Mortal Kombat 1 & "Girl Power"

Content warnings: Unsurprisingly all the new Mortal Kombat trailers include high definition depictions of extremely gorey violence and death. Like, gives developers PTSD extreme. I will link to the trailers, but not include them inline. I did include a more cartoony Mortal Kombat 2 fatality.

Mortal Kombat (MK) has a long history, ever since Mortal Kombat 2, of not great female outfits.

Ed Boon has had a long history justifying this with "girl power" and that its a game where women get to be kickass, and now there's been an announcement that Mortal Kombat is setting up for... yet another reboot of the narrative.

So let's investigate Ed's claims of girl power, now they're giving the world a soft reboot and have used it to do redesigns and depict the characters in their ideal situations.

The new game Announcement Trailer that the characters now have a "choice" to live in quiet, serene lives they have - until we get a montage of Shang Stun just murdering them. Notably some of them get to make token effort to fight back, but it's not until the Gameplay Trailer we see them actually bust any worthwhile moves.

Kitana

In the initial trailer, Princess Kitana gets shown being carried in luxurious wagon before the crowds, accompanied by the oddly threatening Mileena. So... doesn't seem she's getting the same level of deep fulfilment the boys are.

The next time we see her - she's just like... kneeling in front of Shang Tsun and waiting to get her eyeballs gouged out with his thumbs.

In the second trailer, completely unconnected to the noble quest the boys are preparing for - she's having a battle with Mileena that seems fuelled by jealousy and paranoia.

We don't get to see any of her fatalities in the fatality montages - and while we see the boys testing one another, and building an alliance against their oppressor - we just see the girls squabbling.

Would this be an awkward time to bring up that Princess Kitana used to be 10,000 years old and expert at dealing with the machinations of the courts - unlike Fire God Liu Kang, she's been nerfed.

Mileena

Milenna gets shown riding with Kitana... and implied to be her rival, but is apparently now the actual Empress. then the next time we see her it's in a half-second clip of her getting her neck snapped effortlessly.

In the second trailer she trades blows with Kitana for a while, tagging in Goro to do some big hits and then later she's in a fight with one of the boys... the hits are done by another one of the boys she tags in.

We don't get to see any of her fatalities, which is pretty disappointing given that hers have often been particularly creative with the horror angle.

Sonya Blade

Sonya doesn't appear at all... and in the second trailer she rushes in during a fight to do like a weird, flip where she suplexes someone with her legs - then runs out again. Sort of a tag team feature that she seems to do just once.

She doesn't get a line, she doesn't get to show off a move set, she doesn't make a critical move and doesn't get a fatality. Sonya Blade, the original

Fuck you Ed, stop trying to justify your own jerk off material as "girl power" retroactively and pretending that you don't think women deserve to be badass. And give the people what they want to see:

That and like female characters who are as badass and badass looking as the boys - and shown to be as driven and interesting.

Ed, make Sheeva the main character of the promotions, you coward.

-wincenworks

Raid: Shadow Legends has now reached the inevitable point of the cycle of fantasy themed game that starts with "we also have sexy ladies" marketing where its being promoted by shill accounts on the social media known as Twitter.

But it's not just the presence in the sewer. This is the Google summary:

This the Publisher's own page for it:

Strangely despite the "18+" in the top left corner, the game is still available on the infamously touchy Apple Play Store. So no, we can be very assured there will not even be so much as a nipple in it, let alone anything spicy enough to warrant any 18+ rating.

This is one of the truths behind the "sex sells" argument. It doesn't, this hasn't led to Raid gaining massive sales, dominating over games that don't use sexy marketing, etc.

If you look at the charts for Apple's top games, it's way below things like Roblox, Candy Crush Saga, Pokemon GO, Monopoly GO!, Minecraft and various other cartoony things.

This is with that creepy marketing, and well, why? Well it's just not that impressive in its niche any more.

It's just if you're having artwork made - it doesn't cost any more to add "make it horny" to the notes on female characters, and you'll definitely get endorsements from certain executives.

-wincenworks

Finally, a mainstream game with some good male armor.

You've come a long way, Prince of Persia, assuming there's no iron battle thongs in this one. I mean sort of.

I can't help but notice that our new sexy prince is a little... darker than the previous one.

And I would love it if I could just dismiss that thought as me just nitpicking, but the reality is black men have been subject to exotification for a very long time.

Which would be extra awkward in this case, given that it seems the look may have been inspired in no small part by Michael B Jordan as Killmonger in Black Panther (2018).

Lets hope that when its released, the game puts all concerns like that to rest.

-wincenworks

Okay, so over Summer Game Fest there was this promo for the game Wayfinder and I couldn't help but notice this character, Senja, seems to be designed entirely around the current appreciation of muscle mommies and... costume design from my nightmares.

Even more bafflingly... despite the design... this character is actually meant to be... a tank... not a glass cannon...

I'm not sure what the concept behind this design was... and I'm not convinced the executives cared given even the inclusion of wode paint on the arm... because... reasons?

-wincenworks

By @raspbearyarts

Very happy to see destroyable armor going back to it's sexy, sexy roots.

-wincenworks

Oscar Vega (@raspbeary) on: Art Station | Instagram | Twitter

So recently Square Enix launched a new game where the premise is that the protagonist is the reluctant hero of a fantasy world they find themselves in, having been born and raised in New York. It recently got some loud pushback from people who were upset that protagonist... lemme check notes... sounds like a sassy New Yorker.

Fortunately, the actress has had the perfect attitude toward it:

Now, the game has not been getting spectacular reviews, and the reasons for that vary but I'm not here to talk about trend of critics (well meaning or not) raising standards for products say... starring a black woman and having a mostly female cast, or even about problem of Sacrificial Trash.

I want to talk about this as a good example when we talk about "protected by magic" outfits.

Frey is a New Yorker now blessed with magical power, she has never been trained in armor use, doesn't own armor and so... wears comfortable and practical clothes like you would expect. The whole look conveys an interesting look of a modern person with practical sensibilities in a fantasy world.

She has two main kinds of magic items - cloaks and necklaces. Both items that can be worn over clothes without sacrificing practicality.

She also has a unique, widely considered feminine option for store her magical powers - her nails.

As well as being one of the most innovative expansions into fantasy magic I've seen in mainstream for a while it really also goes a long way to showcase what, so often, is the actual crippling flaw with the "doesn't need it because magic/badass/etc" rhetoric.

Not because you can't have an interesting design that avoids armor etc, but because it's pretty much always the same nonsense with going overboard with designing pseudo-porn and then trying to justify it after the fact rather than exploring possibilities and playing with ideas about what x would mean for y.

Also can we please have more games with character designs like this in them, I'm still thinking about how cool this boss intro was:

-wincenworks

Kier - First Sword of Death

Time to take another look at a Sideshow Toys original figure and remember that Shard, in her skin-tight bone armor, was by far not the most egregious Court of the Dead female design.

No "High heels" just because she seems to designed for people with foot kink and by artists who think women's feet are naturally arched like Barbie doll's to accomodate stilettos.

"Looks nothing like the male equivalent" marked because of course a male-coded character gets far more practical armor... despite being a spooky multi-armed skeleton with no flesh to protect.

Such an amazing amount of detail for a 6-inch collector item toy, wasted on making it a weird spank material as soon as the toy is feeemale.

~Ozzie

Been a while since Epic NPC Man did an armor-related skit. Glad they're still in form!

Call me old-fashioned, but this "equitable armor" joke payoff never really gets old, even if you see it a mile ahead.

~Ozzie

h/t: Tomeo

I can't believe they made the dark, brooding property known as Battletoads and made it goofy... just look at this gameplay from the original NES game, can you imagine this being goofy!?

Well believe it or not, five years after we last discussed Battletoads - a new game got released, and perhaps part of the reason that it has received such a negative response from people who were very invested in the "darkness" of the Dark Queen is that it actively mocked the people they knew would throw a tantrum over her new design that is consistent with a cartoony game about toads beating things up with their size shifting limbs.

So yes, when the reviewer was referring to her "darkness" literally all he was referring to was her tendency to wear skimpy fetishwear.

My dude, get with the times... everyone's dark, scary and very tall (Dark Queen is seven foot tall) lady fetishes are now in full outfits covering them from head to toe, hat optional.

I don't make the rules.

-wincenworks

So I stumbled across an article that stated that Neverwinter was still going and I decided to look into it, see if it'd changed... and it seems it is... still obsessed with titties.

I added "NA" to some fields in this case, purely to stress that this is a drider... a creature that is essentially a spider-centaur... and she seems to be arching her back to present her underbelly to the hero... who is protected by two women who seem to have removed the fronts of their blouses to show off their cleavage-flaunting lingerie.

As mainstream Dungeons and Dragons moves slowly away from things like racial traits, sexualized imagery, etc, it seems the games are still desperately clinging to myths that were disproved before the game was ever created.

-wincenworks

An @ourvaluedcustomers strip sadly not posted on the comic's Tumblr (Blogspot link here).

OVC stopped updating over two years ago, yet so many of those cartoons remain evergreen.

Just look at this common specimen of mansplainer eager to tell us that female "empowerment" is the privilege to dress in a way he considers HOT on a woman... also powers and weapons, I guess.

Yep. That totally means (superhero) comics were ALL about female empowerment all along! No notes.

~Ozzie

Wait did Ed Boon of Mortal Kombat fame walk into this shop?

-wincenworks

Look, all I am saying is that if its true that sex sells, why is this not the standard male tabletop game warrior instead of these guys?

It's like they don't want to sell their games.

-wincenworks

On the Brydis the Paladin look - perfect, no notes.

On the Na'rasha look - also perfect, no notes.

That Ginny had to post this... next bit is... not ideal.

If nothing else, it would be great if the world in general could get used to the idea that there is a massive difference between wearing costumes for fun, or even for a small business like a popular YouTube channel inspired by your own role-playing games sessions and say...

A pretty good guideline for seeing if this stuff is worth going to be getting back to the creator about was provided by Slovenly Trulls (@slovenlytrulls).

Also check out Ginny's stuff, she's pretty awesome.

Also check out the Slovenly Trulls, and send them some sexy elves.

-wincenworks

Empowered Gambit (Hellfire Gala Gambit designed by Russel Dauterman)

Submitted by an anonymous hero

I mean, if we assume that the Hellfire Gala is something like the Met Gala, then this is possibly more suited to the after party if Teen Vogue is to believed (originally titled: Why was everyone half-naked at the Met Gala after parties?)

That'd make for some pretty amazing empowerment.

-wincenworks

So, I decided to check for any Twitter bookmarks that might be important since y'know... the new owner hasn't been exactly been inspiring confidence in the longevity of the project.

Now, one thing that while games like Conan Exiles don't generally put reactions into the characters showcasing the many flaws in their costume design, some games do... kind of:

Oddly, they seem to choose to do the one violent response which comes from a male character as the same image, not say the ones that give you an achievement for looking up a skirt...

Oh, and when I said mostly... in order to round the list up to ten they used a character from another Kojima game doing the opposite.

So it seems like these, unfortunate camera angles that really showcase issues with the female costume design are probably a low priority because the games industry in general considers it fun when a female character is creeped on - and so only worries about creep aversion when it's issues like rear cameras maybe accidentally focusing too much on butts.

-wincenworks