The Gorby Congressmanz
Banned
During the Xbox/PS2/GC/End of DC time frame, fighting games were in a rut. Even though most fighting games before were sort of niche in comparison to other genres outside the big boys (MK, SF, TK) other games used to sell modestly and score decent, but during this time sales were low, interest was low, and a lack of content and lower scores than usual for franchises were abundant.
But then Mortal Kombat comes in, after a mixed reception but still well selling MK4, Mortal Kombat had a refresh with Deadly Alliance, a game that shook up the gaming kommunity and one of the first major game franchises to to kill off it's long running protagonist, at the start of the game. Everything was new from the mechanics, the design goals, the content, the technology, it wowed everyone.
While not perfect, Deadly Alliance was a smash hit selling 3.5 million copies, followed by MK Deception, which was then the fastest selling MK game of all time reaching klose to 3 million, with a 1-2 million selling MK Armageddon in 2006.
Meanwhile, recent big new 3D franchise Tekken from the gen before had a bit of a negative reaction to the first Tekken Tag Tournament that released in the PS2's launch window, but was swept under the rug since Tekken 4 was expected to be the "real" Tekken release, and that didn't end up panning out as not only as the creators said, Tekken 4 failed to attract an audience but it had issues that annoyed core players. Also at this time, Street Fighter, which had been struggling to stay Relevant since the late 90's with SFEX and SFIII and friends, was even more irrelevant during this time frame. Niche franchises that weren't big but could sell modestly were all selling worse across the board.
Even in Japan a major decline was present, big series that would sell over 1 million like Tekken or VF sold half of that or less, niche fighters were also in decline just like everywhere else. Fighters were in turmoil in japan during these years, but that's another issue.
There were only three major exceptions to this downturn (outside Japan):
1. The turnaround for Tekken with Tekken 5, which in 2005 as the new generation was approaching, managed to bring Tekken back from decline with high sales on console. One could argue the rising interest in fighters due to the reach of the MK series with DA and Deception helped give Tekken that revival boost.
2. Soul Calibur II, which was a major graphical showcase release. it also attracted consumers with its guest characters, like Link from the Legend of Zelda for the GameCube version.
3. The first Dragon Ball Z Budakai which did great, and then had an immediately drop in sales that would continue across the DBZ fighting games during this era.
Also I guess despite the frontloaded launch novelty, Dead or Alive 3 could technically also count for a very short time frame.
But as the years went on Mortal Kombat was the franchise that kept everything a float, keeping fighting games viable and helping Tekken revive so it too could eventually also help in keeping fighting games a float. It's also had one of the earliest fighting games to go online during this era of consoles which likely helped in Mk's appeal.
Ending with Armageddon, the momentum would go into the close to 3 million selling MK vs. DC universe, mixed reception aside, which would help set the playing field for Street Fighter IV to finally bring back SF after 12 years of irrelevance, and while Tekken 6 took a significant sales dive over 5, it still sold over 3 million copies and helped also to set the stage for SFIV. But most importantly was MK vs. DC setting the stage for MK9 which would lead into a massive sales juggernaut for the series with a new 3 game HD trilogy.
People, mostly weeaboo's that never played the games or barely played them, but with some reasonable exceptions, like to bash on the Mortal Kombat games of this time, but without them the fighting game scene may have taken even longer to recover, or not have. Especially for those who like kontent in their games as well as decent SP content, which for some reason Japanese developers decided to drop or tack on as an after thought despite the improvements that were being seen during this time, once things started to turn around they basically just dropped these features for some reason. Maybe it's the FGC fault.
Mortal Kombat Deception is the most popular of the 3 major MK fighting games during this time, with it having the best balance and mechanical gameplay of the 3, online play, and a massive SP adventure/fighting hybrid campaign that may still have the most kontent of any fighting game in existence with all the bonuses and goodies you can find in the crypt and the overworld during the SP adventure.
Thank you Mortal Kombat for saving fighting games with your more than competent 3D fighting games that outside maybe Armageddon, are solid to play and are mechanically sound. Also fun, that's important, fun. Along with having hours and hours of kontent.
But then Mortal Kombat comes in, after a mixed reception but still well selling MK4, Mortal Kombat had a refresh with Deadly Alliance, a game that shook up the gaming kommunity and one of the first major game franchises to to kill off it's long running protagonist, at the start of the game. Everything was new from the mechanics, the design goals, the content, the technology, it wowed everyone.
While not perfect, Deadly Alliance was a smash hit selling 3.5 million copies, followed by MK Deception, which was then the fastest selling MK game of all time reaching klose to 3 million, with a 1-2 million selling MK Armageddon in 2006.
Meanwhile, recent big new 3D franchise Tekken from the gen before had a bit of a negative reaction to the first Tekken Tag Tournament that released in the PS2's launch window, but was swept under the rug since Tekken 4 was expected to be the "real" Tekken release, and that didn't end up panning out as not only as the creators said, Tekken 4 failed to attract an audience but it had issues that annoyed core players. Also at this time, Street Fighter, which had been struggling to stay Relevant since the late 90's with SFEX and SFIII and friends, was even more irrelevant during this time frame. Niche franchises that weren't big but could sell modestly were all selling worse across the board.
Even in Japan a major decline was present, big series that would sell over 1 million like Tekken or VF sold half of that or less, niche fighters were also in decline just like everywhere else. Fighters were in turmoil in japan during these years, but that's another issue.
There were only three major exceptions to this downturn (outside Japan):
1. The turnaround for Tekken with Tekken 5, which in 2005 as the new generation was approaching, managed to bring Tekken back from decline with high sales on console. One could argue the rising interest in fighters due to the reach of the MK series with DA and Deception helped give Tekken that revival boost.
2. Soul Calibur II, which was a major graphical showcase release. it also attracted consumers with its guest characters, like Link from the Legend of Zelda for the GameCube version.
3. The first Dragon Ball Z Budakai which did great, and then had an immediately drop in sales that would continue across the DBZ fighting games during this era.
Also I guess despite the frontloaded launch novelty, Dead or Alive 3 could technically also count for a very short time frame.
But as the years went on Mortal Kombat was the franchise that kept everything a float, keeping fighting games viable and helping Tekken revive so it too could eventually also help in keeping fighting games a float. It's also had one of the earliest fighting games to go online during this era of consoles which likely helped in Mk's appeal.
Ending with Armageddon, the momentum would go into the close to 3 million selling MK vs. DC universe, mixed reception aside, which would help set the playing field for Street Fighter IV to finally bring back SF after 12 years of irrelevance, and while Tekken 6 took a significant sales dive over 5, it still sold over 3 million copies and helped also to set the stage for SFIV. But most importantly was MK vs. DC setting the stage for MK9 which would lead into a massive sales juggernaut for the series with a new 3 game HD trilogy.
People, mostly weeaboo's that never played the games or barely played them, but with some reasonable exceptions, like to bash on the Mortal Kombat games of this time, but without them the fighting game scene may have taken even longer to recover, or not have. Especially for those who like kontent in their games as well as decent SP content, which for some reason Japanese developers decided to drop or tack on as an after thought despite the improvements that were being seen during this time, once things started to turn around they basically just dropped these features for some reason. Maybe it's the FGC fault.
Mortal Kombat Deception is the most popular of the 3 major MK fighting games during this time, with it having the best balance and mechanical gameplay of the 3, online play, and a massive SP adventure/fighting hybrid campaign that may still have the most kontent of any fighting game in existence with all the bonuses and goodies you can find in the crypt and the overworld during the SP adventure.
Thank you Mortal Kombat for saving fighting games with your more than competent 3D fighting games that outside maybe Armageddon, are solid to play and are mechanically sound. Also fun, that's important, fun. Along with having hours and hours of kontent.
