Do I Still Have The Nostalgia Factor Going On With Mortal Kombat After 25 Years?

It's 25 years since the release of Mortal Kombat last October 8, 2017. It was first released in October 8, 1992 as a game that started the revolution but aged badly. I didn't really get to play the Super Nintendo versions and the first one I ever "brought home" was Mortal Kombat Trilogy. For a violent and gory game I admit I somewhat got used to it. Maybe, it's because there's a huge difference between CGI violence and realistic violence. It's like not everyone cringes over Anime violence but can puke over anything that's super realistically violent.

Do I have a real huge nostalgia factor with it? For me, I don't find myself longing to play almost every Mortal Kombat game prior to franchise' reincarnation except for the action/adventure Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks. Sure, there are some stuff in terms of plot that I liked about the pre-reboot but we're talking gameplay. I enjoyed the changes brought in by the 3D Mortal Kombat era though I started complaining about sidestepping. Sidestepping works in Tekken but not in Mortal Kombat due to gameplay differences due to the projectile based gameplay.

While there are some stuff Mortal Kombat (2011) had brought in but there's still that sense of nostalgia. There were stuff I wish were present like I wish Goro still had his chest pound (thankfully, it's back in Mortal Kombat X), that Johnny Cage still had his shadow uppercut, some classic stages I wish got included (ex. The Portal, Kombat Tomb, that we'd have both Pit I and Pit II) but it's a great game. But I'd still settle for MK (2011)'s gameplay over the classic ones. I found the whole HP, LP, HK, LK layout overly repetitive. MK (2011)'s use of Tekken's one button per limb system with the dial-a-combos (which many of them can be linked) was really good.

Then I decided to try and play the classic games some time ago. After that, I just couldn't embrace them as much as I used to. It's sort of like I could still play the Street Fighter Alpha series but I couldn't play through the Street Fighter II series like I did in the past. I now hate charging up LK with Liu Kang all the while his Bicycle Kick in later entries became much easier to execute. I end up enjoying the combo system in MK (2011) and I now hate the overly repetitive gameplay of MK1 to MK Gold. It's really something to think about that while some old school games are worth revisiting but others aren't.