Mortal Kombat Reviews

  • Sleepy Dogg 007Sleepy Dogg 007302,322
    21 Apr 2011 23 Apr 2011
    48 6 22
    Mortal Kombat at its finest

    Graphics, backgrounds, and sound

    The graphics are in its finest, you can easily tell the devs. took their time to design all the characters. It shows a lot in story mode, espacially when you can see the characters close up. Like with Cage you can see the pattern his tux with cross hatching, all the way to Sonya's leather jacket on how nicely it complements the way light is shown on. It still slightly has the most basic graphic flaw every game has, the hair. You will barely notcie when characters are close sometimes the characters hair will go through who ever is near. Let me add I'm also happy that the breast physics on girls' are not over used, by that I mean they don't move a absured amount like water ballons. The blood also has a nice flow and dosen't look like gooey in any way.

    The backgrounds are very beatiful, and almost have no flaws they certinly took their time and creative genuis to make these. They even have actions going on in them. Like, the courtyard. The fans are cheering and moving up and down in seats. The guards that are following you actually made me felt like they wanted to chug their spear at you or that they were a pit fatality. You will even re-visit some previous scenes like The deadpool, and even see a background character suffer as he is dipped in the acid alive repeadtly.

    The sound has improved a lot from its pre-games. Instead of having the werid moment after a fatality is done and the character is still screaming, the character is silenced at the right time. The music is all here as well the classic versions and their newer remixed versions, that fit well with the background and moments in story mode.

    Gameplay

    The gameplay is certinly something new and exctiting. The combos someone can come up with are plenty, they consist of juggles now when you pop them up. As of right now they suffer no inf. combos as they did in their last game where every character had a inf. The game suffers no weird glithces that I have noticed from my exprience playing it. The gameplay is very unique as you will notice when playing it, sometimes it reminds me of Marvel vs. Capcom 3 because of the crazy combos someone can pull off. Sadly their is still those cheap players, you will face them onse you notice some coward ducking and blocking waiting for you to come close to combo you during the whole match -_- The new system of the X-ray mode certinly can and will change the tides when your fighting, the cool thing about this is that each character has their own unique one. Wheater it be a parry activited one, teleport, air, and to make it into a massive combo. The basic arcade mode is still present, also they have added a 2-tag arcade mode you can play around with.

    Story

    The story takes place after its last PS2 game Mk armagadden. The victor is shown as Shao Khan and says that the whole realms are screwed. You take control of Jhonny Cage once story mode begins and switches off to diffent characters as you progress (similar to Mk vs Dc sorry no Konquest mode here) The story revolves around Raiden God of Thunder when he recieves visions of the future from himself that the realms are doomed. You will be seeing as Raiden tries to change the course of events to prevent armagadden from coming true. You will see what happened if some characters switch to diffrent sides or avoid certin fates *cough *cough sorry their is some SMOKE around me. :) If these events do happen the story of mortal kombat will change for better or worse.

    Characteres

    Scorpion
    Lui Kang
    Kung Lao
    Sub-Zero
    Sindel
    Ermac
    Reptile
    Kitana
    Johnny Cage
    Jade
    Mileena
    Nightwolf
    Cyrax
    Noob Sibot
    Smoke
    Sektor
    Sonya Blade
    Jax
    Kano
    Stryker
    Shang Tsung
    Baraka
    Kabal
    Raiden
    Cyber Sub-Zero
    Sheeva
    Quan-Chi

    DLC
    Scarlett and Kenshi
    (Yes these were confermied and yes I did put these for news but the newshounds deemed it not worthy.... -_- I will post the link once I find it again. )

    http://gamerant.com/mortal-kombat-9-dlc-kenshi-scarlet-benk-...

    here you go thats the link.

    Fatalitys

    The fatalitys are grealty improved and very very gory. Theirs not much to say becuase that pretty much says it. But when you do it be aware when you look at the Ai face you can actually see the agony they are suffering espacilly when done by noob saibot.

    Bonuses

    The krypt shows a lot of design as well, their is a total of 4 regions you can travel to: Deadlands, Bloodmarsh, Meadow of despair, and Hollow of infestation. Each region also has their own unique way to unlock things instead of the same plain tombstone. Other bonuses that are present are Test your might,, Test your sight ( which is a minigame where you keep your eye on the brain and track it as the skulls move around ) Test you luck ( a regular match were you might bonuses to help you or against you. ) and test your strike ( which is like test your might ) and the challenge tower each one has a unique challenge to do some might be like a mini-game. you might have to be Johnny Cage and fireball a few zombies or beat up Milleena because she wants to give you a teddy bear.

    Online

    The people online are a bit of sore losers. Usally when you win they will lower down your rep for being "aggrasive" and they do trash talk a lot in the chat room. The king of the hill mode is fun most people talk during it and the avatar reactions are quite amusing. Also we seem to get messages of the day from the devs.

    PLEASE NOTE ONLINE PASS IS REQUIRED TO PLAY ONLINE.
    5.0
    Showing most recent comments. View all comments.
    GorevestThe graphics are ok, the music is good, but the controls suck and the game gets boring really fast, especially the challenge tower. But hey, this is my opinion. the review is really good though.
    Posted by Gorevest on 24 Jan 12 at 20:04
    FFX BrotherhoodI struggled to finish the review, the spelling mistakes just annoy me. Call me picky, but I find it hard to take an individuals recommendation or comment seriously, when they can't even spell words such as "Certainly" or "Glitches" correctly. Things like spell-checker, exist for a reason.

    You also failed to mention what the "Krypt" is, what do we do there? You mention you can unlock things but you don't say how this is done through in-game currency earned through playing the game. Also you fail to tell us what "Test your might" is and then reference "Test your strike" as being similar to "Test your might"; But you haven't even told us what test your might is?

    -1 from me.
    Posted by FFX Brotherhood on 23 Feb 14 at 17:41
    KANEFAN84These idiots downvoting your review.
    Posted by KANEFAN84 on 20 Dec 22 at 19:03
  • IGutlessIWonderIGutlessIWonder428,149
    01 May 2011
    23 0 5
    The 9th entry in the Mortal Kombat series is a good one and a game you shouldn't pass up. Whether or not you're good at fighting games or not, this game has a total fun factor that is enjoyable for fighter and non-fighter fans alike.

    GRAPHICS:

    The graphics are easily the best in the series. Every character moves fluently and beautifully. Each attack landed pints out blood on the opposing character in the utmost satisfaction. X-Ray attacks are exceptionally great to look at (especially for the first time) whether on the giving or receiving end of them, they make you cringe and say one of two things: "OUCH!!" or "Damn he got effed up!" There is little difference in graphics when going from a fighting stage to a cut scene, the noticeable difference is nothing to worry about as it doesn't stray away from how the graphics look. Fatalities are grandtastic to watch and even better to perform. Every character has 2 fatalities, 1 babality, and 1 stage fatality, giving you options galore to how you want to watch your foe die. Each character has great detail, and I especially love how damage is shown depending on how much each character takes. The Krypt is a gallery type of place where you use "koins" to purchase different types of art, special moves, alternate costumes and plenty more. When you purchase one, however, the way you pay for each makes you cringe in a good way because the Krypt is somewhat like a circle of Hell meaning whenever you purchase a piece of the Krypt one random person is then tortured or released with good animation to then show you what you have received. Nekropolis is where your unlockables are stored away, each character having their own section dedicated to them, while the main gallery is for concept art for characters, background images, and stages.

    GAMEPLAY:

    As described before, each and every character flows fluently on your screen, but how does that compare to how and when you move your characters. One of the downsides to Mortal Kombat is the responsiveness of trying to perform lengthy combos. This doesn't happen all the time but sometimes it does is when you need to act quickly, henceforth, you may need to repeat a mission or a fight because of it. Other than that, every characters moves are fairly easy to perform, even for people who are new to fighter games. There is a training section from the main menu where you can practice your moves with any given character. Some combination moves are more detailed and harder to perform when in the heat of a match, on the other hand, others just require a quick and simple "X, X, X" to send your opponent backwards/to the ground. Along with button combinations, special moves are really what defines each and every character, from Scorpions "GET OVER HERE!!!!" hook to Cyrax's Net to Liu Kangs Bicycle Kick. Special moves are different from nearly each and every character, like combinations, some are easier to perform than others and does not take long to get used to any one persons special moves and know when and how to use them. Going from match to match with different characters in the Story mode, you won't be lost as you don't have to memorize these moves as each and every characters moves are provided via the start menu. X-Ray attacks are the most powerful move any one character can perform, and yet, they are the easiest to perform on your controller. X-Ray attacks can only be used when three bars of your x-ray meter are filled at the bottom of the screen for your character, when filled, each fighter has a different way of performing them, whether you need to be in the air, whether you need to grapple the enemy, or whether or not you should stay at the other end of the screen or further away to perform it. Along with the x-ray meter, when one bar is filled you can perform a more powerful special move attack. Fatalities are still fatalities, meaning they look as awesome and gruesome as they ever did. Another defining aspect of each and every characters unique abilities. Some make you shock and some make you laugh . Each and every character's fatality is enjoyable as the next. The blood, the gore, the way every character goes about doing them is fantastic.

    SOUND

    You may need to turn the volume up on your television a little more than other games because this games volume for some reason is so quiet. You'll only need to adjust the volume in-game if you want to hear what people have to say during cut scenes. Other than that, the sound in each and every part of the game is great. The crunching of ones jaw, the throw-up sound of vomit from a kick to the stomach, to the blood splattered dripped blood from a recently performed fatality, everything sounds good. One thing that could be better, however, is the voice acting of some of the characters. Some sound out of sync with the moment that's going on. For example, there could be a big turning point during the story line, and one of the characters show very little emotion. Aside from that, hearing the announcer say "FIGHT" or "FINISH HIM" is rewarding and brings me back to the days where I shouldn't have been playing this game in the first place because of my age.

    PLAYABILITY:

    This is a fairly easy 'pick up and play' game. The first hour you'll be performing special moves and combos with ease. There are a decent about of different modes to choose from. The challenge ladder is definitely the bread and butter of this game though. The challenge ladder offers 300 total challenges for every character in the game. Some are funny, some are hard, some are interesting and the rest are enjoyable. When I first encountered my first difficult challenge, I thought if and when I beat it that the rest would be even harder than this. Even so to my surprise they make some of the challenges hard, though are easy enough to beat, and every now and then you will receive a break in a challenge where you have to "Test your Sight" where you need to pick the correct cup with and eyeball or a brain underneath it. Online features a king of the hill game mode, tag team, 1v1, and more. Tag Team play isn't much different than playing as 1v1, some of the tag-in tag-out moves are nice to see but not a good enough amount to speak highly of this aspect of the game. While it's nice to see that NetherRealm tried something a bit different is a good reason to tip your hats them. Sorry, this is probably the weakest section of this review as i only had a 2-day free trial as my brother bought and used the "kode" for online purposes. So, if you are a bit sad that you can't go online because you share this game with another, don't worry because there is plenty to do as a single player, and 2 achievements that could keep you coming back and playing more. One is to complete the challenge tower and the other is completing the arcade ladder with each playable character.
    5.0
  • The Hammer HartThe Hammer Hart97,088
    06 May 2012
    12 1 1
    Hello TA Community and welcome to my review for Mortal Kombat (or MK9, which ever one you prefer). Mortal Kombat is not your normal fighter out there, no crossovers and NO douchey blonde dudes. This is gone and brought in (well not really since it has been in every game) is blood, gore, X-Ray moves and Fatalities which will be explained later. For now, let's start out with the story.

    Story: The story for MK9 takes place directly after the events of Armageddeon. Shao Khan has conqured Earthrealm and everyone is dead, with the exception of himself and Raiden. As Shao Khan is prepared to finish off Raiden, he summons a spell and utters the phrase, 'HE..MUST....WIN' and then dies. The spell which Raiden cast caused him send messages to his past self. Now in the point of view of Past Raiden, you have been sent images all leading to Earthrealm's dimise. Now with the help of unknown allies at this point, Raiden must figure out who must win what tournament. The story of this game is really quite entertaining as it is set out into 16 chapters. Each chapter holds a certain character you must play as to progress. So overall, the story is amazing and there are some funny moments squeezed in as well.

    Gameplay: Now here is where things get serious. MK9 holds countless number of ways to play like your standard ladder which lets you progress through 10 fights, ending with Shao Khan. Tag Ladder which is identical to Ladder except you pick two fighters. Challenge Tower which allows you to play 300 minigame like challenges until you get to the top (which is no where near easy). Other than this, there is the Krypt which allows you to spend your hard earned coins (with a K) for rewards, art concept and other stuff. Also in this is a ittle friend waiting for you at random times to come and say hello (If you haven't guessed, its a Screamer so watch out). There is the Nekropolis which is where you can view your unlocked stuff like chracter bios, models and more. Now the game plays like any other MK before, there are two rounds that a player must win with a maximum of 3 rounds. Once a player wins, instead of winning, they have an oppurtunite to perform a Fatality which is a finishing move which allows the player to kill the opponent in the most brutal ways imaginable (Also note: If you are not good at this, there is a Fatality Trainer so I would recommend doing that). There are other finishers you can do, but these are secret so, Shhh.... Anyway, there is a new element in the fighting which is called an X-Ray attack and Enhanced attacks. Enhanced attacks are performed by using 1 section of your super meter, X-Rays are performed by doing the same but using all 3 segments.Anyway, that is all the single player features in the game so they are really fun and provide countless hours of entertainment.

    Online: Now let's start by saying that the game does not shine that bright in Online. It's not that the features are bad as it hold tag fighting, normal fighting and King of the Hill. It is that you can barely find a good match depending on what country as I seems to be region locked. So to sum up, the online had potential, but did not pull it off correctly.

    Graphics: The visuals are amazing, every pint of blood you see just makes me so happy (not creepy) and when witnessing the bones break in the X-Ray moves just feel so good (Once again, NOT creepy). The character models are simply amazing and especially the robots as they put alot of detail into them. This goes for the stages as well as they have crap going on in the background and stuff flying everywhere, it's crazy. So to sum up, they reallyh put the 2.5D Graphics to use.

    Music: The music is great and hearing every scream just makes me feel great inside (For the last time, ITS NOT CREEPY), anyway, the stage music is just phenominal and some past songs have been remixed like the Subway. As for the sound effects, they are standard and shouldn't be mentioned that much. The music is amazing, what can I say.

    Overall: To conclude, Mortal Kombat is a masterpiece. With virtually no flaws, 4 player action, a challenge tower and over 20 characters including DLC Characters and Costumes. WOW. Anyway, if you dont like the series, give it another try and I promise you, you WON'T regret it.

    Story: 5/5
    Gameplay: 5/5
    Online: 3/5
    Graphics: 5/5
    Music: 4/5

    Overall: 9.4 out of 10
    5.0
  • BahamutPRMEBahamutPRME279,387
    29 Apr 2011 29 Apr 2011
    10 2 3
    GET OVER HERE!!

    This game is the best in the entire series. i've played most of the MK games like shaolin monks, ultimate mortal kombat 3, and mortal kombat unchained; the list goes on but this one is just pure awesomeness, there is so much blood, the fatalities are sooooo gruseome and the characters all look BA! (the girls are super sexy to boot). staying on the topic about the characters looks you get to see the damage you deal after hitting your opponent so many times or if you just focus on a certain body area blood will keep coming out and show up, and stay, on your opponent and wil splatter on you and stay, unlike in the older games where you'd see it splatter and it'd fade away, the blood is here to stay.

    Another good thing about this game is that some of the characters old special attacks like scorpions flame back flip kick (can't remember the real name) has been added to a kombo of his so you get to do the kombo and maybe pull out a special right after makeing for some great damage.

    one thing thats not really bad but is kind of annoying is that you have to input a kode like a regular fatality when you're about to do a stage fatality like on the pit you cant just uppercut and they fall in to the spikes this time every character has a different kode to input, again not bad but annoying. Another thing thats kind of not bad but REALLY annoying is the online play, when your in king of the hill, (or any match with a person with bad connection), it will lag so much, especially when its your turn to fight or just lag non stop if there are so many people, again just plain annoying.

    Following up the topic of online play, in order to play online you will have to have the online pass which comes with a new-never-pre-owned game, but if you dont feel like buying a new one for $60 you can always go with a pre-owned copy and buy the online pass off of xbox live.

    Now there are a number of things that xbox live has for sale that comes from this game for your avatar and on xbox live:
    Ermac mask
    shao kahn helm
    sub-zero full body outfit
    scorpion full body outfit
    neather-realm t-shirt
    Eventually- kenshi dlc
    Eventually-scarlet female ninja dlc
    Eventually- more dlc's

    Anyway i highly recomend this game to everyone whether your new to the series or have been a hardcore fan since the first game in 1992. Hopefully this review convinces some people who have not bought this game to go out and buy it and since i'm new here i dont know if i can add a video so go on youtube and watch some gameplays and fatalities there brutally awesome!

    sorry for talking about xbox if any ps3 people are videwing this but i onyl have xbox so again sorry. and if anyone feels like bashing this then please go easy because tis is like my second review ive ever written

    FINISH HIM!!!
    5.0
  • Removed Gamer
    Gamer has been removed
    8 2 1
    Mortal Kombat 9 (that’s what I will be calling to clear up any confusion) was developed by NetherRealm Studios . NetherRealm Studios is made of members from Midway Chicago and WB Games Chicago. Mortal Kombat 9 goes back to the 2D fighting style of those first three games. Mortal Kombat 9 is also a return to the blood and gore that we all enjoyed, which was absent in Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe. Now I have never really gotten in to the previous Mortal Kombat games as I felt they were extremely difficult and I was not very good at them. Now I will be the first to admit I am still no good at Mortal Kombat. Mortal Kombat 9 makes it extremely easy for a beginner like me to jump in and just enjoy themselves.

    The Mortal Kombat storyline is full of downright non-sense, and it may sound crazy, but after playing Mortal Kombat 9 I feel that I understand all the non-sense. The story mode is broken down to sixteen chapters, each of which is dedicated to its own character. The story mode retells the story of the first three Mortal Kombats. The difference is this version of those stories have some twists. Like delving into the back-story of characters such as Noob Saibot and Kabal. Both of which were not really explained in the past games. The pacing of the single-player is pretty good. When you first start the fights are relatively easy. They start to ramp up in difficulty,which two-on-one fights and cheap boss battles.

    As mentioned earlier NetherRealm makes is relatively simple for anyone to just jump in and have fun. Now where the depth comes in is when you want to master the game. There are many combos and tricks to learn by playing the game a lot and learning what moves can be combined and which can not. Now even the best of players can not use their skills to defeat the bosses in the game. Shao Kahn, Goro, and Kintaro. These bosses can only be taken down with cheap and annoying tactics, Shao Kahn especially. For Kintaro and Goro I was forced to jump around like a mad man and uppercut when I had the chance. If only it were that easy for Shao Kahn. Shao Kahn is easily the worst part of the game. These bosses are staples of Mortal Kombat, but they are something I wish would have been fixed in Mortal Kombat 9.

    Included in Mortal Kombat 9 is a new special move called X-Ray moves. These are executed by saving up enough special meter. The same special meter is used for combo-breakers(uses two-thirds of the special meter and break the current combo) and enhanced moves(uses one-third of the special meter and increases the power of a character’s special moves). Of course there are the fatalities, of which each character has two. And a returning finisher is the Babality (which turns the enemy is turned into a baby). Also new to Mortal Kombat 9 is Tag Mode. This is where a player (or two different players) can control two fighters and fight like any other fight. There is a good amount of stuff do do in the single player game including the new challenge tower. The Challenge Tower consists of 300 small challenges including Test Your Luck, Might, and Strike.

    As with any fighting game it is much more fun to play with friends, and Mortal Kombat 9 makes it simple to play with many friends at once. NetherRealm included a lobby system where groups of people can gather and challenge each other. Another new mode included is King of the Hill mode. Now this is not the king of the hill mode you expect from shooters. This is where up to eight people enter a room of people and two people battle at a time and the others spectate and at the end of the match, rate the performance. The winner fights the next fight and the loser gets sent to the end of the line.

    The character set in Mortal Kombat 9 is one that includes every character a fan of the first three games would want. Series favorites, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, and Johnny Cage return. Along with obvious choices there are some questionable inclusions. These include Quan-Chi, Sheeva, and Cyber Sub-Zero. Even with the questionable entries all the playable characters are balanced with some being new-user friendlier than others. Included as a way to unlock hidden fatalities, secondary outfits, and art concepts is the Krypt. It is a place to spend the Koins you will acquire through fighting in any form. There are over one-hundred different krypts to unlock and what you will get is a complete surprise.

    Overall Mortal Kombat 9 is a great new direction for the series to go and is an easy recommendation for anyone remotely interested in fighting games or Mortal Kombat.

    for more reviews go to www.gleasongaming.com
    4.0
  • xxW0LFxx TFDxxW0LFxx TFD221,800
    30 Aug 2011
    6 1 1
    Written for my site at www.wolfsgamingblog.com.

    In many respects the original Mortal Kombat was something of a revelation to me: I enjoyed Street Fighter at the time, but I was never that heavily addicted to it. But along came Mortal Kombat with its free-flowing combo system and its ludicrous amount of blood and guts. And those beautiful, spine chilling Fatalities that demonstrated so many ways to end a video-game character’s life. Poor little sods. Mortal Kombat sparked the love of fighting games for me, and acted as a stress reliever and anger management system, all rolled into one.

    However, after Mortal Kombat 3 things started to go downhill. Later games would take away the free-flowing combat and replace it with a list of combos you had to memorize to win. Even the awesome special moves of the characters took a back-seat to this fascination with premade combinations. It hurt me. It burned a hole in my soul to see my beloved franchise withering away.

    But it’s now 2011, and my beloved franchise is back. And it is badass.

    But NetherRealm Studios had a bit of a problem when it came to crafting a sequel: at the end of Mortal Kombat Armageddon they had wiped everyone out and the evil Shao Khan was standing triumphant. So a cunning plan was hatched to reboot the series: just as Shao Khan was about to deliver the fatal blow to Raiden, the Thunder God, Raiden sends a message back in time to himself, warning him of what is to come. It’s a good excuse to reboot a franchise, and the result was NetherRealm Studios being able to go back and let us play through the story of the first three games, albeit with plenty of differences. It has also allowed them to craft of the most enjoyable story modes seen in a fighting game, and the best story that Mortal Kombat has ever seen. It’s still not going to be competing with Mass Effect or Red Dead Redemption, but for a Mortal Kombat game this is intense and dramatic stuff

    The story does a good job of getting you proficient with a range of characters as well. Every few fights you’ll be forced to take on the role of a new character and quickly learn the basics of that characters fighting style, otherwise you’ll be a mass of blood and guts in no time at all.

    The biggest flaw in the story mode comes from a fascination with cheap boss battles and difficulty spikes. Most of these irritating bosses can be beaten purely through skill, but at a certain points in the game you need to face down the main baddie, Shao Khan, and it’s at these points that some gamers may just quit altogether as Shao Khan is akin to God, except he’s much cooler, far more evil and God would presumably be sportsmanlike enough not to spam the same move over and over. Shao Khan is able to instantly become impervious to attacks, has several sequences of moves than can pin you down and pound the crap out of you and some seriously beefed up health. And so, to beat his ass, you have to resort so spamming attacks of your own leading to a seriously unsatisfying win. Unfair boss fights: they weren’t fun back then, and they sure as hell ain’t fun now.

    Still, unless Shao Khan pisses you off so much that you rage quit and throw your copy of the game in the bin, the fighting mechanics that power Mortal Kombat should keep you grinning like a lunatic. Gone is the clunky combo system that newer incarnations of the franchise loved, and back in the is the freeform combo system that made me fall in love with the series. The controllers face buttons now control your characters four limbs and can combined into combos on their own or with characters special moves for some real pain. And what a range of special moves are on offer: you can free people, teleport, slice people, stab people, steal the powers of people and generally beat the holy shit out of them with an array of cool moves. Each is simply to execute – none of Super Street Fighter IV’s tight timing, here. Instead the art of them comes from weaving them into intricate combos with which to smash your opponents brain out. Knowledge of when and how to use them is vital to winning.

    For all the grace and fun that is inherent in the combat system there is flaws to be found, and most stem from certain characters being over-powered and others having combos and moves that can be spammed to lock your opponent into a never-ending cycle of pain. This will certainly harm the game in the eyes of the hardcore fighting fanatics who demand precision balancing of characters, but for the rest of the gamers out there these problems will be overshadowed by the fact you just ripped a guys spine out.

    Speaking of which, fatalities return in all of their bloody gory. The series previous out, Mortal Kombat vs DC, was light on these brutal moves thanks to licensing issues that kept them from allowing the Mortal Kombat characters to rip Supermans head off and use his body as a decorational ornament. But things are different now as there is no DC licensing to hold them back, and Mortal Kombat revels in that fact: limbs will be torn off, blood will flow and all manner of intricate death awaits those unfortunate enough to be on the wrong end of the legendary ”FINISH HIM”. The bad news is each characters second fatality must be unlocked by purchasing it in the Krypt, a giant land of unlockables, where nothing is marked.

    Other gameplay changes have been made, most noticeable among them is the bar that now sits at the bottom of your screen which builds up as you dish out the punishment. In a move to allow fighters getting dominated during a game, the meter builds up even quicker if you’re the one getting the snot kicked out of you. The bar is divided into three distinct parts with the first allowing you to increase the power of a single special move, the second allows you to break a combo in mid-flow, and the third allows the use of the awesometacular X-Ray moves. As the name suggests this lovingly brutal move shows you a slow motion X-Ray shot of your opponent as you smash bones and destroy internal organs. Not only do they do utter carnage to your opponents health bar, but they also bring a huge smile to your face, even if you did just watch your blades slide through someones eye sockets and are now wondering how the hell they can still be fighting. That’s the real definition of badass: when you can get stabbed in the eyes and still beat the crap out of someone.

    For your bloody pleasure there’s also a substantial roster of characters to pick from thanks to the time travelling shenanigans. All the favorites like Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Smoke and Noob Saibot are here and ready to get fighting. All of them are rendered in loving detail and take convincing damage to costumes and their bodies as fights progress.

    And for that matter, the rest of the game also looks great. The backdrops to your bone-shattering fights are varied and interesting, giving you something to look while your opponent juggles you in the air in an attempt to find even more interesting and inventive ways of inflicting pain upon you. From monsters obliterating a city to dark dungeons this game has plenty of different locations in which to fight. And having great looking scenery is always important when you’re fighting for your life.

    And NetherReal haven’t just delivered a good-looking game, either. The game also shines in the audio department with some brutal effects when you’re pounding away. Bones crack and snap with such realism that it’s hard not to wince, and the beautiful metallic ping that presents itself whenever you hit one of the robotic characters is incredibly satisfying. The music on offer is the fairly typical Mortal Kombat fair, but it’s still enjoyable and suits the action perfectly. And yes, the dude that screams “FINISH HIM” is as awesome as ever.

    Should you get bored with the story mode, or simply got sick of that cheating bastard Shao Khan, there’s plenty of other things to entertain and amuse you. The game comes with a Challenge Tower that has a total of 300 levels to get through, and most of them provide completely different takes on the normal fights or odd challenges such as finding the object among three skulls, testing your might by breaking through concrete or other barmy things. Variations on fights are the most interesting, ranging from fighting while invisible to being upside-down.

    If you’re feeling like just getting quickly into the action you can jump into the Ladder mode which challenges you with a series of fights and rewards you with your chosen character’s ending story, told via still screens and text which is a bit disappointing.

    A new Tag-Team mode has also been added to the game where you can tag your AI or human partner in at will and perform two-person combos. That’s twice the blood and twice the kick-assery for your effort. Take it online with a friend and prove to the world that you’re the King of Mortal Kombat by bashing other people’s heads in.

    Mortal Kombats best multiplayer mode brings back that nostalgic feeling of waiting in line at the Arcade to go up against the top player of the day: the feeling of all eyes being upon you as you slid your money into the machine and grasp the controls with your sweaty hands. The mode is called King of Hill and follows the classic Arcade rule: he who wins stays on. The current Kings Avatar will jeer and taunt you from his podium as your Avatar steps up and you get read to fight. Every other player in the room gets to watch your dance of death and then gets to rate the match afterwards. And on those days when it all comes together and you beat the holy hell out of the player who hasn’t lost for twenty matches in a row, the experience is unmatched as the other players acknowledge your skills and hold up that beautiful ten out of ten score. And then the fight is back on.

    Mortal Kombat has its flaws: balancing issues, multiplayer can get laggy and it has Shao Khan. But despite these problems, despite that son of a bitch, when ever I put down my controller and walk away from Mortal Kombat, I walk away with a grin on my face. Welcome back Mortal Kombat, I’ve missed you.

    The Good:
    + Fast, fluid combat.
    + Story mode is good!
    + King of the Hill!

    The Bad:
    - Shao Sodding Khan.
    - Balancing issues may put off the hardcore.
    - Multiplayer can get laggy.

    The Scores:

    Graphics: 8.5
    The animations don’t always smoothly link together, but otherwise this is a fine-looking game with plenty of blood.

    Sound: 9
    A stellar job has been done to bring the sound of fists hitting flesh to life.

    Story: 7
    For a fighting game it’s very good, and for Mortal Kombat it’s superb. By any other games standards it’s pretty cheesey.

    Gameplay: 9
    It’s fast, fluid and brutal. There are balancing issues and some irritating boss fights, but this is a damn fun game with a surprisingly deep combat system.

    Lifespan: 8
    The story mode offers a good amount of gameplay, as does the challenge tower and Ladder modes. Plus a fun online mode.

    Overall: 9
    Summary: The return of the blood thirst franchise is both a welcome one and hugely successful one. It’s fast, it’s fun, it’s brutal and it’s bloody. And I’ve fallen in love with it all over again.
    5.0
  • joedahoc93joedahoc93103,960
    20 Jul 2011
    6 1 0
    Overview: With Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 releasing earlier this year, I wasn't too excited about the new Mortal Kombat. But when I eventually picked up the game I was pleasantly suprised to learn all the new combos and fatalities. It brought me back to MK3. Sure some of the combos do seem a bit overpowered here and there. Not to mention the X-Ray moves (why all fighting games require some kind of supermove is beyond me). Each fighter brings its own unique aspect to the gameplay.

    Gameplay: The arcade ladder seems polished as always. However at higher difficulties it seems a bit unbalanced allowing characters to bypass attacks, health issues etc. Other then then the diffuculty issue the game couldn't be better. Besides, I've been playing the Mortal Kombat series for years and I was eventually able to conqure the expert mode, but I always prefered hard since the game was just more fun that way. The challenge tower is long and entertaining if you get bored easily of just fighting the arcade ladder.

    Campaign: The story was good and simple. Lets kill a few characters here and change some shit here and "BAM", you get the storyline which doesn't stray much from typical MK formula. Each character is given decent dialouge, and the actual story progresses quite well for a fighting game.

    Graphics: Violent, amazing and detailed as hell. Each character is given 1-2 extra costumes (not including the DLC). The stages are amazing, the only graphic thing I could really complain about is the menus, It's just so much like Super Street Fighter IV. It just bugs me. Besides the menus, The game is just amazing to look at.

    Final Words: With fighting games making such an illustrious comeback as they have, it does bring a sign of relief that Mortal Kombat finally gets the reboot it deserved. With heavywieghts like SoulCalibur V and Street Fighter X Tekken it's good to see that these games keep coming out. Mortal Kombat offers a fresh new way to dismember your friends.
    5.0
  • MRMIdAS2kMRMIdAS2k371,399
    22 Apr 2011 22 Apr 2011
    12 7 6
    Mortal Kombat, The Ninth title in the Canon, has been reborn. Gone are awkward sidesteps, fighting styles, and weapon Kombat from it's 3-D dark years, returning on a gloriously 2-D plane, although the character models and battlegrounds are 3-D, is probably the biggest step in the right direction the series has made for years.

    A retelling of the first 3 MK games, Mortal Kombat sees Raiden trying to prevent the happenings from Mortal Kombat: Armageddon by changing the events of the first 3 tournaments.

    Kombat is fluid, fast, and has a retro feel, with MK's retro signature "4 attack buttons and a block button" which, despite denials by naming them "front" and "back" punches and kicks (referring to the arm closest, or furthest from screen) may as well be the classic "high" and "low" attacks. Gone are the "dial-a-kombo's" made popular by games like "Killer Instinct" and replacing them is a more old-school "juggle" system, with 2 or 3-hit kombo's providing links between popup moves, as opposed to the common 5 to 10-hit ground kombo's of the later 2-D iterations.

    Gamemodes are mostly fun, the Tag-team mode works well, and has a lot of scope for unusual kombo's and punishing manoeuvres between partners, Single player is an utter joy, with each character playing differently, and needing different strategy to beat.

    and now for the bad stuff, bosses. A boss taking less damage, and dealing more I can take, hell, in MK it's a tradition, but someone at netherrealm went "y'know what'd be great? remember on the Smackdown games a few years ago, when they had the weight system, and you couldn't punch the heavy guys with Rey Mysterio, and everyone hated it? well lets make it universal, regardless of weight, make it happen at random, and give it to ALL the bosses, yeah they'll LOVE that!" Now yes, the bosses take block damage in this state, but they'll continue whatever it is they're doing, so, if you get the jump on Shao Khan, and manage to kick him out of the shoulder charge he's throwing at you, he'll just pull that trick, take guard damage, and shouldercharge you anyway. This pretty much kills story mode stone dead, it went from probably the best story mode in an MK game, to the worst in 2 boss fights, turning what should be an epic final battle into a luck based fight from the worst nightmares of an SNK boss designer, almost as if Ed Boon is scared of making the best fighting game ever, so he intentionally buggered it up.

    So all in all, if you're bothered about the story, be prepared to hate the game you love, purely because it could be so much better, if you want the game for VS and online, it's probably the best fighting game in a long time.
    4.0
  • Balsin FaseBalsin Fase172,471
    01 Aug 2011
    5 1 0
    In the 90's, after much begging and pleading, I finally managed to convince my mom that it was all right to buy me Mortal Kombat. One glorious Christmas morning, I opened up the small square present that had my name on the tag, starting my downward spiral into violence and debauchery with my copy of Mortal Kombat for the Game Boy. Now wanted in every province of New Brunswick, I owe my demonic powers and cold heart all to that one game.

    Oh, wait, I forgot. I’m a functional member of society. Never mind. I guess Mortal Kombat wasn’t so bad for me after all (At least not the Game Boy version, that is).

    In recent years, the Mortal Kombat series has strayed quite a bit away from its roots. Don’t get me wrong, I liked a lot of the 3D games, and thought the added movement lent the game enough depth to keep the franchise going. With fighting games on the outs and a disastrous move to curbed violence in MK Vs. DC, I thought the series was over. When sold to Warner Bros., I was sure of it.

    Then I saw that video those fine folks made.

    Then the trailer for the new game that was in the works.

    Then I played the game.

    Good God, the new Mortal Kombat is fantastic.

    This game is probably my favorite in the entire series. It’s sharp, has a tight cast of characters, and boasts a ton of single-player content and challenges to keep you busy well past when your friends go home.

    Let’s start right in with the story. For starters, there is one. Fighting games usually tend to mention things in silly cutscenes or in rambling images between fights. Never really much explanation, but you never really needed one. Mortal Kombat, though, has an incredible amount of history filled with factions, religions, and alliances. It has a rich storyline, one that really fleshes out the characters. So much so, then, that they gave this game a story mode you could play through. It’s not just an arcade ladder with cutscenes, though, but an actual narrative that makes you play as certain characters during different plot points. If you go to save Jax, you’ll be switched to Sonya, but then changed over to Scorpion while you hunt for Sub-Zero. It coaxes you into trying out the new characters before you fall back on old favorites, helping you get more out of your game. Also, the story mode is huge, flowing through the events the first three games, and easily taking a couple of hours to complete.

    Beyond that, there’s a challenge tower with 300 levels to keep you busy for the next few months. These challenges start off pretty soft, naturally, but as they get harder, they also seem to get more interesting. They don’t just ask you to beat x amount of guys without blocking, they change the game in neat ways, like having it so that attacking makes you tear off one of your limbs and throw it at the enemy. You can attack again when it grows back, and that’s all you can do for that match. Maybe you might have to beat a bunch of one hit kill enemies with one projectile weapon, but it takes time to recharge if you use it too much. A lot of creativity went into this mode, far more than any other fighting game I’ve ever played.

    But what if you just want to fight dudes without all the extra garbage? Well, this game has the most solid gameplay since Mortal Kombat II while still giving you the innovations in practice rooms and available move lists that new fighting games have put out. Every button press and command feels fast and fluid, never giving me the impression that the computer is responding too slowly or that my button presses aren’t being recognized. Even fighting games such as Super Street Fighter seem nebulous about when what I press will actually equal out to, but even with the 360's bad d-pad, I’ve rarely felt like I was being cheated by the controls.

    It doesn’t hurt that I’ve known most of these moves since I was a kid, either. Like Super Street Fighter, they’ve kept most of the same move lists when they kept the same characters. It gives you this feeling that you already have a steady foothold, and helps boost your confidence in learning the new moves. If you can press a direction twice and hit a button, you’re in business, too. This game doesn’t use complicated presses to execute moves, usually just relying on a few taps and then a face button. It keeps you concentrating on the game and not the pad when you’re a beginner, and keeps the moves as second nature for an expert. It just makes the game feel very approachable for new people and veterans alike.

    Finally, all of my favorite characters are back. If you liked the new ones from the PS2 era, you’ll probably be disappointed, since the roster focuses on the arcade characters most of us grew up with. None of this nonsense about the shirtless chinese half-robots in military hats. Just honest to goodness palette-swapped ninjas, as it was meant to be. The new models look great, and feel like natural progressions of the characters. Also, the palette-swapped ninjas have all been given an overhaul to make them look like individuals, which is also nice.

    As for bad things…uh…the music is just ok. Oh, right, the online gets chuggy at times. I had a real hard time getting into matches, but the problems seem to come and go. They are relatively easy to stomach, as only about 1 in every 5 matches gave me a lot of trouble. Then again, online is never a big thing for me, so take that information how you will.

    This is THE fighting game for me, loading up the single player experience while giving me the option to goof off online if I want. Everything I felt nostalgic about in the series is in place, with all of the tweaks and benefits of it being a new game. It may not be as technical as other fighting games, but I really don’t care, because this one is so much fun to play. It’s nice to play a fighting game where I don’t feel like I’m relearning how to play video games for a change.
    5.0
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