Back to the roots yay!
I'll start with the downsides first:
1) Due to its late release in Australia, there are hardly any players online. Most of the time I cannot find people to play ranked matches
2) The body movement on cutscenes look unnatural - some of them walk like robots - Lui Kang in particular. This may have been done on purpose to go in line with MK's cheesiness but I'm guessing not.
3) As good as the controls are, they do seem kinda loose but it is still very playable
4) Online play does seem slow when compared to SF4.
5) Could've had more skins, fatalities and should've had friendship
The good things: Everything else!!!
The story is superb, I had a lot of fun playing that. Wish that they continued with more characters but it looks like they are keeping that for another time.
The challenge tower is looooong but heaps of variety. I'm up at about 60/300. Not sure if I'll do the full 300 but for the moment, it's still quite challenging and interesting.
Great graphics and voices. There are changes to the characters moves to some level which I suppose is used for game tuning. I noticed Sub zero is considerably slow in this game when pulling off special moves. A few others too but he seemed very slow so far.
I think the music is good though it lacks the darkness and feel of the original series. Voice acting is cool with the exception to Lui Kang's turkey noise when doing the bicycle kick - it's missing!
Overall a game worth playing in my opinion. I wasn't sure before buying it but I've had a blast playing it. Way more fun than I anticipated. It's obviously better playing against others but the single player is just as good.
By the way, this game is clearly for men to play. You'll know why when you see the female characters! I've seen more coverage on swim suits than these outfits!