They exist in other fighters (you definitely wouldn’t recommend Zangief or Gen to a new SF player), but when entering MK9, I really feel out of my element from anything I’ve played before.
I was hoping for a character with easier combos and understanding from an SF perspective. I was thinking of Sub-Zero, since I’ve heard his combos aren’t hard to pull off, his x-ray is solid, and he has good screen control with his ice-clone.
Is this a solid beginner choice? I just don’t want to pick the Gen of MK9.
I recommend Ermac to anyone - Sub Zero requires a lot of execution to be consistent. Sub is kind of sluggy and while his BnBs aren’t hard to execute - really none of them in this game are. But for execution consistency and overall good matchups Ermac is good sauce in my opinion. But if you demand Sub Zero read the testyourmight thread by Tom Brady where he just tells you what to do and not do. Ie. Ice puddle is crap outside the corner, and other ‘do not do this string’ suggestions.
I’m not set on Sub Zero or anything! I was just asking for beginner characters in general and why they’re good choices for newbs like us coming from SF.
I would choose johnny cage. He’s simple and fun. He’ll teach u to get in and keep pressure. I think he sucks against zoners but that’s what u want to learn to deal with so that later on u can beat them. The most fun character to use is kung lao. Raiden is the scrubbiest. Smoke is easy to use but I think they removed his otg? IDk? Scorpion and ermac feel similar in how they combo. Ermac is annoying to go up against. I think every character in this game is easy to use compared to street fighter where linking is crucial. But JC is a great choice. Scorpion is easy to use and has his 1,1,1 stagger mix up game. Easy to use. cancel the 1,1, to spear and free combo. But I don’t think a scrubbier character is good to start out with. That’s why I would choose JC if I wanted to learn about getting in.
I say go through story mode too as you get to spend a decent chunk of time with several characters and you’ll see the similarities between everyone in the cast.
I too came from a more traditional 2D background but after playing Story I was ready to settle on a main. BUT if you just don’t want to do that I’d pick…
Scorpion… Easy to remember moves and he’s just immensely satisfying to play.
Kano is a great starter character. he has a hadoken, a shoryuken and a blank ball, his combo’s require some tricky dash canceling. much more tight than Liu Kangs, but he can still win with a standard shoto zoning game just need to be aware of teleporters and how to bait and them.
I’d actually veer away from scorpion as a beginner character, all of his stuff his very punishable. He’s the equivilent of SF4 Elf, all about 50/50’s high risk/high reward.
Raiden. He can get out of any situtation w/his teleport. He can pressure B3, 2 1 (minus 1 on block but if you attack, superman is coming out). You can B3, 2, teleport and start over. He has crazy, safe offensive pressure and you ALWAYS have to watch out for superman. Builds meter very fast and you CANNOT outzone him cause of his teleport. By far the best starting char in the game
Raiden for punisher types as he has smaller combos, but is pretty strong. His teleport comes in useful too…
Kung Lao for rushdowners (pretty obvious). Or possible Johnny Cage
Zoners, maybe reptile or kano, but I’m not too sure on those
For overall stability, I would suggest Scorpion or maybe Sub-Zero. They should help you learn more about the game.
Personally, I learned on Sub Zero, but this was for the PS3 demo when Cage felt a bit too abusable and I didn’t want to build bad habits. I would recommend taking him to training mode to learn execution, but I don’t think I’d recommend playing him as a main if you’re just starting - He’s hard to win with until you get a feel for the game, I think, since he doesn’t really have a set gameplan like a lot of other characters from my experience.
Characters with easier execution, if you want to work your way up to that, would probably be
Scorpion (Though like people said, he doesn’t seem especially good),
Kung Lao (Easy, fun, adaptable, and still very strong even though he’s not the monster he used to be),
Ermac (Easy all around, with high reward, but be careful of relying too much on unsafe special moves)
Raiden (All-around solid, with very good pressure and lots of good strings to mess around with)
Starting characters to avoid IMO
Reptile (Feels a bit clunky and slow until you figure out how he’s supposed to work, relatively execution heavy with mid-combo dashes)
Cyrax (Lots of moves to remember, handles a bit differently from the rest of the cast, very solid otherwise)
Cyber Sub (Same)
Baraka, Sheeva (Don’t bother)
Characters maybe worth looking into?
Kabal (Very good, and has some easy combos, with some complexities you can learn along the way)
Stryker (Easy to play, but maybe a bit limited)
A lot of people seem to like Smoke right out of the gate, too.
I guess like anything else, just screw around until you find someone that matches your style. Just a few recommendations.
i started out with scorpion because he IS my favorite mortal kombat character. but imo, he was/is too predictable. his BnB’s are really easy tho (got the 40% one down first day i got the game) but they all pretty much start out the same, so he’s one dimensional. but like frenzinator said, depends on your style of play.