Jab’s Builds! (Miss Piggy! The Swedish Chef! Sweetums! Gonzo!)

Where in all of your character write ups will go.
FuzzyBoots
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Colossus! Cosmo! Cecilia Reyes! Cyclops!)

Post by FuzzyBoots »

M4C8 wrote: Sun Nov 18, 2018 8:30 pmThere's a slight difference, being a mutant in of itself isn't an aspect of someone's personality anymore than my having red hair is, only when someone has been unfairly treated because of their mutant status does it have an effect on their life view, also being black or gay doesn't leave you with potentially dangerous uncontrollable super powers or being so physically mutated that even those who have no issue with mutants still look at you with revulsion. Even if we ignore all that, Scott taking it upon himself to make that decision for 'every mutant' is still unbelievably wrong, especially as he know first hand how debilitating some abilities can be and how difficult life can be for some of those with physical mutations.
Both of the groups I've described have significant segments that have either started they wanted a cure, or taken measures to water down their identity to fit in.

Ultimately, I do agree Cyclops was making decisions for people who never asked for help, but reversing a "clean genocide" like what Scarlett Witch did... that's pretty objectively a good thing.
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M4C8
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Colossus! Cosmo! Cecilia Reyes! Cyclops!)

Post by M4C8 »

FuzzyBoots wrote: Sun Nov 18, 2018 8:42 pm
M4C8 wrote: Sun Nov 18, 2018 8:30 pmThere's a slight difference, being a mutant in of itself isn't an aspect of someone's personality anymore than my having red hair is, only when someone has been unfairly treated because of their mutant status does it have an effect on their life view, also being black or gay doesn't leave you with potentially dangerous uncontrollable super powers or being so physically mutated that even those who have no issue with mutants still look at you with revulsion. Even if we ignore all that, Scott taking it upon himself to make that decision for 'every mutant' is still unbelievably wrong, especially as he know first hand how debilitating some abilities can be and how difficult life can be for some of those with physical mutations.
Both of the groups I've described have significant segments that have either started they wanted a cure, or taken measures to water down their identity to fit in.

Ultimately, I do agree Cyclops was making decisions for people who never asked for help, but reversing a "clean genocide" like what Scarlett Witch did... that's pretty objectively a good thing.
Fixing what Wanda 'broke' was a righteous idea but risking the planet to do so was insane, I understand Cyclops was probably suffering from a severe long-term mental break that effected his judgement but I still don't understand why the rest of the X-Men went along with it (unless they were being manipulated somehow and I've just forgot)

I don't know if genocide is quite accurate, yes I know a small number of mutants died when they lost their abilities but only the x-gene was extinguished not any specific group of people. The whole 'Mutants are a distinct species' thing is the complete opposite of everything the X-Men have believed and fought for throughout their entire history (and everything we as readers have been told, they're no more a separate species of human that redheads are....oh wait ;)
'A shared universe, like any fictional construct, hinges on suspension of disbelief. When continuity is tossed away, it tatters the construct. Undermines it'
Jabroniville
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The Conquistador (Furio)

Post by Jabroniville »

Image
Image

THE CONQUISTADOR I (Orlando Furio)
Created By:
Arnold Drake & Werner Roth
First Appearance: X-Men #50 (Nov. 1968)
Role: Forgotten Villain
PL 8 (103)
STRENGTH
2 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 5 AWARENESS 3 PRESENCE 3

Skills:
Deception 2 (+5)
Expertise (Science) 3 (+8)
Intimidation 3 (+6)
Perception 2 (+5)
Technology 6 (+11)

Advantages:
Equipment 1 (Chain Mail +2), Ranged Attack 2

Powers:
"Kinetic Trident" (Flaws: Easily Removable) [12]
Electrical Blast 10 (20 points)

"Kinetic Shield" (Flaws: Easily Removable) [12]
Enhanced Defenses 2 (4)
Kinetic Aura 4 (16)
-- (20 points)

Offense:
Unarmed +8 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Kinetic Trident +6 (+10 Ranged Damage, DC 25)
Initiative +3

Defenses:
Dodge +6 (+8 Shield, DC 16-18), Parry +8 (+10 Shield, DC 18-20), Toughness +3 (+5 Chain Mail), Fortitude +5, Will +4

Complications:
Motivation (Power)

Total: Abilities: 62 / Skills: 16--8 / Advantages: 3 / Powers: 24 / Defenses: 6 (103)

-A completely forgotten villain from that yesteryear when the X-Men were the stars of a failing book, The Conquistador is primarily a foe of The Beast, though only retroactively. A would-be world conqueror, he kidnapped Hank McCoy's parents to force the high school football star to work for him, stealing components for nuclear devices. Hank was being tracked down by the X-Men at the time, as they wanted him to join their squad. I the end, Professor X used his "telekinetic powers" (??) to modify the Conquistador's device, which sent the energies funnelling into his own body, blowing up his base and presumably killing him. This story, taking place over three issues of X-Men (including its fiftieth), appears to be very clumsily written. Plus, who takes three issues to fight THIS asshole?

-A one-off goof, you wouldn't THINK he's that tough, but he had all the accoutrements of a Master Villain- a huge base, nuclear weapons, minions, etc. So I figured him for a high-powered idiot, with lots of power, but little experience.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Thu Jun 16, 2022 6:01 am, edited 2 times in total.
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HalloweenJack
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Re: Changeling

Post by HalloweenJack »

Jabroniville wrote: Sun Nov 18, 2018 12:29 am Image
I always thought that helmet was so weird looking. I mean I know he shapeshifts, but that was always just weird looking to me
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Goldar
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Re: Changeling

Post by Goldar »

HalloweenJack wrote: Sun Nov 18, 2018 11:19 pm
Jabroniville wrote: Sun Nov 18, 2018 12:29 am Image
I always thought that helmet was so weird looking. I mean I know he shapeshifts, but that was always just weird looking to me
I always liked the helmet--the same way I liked Havok's head-gear.

I also thought it helped him change shape.

Maybe that is the gizmo mentioned in Jab's profile that gave him some psychic powers.

I always liked--and was amazed-- of the turquoise color and that they could do that back in the 1960's!
Jabroniville
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Conquistador (Provezna)

Post by Jabroniville »

Image
Image

CONQUISTADOR I (Miguel Provenza)
Created By:
Scott Lobdell & Larry Alexander
First Appearance: Marvel Comics Presents #9 (Dec. 1988)
Role: Forgotten Villain
PL 7 (103)
STRENGTH
1/6 STAMINA 1/6 AGILITY 0
FIGHTING 6 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 0 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 2

Skills:
Deception 4 (+6)
Expertise (Criminal) 4 (+4)
Intimidation 4 (+6)
Perception 2 (+4)

Advantages:
Ranged Attack 2

Powers:
"Mutant Powers: Bio-Aura Connection to the Earth"
"Throw Rocks" Blast 8 (16) -- [18]
  • AE: "Control Plants & Stuff" Move Object 8 (Flaws: Limited to Rocks & Plants) (8)
  • AE: "Alter Shapes" Transform (Rocks & Plants To Different Shapes) 4 (Extras: Continuous) (12)
Enhanced Strength 5 [10]
Enhanced Stamina 5 [10]

Offense:
Unarmed +6 (+1 Damage, DC 16)
Enhanced Strength +6 (+6 Damage, DC 21)
Throw Rocks +6 (+8 Ranged Damage, DC 23)
Initiative +0

Defenses:
Dodge +6 (DC 16), Parry +6 (DC 16), Toughness +1 (+6 Enhanced Stamina), Fortitude +2 (+7 Enhanced), Will +4

Complications:
Motivation (Power)
Power Loss (All Powers- Electricity)- Conquistador will be rapidly de-powered if he encounters electricity. His powers also keep him tall and muscular, so he becomes overweight as well.

Total: Abilities: 32 / Skills: 14--7 / Advantages: 2 / Powers: 38 / Defenses: 9 (103)

-Conquistador was a weird one-off villain in quite possibly the plainest suit EVER (it's basically a green onesie with lighter green gloves & boots... and a square-shaped Man-Cleavage Window), who was using his Mutant Powers to dominate several towns in a hilariously ancient-looking Spain (which Marvel artists often depict as if it's an 18th-Century Latin American country, complete with burros & hay everywhere). He was a Marvel Comics Presents one-off who ended up confronted by El Aguila (you use one of the first issues of that anthology title to give a push to EL AGUILA???), who is at first stymied by the villain, since he didn't know the guy had powers. However, it turns out that electricity severs the link between Conquistador and Earth, de-powering him. Which is good, because El Aguila has the exact power to do that.

-I will confess some angst as to which Conquistador to call the first, second, or third... or whether or not a "The" in the name matters as far as this titling goes. I'm satisfied with my choice. And also realize that it doesn't matter at all.

-Conquistador possesses enough power to scrap with El Aguila for a bit, but as a one-off who jobbed to EL AGUILA, he's not very elite.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Thu Jun 16, 2022 6:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
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KorokoMystia
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Colossus! Cosmo! Cecilia Reyes! Cyclops!)

Post by KorokoMystia »

Man, looking it up made me discover that there are more Conquistadors than I expected. I knew of the two Initiative guys, but that was about it.
Jabroniville
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Conquistador (Initiative)

Post by Jabroniville »

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CONQUISTADOR II (Real Name Unknown)
Created By:
Steve Gerber & Mike Ploog
First Appearance: Man-Thing #7 (July 1974- as unnamed Conquistador)
Role: Background Nobody

-Conquistador debuted in Steve Gerber's Man-Thing feature, and is one of a group of Conquistadors who discovered the Fountain of Youth in Florida many centuries ago. He and his group were granted eternal life in return for their emotions. And also they could never leave their hometown. They were discovered in modern times, leading to a conflict with the Man-Thing in which several Conquistadors died- this was the end of them... until modern times, when a random Conquistador was seen in Florida's "Initiative" team, The Command. He was immune to the Zombie Virus that was claiming people at the time (this was a Marvel Zombies crossover), but he was noticeably not immune to simply being torn apart by the zombies. So basically, he was a one-off guy created simply to die, because the writer of Marvel Zombies probably remembered that Man-Thing story.

-This Conquistador probably had some solid fighting skill, but was still using "Age of Exploration"-era weapons. He was Immune to Interaction Skills, Zombie Viruses, and Aging as well. But not being torn apart.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Thu Jun 16, 2022 6:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
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KorokoMystia
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Re: Conquistador (Initiative)

Post by KorokoMystia »

Jabroniville wrote: Mon Nov 19, 2018 3:33 am CONQUISTADOR II (Real Name Unknown)
Created By:
Steve Gerber & Mike Ploog
First Appearance: Man-Thing #7 (July 1974- as unnamed Conquistador)
Role: Background Nobody

-This Conquistador probably had some solid fighting skill, but was still using "Age of Exploration"-era weapons. He was Immune to Interaction Skills, Zombie Viruses, and Aging as well. But not being torn apart.
This guy could probably hit a pretty decent PL depending on his fighting skills, maybe PL 7-ish? It depends on if his sword is +2 or +3, I guess.
Probably somewhere between +8/+10 accuracy.
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Colossus! Cosmo! Cecilia Reyes! Cyclops!)

Post by Jabroniville »

re: Cyclops and the Phoenix thing:

That whole deal was just kind of a mess. Now, the X-Men have enough experience with the Phoenix to generally recognize that it CAN be used for good (Scott's Future-Almost-Daughter was using it for a time), but the whole crossover was designed to get the X-Men and the Avengers into a fight, and the square peg had to be crammed into the round hole for it to happen.

Scott & Xavier were always pro-"integrate mutants and humans", and they always viewed the two as a bit separate, but Scott was clearly getting darker and darker with being the guy in charge, especially since mutants were almost wiped out by one statement from the Scarlet Witch. I'm not happy with the character direction either, but at least you could see where he was coming from. He DOES live in a world where the actual United States government funds a program of SENTINELS more than once (the equivalent of a watchdog agency overseeing Jews wearing Swastika armbands, or a group sent to investigate the Black Panthers or BLM movement wearing white sheets). Like, he didn't have to go Full Revolutionary, but I can see the justification for being pissed off.
Jabroniville
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Re: Conquistador (Initiative)

Post by Jabroniville »

KorokoMystia wrote: Mon Nov 19, 2018 4:32 am
Jabroniville wrote: Mon Nov 19, 2018 3:33 am CONQUISTADOR II (Real Name Unknown)
Created By:
Steve Gerber & Mike Ploog
First Appearance: Man-Thing #7 (July 1974- as unnamed Conquistador)
Role: Background Nobody

-This Conquistador probably had some solid fighting skill, but was still using "Age of Exploration"-era weapons. He was Immune to Interaction Skills, Zombie Viruses, and Aging as well. But not being torn apart.
This guy could probably hit a pretty decent PL depending on his fighting skills, maybe PL 7-ish? It depends on if his sword is +2 or +3, I guess.
Probably somewhere between +8/+10 accuracy.
It depends- he's literally a Backgrounder given a solo name, so he could have been PL 4-5 to start, and MAYBE been upgraded a bit. But you lose to zombie Mooks in your first adventure as a named character, you gotta be low-level.
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Colossus! Cosmo! Cecilia Reyes! Cyclops!)

Post by Jabroniville »

And that does it for the "C" Builds! It's really getting close to the end, now- all I have left is D, F, L, M & P! And of those, only "M" will take a particularly long time! That list Spectrum and I first developed (about FIVE YEARS AGO now!) is just about done! Though I'll probably be re-posting old builds for the next three years before I run out of crap to do, LOL.
Jabroniville
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TEST YOUR MIGHT!!

Post by Jabroniville »

ImageImage

MORTAL KOMBAT:

DUH DUH DUH- duh duh duh DUH DUH DUH duh duh duh
DUDUDUDUDUDUDUDU
DUDUDUDUDUDUDUDU
DUDUDUDUDUDUDUDU
DUDDUDUDU-DUH!


-aaaahh, Mortal Kombat. How better a way to define the early to mid-1990s; a time when Nirvana & grunge had irrevocably altered music with its cynical whining replacing hair metal, movies were starting to be made ABOUT movies (Scream, etc.), and everything as a whole was getting more and more EXTREME with each passing month (comics were going through it ever since the 1970s, but the Image Era made it a part of the business once and for all). I can think of very few video games that were as influential as the original Mortal Kombat- in terms of what it brought to the industry, it's virtually unchallenged outside the ranks of Street Fighter II, Super Mario Bros., Pong and others- MK, along with Night Trap (a silly horror-themed game demonized for being a "Murder Simulation"), was single-handedly responsible for the Video Game Ratings Guide and senatorial hearings into violent video games. It's actually really hard to express just HOW BIG this series was to my generation of kids- I was only eleven when the first one came out, and nearly every kid I knew was bat-shit crazy for it.

Hell, Mortal Kombat is basically the watershed moment that took games to their current levels of violence and extreme behavior- that horribly-violent push that make it okay for Kratos to nail Aphrodite with in-game boobage in God of War, and for giant Hell-beasts to be made out of whatever blood/brains/sperm combo they were made of in... well, every First-Person Shooter ever. There were violent games before it, but this was the first REALLY, REALLY FAMOUS one. So much so that the most-common video game jokes in the "Mainstream Media" will either be revolving around old-school Pac-Man type stuff with beeps and boops (IT'S TWO-THOUSAND TWELVE, PEOPLE!! ENOUGH WITH THE 1980s SOUND EFFECTS!!), or blood-spurting Fatalities (ie. "Bonestorm" in The Simpsons).

One thing I liked about Mortal Kombat was the way EVERY CHARACTER had a reason for fighting. This stands out compared to Street Fighter, where you get idiotic stuff like "I'm fighting to raise money for my Mexican food restaurant" or "I'm a big fat guy who thinks he's the rival of Ken Masters when he's really just the way Japanese people view Americans!", and tons of stupid character designs. At least most MK characters have real, solid PURPOSE, feuds and rivalries, and some kind of motivation. A friend of mine noticed that while playing the game, pointing out that it was more fun that Street Fighter IV because the characters actually have a REASON for doing things, and their decisions actually matter to the overall story.

I'll go into the various games a bit, but my knowledge basically extends to the third one, then starts again with the last release- I sort of got out of video games after the late 1990s, and mostly played my friends' systems. Most of what I heard of the "3-D Era" games come from other sources, though they're generally considered to be the Dark Ages of the franchise, despite the occasional success. Personally, I just hate all the newer characters- aside from some good stuff in Mortal Kombat III (the Cyborgs and Sheeva look pretty cool), the character design element peaked with MK II. The 3-D Era games have terrible, unbecoming new characters who royally stink, in my opinion, ESPECIALLY once they started just funneling crappy ideas into the roster.

Mortal Kombat (1992):
-So two young kids in the video game industry, Ed Boon & John Tobias, got together at Bally Midway, and set to work on some digitized game. Tobias, a low-end comic book artist who moved on to make graphics for Midway's fledgling video game department, wanted to work with the new "digitization" technology (ie. putting live action people into a game as actual characters), and they realized that a Fighting Game would be ideal, since you could use a minimum of sprites on the screen at once, AND make them big enough to be seen. As luck would have it, Boon himself was interested in fighting games, and so a partnership was born. With Street Fighter II then tearing it up in Arcades and at home, they had their "proof-of-concept".

Gathering up some people they knew (they either knew legit fighters, or knew guys who knew legit fighters- Tobias' buddies from High School played Cage/Sub-Zero/Scorpion, Raiden and Kano. Kano was buddies with Liu Kang, and also knew Sonya Blade... it was very much made "on the cheap", but not nearly as much as the basement-made knock-off Way of the Warrior was a couple years later), they basically came up with a weird backstory involving their favourite kung-fu movies and horror-based stuff. The game itself is actually MUCH worse than the Capcom/SNK games of the era, but was cleverly disguised behind a then-pretty and fascinatingly-new exterior of live-action actors and Harryhausen-esque Boss Fights, in addition to buckets of blood. Every character had the exact same moveset (most games differentiated the TYPES of punches that different characters threw- in MK they all used the same High/Low Punch and Kick attacks, and a Block button). Special Moves (the only thing that differentiated the characters) were done by tapping things instead of the charging/D-Pad Motion tricks, and tended to make fights look fairly ugly, especially at the Fatality stage, where you could finish a guy off with on super-bloody elite attack.

The stuff in the first Mortal Kombat was SHOCKING for the time, taking the type of things that gaming was getting up to at the time and basically putting it out into a much bigger thing than Super Smash TV and other violent games were doing (some REALLY old games were straight-up porno/Faces of Death, but had terrible graphics). We'd seen blood in games by then, but TEARING A GUY'S HEAD OFF ALONG WITH HIS SPINE? Parents and politicians FREAKED, and of course the attention made it MUCH cooler for my generation (a friend tells me he'd never considered watching Beavis & Butt-Head until a teacher told his class that the show was awful and that they shouldn't watch it- some authority figures just have NO IDEA how to make kids NOT do something). It was easily bigger than Street Fighter II once it came out, and Capcom had a new challenger (mostly in the States; Japan was more into the animated stuff and Virtua Fighter).

The Plot:
The plot is awesome, and doesn't take itself too seriously (really, the games never did, despite being bloody and ultra-violent): Shang Tsung, an immortal shapeshifting sorceror, is out to take over the world, and needs to win ten straight tournaments over Earth's fighters to do it because of some junk with Earth's gods. Sound hard? They've currently won nine. So now Earth has one last shot at it, or they face extermination at the hands of Tsung and his master(s).

The God Raiden is there with the Earth fighters, alongside obvious Ryu-type "Hero Archetype" Liu Kang (a Bruce Lee sort of guy), Jean-Claude Van Damme-type Johnny Cage (based off of the initial attempt by Boon & Tobias to make a Van Damme game with their technology), and government agent Sonya Blade. Sonya's enemy Kano is a villain, and there's a pair of ninjas from a clan called the Lin Kuei (we would see A. FREAKING. LOT. More of these characters): Sub-Zero the assassin, and Scorpion, an undead warrior out to kill Subby for offing him and his family. Shang Tsung is of course the boss, but the real champion of Mortal Kombat is Goro, the four-armed claymation Shokan warrior (and the game's most iconic character). The Secret Character is Reptile, in a move that changed fighters forever- he was the first Secret guy in any Fighting Game, and after that, we'd see them in TONS.

Mortal Kombat II (1993)- The Ultimate Sequel:
-Not even two years after the original, Mortal Kombat II came out in Arcades, and was an even BIGGER smash than the first one was- it basically did everything sequels need to do: It took everything that the first one had, then improved on it. The digitized graphics went up several notches in quality. The costumes improved and got more colourful than the plain "this is what they had at K-Mart" qualities of the first one. The roster of seven got increased up to twelve, there were THREE Secret Characters, and the Boss from the first game was included as a regular character. Where every character only had one Fatality in the first, now you had TWO per guy. The first game had one Stage Fatality (The Pit, where you could Uppercut a guy onto the spikes), and this one had two (a new Pit, and an Acid stage). The number of Lin Kuei Klones was upped to FIVE. The Sub-Boss was upgraded from Goro to Kintaro (more colours; more spikes). And the Final Boss was bigger and badder than Tsung before him- Shao Kahn himself.

Hell, at later stages of the game (Arcade Cabinets were upgraded as often as computer games today- the sign of unfinished, rushed products that make me prefer Consoles... until they inevitably start/started to do the same thing), they included some REALLY goofy stuff, with "Friendships" (to "counter-act" the controversy surrounding the first game, they added some deliberately-goofy moves where you would make friends with your beaten opponent instead of killing him, like Johnny Cage giving him a signed photograph or something) and "Babalities" (turning them into a tiny infant).

Reviews were generally excellent in America and Europe, though the Japanese didn't like it so much, Famitsu (THE gaming magazine of the Orient) gave it middling 28/40 grades- after all, the basic game itself was unchanged, and all the fighters were still basically klones of each other. Of course, Famitsu only gives really good scores to Japanese-made games for the most part (the disconnect between U.S. & Japanese gaming was occuring even then, but is more pronounced now that Japanese games are noticeably suffering in popularity and funding). Nowadays, the game doesn't really "hold up" as well as the Capcom or SNK games do- the characters are limited to the same movesets as always, and some guys are REALLY cheap thanks to the way their moves work- Jax & Mileena were noticeably cheaper/better than other fighters, to the point where an MK Tournament is a silly prospect.

But in all, it was entertainment at its finest when you were twelve and wanted to see some horrific ultra-violence. The plot was increased to transport all the fighters to Outworld, where Tsung's boss Shao Kahn would kill them all and steal their souls. The roster upgrades were excellent- Sonya & Kano were dropped from the first game (so was Sub-Zero, but he got a replacement in his younger brother), and in their place was Reptile & Shang Tsung (brought to the full roster from MK I), Kitana & Mileena (palette-swap ladies- Kitana was the stepdaughter of Big Bad Shao Kahn, and Mileena was an evil clone-type), Jax (Sonya's partner, who's now looking for her), Baraka (an Outworld warrior) and Kung Lao (a heroic descendant of the man who was killed by Goro before the first tournament). The Secret Characters were all palette-swaps once again- Smoke (a grey smokey ninja) and Noob Saibot (a silhouette shadow ninja, named after the creators) were joined by Jade, a palette swap of Kitana/Mileena. The Bosses were Kintaro (a Shokan like Goro, but with tiger-stripes) and Shao Kahn, a huge Demon-God type of guy.

Fun Fact: This game actually made me my best friend in Middle & High School, as a kid named Jordan (whom I'd previously argued a bit with, as his friend was a kid who beat on my in gym class rather frequently) knew that I was into video games, and that I'd had a Strategy Guide from GamePlayers Magazine. He asked to have it, as he'd just purchased MK II, and I agreed- but in an uncharacteristic move, I abruptly asked if I could come play, too, and pretty much from then on I had a new buddy. Oddly, a lot of my friendships were made in a similar way- mutual interests causing me to break out of grumpy introversion once in a blue moon.

Mortal Kombat 3 (1995)- Bloody Disappointing:
-Mortal Kombat 3 was kind of seen as a disappointment when it first came out in its early modes. See, while the roster was upgraded, some VERY popular characters were missing (Raiden & Scorpion, namely, but also all of the Female Ninjas and Baraka), and the graphics and system were identical to MK II- it was just seen as "Bloody Disappointing" (to quote GamePlayers magazine). 3-D Fighters were becoming more and more popular as the '90s went on (Tekken, Toshinden & [/i]Virtua Fighter[/i] were all big names at the time), and the game was little more than a minor upgrade to what people were rapidly figuring out wasn't as great a game as they'd thought. It didn't help that the MK "fad" had hit its peak with MK II and the Feature Film that came out a while before. Fads are generally known to only be able to last for three years or so (looking back, Transformers, Dragon Ball Z, He-Man and pro wrestling were only mainstream popular for about three years and change), and this was basically it's "time" in the limelight.

I also thought the new characters REALLY, REALLY SUCKED. Dropping Raiden & Scorpion and giving us crapstain designs like Stryker & Nightwolf was pathetic, Sindel was uninspired, and when they just kept ADDING to the Lin Kuei Klones, things got really bad (a red guy and a purple guy? Really?). The new "Animalities" were goofy additions (though rumored since MK II- you turned into an animal to eat the other guy). Later upgrades turned into Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (which brought back Scorpion and the lady ninjas) and Mortal Kombat Trilogy and increased the roster (at the expense of having several glitches), but it was too little, too late. The sour feelings of the first releases kind of held over, and it was the end of the "big period" for the Mortal Kombat series- game magazines, which once heaped the 90% scores onto the series, were now rewarding all of Midway's efforts with 65-70% scores for what was basically an IMPROVED version of what came before. Such is life when you're no longer the hot new thing.

The plot was basically that Shao Kahn was pissed about losing the second tournament to Liu Kang (again, The Hero), and so used some goofy Plot Device to force his way into Earthrealm and take it over. And so Earth died, its souls harvested by Outworld and Kahn, which begs the question of just WHY KAHN DIDN'T DO THAT IN THE FREAKING FIRST PLACE instead of waiting hundreds of years, but these games were never that plot-intensive. So now Earth's few survivors are rebelling against Outworld, and the stakes have never been higher.

The Roster: Liu Kang, Kitana & Kung Lao are there to lead Earth's forces, alongside Sonya & Jax (Sonya having returned from MK I) to avenge the death of Johnny Cage (though he'd return by MK Trilogy) and stop Kahn. They add new characters Stryker (the sole New York City survivor, a cop), Nightwolf (Native Stereotype) and Kabal (guy injured by Kano's Black Dragons), and oppose Outworld's forces- Shang Tsung gets another chance, and then there's Mileena again, Sindel (Shao Kahn's queen with Medusa Hair), Sheeva (a FEMALE Shokan in a monokini) and Kano (returnd with Sonya and joined Outworld). The Lin Kuei are now going Cybernetic, creating palette-swap Cyber-Ninjas Sektor & Cyrax, and sending them after Sub-Zero, who's fleeing his old masters because he doesn't want to get Cyberized. His buddy Smoke has been involuntarily Cyberized, and there's ALSO old-school Lin Kuei designs like Scorpion & Reptile coming back, as well as Ermac & Noob Saibot. Kahn returns as the Final Boss, and his Sub-Boss is now the Centaur Motaro (also motion-captured like Goro & Kintaro were). Consoles added Chameleon (who could turn into male or female ninjas) & Rain (another Lin Kuei). Altogether, it's the biggest MK roster yet, dropping only Baraka and Raiden from the last game.

Mortal Kombat 4 (1997)- Shitty 3D Comes Home:
-The end of an era, as this game finally bit the 3-D bullet and went with polygonal graphic, which was inevitable- many actors from the earlier games had sued Midway for royalties, necessitating a new "cast" for MK 3, and digitized graphics looked like ass by 1997 anyways. Of course, early CGI stuff actually looks WORSE than any graphics you'd find on the Super NES or Genesis, as I've discovered in recent years (first-gen PlayStation games do NOT hold up, I tell you what).

Mortal Kombat 4 is different in a few other ways, too- there was a Weapons System introduced, arena objects can be used, and you can use each other's weapons. The plot is that Shinnok, an Elder God from another realm than Shao Kahn, has escaped with the help of the sorceror Quan Chi, and now he's after Earthrealm. The doomed & lamented Sega Dreamcast made Mortal Kombat Gold as a launch title, but it failed to help the console's chances (it failed for numerous reasons- a weaker set of launch games, no good Sonic game, and it was a bit too "Japanese" in concept for the Western market, and Sega horribly mishandled itself for YEARS surrounding its release)- it added six returning characters, but that was it. Despite the updates, MK Gold was considered rather mediocre (ESPECIALLY considering how 3-D fighters were packed with awesome titles at the time), getting middling 60-70% ratings from most sources. It was considered enough of a failure that it killed the franchise for about four years or so.

The returning characters are Liu Kang, Jax, Johnny Cage, Noob Saibot, Raiden, Reptile, Scorpion, Sonya & Sub-Zero, along with Goro from MK I (a long overdue move). They're joined by Fujin (Wind God ally of Raiden), Jarek (a Black Dragon member, replacing Kano), Kai (Liu's friend), Meat (a bloody skeleton), Reiko (Shinnok's general), Quan Chi, Tanya (a traitor to Kitana's realm of Edenia) and Shinnok (the Boss). This was the smallest roster in quite some time, though inevitable given the limits of technology in this era, and most of the new characters stink (something that would not really get fixed). MK Gold brought back Baraka, Kitana, Mileena, Kung Lao, Cyrax & Sektor.

Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance (2003)- A Bit of a Success:
-Another end of an era, as this game actually debuted ON THE CONSOLES, what with the death of the Arcade market and all. It changed a lot of Mortal Kombat, introducing the ability to switch between three fighting styles at-will (two martial arts and one weapon-based form), and now every character has unique "normal attacks". As a consequence of this and the better graphics, special moves are reduced to 4-6 per guy, and everyone only has ONE FATALITY (blasphemy!!!). The game proved fairly successful, reviving the dying franchise now becoming known for being not as good in retrospect, and for spawning bad side-games.

The Plot: Quan Chi has returned from Netherrealm after Scorpion threw him there in his ending from MK 4, and teams up with Shang Tsung to form a "Deadly Alliance" to bring back the Dragon King and kill the Earthream. Amazingly, they first kill LIU KANG AND SHAO KAHN, two of the biggest icons of the series, in order to "refresh" the franchise & villains. Raiden gives up his Godly Powers to join Earth's heroes and stop them.

The Roster: Raiden, Kung Lao, Johnny Cage, Kitana, Sub-Zero, Kano, Reptile, Scorpion, Jax, Sonya Blade & Cyrax return from prior games. New characters are Kenshi (a blind warrior), Bo' Rai Cho (a drunken master), Li Mei (Outworlder), Nitara (vampire), Frost (Lin Kuei girl ninja), Mavado & Hsu Hao (Red Dragons), and Drahim & Moloch (Oni from Netherrealm). Blaze (a fire elemental) and Mokap (a motion-capture-guy Joke Character) are Secret Characters, and Shang Tsung & Quan Chi are the bosses (you fight a different one based off of which character you're playing). A later Tournament Edition release saw Sektor, Noob Saibot and new character Sareena from the Sub-Zero solo game.

Mortal Kombat: Deception (2004)- Konsidered Actually Pretty Good:
-This game was more or less like Deadly Alliance, upping Fatalities back to two per guy and adding a Suicide move to avoid the enemy using a Fatality on you. There's a big "Konquest Mode" RPG game where you play Shujinko, a monk gathering items for the Big Bad. The Plot: The Dragon King mentioned in MK: DA is named as Onaga, and comes to conquer our realms after beating Raiden, Quan Chi & Shang Tsung. In fact, the Deadly Alliance WON the last fight, killing several characters! The game actually did really well (selling better than any other MK game, in fact- the increased size of the gaming community paying off), and won numerous awards, and got about the same reviews as MK: DA did, though the guy from Fighters Generation sure hates the series.

The Roster: Returning characters are Liu Kang (as a zombie!), Noob-Smoke (a merger of Noob & Smoke), Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Sonya, Kenshi, Ermac, Baraka, Mileena, Nightwolf, Kabal, Kenshi, Li Mei, Tanya, Raiden, Jade, Sindel, Goro & Shao Kahn. New characters include Ashrah (demon seeking redemption), Darrius & Hotaru (rival resistance leaders), Dairou (a mercenary out to kill Hotaru), Havik (wants to revive Shao Kahn), Kira & Kobra (new Black Dragons), and Shujinko (an old warrior deceived by Onaga to gather his Items of Power and now fights him). Mortal Kombat Unchained for the PSP added Blaze, Frost, Jax and Kitana, but with limited movesets (they're transplanted over from MK: DA).

* Weirdly, in this game there's three guys all caught up with each other's plots- Hotaru, Dairou & Havik. I guess they wanted to throw some new storylines out there.

Mortal Kombat: Armageddon (2006)- The Series Dies:
-The last in the official series, Armageddon drops one of the fighting styles from the previous two, and adds a Kreate-A-Fighter mode, but is mostly the same game. The story is a jumbled mess, basically involving Gods intervening because all the Kombatants are going to destroy the universe with their power or some junk. This is the final game in the original MK chronology, as it rebooted after this. And they REALLY knew this was the last game, because there are SIXTY-TWO FIGHTERS in this game (!!!). There are two new guys in Taven (the new Hero character) and Daegon (his evil brother), but everyone else is an old character- basically every fighter that has ever appeared in the series. Obviously, with this amount of characters there's no chance for any kind of game balance, but that was never really common to MK games anyways.

Mortal Kombat (2011)- The Series Revives:
-ahhhh the ninth Mortal Kombat game. Basically ignoring all the post-MK III titles for the most part (Raiden, suffering at the end of Armageddon, sends a message back in time to his past self, who tries to set the future right), it's a retelling of the first three games' stories- this game is basically an homage of everything that was crazy about the Mortal Kombat series. It's horribly bloody, full of gore and viscera, completely disgusting, and contains the most vulgar, slutty costumes ever seen on female characters. And it is BEAUTIFUL. It's like the weaponized version of everything I hated about the Image Era of comics, but turned so far to the over-the-top extreme that it goes all the way from "too much" to "awesome again". My friend had an MK Party with his co-workers and all their wives, and even THEY got into how silly it was- the ladies laughing at Mileena's ho-bag outfit and going "OOO-ooo-OOOHHHHH" with a stripper pose.

The game is sort of like the earlier ones (dropping the "Multiple Fighting Styles" and "Weapon Fighting" things that the 3D games had been known for), but with buttons linked to individual limbs (like Tekken) and a Super Meter that allows you to build points to unload a HORRIFICALLY violent shot that crushes your opponent's bones in an X-ray image (this clip was used on The Daily Show to shock the audience, and MAN did it work). The Fatalities were upgraded to be beyond bloody, with deaths including a crotch-first chainsawing and someone being yanked apart like a wishbone by two dudes (used on the same show, which shocked everyone AGAIN).

The roster is massive, taking pretty much everyone from the first three games, plus Cyber Sub-Zero, Quan Chi (from the 3-D series- their only representative here) and Kratos from God of War (which owes the MK series a tremendous, tremendous debt). There's even a full Story Mode, essentially adding bits of story to a bunch of fights where you play the good guys.

The game was a nostalgic hit, coming out at the right time and being at a perfect level of silly.

Mortal Kombat X (2015)- The Latest One:
-MK X, actually the tenth game in the series, is the last one released so far. An updated version, Mortal Kombat XL, was released the following year.

The Plot: Two years after the defeat of Shao Kahn, Shinnok (the Boss of the fourth game in the series, which if you'll remember, was rebooted) debuted with an army of Netherrealm demons and revenants made up of heroes who died in the last game's story. However, he was defeated thanks to the sudden super-powers of JOHNNY CAGE, and imprisoned. Twenty-five years go by, with, again, JOHNNY CAGE having married Sonya Blade and produced a daughter- tragically, the couple divorces.

Cassie Cage thus becomes our new Main Character, and various other characters have children, too- Jax's daughter Jacqui Briggs and Kenshi's daughter Takeda round out the roster, along with Kung Lao's cousin Kung Jin. The Emperor of Outworld is now Kotal Kahn, who has a peace treaty with Earthrealm... but he's engaged in a civil war with deposed Empress Mileena. An amulet containing Shinnok is our "Macguffin", as everyone fights over it- Mileena has it, but Kotal has her executed and claims it for himself, as he feels Earthrealm cannot be trusted to keep it safe. Finally, Kotal's second-in-command, D'Vorah, steals it. Shinnok is summoned, and only Cassie can defeat him, using the same powers once possessed by her father.

The Returning Cast includes Johnny Cage, Jax, Sonya Blade, Kano, Kung Lao, Raiden, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Mileena, Reptile, Kenshi, Ermac, Shinnok, Quan Chi, Goro, Tanya, Bo'Rai Cho, Liu Kang & Kitana. Legacy Characters are Cassie Cage, Jacqui Briggs, Takeda, Kung Jin & Kotal Kahn. Total newbies are D'Vorah (an Evil Vizier), Erron Black (a Earthrealm cowboy in Outworld), Tremor (Bronze Ninja), Triborg (a combination of Lin Kuei Cyborgs), and Ferra & Torr (a pair of symbiotic fighters that brawl as one). Expansion Packs add various characters from horror movies- Jason Voorhees, The Predator, a xenomorph (from Aliens) and Leatherface. A mobile game re-adds Baraka, Jade, Shao Kahn, Kintaro and then brings in Freddy Krueger.

Other Games:
-There are three additional games to the franchise that feature side-characters and side-quests. Mortal Kombat Mythologies- Sub-Zero (a digitized-actor side-scrolling fighter prequel), Shaolin Monks (Kung Lao & Liu Kang act out Mortal Kombat II) and Special Forces (Jax fights Kano's forces). All are generally considered pretty bad, with the latter being the worst. Let's just say that non-Fighting Games were not John Tobias' specialty. Mortal Kombat Versus DC Universe was controversial, in that it was a new MK game, but contained various strangeness like having goofy, less-bloody "Fatalities" and the usual problem involving DC games with multiple characters (ie. "Why did The Joker just kick Superman's Ass?"). A sequel, Injustice: Gods Among Us, came out in 2013, and Injustice 2 came out in 2017.

Other Media:
-There's a general rule out there that all Video Game Movies must suck. This is generally proven time and time again (anyone who suggests that Super Mario Bros. was a good movie needs to be kicked in the genitals, and the Street Fighter movie is so infamously bad that it's now enjoyed ONLY as a "So Bad It's Good" movie- a dying Raul Julia hams it up as Bison. And yet... the first Mortal Kombat movie is beautiful. Just stunning. Imagine Young 14-Year Old Jab sitting down in the theatre to await this strange movie... only to bear witness to "MORTAL KOMBAAAAAAAATT!!!" and the biggest, most raging techno soundtrack EVER combined with giant explosions, fire, and a bad-ass Dragon symbol flying around on screen. It was like a microcosm of everything that young teenagers like, combined into one sensory-overload of greatness. It combines cheesy acting (Christopher Lambert is AWFUL; there, I said it), kick-ass fights, real-looking impacts (instead of Expendables-style cut-aways from punches), special effects/CGI and awesome characters to make for a GREAT Martial Arts Movie.

What the first movie had in spades, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation lost- it was just new characters introduced one after the other (the first movie actually uses them perfectly- introduces some guys, gives 'em a few scenes, then kills them off at the hands of the main characters), to the point where Scorpion and Sub-Zero show up for ONLY ONE DAMN SCENE, Cyborgs are brought in to die in seconds, and Lin Kuei ninjas show up all over the place. The special effects didn't even hold up for the time, with Motaro looking like crap in particular. Just an awful mess. The movie made a profit (about twenty million dollars), but did poorly enough compared to the first film (a monster hit that made $122 million) that, combined with the failing of the franchise, made for no sequels.

There was even a short-lived TV Series, which I remember being kinda forgettable, but Mortal Kombat: Konquest has its fans.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Mon Nov 19, 2018 11:17 am, edited 1 time in total.
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squirrelly-sama
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Colossus! Cosmo! Cecilia Reyes! Cyclops!)

Post by squirrelly-sama »

Oh god yes.

I remember playing this as a kid, I didn't have the game or system myself but family members and friends did and I was able to play the game through them. I never figured out how to do the Fatalities but whenever one went off though some miracle of button mashing it was like christmas came early. I never even realized there was a story until years later when the hype died down due to over-saturation of uberviolent gaming, so post-GTA3.

I still remember those years, when the X-Treme and violence escalation of videogames started. First we had Sonic trying to be Mario's radical alternative, Then came Mortal Kombat and Wolfenstein 3D coming out about the same time, almost immediately after that we're seeing Doom. Soon we were getting Turok and it's increasingly bizarre sequels, Golden Eye where you go around shooting your friends in the face for several hours, Perfect dark where you go around shooting your friends in the face for several hours... But in the future!

Also, shame on you for not linking the Mortal Kombat theme. The lyrics are shit but god does that theme get you PUMPED! Like the musical equivalent to a shot of adrenaline. It starts of with some very scratchy synth noises and opens with the heavily filtered deep voice cooling chanting while the electric riff in the background begins and periodically just jumps in escalation as a new beat kicks in, before it hits it's climax with " MORTAL KOMBAT!" and kicks it into overdrive. The only theme song I can think that gets me more pumped is Dragon Ball Z's English op.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24695
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Re: Jab’s Builds (Colossus! Cosmo! Cecilia Reyes! Cyclops!)

Post by Jabroniville »

squirrelly-sama wrote: Mon Nov 19, 2018 10:13 am Oh god yes.
Also, shame on you for not linking the Mortal Kombat theme. The lyrics are shit but god does that theme get you PUMPED! Like the musical equivalent to a shot of adrenaline. It starts of with some very scratchy synth noises and opens with the heavily filtered deep voice cooling chanting while the electric riff in the background begins and periodically just jumps in escalation as a new beat kicks in, before it hits it's climax with " MORTAL KOMBAT!" and kicks it into overdrive. The only theme song I can think that gets me more pumped is Dragon Ball Z's English op.
Hahahah, fixed :).

Mortal Kombat and Night Trap are two of the most important games in history- responsible for the ESRB and an entire generational shift in gaming.
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