Mortal Kombat X/YMMV

• Big Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • Mileena's facial redesign is a very drastic change for her character, and one would think that with her previous obsession with her looks, that this would have been explained or at least glossed over in pre-fight banter. It's never brought up at all.
  • Some of the variations can come off as this, since they give characters unusual powers that they've never had, and aren't explained. Special mention goes to Kenshi, whose "Possessed" variation comes completely out of left field. He even uses it during a match in Story Mode for no reason whatsoever.
• Character Rerailment: After the previous game brought Scorpion's rivalry with Sub-Zero back with a vengeance, this game sees Hanzo burying the hatchet with Sub-Zero, with the two actually having an almost friendly conversation. The fact that Hanzo finally sees some closure with his vengeance against Quan Chi also helps.
• Crack Pairing: Kung Jin and Erron Black apparently has a huge following on Tumblr despite only a handful of interactions within canon (all of which provide zero tension).
• Fandom Rivalry: With Street Fighter V and Killer Instinct due to all having similar DLC update models and Mortal Kombat X and Killer Instinct both launching updates within a month of Street Fighter V's release. This has gotten to the point that both Mortal Kombat X and Killer Instinct can often be found getting dissed in online comments by Street Fighter fans, much to the chagrin of both games' fans.
• Fanfic Fuel:
  • Plenty of pre-match dialogue exchanges present scenarios that aren't explored in the main storyline, but provide just enough meat to envision an Alternate Continuity where the setup and consequences of said bout can exist.
  • Erron seems to get hit with this hard, since he's older than he appears, and he's got the whole mysterious vibe going for him.
  • The Arcade endings provide scenarios for all sorts of post-Story Mode tales.
    • Even The Stinger at the end of Mortal Kombat X could provide scenarios for possible events, such as Raiden (who's now corrupted) going after a battered Outworld and Kotal Kahn trying to stop him, and with Liu Kang plotting to conquer other realms.
  • Cassie's team is also rife with it. Interactions range from Cassie's ordinary life aside of the Special Forces, Jacqui and Takeda's relationship and Kung Jin's homosexuality issues. Their past missions in Darfur, Iran and Kurdistan also have potential.
  • As nothing specific is given for Kotal Kahn usurping Mileena's throne aside from her refusal to ally with Earthrealm, a full behinds-the-scenes look/extrapolation of her allegedly troubled reign could justify or vilify either side.
• Genius Bonus: Does Tanya and Kung Lao's intro dialogue sound familiar? It should: it's a modified version of the famous "Do you bite your thumb at me" exchange from Romeo and Juliet!
• "Holy Shit!" Quotient: More or less every single DLC character reveal, particularly the Guest Fighters.
• Internet Backdraft:
  • The Season Pass was met with much derision by fans, with many pointing out that for thirty dollars, you were getting a whopping four characters, plus several costumes. This was so negatively received, some fans have bluntly said they'll wait for the game to go down in price or for it to be inevitably compiled with the base game in a Game of the Year Edition.
  • The fact that the PC version has essentially been abandoned, and is not receiving the Kombat Pack 2 or Game of the Year Edition with improved netcode has understandably led many PC players to be angry at the developers.
    • The anger has subsided some with the release of the MKXL Enhanced Online Beta for PC, meaning the PC version is finally getting the kontent console players had for months.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: There is a group of fans who feel this about fatalities, as they are still inputted excatly like they were 20 years ago and that they've either become too boring and/or pointlessey gory for the sake of being gory. These guys tend to prefer brutalities over fatalities, since they are activated in a more modern and challenging way and don't slow down the game, and there being no closeups or slowdowns makes them look all the more more shocking when used to finish a game (especially online) since their combo integration can cause them to come out of nowhere.
• Most Annoying Sound:
  • Cassie's screams of pain.
  • Ferra's voice in general can be grating to many.
  • Jason's machete noises can come across as this for those who don't consider it a Most Wonderful Sound.
• Most Wonderful Sound: Tanya's Kobu Jutsu combos sound like musical chimes when she performs them.
  • Triborg's synthetic voice has gotten a large amount of praise for being intimidating and and badass.
• No Yay:
  • Much of Kano's pre-fight dialogue with Cassie is flirty and suggestive. The problem with this is that he's a criminal sleazebag in his 50s, while Cassie is the daughter of his worst enemy and barely in her 20s.
  • Leatherface's attraction to Cassie in his Arcade ending goes into this due his killing of her friends and family. Him killing her and wearing her face like a mask? Even more so.
• Porting Disaster:
  • The PC version at launch did not fully download for 8 hours after launch, even then, online and Story Mode were unplayable as were Scorpion, Sub-Zero, and Goro until a Day 2 patch. The PC version still suffers from poor optimization on the Sky Temple Stage even after a 15GB patch intended to fix that issue and periodically crashes during load screens and in the Krypt. There are also artifacts which appear as text in other languages when scrolling through menus. All of this and the PC version still being 2-3 patches behind the console versions understandably has people pretty miffed. Making matters worse was the announcement that Kombat Pack 2 and Mortal Kombat XL would be for PS4 and Xbox One only and that PC users won't be getting the updated rollback netcode for online play, effectively rendering the game worthless from a competitive and playability standpoint.
    • Though it now looks like PC will finally be getting Kombat Pack 2 and all the other stuff console players have had for months, with the release of MKXL Enhanced Online Beta for PC.
    • Averted as of the October patch. The PC port now has good optimisation, is up to date with the console versions, has stable netcode, and finally has access to all of the DLC.
  • The PS3 and Xbox 360 versions were cancelled apparently because they felt they couldn't avert this.
• Scrappy Mechanic: There's a lot of extra content on the console games that can only be obtained by playing the mobile version of the game. Thankfully, the app is free and has been updated to the point that you only need to install and run it once to get all the console goodies, but it's a very large and resource-heavy game that needs a relatively powerful device to play. Don't have a gadget capable of running the mobile game? Welp, sucks for you then because you're never unlocking those extras without it... they're not included with the Updated Rerelease, and there isn't even a "Just let me have the stuff, Goddamnit!" option to buy them as paid DLC.
• Unexpected Character:
  • Due to being extraterrestrial in nature, rather than supernatural, the Predator's inclusion on the roster was very surprising.
  • While a lot of players at least expected Smoke reappearing as DLC, if not all the robots, many were not expecting Cyber Sub-Zero to be included.
  • Double subverted and downplayed. While the Xenomorph was expected, nobody expected it to be a Tarkatan hybrid.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: A military general (Kotal Kahn) throws a coup in a foreign land, rules it with an iron fist, and is in a brutal civil conflict with rebels. Earthrealm looks the other way and has a secret peace accord with said dictator since the alternative may be worse. The analogies with many Middle Eastern and South American countries and their relationship with the West is certainly reflected here.
• WTH Costuming Department:
  • Infrared Scorpion is widely disliked for being highly unpleasant to look at.
  • Much like Injustice, while some alternate palettes are easy to distinguish, some, like Liu Kang's Tournament and Dark Emperor costumes, are questionable due to being barely different from the defaults.
  • Gold Scorpion's alternate palette is a rather silly mustard yellow coloration.

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