Quick Notice – New Site (I’ve Moved)

 

Attention to anyone who has been reading my posts so far on Blogger, however many of you there may be. I have good news and bad news. The bad news is this will be my last post here on Blogger and I will no longer be posting any new articles to this site. The good news is, that is because I have moved to a new platform.

I have recently created a Wordpress site called DCH Writing, which I believe will grant me more visibility online, allow me to learn a new skill that more companies are seeking by working with an in-demand program, and potentially monetize the articles I publish there, which I was unable to do on Blogger. I will still create the kinds of articles I have been posting on DCH Pop Culture, as well as some new kinds of articles and potentially more things in the future, but from now on, they will be posted there. 

As for this blog, unless circumstances dictate otherwise, I will let it continue to stay up, partially because I am in the process of revamping some of my older articles for this new site, but mostly to serve as a time capsule for some of my older work. I know some people are into looking back on things they enjoyed previously.

https://dchwriting.com/ 

Here is the link to my new site, which has already launched, with new articles guaranteed to post every Saturday (and possibly more on other days as I get more of a routine going).

I hope this didn’t come across as somber. This is not a farewell. This is a “see you at my new place down the street.”

As always, thanks for coming!

Guest Characters in a Future Mortal Kombat Game

Especially in the past few years, guest characters and crossovers in fighting games have proven themselves to be effective attention grabbers for both the fighting game series and the property being featured in it. The gory, M-rated fighting series Mortal Kombat has been one of the most prominent examples of including guest characters, from comics to movies to other video games. With the most recent game including Spawn, The Joker, the Terminator, and Robocop, it could be reasoned that guest characters for the series is a trend to stay and some could wonder what other characters could make it in.

For this article, I’ll discuss different characters that could have a chance at making it into a future Mortal Kombat title. This article will be split into three different sections – one for characters from Midway (Mortal Kombat’s former publisher before Warner Bros.), one for characters from other major publishers, and one for characters from multimedia sources. Just a couple of rules for this list: only one character per series, company, or medium for each section respectively and, to stay within the tone of Mortal Kombat, only Mature/R-rated or Teen/PG-13 rated franchises will be considered.

Here are my picks for Guest Characters in a future Mortal Kombat game.

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Part 1 – Midway Characters

When it comes to fighting games from Midway, most people only think of Mortal Kombat, but the studio did experiment with a few other series, especially as 3D fighting games started getting popular. Three games that they created during this period were the fantasy/sci-fi mashup War Gods, the post-apocalyptic sci-fi fighter Bio F.R.E.A.K.S., and the medieval weapon-based fighter Mace: The Dark Age. While they gained cult followings years later, at the time, they were largely ignored because of more popular contenders, most notably Namco’s 3D fighting series, Tekken. Featuring characters from these games as guests in a Mortal Kombat title could be a good way to reintroduce these games to the public.

Voodoo (War Gods)

Ssapo (Bio F.R.E.A.K.S.)

Lord Deimos (Mace: The Dark Age)

These three characters were chosen as they have become some of the most popular with fans over time. Seeing them reappear over others from these franchises would be a treat for old fans and create curiosity for new players, potentially prompting for more content or even series revivals if handled well.

Part 2 – Other Gaming Characters

With the inclusion of Kratos as a PlayStation exclusive character in Mortal Kombat 9, it’s been shown that the series can accommodate characters from other video games as well as version-exclusive characters. While cross-promoting other studios can be a benefit to both parties, version-exclusive fighters can sweeten the deal in a different way, by giving extra attention to players who prefer a specific platform. While I could name just about any publisher for this section, I’ll limit it to companies that either have their own game platform or their own major fighting game series.

Microsoft – Black Orchid (Killer Instinct)

Sony – Needles Kane (Twisted Metal)

Nintendo – Ridley (Metroid)

PC/Valve – Pudge (DOTA 2)

These first four could potentially be the version exclusives. While Marcus Fenix from Gears of War was originally planned as a fighter for Mortal Kombat 9, Black Orchid being an iconic character from an M-rated fighting series that features Fatality-like finishing moves may make her a better fit. Since Kratos has already been featured in a Mortal Kombat game, Needles Kane from Twisted Metal could be another Sony candidate for the franchise.

(They’ve already had one killer clown.)

While Nintendo may have more of an image as the family-friendly (some might even say “kiddie”) company, they do have their share of characters that can fit a more mature universe. One of these being Ridley from Metroid, fresh from his first fighting game appearance in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, as the main villain of a T-rated action sci-fi series. (Plus, no way Nintendo would put any heroic characters in a game like this.) For a potential PC version, we turn to Valve, one of the biggest companies in the PC gaming space, to include Pudge from DOTA 2, one of the most well-known characters from one of their biggest series.

Bandai Namco – Nightmare (Soul Calibur)

Capcom – Akuma (Street Fighter)

Konami – Stun (Bloody Roar)

Sega – Midnight (Eternal Champions)

These four companies all have fighting game series or characters that could mesh well with Mortal Kombat. One could easily imagine Nightmare from Soul Calibur hacking off limbs or burning opponents with demon fire. Stun from Konami’s Bloody Roar could feature a Beast Form transformation mechanic to give him a unique mechanic. Midnight, the vampiric scientist from Sega’s obscure, mature fighting series Eternal Champions, is a good fit for the series that could help revive a dormant Sega franchise. Finally, fans have been waiting for a crossover between Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat for a long time, but while most of SF’s characters aren’t a good fit for this bloody series, Akuma is probably one of the few that are.

Part 3 – Multimedia Characters

Perhaps the wildest area of speculation for a Mortal Kombat game. Having pulled characters from different corners of mainstream media, there are so many possibilities of characters to use in these slots. We’ll limit these to one character per medium.

Movies – Michael Myers (Halloween)

With the inclusions of Freddy Krueger in MK9 and Jason Voorhees, Leatherface, Alien, and Predator in MKX, fans have wanted Michael Myers to make an appearance in the series. The developers can take the approach they did with Jason and take inspiration from trends in the Halloween movies to create his moveset.

TV – Buffy Summers (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

One of the most iconic horror TV characters and heroic horror characters, Buffy Summers can easily be imagined in supernatural battle with the MK characters with different weapons and maybe even help from her allies. She could even have interesting interactions with the undead/supernatural characters in the cast or other young fighters like Cassie or Jacqui.

Comics – Hellboy (Hellboy)

After Spawn, one of the biggest comic book characters from a dark series that could crossover with Mortal Kombat would probably be Hellboy. Armed with guns, gadgets, and his demonic lineage, he would fit in well with several of this cast.

Cartoons – Mumm-Ra (Thundercats)

Did you know Warner Bros. owned the rights to Thundercats? This could potentially make it easy for the series villain to make a guest appearance. He could be written as trying to take over and expand his influence and his powerful magic would make him a strong opponent.

Anime – Seras Victoria (Hellsing)

One of the most well-known horror anime series with a reputation for bloody violence, some might argue that Alucard would be a better fit for a Mortal Kombat appearance, as the main character of the series. However, Seras Victoria may be more fitting as she can be shown as powerful without being too powerful.

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What did you think of this article? What characters do you think would make good guest fighters in Mortal Kombat? Make yourself heard in the comments below.

Thanks for coming!

Super Roster Maker - Nintendo vs. Sega

The rivalry between Nintendo and Sega is a classic part of the video game industry’s history. While today, Nintendo could be seen as the victor of the old-school console wars, with Sega having bowed out to become a third-party developer, back in the 8 and 16-bit era, Nintendo and Sega ruled the gaming landscape. Since then, games like Super Smash Bros., Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, and Project X Zone have mixed together characters from both companies, but fans still speculate about seeing an equal crossover between these once bitter rivals.

That is the basis of this Super Roster Maker, Nintendo vs. Sega.

We will be creating a hypothetical fighting game roster with an equal number of characters from both Nintendo and Sega. I will be following the template I used for some of my other Super Roster Maker articles to create the roster here. Aside from that, there will be a maximum of only four characters per franchise, so no one series makes up the bulk of one side’s roster. (Looking at you two, Mario and Sonic.)

PART 1: THE ICONS

In this part, I will choose a small number of characters for each side that represent both companies, as an example of their current image in the gaming landscape.

Nintendo’s picks are:

Mario (Super Mario), Link (The Legend of Zelda), & Charizard (Pokemon)

For Nintendo’s Icons, these three franchises are some of Nintendo’s highest earning series and for many people, there are the first series that come to mind when people think of Nintendo. Mario and Link may not need much explanation, but Charizard was chosen for Pokemon over the series mascot Pikachu as Charizard is at a comparable size to a normal person, which a good deal of the roster is going to be. Pikachu being canonically small may need some a work-around to be viable in a setting like this.

Sega’s picks are:

Sonic (Sonic the Hedgehog), Bayonetta (Bayonetta), & Joker (Persona)

While Sonic is fairly obvious, being Sega’s mascot, Bayonetta and Joker have their main basis of inclusion here as their inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The fact that they were chosen to represent Sega alongside Sonic in a roster with multiple video game all-stars proves that they have massive appeal in the gaming space.

PART 2: THE FIGHTERS

For this section, we will be looking at the fighting game site Eventhubs for two popular competitive games from each company and pulling the most popular or highest tiered characters from those games to add to the list (two from each game). We will also add a third, more obscure fighting game and add two characters each from those games selected by what posters on different fan forums said were the best or most popular characters in those games. Nintendo’s games were Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Pokken Tournament DX, and ARMS, while Sega’s games were Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown, and Eternal Champions.

Nintendo’s picks are:

From Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: Ganondorf (The Legend of Zelda) & Peach (Super Mario)

From Pokken Tournament DX: Lucario & Aegislash

From ARMS: Min Min & Twintelle

Sega’s picks are:

From Persona 4 Arena Ultimax: Akihiko Sanada & Yu Narukami

From Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown: Sarah Bryant & Akira Yuki

From Eternal Champions: Larcen Tyler & Trident

PART 3: THE STARS

In this portion, we’ll pick one character each to represent eight current or upcoming games from each company. These characters and the games they are from represent the current range offered by each publisher and a roster like this could serve as an advertising vehicle for those franchises.

Nintendo’s picks are:

Tom Nook (Animal Crossing: New Horizons)

Toxtricity (Pokemon Sword & Shield)

Ring Fit Athlete (Ring Fit Adventure)

Bowser (Super Mario Odyssey/Super Mario Maker 2)

Zelda (The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild)

Cadet Howard (Astral Chain)

Byleth (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)

Samus Aran (Metroid Prime 4)

Sega’s picks are:

Dr. Eggman (Sonic Forces)

Kazuma Kiryu (Yakuza 6: The Song of Life)

Sakura Amamiya (Sakura Wars)

Ryuji Sakamoto (Persona 5)

Jin (Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom)

ARKS Cadet (Phantasy Star Online)

Selvaria Bles (Valkyria Chronicles 4)

Jack Frost (Shin Megami Tensei V)

PART 4: THE WILD CARDS

Now, the final section, the Wild Cards. This is where we’ll see some more variety in character picks. For both sides, we’ll pick characters for three different sub-categories: two each for game developers’ favorite characters, two each for fan favorite characters, and three each for either obscure characters or characters that can be tied to experimental ideas or presentations.

Nintendo’s Dev Favs: Kirby (Kirby) & Fox McCloud (Star Fox)

Our developer favorites for Nintendo are Kirby for Mahahiro Sakurai and Fox McCloud from Star Fox for Shigeru Miyamoto. Special note about Kirby, while I said earlier that Pikachu was excluded for being a canonically small character and Kirby is about the same, a potential work-around for this is to have Kirby pilot a mech (like in the game Kirby: Planet Robobot) for most of his attacks.

Sega’s Dev Favs: Goro Majima (Yakuza) & Aiai (Super Monkey Ball)

Our developer favorites for Sega come from Sega president Hajime Satomi for Goro Majima and game developer Toshihiro Nagoshi for Aiai.

Nintendo’s Fan Favs: Luigi (Super Mario) & Isabelle (Animal Crossing)

Sega’s Fan Favs: Segata Sanshiro (Sega Saturn) & Ryo Hazuki (Shenmue)

Not much to explain here. These characters were chosen through different fan polls and forum polls where these characters ranked high in popularity.

Nintendo’s Experimental Picks: Andy (Advance Wars), Dillon (Dillon’s Rolling Western), & Isaac (Golden Sun)

Coming from the Advance Wars series of strategy games, Andy could use various kinds of military weaponry or call in attacks from vehicles like tanks or fighter jets. Dillon, from his self-titled series of tower defense games, could work like a Nintendo version of Sonic, using a lot of rolling and dash attacks while mixing things up with some Wild West style gunplay. Finally, Isaac, protagonist of the cult-hit RPG Golden Sun, can use sword attacks, magic, Psynergy powers, or call in his party members to help with bigger attacks.

Sega’s Experimental Picks: Beat (Jet Set Radio), Zobio & Zobiko (The House of the Dead), NiGHTS (NiGHTS)

Beat, from the hip-hop styled 3D platformer Jet Set Radio, could have a moveset based around skating tricks, speed, spray paint/graffiti tags, and possibly calling in other members of the GGs for help. Zibo & Zobiko, the undead protagonist couple from the Japan-only game The House of the Dead EX, could use attacks themed around some of the series other zombies of monsters and possibly some gunplay elements calling back to the series’ main gameplay. Finally, NiGHTS, from his self-titled aerial adventure series, can have a moveset based around flying, shapeshifting, and possibly some kind of reality warping effects. (His games are based around dreams after all.)

FINAL RESULTS

Nintendo’s Characters: Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser, Charizard, Lucario, Aegislash, Toxtricity, Link, Ganondorf, Zelda, Min Min, Twintelle, Isabelle, Tom Nook, Ring Fit Athlete, Cadet Howard, Byleth, Samus, Kirby, Fox, Andy, Dillon, Isaac

Sega’s Characters: Sonic, Dr. Eggman, Bayonetta, Joker, Ryuji, Yu, Akihiko, Akira, Sarah, Larcen, Trident, Kiryu, Majima, Sakura, Jin, ARKS Cadet, Selvaria, Jack Frost, Aiai, Segata, Ryo, Beat, Zobio & Zobiko, NiGHTS

Our final roster gives us a total of 48 characters, with 24 for each side and representing a total of 31 different series. Super Mario, Pokemon, and Persona each have four characters, The Legend of Zelda comes in with three, and the rest all have one or two characters each. (I kind of expected Sonic to get the full four characters here, but I guess Sega likes to spread the love a little more.)

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What did you think of this roster? Who do you think should make it into a Nintendo/Sega crossover? Make yourself heard in the comments below.

Thanks for coming!