them. As time passed, more 2D fighters started to appear, yet MK decided no to change. The changes between MK II and MKIII are barely noticeable as of gameplay.
MK stayed in time, and continued to be a bloody fighter in difference to the "anime" fighters that were the competition. When the PSX released a game called Tekken, a 3D fighter that suddenly become THE fighter, MK developers decided to try the new concept. So, MK 4 was born. A bizarre game, that kept the old concept of extremely gory game, but did not changed much the formula. The game took a wrong wrong path. The following MK games would not be very different, and they are highly overrated (yes the 7s and such scores are overrated). During all these years, the 3D fighters have evolved. Tekken has had almost 3 engine changes in the past 8 years, Soul Calibur was born and had a 2 engine changes that improved the gameplay, even DOA (a game that I hate) has evolved and is a better fighter than MK.
So, you may be thinking by now: What does all of this have to do with the new game? After seing the latest trailer, though it was a pre built fight scene, you can see that the movements look as bad as they have done in the past years. They are still robotic and slow with no sense of improvements over the years. Im not going to complain about the bizarre idea of mixing this 2 franchises since its not how it looks but how it plays and how does it feel. I seriously hope that the game turns into a failure, and forces the MK devs to redo the game engine, re think their ideas and create a fighter that can compete with the opponents it has today.
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