I read it as a kid in the 90s. Remember actually really liking it. The beginning described a sort of mythological cosmogenesis and I vaguely recall there being a description of how Lin Kuei warriors trained.
>>24693080I read it. I remember that Scorpion was actually possessing the body of his son because a canal god got pissed that Sub Zero dumped his corpse in his waters.
Well, it's on Anna's, so fuck it, I'll download it and give it a shot.
>>24693085That's what I love about old MK media. I think this book came out even before MK3 so hardly anything was established and it could just make shit up on the fly. Same as those weird comics.
>>24693110To wit:>Kung Lao arrived on foot the night before Mortal Kombat was to begin. He had made the journey thirteen times, and knew the roads well – though he found it more tiring this time to keep up the pace. He knew why: it wasn't that he was older, for the victor of Mortal Kombat did not age for the intervening year, and Kung Lao had not aged for a dozen years plus one. He experienced this unusual fatigue because he had left his amulet behind. That did not bode well for the contest ahead, though Kung Lao resolved to fight harder than ever against mostly familiar adversaries, all of whom were older than ever.That's actually a wild idea: The winner of the tournament could effectively stay young forever so long as they keep winning.
Neat canonical difference in this book: Shang Tsung has to kill specific kinds of people to open the portal between Mother Realm (aka Earthrealm) and Outworld; the tradition of winning ten Mortal Kombats in a row to allow Outworld's invasion isn't mentioned at all.
>>24693122Yeah, he was more of an alchemist than a sorcerer in the book. I legit think that the new MK1 used this interpretation as a basis for their Shang Tsung.
Just finished with Part One of the book. Not bad. I appreciate that it was effectively both worldbuilding for the tournament and a character study of the first Kung Lao.
>"That's Kano," said Shang Tsung, "a living overstatement. And you vowed to find him. How almost unbearably touching."Reading Shang's lines in Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa's voice makes this book so much better.
So…that was a decent little hour-killer of a read. I wouldn't recommend it as anything other than a curiosity of what MK lore possibly could've been if not for the movie.
>>24693080They could use some of that 90's novel magic today, their current lore just seems to be ripping off Marvel and the superhero multiverse with multiple versions and realities colliding.
>>24693909As a longtime MK fan, I think the series needs to return to its darker tone and East Asian aesthetic that games like Deception and MK2 had. Aping Marvel films and catering to competitive black streamers is taking the series in an absolutely terrible place lore wise. I say “dark” but still dark with a sense of humor. Older MKs were always tongue in cheek about certain stuff, and the games should always follow what a 13 year old boy thinks is cool
>>24693916>Older MKs were always tongue in cheek about certain stuff, and the games should always follow what a 13 year old boy thinks is coolYeah. The NRS games are way too try hard with the violence, and not in a charming 13-year old edgelord way but in a genuinely fucked up way. Aping capeshit is retarded too, kung-fu films work just fine as a source.
>>24693916Good writing and lore is needed to keep the franchise going just as much as gameplay mechanics, the writers seem exhausted, I caught Liu Kang ripping off MLK in the Chaos reigns expansion for MK1>LK: "The arc of history bends towards justice">MLK: “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”They should just turn it over to a fan like you.
>>24693932I’m not an amazing writer, but I do think I could write a great story for an MK game. It needs the touch of a fan.
>>24693909>games should always follow what a 13 year old boy thinks is coolThe funniest (maybe true) piece of writing advice I ever read was:Write a movie that you and your friend would be pumped about going to go see only based on the description on a Saturday night.
>>24693925The problem with MK and violence is that MK made extreme violence such a part of the brand that NRS trying to do an MK game without the extreme violence will piss off the fans. I personally believe they take out Fatalities (and the extra post-match time) and stick with Brutalities as end-match killshots instead - it would probably be easier on the devs who have to make that shit, too.Part of the reason the first MK film succeeded so much was because it focused less on the extreme violence and more on the characters (and because it ripped off Enter The Dragon, but in a good way). Now the games are so up their ass with their lore, and not even a complete timeline reboot - that is still front-loaded for MK fans - could save it.They really do need to remake MK from first principles.
>>24694515With character specific intros and the like, the violence has become a hinderance more than anything. NRSfags hate hearing this, but it really is retarded to have an intro imply a friendly slarring match only to end in brutal, explicit murder. Most fighting games don't end with actual, explicit death.>Part of the reason the first MK film succeeded so much was because it focused less on the extreme violence and more on the charactersCompare that to the recent movie and the quality is night and day. The 2021 movie is up its own ass trying to explain shit no one cares about and giving out cringy game references by having characters say round calls for no fucking reason while the 95 movie just wants to be a fun martial arts flick.
>>24695674It's almost like when MK sticks closer to its roots as an homage to old-school martial arts flicks, the better it gets.Also:>the violence has become a hinderance more than anythingIt's all the game really has any more besides the lore - and the lore got so stuffed and shitty that they literally rebooted the timeline, and it still didn't make things any better. Instead of doing a whole shitty thing where the story mode is a couple of minutes of exposition followed by a fight before repeating the cycle, they should just make a fucking two- to three- hour movie/a six-episode "miniseries" with the in-game models and let people watch it. (Nobody wants to hear it, but interrupting the story with in-game fights is stupid as fuck.) Single-player content can always be like the old-school towers and shit.And like I said earlier, get rid of Fatalities and just stick with Brutalities instead. It would let people get right to a rematch like SF6 and Tekken 8 do when a full fight ends there.
>>24695695>interrupting the story with in-game fights is stupid as fuckSay what you will about nu-ArcSys, but at least they figured this shit out and left out in game fights in Guilty Gear's story modes from Xrd onwards. The NRS method of having cutscenes transition into fights is just a parler trick.
>>24695717And it isn't a particularly good trick, at that.
>>24694515MK film succeeded because of this songhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbrTXb9Nvug
>>24695761That song was from a promotional CD for the first game, but yeah, the soundtrack to '95 kicked ass. Johnny Cage vs Scorpion to Fear Factory was kino few movies have matched.
>>24695769The track for Liu Kang vs. Reptile was fucking great, too.
I read Shakespeare’s Coriolanus and the bitter blood feud between Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus and Tullus Aufidius, reminded me of Subzero VS Scorpion, none of my friends knew what I meant, but glad I could share it on /LIT/.
>>24695861Are your friends old boomers or are they just snobs?
>>24695868My gamer friends didn't read. My love of fighting games, Shakespeare and retro techno never collided before this thread
