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PRE-GAME

The deadly alliance of Quan Chi and Shang Tsung has been broken. 

With the Netherworld’s Dragon King rising to power, and the one responsible for the downfall of the Thunder God Raiden, who will rise and save the world from evil once again?

Once again, it's time for Mortal Kombat!

EYE-SPY

THE HOOK:  Mortal Kombat has a HUGE place in gaming history due to the fact that the game essentially created the ratings system that led to the creation of the ESRB (and with good reason). The blood splattering, bone-splitting fighter has a large legion of loyal fans, including myself. A fan of the series can’t pass up the chance to play Midway’s newest version of the fatality driven brawler. Old school characters such as Mileena, Baraka, Smoke, and others were returned to game-play in a salute to nostalgia. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it.

HOW IT LOOKS AND FEELS:  The graphics have received a noticeable upgrade once again, and the combo system is a lot more responsive and less frustrating than the previous game: MK: Deadly Alliance. This puts the feeling of joy back into the fighter that Deadly Alliance had partially taken away. Smooth transactions between fighting styles for characters, and the ability to actually USE those 12 hit combos the game taught you in training mode is rewarding and satisfying (blood flies like confetti). 

The fighting arenas are completely interactive, allowing you to smash foes through ceilings and walls, or pick up level-exclusive weapons to use as your own. Plus environment fatalities add a unique and fun twist to game play. If you find yourself on the losing end of a fight, it’s easy to slide your character near the arena’s deathtrap, loop to the other side of your opponent, and send them to their deliciously violent demise.

HOW IT SOUNDS:  With a huge variety of rock and hard metal soundtracks, you’ll find yourself in the “soundtrack” section in the extras mode just as much as you will playing the game at times. The dozens of compositions are brilliantly done, with some drawing inspiration from other Midway games, such as “The Suffering”. The mood is so perfectly set, rock out while you slaughter.

EXTRAS:  Appearing for a second Mortal Kombat game is the “Krypt”. Dozens upon dozens of coffins contain hundred of unlockables from new music, to new characters, to bios and pictures of the developing team. Personal favorites include bloopers from the flop of a game known as Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub Zero, and unlockable arenas for whole new levels of mass carnage. These coffins can be opened by collecting “Koins” and Keys in the one player “Konquest” mode, a task you’ll insist on completing, even if it takes you days…and days…and days.

CINEMATIC EXPERIENCE:  The opening cut scene in the beginning of the game picks up where Deadly Alliance left off with the combined power of Shang Tsung and Quan Chi. You’re introduced to the game’s new villain in graphics nothing short of cool.

BEST PLAYER:  This is always such a touchy subject when it comes to fighting games, people are ready to defend their favorite player to the death as the strongest. Though all characters have huge slews of combos and 3 styles of fighting apiece, whichever character a player chooses, they will play for hours discovering new combos and special moves that work best for their suited tastes. 

In my eyes, the best player always has been and always will be the un-dead hell raiser Scorpion. While no one character can really be labeled as the best, Scorpion just has that unbelievably awesome spear in his hand to drag opponents next to him from across the ring for a free hit. No matter how many games and how many times you do it, it never gets old.

CHEAT CODE YOU NEED:  With so many things to do, cheat codes will be the last thing on your mind, and with good reason too. There aren’t any.

CHEAT CODE YOU WANT:  Unlock all fighters. I love wandering around in first player mode as much as the next gamer, but those sneaky Midway guys have extra characters hidden so deep and tightly locked up in the Krypt I don’t want to wait! I want them NOW!

OH MAN! MOMENT: Fighting the Dragon King in arcade mode can get incredibly frustrating sometimes. Or the voice acting…this one could go either way.

GLITCH ITCH: There aren’t enough “o”s in smoooooooooth to describe the game-play. It’s good to go, two thumbs up.

FAN SERVICE:  For some reason fighting game developers love to make their women as scantily clad as possible. Bleeding barely covered girl fighters with bouncing chests…While this warrants a rolling of the eyes from girl gamers, I guess guys just eat it up. No worries though girls, Dead or Alive style women, this ISN’T.

END GAME:

There is just so much to do in this game, be ready not to sleep. First off Konquest mode in this game was taken in a whole new direction. Instead of just reading text boxes about some lame story and playing through fights like it was an arcade mode clone, Konquest mode plays like a full-blown adventure game. Yes, you heard me, free ranging, run around with your character through towns, talk to people motion. This is where you’ll do most of your Koin collecting, and the only place to pick up the much-needed Keys. With a time system casting the world into day and night and the ability to travel to all kinds of different realms, Konquest mode is a game in itself. The huge problem though with this mode is the absolutely HORRID voice acting. It can’t even be described, it’s something people have to experience for themselves, it makes me shiver just thinking about it. Had Midway just put a little time into the voicing, this game would be almost perfect, but I suppose one can’t have everything, can they?

Chess mode is another new way to play the Mortal Kombat games, having you choose which character to put in control of Pawns all the way up to the King. When opposing players chess pieces clash you’re thrown into a fight, with the victor taking the spot. Of course, there are also tons of twists such as certain chess pieces having magic abilities to cast things such as life on fallen pieces, and death to someone who’s in your way. I was never one for chess, but something about being able to kill other chess pieces is enticing.

Puzzle mode is brand spanking new as well, and plays somewhat like Tetris. Your character you choose will show up on the screen a la chibi mode (they all look so cute!) and battles it out with another while you focus on the puzzle in the background. Grouping colors together and then breaking them all with the corresponding colored Mortal Kombat logo shatters them and powers up your fighter. The first one to whiff and fill up their whole box loses. So keep breaking color groups, and sometimes having the right colors next to each other and breaking them with two different logos leads to HUGE combos. Characters of course can use special powers to help themselves (such as getting rid of lines of blocks) or hurt others (arranging all the colors on another players grid so they can’t make the appropriate breaks) depending on who you choose. Losing characters get sent to their fatalities, be they shredded, flattened, you name it.

One player arcade mode delivers what it promises, old-fashioned battle your way to the top fighting. It plays great, and even though it’s new technology powering the fighting engine, it brings back memories of the arcade day. Yes, your eyes are tearing, aren’t they?

Each character has two distinct fighting styles (ranging from Tang Soo Do to Crane style to Karate). Their third fighting method is with a weapon (be they fans, spears, swords, hooks, you name it) and does more lethal damage, but when hit, you in return take more damage. As mentioned, being able to use the super switch styles in between combos just rocks. Fatalities are bigger and bloodier than ever, from ripping someone’s heart out, impaling them on giant spikes, having them devoured by flesh eating piranhas, and so much more. Not for the kiddies or the weak stomached, but blood lusters celebrate, for fatalities are what made the series what it is.

All old school characters show up as mentioned, and then new characters created for the game are ok. Not really that great, but who cares about the new? It’s all about the old this game. You’ll find yourself saying “OH! I remember him!” when you run into the characters in Konquest mode. New players to the series won’t find this as nifty as the players who’ve been by Mortal Kombat’s side since day one.

I never thought any MK game could pass my favorite, Mortal Kombat II, but I have to say, I think this one does. Midway makes some risky, but brilliant moves with the series that just plain pays off in spades. The music, the fighting, the extras, everything is so polished it’s one of the best fighting games around right now in my opinion. But the game has a mature rating for a reason, as with all super violent games, it’s not for the young. The Konquest mode is so huge, you can talk to other people, help them out, make enemies if you choose, and it’s excellent. Now if we can get Midway to work on the voice acting, then it could hold it’s own against other pure adventure games. But considering how fast they hammered out this game after not having released “Deadly Alliance” too long ago, everyone applaud for Midway. It’s definitely a game worth picking up for an older fighting fan this holiday, or maybe just for yourself, whatever floats your boat.

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