Mortal Kombat Joker and Fan Feedback

That's nice of you to say; but you of all people should know: There's plenty wrong with me.

In recent years, Netherrealm have been part of a huge revolution for what we consider to be 'fighting games'. At their insistence, modern fighting games must involve customization, a decent story and a least one guest character in order to remain competitive in this market. Since this new regime was established all the way back with Injustice, we've seen strong stories in the Mortal Kombat games, customization making it's way to DOA and Smash Ultimate rewriting the book when it comes to what folk expect out of a 'crossover'. Many think of this as a new golden age of Fighting games and, although their sheer number has waned significantly, I have an inclination to agree. And that is why I became interested when I saw Netherrealm announce their next crossover character to Mortal Kombat, the clown prince; Joker.

As I somehow managed to cram onto this blog before, there are a great many Jokers from throughout the years that all ring with a vaguely different theme/motive/modus operandi and yet they are all still instantly recognizable as the same being. It makes Joker one of the most diverse and malleable characters that one can step into the shoes of, so it makes sense to bring him into the wildly customizable world of Netherrealm fighters. It makes so much sense, in fact, that they already did it with their other two Injustice games. Those two titles went drastically different directions from each other with their depictions of Mr. White, with the first title leaning towards the 'micheieveious' angle of the Joker with the later appearing more 'murderous and pyscotic'. (Although in such an overt manner that many compared him to Jared Leto's lamentable version from Suicide Squad.)

With all that in mind, it was a valid enough train of thought to wonder which direction the team would end up with for this latest entry. Unfortunately, early leaks and teases seem to tease that the crew were heading for a depiction that didn't seem to capture the essence of the iconic character. He seemed off in the subtlest possible ways, his hair was too neat, his build was too bulky and his face too ordinarily-proportioned; he just looked like a prep-kid in fancy dress. Needless to say, these early looks weren't very well received and that left Netherrealm with an interesting conundrum. They had a character depiction that no one was happy with but still had several months until his release; they could cross their fingers and hope the wider rollout would go well or listen to the minority of folk who had seen the leaks and rework things behind the scenes. It wouldn't be until the Game Awards that we got to see what they choose.

As we can see from the official reveal, the team have worked in small ways to improve the Joker design and bring it closer to the most commonly recognized image of the Joker; the one from the animated series. His figure has been slimmed down, his chin and cheeks have been bought out slightly and even his voice is a dead ringer for Mark Hamill's. (It might actually be him, I don't know.) Some might complain about how this isn't too creative from the team, but most just shook their heads and were happy about being provided a design that they were familiar with, and therefore were comfortable with. But the whole thing got me thinking about the idea of fan feedback and going to the effort of 'redesigning'. For Netherrealm the changes weren't that much of a big deal, a few tweaks here and there in a manner that most folk would have never noticed if they weren't looking for it; but some other recent high profile instances have proven far more involved.

Recently you might have heard about of a little impending disaster known as the 'Sonic: The Hedgehog' movie. Another ill-advised video game movie that had the misfortune of messing up one of the key aspects of any adaptation; the main character. Despite having over a decade's worth of 3D material to work with, the studio decided to go with their own unique design that ended up looking horrible and spawning a wave of bad reactions from prospective fans. The studio actually reacted to this backlash, surprisingly, and managed to cobble together a brand new Sonic render to feature throughout the movie that was much more faithful to other adaptations. The only real cost to the studio was delaying the movie and, probably, paying overtime to the animation studio; and the cost was genuine pleasant surprise from the community and a push to actively support this movie. (Whether or not that will actually happen remains to be seen, but by acting the Studio have given this movie the best chance at life.)

Another recent example, which is inexplicably linked, comes in the form the recently released; Cats. This was another ill-conceived idea of realizing a stage production with no real plot into a movie with no real plot and the result was a total mess. (Amazingly.) The real point of contention for most audiences, however, was the choice to remodel the cast as horrific cat-human hybrids. Cats was panned upon release and no one could quite believe how ugly the whole affair ended up being. And the worst part? These effects were conjured by the same VFX studio that bought Sonic to life. Now, there isn't anything inherently wrong with the animation (at least from a technical level) but it was deeply flawed in terms of direction and that was something that every pointed out as they mocked the movie relentlessly.

The studio responsible for Cats were aware of the public issues with this movie in advance, however, due to how poorly the initial Internet reveal went. Universal Studios made it known that changes were coming to the movie to alter the visual effects before the final product came out, though most were unconvinced that anything would come of the changes. Seems the cynics were right this time, as Cats performed so abysmally that Universal prematurely axed their Oscar-push for the movie. Unfortunately, this also partially provided an excuse for the VFX team 'at fault' to undergo significant layoffs right before the holidays.

Fan feedback can be a tricky beast to feed, especially when we are talking about products that haven't been released yet. From the outset it should be simple; listen to the fans, their the one's buying your product afterall, but it's not always so simply black and white. Just because a decent number of folk who saw your product found themselves physically revolted doesn't mean you should immediately change the  final draft. Perhaps they aren't the audience you were targeting (As I suspect is the case for the Sonic movie) and perhaps that extra workload could have unforeseen real-world consequences. (Like the mass layoffs.) It's a tricky beast which requires cool heads in order to tame; and those who make the ultimate choice must always be mindful of one truth: There isn't always a right answer.