JBoc924The Mortal Kombat series has been to interesting places; from its first foray into 3D space with Mortal Kombat 4 to spin-off entries like Mortal Kombat Special Forces and to the most recent Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe and it’s rated T affairs. Now, NetherRealm Studios aims to set things right and give Mortal Kombat fans the game they’ve been asking for. And in the process, they’ve not only done just that, but they’ve also provided the most komplete single-player fighting game package, right out of the box, of this current generation. Find out why in our review below.
The first thing that is immediately important about this game is that it brings the franchise back to its 2D roots, in terms of the fighting mechanics. Being done and over with the fully 3D fighting prominent in previous entries, Mortal Kombat brings things back to a time when arcade machines held complete dominance over the fighting genre. Now that the series is back to its roots in terms of design, how does it play?
You still have your standard sweeps and uppercuts but now the attack orientation has changed quite a bit. Each button controls a certain limb so in the case of the PS3’s gamepad, square and triangle controls your punches while x and circle controls your kicks. You also have a stance (L2 on PS3) and block button (R2 on PS3) that may be a bit jarring at first, especially to those just coming out of playing recent fighters like Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Super Street Fight IV. Pulling off basic but effective moves should be easy enough for newcomers as they are for veterans, but the new kombo moves, enhanced specials, and x-ray moves serve to mix things up and provide even more strategy to your repertoire.
Each character has their own set of special moves, but now thanks to the inclusion of a 3-staged super meter, you can take those iconic specials a step further. Let’s take Sub Zero, for example, you can still pull off his freeze, slide, and ground freeze moves (among a new ice clone move), but by filling up your super meter you can do enhanced versions of those moves. The ice ball is no longer just a lone projectile when enhanced, instead, it’s a stream of ice hitting your opponent. You can pull off these enhanced specials with just one level filled in your meter. Fill up two levels and you can perform a combo breaker (by pressing forward and block). And lastly, fill up the entire meter and you can do Mortal Kombat’s version of Street Fighter’s Ultra/Super Combos: X-Ray moves.
These X-Ray moves go above and beyond being detailed by giving you an X-ray look at your opponent as you’re dealing a large amount of damge; like Sub Zero impaling his fist into one’s torso and freezing/shattering their stomach following up this already gruesome display by head-butting them. These new X-Ray moves are beautiful complements to the series’ patented fatalities. And speaking of the fatalities…
“Fatality Lives” is Mortal Kombat’s main marketing tag-phrase and oh man does it live. Fatalities are back in full-effect and they’re each a showcase of beautiful gory massacres that will quickly let you see why the game has been banned in Australia. Not only do you have uncensored fatalities making a come-back but you also have the return of stage fatalities and the ever-so humorous babality. These fatalities are the perfect exclamation marks to the overall sentence made up of rough-hitting, over-the-top moves that are present during any fight. This is what makes this fighting franchise stand out above the rest.
The game is packed with a lot of single player modes (which we’ll get to soon) but the most notable one has to be the story mode. We always expect a sort arcade mode in our fighters where we take our desired character and take him or her through a gauntlet of fights, ending up with a character-specific ending. That’s an expected inclusion by fighting fans, but NetherRealm went above and beyond expectations with the inclusion of a full-fledged story mode apart from the aforementioned ladder(arcade) mode.
The story presented in Mortal Kombat is essentially a reboot of the franchise, looking to alter events that took place in the original trilogy. Such alterations and the reasoning behind them are all explained well right from the very opening scene and the story only gets better from there, with a good amount of cheese served on the side. Mortal Kombat’s story has a lot of moments where you can’t help but chuckle a bit, but this doesn’t degrade the overall experience and you’ll still be eager to know what happens next as you go from chapter to chapter in this 8-12 hour interactive movie.
The beauty of this story mode is that it actually puts you in the role of various characters representing a roster made up of more than 20 characters (with a couple being unlockable), instead of just letting you pick your favorite (a right reserved to the ladder mode), and this does wonders. The reason this is so is because it lets players get a good feel for multiple characters, and then upon beating this mode you are ready to tackle future endeavors with the character you felt most comfortable with. This is really convenient, especially for casual players who may not possess as much experience with the series and its many iconic characters as veterans do. Long story short, this is easily a model that all fighting game franchises should follow for their future installments.
Story mode isn’t the only single player offering, though, it’s just the main centerpiece. Aside from this you have a slew of options, including the standard versus mode and the aforementioned ladder (arcade) mode, both of which you can tackle solo or in a tag-team style. Yes, this game introduces tag-team kombat into the mix and it works just how you may imagine it. Tag-outs can be used to deal some damage to your opponent by complementing your current combo or by allowing your partner to use a special move upon his entrance. There’s a lot of new strategic doors that have been opened now thanks to this tag-team mechanic and the fact that you can also do 4-player bouts with this mode should be quite fun and a sure-fire hit at local get-togethers.
Aside from the ladder modes you also have mini-game challenges (Test Your Luck, Test Your Might, Test Your Sight and Test Your Strike) that prove to be nice little distractions from the main modes and they also can get you koins in the process for use in the Krypt (which we’ll get to in a bit). Then you have your standard training mode which includes a tutorial showing you how to perform basic moves, a fatality tutorial which does as you would expect and lets you practice your desired character’s fatality, and lastly a practice mode which you can tackle to try to master combos and special attacks against CPU opponents. But wait, there’s more.
There’s also a Challenge Tower that consists of 300 different challenges. These can range from doing a specific character’s special, like Jax’s ground pound which in one challenge is needed to disable Reptile’s cloaking in order to beat him, to intense situations like taking down zombies without being pushed to the edge of the screen. And as aforementioned, there’s 300 different challenges to take on, making for a mode where you can easily spend hours in.
Now comes a question some of you may be having: Is Mortal Kombat worth your money? Oh hell yes it is. The game is so rich with replay value that it’s almost overwhelming to think about the amount of different things you can do to keep your interest in the game. From the many solo-offerings like ladder mode to the very robust and downright epic story mode, even if you don’t touch online all that often you’re still going to have many things to do. And then you also have the previously covered Challenge Tower which will serve to extend your playtime even further.
And before I forget: There’s loads of unlockables within the Krypt for which you’ll need hard-earned koins for. These koins can be gained throughout almost every mode in the game. It’s worth noting how the story mode is the one that will give you the highest number of koins which you can then take to the Krypt with the goal of unlocking fatalities, concept art, music tracks, alternate costumes, and much more; though, you’ll most likely only want to go for the fatalities and alternate costumes, but you get what you get. Unlocking everything within the Krypt’s different regions will be a task that will take up many hours and even when you feel like the game’s single-player life may be wearing thin, you have the online mode waiting for you.
Mortal Kombat has a very superb online system that offers players a good amount of options. First off, you have the much praised King of the Hill mode which brings back memories and the overall atmosphere of the arcade scene. In this mode it’s a winner stays affair and those waiting their turn to do battle will be able to use avatars to express themselves. Think the match unraveling before you is boring? Well, you can throw a well-deserved tomato at the screen in this theater-like virtual space, and you can also rate the match upon its end. You may be a bit more passive and opt to use the features in this mode for strategic purposes; watching your potential opponent fighting another player gives you a chance to take note of his or her apparent strategies so you can be better preprared. This is a nice way of going about a spectator mode and once again, it’s a standard that other fighting game franchises should definitely consider for their future installments. Aside from King of the Hill, you have your standard player and ranked matches as well as lobbies where you can go in, chat, and pose/accept challenges.
All in all, Mortal Kombat’s online system may be met with some occasional lag, but it still offers players a damn good time and this is a mode which will easily keep you coming back for more. Whether you enjoy the arcade-like setting of King of the Hill or just find joy in taking out the competition in lobbies or player/ranked matches, online has something for you. You can also opt to be a pedophile-like sapien in the lobbies, if that’s your thing.
All of Mortal Kombat’s individual components are wrapped around by an excellent presentation. The visuals aren’t anything on the level of say LA Noire or other games focused on delivering a graphical showpiece, but instead, NetherRealm Studios has delivered an outstanding and effective art style that greatly complements the overall dark and gritty undertones of the series. From the X-Ray moves and fatalities to the overall character and level design, the visuals in Mortal Kombat perfectly represent what the series is all about. And you can’t forget about the music. The tracks here, which can be unlocked in the Krypt, are also well done and they merit an official soundtrack release for the game.
One notable aspect of this game’s presentation is how the story mode is delivered and how it transitions seamlessly from cinematics to playable fights. It’s worth stating again how the story mode is presented like an actual movie and this makes the 8-12 hour ride a very thrilling one. Even the ladder mode’s character-specific endings show off a very striking and downright awesome artstyle which can be grearly complimented due to a full-fledged story mode being offerred as well. The story mode also shows off the great level design which in this game covers more than two dozen levels that bring back fan-favorites in a remade fashion. Yeah, you can just check out these levels yourself and pick your favorites outside of story mode, but this narrative-driven experience actually takes you through them and really lets you appreciate all the little details that went into them. Even when engaged in actual kombat, you can notice the amount of care and details that have gone into the game’s superb level design. It’s just staggering how many things may be going on in the background in some levels, from forest and its talking trees to the moving cerberus in the depths of hell, these levels are as active as the fights taking place within them.
There are some minor flaws with the presentation, though, most notable within the audio department. Yeah, the soundtrack is well done and aurally appropriate, but the actual audio takes a hit due to some unbalanced volume control. You may notice how the audio in the game, upon increasing your TV’s volume, still seems a bit low and this can make hearing dialogue a bit hard because putting the volume up on your TV makes the background music louder, making the dialogue even harder to hear. There’s a simple fix, though, which requires going into the options and playing around with the volume for the effects, background music, and dialogue until you find the most suitable balance. But it would’ve been nice if the audio was delivered in a balanced way right from the get-go. Depsite this minor shortcoming, the game’s presentation still shines.
Final Opinion
Mortal Kombat brings the classic fighting franchise back to its former glory. The bad taste fans may have been left with thanks to Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe is now gone thanks to this game’s return to (gory) form. With more than two dozen levels and characters to choose from (PS3 owners get an extra character with Kratos and a God of War III level), Mortal Kombat doesn’t lack variety. Then you also have the excellent story mode which serves as a reboot, re-telling events from the first three Mortal Kombat titles, as well as teasing future ones. Online and the game’s other kollection of single-player offerings will keep you coming back for more, even after you’ve unlocked everything the Krypt has to offer. Despite some minor audio-related issues, Mortal Kombat shines with its superb presentation. This is not only quite possibly the best Mortal Kombat game to date, its also one of the best fighters around and it easily sets the standard for what other fighting game franchises should do with their next titles.
(9 / 10)
Amazing
(9 / 10)
