Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate was not fun to play. I was initially charmed by Youtube videos featuring all these cool DLC characters and eagerly bought the game at a discount once I found one on Gamesplanet. Tekken 7 was also bought via a discount on Gamesplanet. I was eager to play both of them and needless to say my initial expectations for both feel as if they flipped. I expected to dislike Tekken 7 due to the lack of the iconic Jun Kazama from Tekken Tag Tournament 2 and I expected to like Mortal Kombat 11 because the story seemed decent enough with its conflicts.
Needless to say, I didn’t realize how far above most Tekken games stand against their competitors. MK11 Ultimate is an unfun mess because the combo attacks feel more like the developers made a combo to “make cool / shocking things happen” instead of try to make a good game. Most of the combos for each of these characters feel the same and some attacks like Kabal’s spinning wind attacks seem to require specific characters to use in order to beat him rather than good combo set-ups, juggling, or useful blocks or counter attacks. The whole thing feels like a mess to play. Some characters like Raiden, Jade, Kitana and Shao Kahn can just steamroll through opponents while others like Jacqui and Sonya take too much time to pull off really strong attacks. I actually thought MK11’s introduction of time travel conflict was decent in the main story, but the MK11 Aftermath story managed to screw it all up by making it so that any conflict can happen and anyone can essentially be brought back to screw around with the timeline. A lot of plot stupidity happened in Aftermath that doesn’t make sense in the context of the original MK11 story; like the Shokan following Shao Kahn and Sindel at all even though it is dead obvious that Sindel murdered Sheeva. Or Sindel and Shao Kahn falling for Shang Tsung’s betrayal. And what were they thinking making frickin’ Kung Lao the ending for Liu Kang in Aftermath when we have way more interesting endings in the initial MK11 campaign with Liu Kang becoming a Godly ruler with Kitana or Raiden? I mean . . . Kung Lao?! Why? The other ending, with Shang Tsung, was the most boring tripe. Also, the “choose which character to play” mechanic sometimes didn’t work right. It was annoying. Also, wtf is with this 106 GB download for all these cut scenes?! At least make the story GOOD, instead of just decent, if you’re demanding this much space. Tekken 7’s story is mostly superior and it’s only a 45 GB download and much shorter story.
Tekken 7’s has somewhat of the opposite problem, apart from the main campaign, there is barely any story at all. I can’t believe Tekken Tag 2 failed; it was glorious and yet somehow, it did poorly in sales. Meanwhile, DLC riddled Tekken 7 is selling amazingly well. I fear for the future of this series now. While most of the gameplay is top-notch, Kazumi is really fun to play, and I LOVE that Tekken 5 Devil Jin’s moveset is mostly back in the Tekken 7 Devil Jin’s installment, I am miffed that these new “finisher” skills seem to just be Mortal Kombat knock-off moves where instead of skill, incompetence is balanced out with a “something cool” button to level the playing field between people who master combos and people who play casually in Tekken. I don’t like this at all. Moreover, the one-enemy story chapters after the main campaign mode are mostly a bore in Tekken 7. Even if I like endings like Steve Fox finally learning the truth, which was done well I’ll admit, I don’t like that the other ending if Nina wins is essentially a pointless ending. However, my main gripe – apart from the fact I don’t get to play as TTT2 Jun Kazama who is AWESOME to play as, especially when I do a tag team of her and Kazuya – is that I have to play as fucking Heihachi for the final conflict against Kazuya. After everything Kazuya has gone through from being thrown off a cliff, to a volcano after sacrificing all of his soul and failing to beat Heihachi, and the fact Kazuya continued to suffer after losing in Tekken 4; we play as frickin’ Heihachi and KAZUYA is treated as the ultimate villain!? What?! Seriously, what?! Also, why the fuck are we only playing as Devil Kazuya AFTER Heihachi is permanently killed by Kazuya?! That makes me so fucking annoyed. And why the fuck is the “extra” battle, Devil Kazuya vs Akuma with an Akuma who flies around the map as if it’s completely different video game mechanics?! This was shit! This was absolute shit! If they ever do that again, I will be very annoyed. Moreover, I wanted to play as KAZUYA and KILL Heihachi. Sorry, I don’t have any sympathy for the guy who threw his 7-year old son into a canyon to die, then threw him into a volcano, and then shot the man’s son (his own grandson) in the head. Fuck Heihachi. I wanted to kill him as Kazuya. I wish I could willingly lose the fight since Heihachi loses anyway, so playing as him was fucking pointless and stupid and ruined my enjoyment of the main campaign up till that point, which I thought was decent up until that shit ending.
Anyway, those are my thoughts. I don’t really know what to rate either game. They’re both pretty low quality, but I will say Tekken 7 is leagues about MK11 Ultimate, but also its one of the weakest Tekken games, especially after how ungodly good Tekken Tag Tournament 2 was. I did have enough fun that I bought the entire gallery of Tekken 7 before even playing the main story, so there is that. I hope Tekken 8 will have Jun Kazama with her Tekken Tag 2 moveset, Kazuya, and Devil Jin with his Tekken 7 moveset. If so, I’ll probably buy it Day 1. If it has all of them and the hilariously awesome Kazumi with her hilarious skillset, I’ll be even more eager to buy it Day 1. Kazumi is amazing and fun to play.
Tekken 7 > MK11 Ultimate.