NetherRealm Studios, the new developers of Mortal Kombat as well as DC fighting games Injustice: Gods Among Us and its recent sequel Injustice 2, have garnered a whole lot of praise for their shake-up of the story mode formula within the fighting game genre. Deservedly so! For years now we have seen a distinct lack of meaningful gameplay in fighting games outside of online vs modes and indeed this is usually the only mode even included alongside arcade.

So when finally in 2011, Mortal Kombat managed to weave an engaging story between its gameplay which was continued in all of NetherRealms preceding games, it is right that the developer should receive lots and lots of praise. However, as good as this improvement is within the genre, it’s still not good enough. Because if we look back at the most feature rich fighters of all time we find that NetherRealm’s formula is tiny in scope compared to some brilliant features and gameplay systems that seem to be taken for granted nowadays.

First let’s take a look at the way story is delivered to the player. While I enjoyed the story of Injustice, the way it was told could not have done less to create player agency. The game is essentially played out as one long cutscene interrupted by fights. If you lose a fight, you simply try again until you win. It’s easy to see from the new Marvel vs Capcom trailer that its story mode will be played out very similarly and I’m sure others will try it out too. The problem is, I’m not sure whether this will turn out to stimulate the genre or stagnate it. Injustice 2 did pretty much the bare minimum to improve this system, including a choice between the two main endings depending on which characters you choose to use during the story. 

In 1999 Soulcalibur delivered a far deeper story, not through cutscenes but by a novel’s worth of really engaging text. This, supported by the world map allowing for any number of branching paths. Soulcalibur II took it further and added pen & paper style dungeons with hundreds of unique encounters, not least of all the introduction of stage traps like quicksand, poison and gusts of wind, blowing characters around the stage. While Soulcalibur III’s story mode was a step back, the added game mode ‘Chronicles of the Sword’ more than made up for it with an expansive character creator, it’s own separate storyline and tower defense game mechanics. You see, these games didn’t just add one or two mechanics and call it a day, the developers of the time went out of their way to give the players as much value for their money as possible.

Another game for the PS2 which could have stood as the inspiration for many innovations in fighting games is Mortal Kombat: Deception. This game has a single player campaign where you can use the fighting styles of the main Mortal Kombat characters to guide a new character through an RPG style quest. All the while collecting currency to receive the games’ hundreds upon hundreds of unlockables which now would be put behind a paywall instead, rather than rewarding the player for playing and mastering the game. Chronicles of the Sword also used the idea of using the main character’s fighting style for a created character and it works really well for telling an original story within an already established series.

Even the PS1 had some engaging fighting games that brought creative ideas to the table. Shaolin used many mechanics that are now used in modern survival games like day/night cycles and eating to restore health. You could play a male or female character who would actually age as the game went on and both of these things affected the conversations had with other characters.

...and there’s even more!

How about Tobal No.1 or Eirgeiz’s quest modes which would easily lend themselves to the popular roguelite genre and would be really interesting with some sort of procedurally generated dungeon design. Then there’s Dissidia: Final Fantasy with it’s strategic chess style dungeon design, not to mention Dissidia has possibly the most in depth character customisation system ever with thousands of different combinations of armour and weapons but still, these things don’t compromise on the skill required to win by mastering one of its many varied characters.

While Mortal Kombat: Deception & Shaolin’s RPG gameplay might seem very dated by today's standards, imagine what developers could achieve if they attempted the same thing nowadays. I’m sure with something like Street Fighter for example it would be possible to achieve true player agency in a single player story mode whilst still maintaining the integrity of its fighting mechanics. I mean bloody hell, it’s a fighting system that was pretty much perfected in the early 90s, There’s now time to be invested in other areas of the game rather than essentially re-making the same game over and over.

Which brings me back to Injustice which, however much you dress it up, is a re-skinned Mortal Kombat. It has the same button combos, the same feel and speed, again, these are systems that are already in place. It’s time to expand our ideas a little. The first Injustice’s idea of thinking outside the box was to occasionally add little quick time events to certain cutscenes and these come across as dumb and lazy.

Since the PS3 generation began I have fallen into the trap several times of expecting fighting games to live up to the expectations laid down by the earlier generations. Modern fighting games have continually failed to offer fans the bang for their buck that we’ve seen in past generations but I hope soon there will be a fighter that breaks the mould enough that others will have to follow suit.