When Mortal Kombat Copied From Killer Instinct Years Before The 2013 Reboot

No franchise today is completely original. Tekken was a game that was clearly copied from several games. Virtua Fighter came first and Tekken came next. Anybody can obviously see that Tekken is full of pop culture references like Kazuya's Vegeta-style hair, Paul and Law might actually be based on Enter the Dragon's two main heroes, Nina is a Sarah clone, and you can think of Heihachi as Dr. Wily with muscles. Mortal Kombat has not been so original either especially when it got out of its comfort zone. The 3D era (which I consider a MESS now) was copying stuff. The same went for the reboot era which copied some stuff from Killer Instinct.

Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance made some obvious and subtle references

It's already known that I freaking hate this game for one good reason - my favorite character's death! It's like how I hate Marvel comics now for how they got rid of the Cyclops-Jean Grey coupling, how Wolverine just got tossed aside, etc. This game did try something new and many stuff like multiple fighting styles per character AGED BADLY. I guess that's why Mortal Kombat 11 used the fictitious MK: DA arcade to trash the opponent in the stage fatality upgrade.

Reptile's design in this game seems to resemble Lizardman from the Soul Calibur series. However, Reptile has one combo named Rip Tore. What's also noteworthy is that Cyrax has a combo named Full Gore. I think the name Fulgore from Killer Instinct is a play on full gore. Well, the Fulgore robot is an assassin robot after all Cyrax is part-human while Fulgore is a completely mechanical being. 

Mortal Kombat Deception gave us its own version of Gargos 

I was wondering what caused Killer Instinct to get to a standstill after the second game. What I didn't realize is that Onaga (who I believe might be so hated now, I wish he was the main villain in Mortal Kombat 11 instead of Kronika) was similar to Gargos in Killer Instinct 2. Both Gargos and Onaga were winged monsters who manipulated a certain someone. Both were also overthrown by their rivals Shao Kahn and Eyedol. Both of them probably never got as popular as Shao Kahn and Eyedol too. 

Unlike Gargos, Onaga wasn't playable outside of the now-extinct cheat device. Onaga was made playable in Mortal Kombat Armageddon - another game not worth replaying IMHO. Gargos used Jago to try and return to the physical plane. Onaga did the same thing to Shujinko. In Onaga's case, I think he purposely kept Shujinko around longer believing that an old man can't defeat him. 

However, more people end up thinking of True Ogre from the Tekken series instead. I even compared him to True Ogre a lot!

Combo breakers were introduced in MK Deception

The use of breakers was introduced in MK Deception and was used until Mortal Kombat X (10). The mechanics changed in some way. The 3D era games allowed three breakers per match which breakers were to be used wisely. After all three usages are gone - it's gone for the entire match and only a new match can really allow it. 

The gameplay mechanics changed when metering was introduced. MK vs. DC introduced the Rage Meter which half of the meter is used when a breaker is done. In Mortal Kombat (2011) to MKX - the mechanic was that 2/3 of the Super Meter (obviously copied from Street Fighter). MKX ended up where using a breaker and got the whole stamina bar DRAINED. Talk about being at a disadvantage which means using it strategically. 

Mortal Kombat 11 went differently with the Air Breakaway instead. It was where the opponent could escape from the combo rather than stop it. It would drain two bars of the defensive meter.

Mortal Kombat 1 had it return this time, it requires all three bars of the Super Meter to perform. Yeesh! Talk about taking spamming out as much as possible. The Street Fighter Alpha series' Alpha Counter only took ONE LEVEL AWAY. I guess NetherRealm Studios was trying to balance some broken mechanics in the Marvel vs. Capcom series then!