This is from the demo, but i think it's still in the game
This is not in the game anymore. This is a glitch Shock and I discovered in the demo that made it so if you kept a character out of neutral(always holding the stick in some direction) after being hit with certain moves that caused a stagger type of recovery the damage from the combo would not read out on screen so the game would act like the character performing the attack was still in combo.
example: When subzero lands an ice blast he cannot land another ice blast while the opponent is frozen and refreeze him. Instead it does a little damage and unfreezes him(obviously this is to prevent an easy time out infinite.) This is normal. What the glitch did is made the game think you were ALWAYS in that combo state. In other words even if your opponent wasnt frozen an iceblast would not freeze them. It would just hit them and do a little damage. Also moves such as ice clone which cant be done while the opponent is frozen will never work.
However, as I said this is no longer in the game. The first thing Shock and I did was call up Tom Brady and say "Dude WTF?" and that was the end of that.
There are still valid other reasons why the ice clone wont form and its important to know them all.
1. Proximity. The ice clone will not form if your opponent is to close to you(usually right on top of you) or if he is past the halfway point of a jump in at you. If your going to use an ice clone as an anti air, be quick about it, because once they pass the apex of the jump it wont form.( unless the jump in is far away and they wouldnt land on top of you but a little in front of you, then it will form.)
2. After an xray. You cannot ice clone after a successful xray for about 3 seconds.
3. The opponent is already frozen. You cannot perform an ice clone while the opponent is frozen. This violates the double freeze rule(even though its not your opponent being frozen, there are still two freeze moves on the screen so the game sees it as a double freeze)
4. You cannot immediatly ice clone after knocking your opponent down with an untechable knockdown(throw,slide) The wait is nowhere near as long as after an xray but it is there, about 1 second. so always wait a quick second if you want to ice clone in this scenario.
5. If an ice clone is dash blocked you must wait out the duration of the clone anyway before you can clone again.
Out of all the above it is proximity that will make you scratch your head and say "WTF?" the most because it does seem to be somewhat inconsistant. Low attacks have no proximity at all, meaning even if they are right on top of you with a low hitting attack the ice clone will form. Where as some characters with gigantic hitboxes(Sheeva for instance) will seem to stop the ice clone from forming even when they seem to be far enough away.
In the corner 2,2,4,ice clone will not form due to proximity(There isnt enough push back from 2,2,4.) But 2,1,2,clone and 2,1,4,clone will form.
Midscreen 2,2,4,clone,2,1,4,clone and 2,1,2,clone all work.(Unless the opponent is crouch blocking in which case 2,2,4,clone will not form. Which makes absolutely no sense at all and is utterly retarded)
All in all, just remember MK9 isnt the most consistant fighter out there(not by a long shot lol) and it doesnt always work the way you think it should, or even the way its supposed to. Just chuckle to yourself and say "MK9 son." Always works for me.
