you certainly know more than I do about MK :)

There was some complaints about the "tower system" in MK1 but I was never going for collectibles or opening chests or whatever all that stuff is about for the hardcore gamers, so I never even played it. On Story mode the enemies are pretty trash and me getting past it all is certainly not admirable, anyone with both hands could accomplish that. I play it for the sake of my friends or gf wanting to get involved. On my own, I would be very unlikely to play a fighting game at all.