Since we're talking about guests again, it's time I threw my hat in the ring again. Bear in mind that my opinions are definitely biased, so don't tell me that because guess who already knows that? Me. However, I'll do my best to keep my biases to a minimum.

Here we go.

Guests in and of themselves are beneficial to fighting games. Pulling an audience from outside the franchise is a smart move and has produced some of the most popular franchises of all time. Marvel vs Capcom and Smash Bros immediately come to mind. And if we aren't talking +

About those franchises for a second, think about how many fighting games have guests. Spoiler alert: All of the major ones save for Street Fighter have has guests without being crossover titles. Tekken's had 4 of them (Gon in Tekken 3 and Akuma/Geese/Noctis/Negan in Tekken 7) +

In the franchise, Dead Or Alive has Mai Shirainue, Nicole-458 and Ryu Hayabusa (before Ryu became a member of the franchise officially), and Soul Calibur has had the most guests of any one fighting game franchise (they've had 11 guests as of Haohmaru's release in the entire +

Series). And of course, the reason this thread started, Mortal Kombat and Injustice have had a lot of guests.

Full disclosure: I got into fighting games in 2011 because of Mortal Kombat 9's inclusion of Kratos. As I said earlier, my opinions are biased, and this is mainly why. +

Myself and most of my IRL friends found fighting games via their guests. And they aren't gonna be going away anytime soon: people overall LOVE crossovers. They've literally been happening since the 1940s, if not earlier.

HOWEVER.

Like all good things, too much is dangerous. +

Let's circle back to the main contention, being NRS's use of guests. Remember how I said Soul Calibur had the most guests in any one fighting game series? That holds true, but NRS as a company has done more crossovers than this.

Starting from MK9 and going up to the present, +

NRS games have had a grand total of 14 guests (17 if you count the TMNT as separate characters in one slot, which for this thread we will not), spread across 5 games in 2 series. 9 of them are in Mortal Kombat, and 5 of them are in Injustice. When layed out like that, it looks +

Like a lot. But remember, that is not equal spreading.

MK9 had 2 guests (1 outside of the Sony consoles), MKX had 4 and MK11 has 3 (so far). Injustice 1 only had Scorpion, while Injustice 2 has 4 slots dedicated to guests. If we break it down to percentages, that is between +

10-20% of the roster. If that is too much for you, that is fair. But just remember, it's not exactly like the guests are overwhelming the roster.

But let's wheel around to a complaint I can mostly agree with; guests overtaking mainline slots. This is one thing that I have had +

Some changes in thoughts towards.

I used to think that because those slots are already decided months in advance because of licensing deals, it's impossible for guests to someone's slot because that someone was never considered in the first place.

Then Joker took Ash's spot. +

That is when I saw it from the side of those who think guests take other slots. They don't do it directly often, but that slot could indeed have gone to a Sareena or Li Mei. However, I should bear in mind that money and audiences talk. Spawn got in by fan demand. Maybe not MK+

Fan demand, but Spawn fans for sure, and any who overlap in the fandom which is common. And consistently, guest DLC has performed the best of all DLC, and the reactions are generally very positive. Look at how people lost their minds when Predator was revealed. It's kinda nuts. +

And of course, the risk of having too many guests is very real. If we're gonna get 3 more guests for MK11, for instance, that is probably gonna make me go 'scale it back', as someone who loves guests.

I gotta run now, because my break is over and I'm still working. But I'll +

Tag those who I would like to hear their thoughts on. Please retweet the thread too. I love reading replies.

@judgment_art @0Moodie0 @GALE_NewMoon @ParryLikeAGirl @Musicalxnoodle @FanboyMileena @SkulleeMonster @BrownGonzo