Mortal Kombat

Back in the late 80s and early 90s, I was an arcade junkie. Weekends, after school, before or after work. Whenever I could, I was someplace with an arcade machine or a full fledged arcade. And the games I ended up playing the most were the fighting games. In 1992 a new game came out, with digitized actors as the characters and something that made everyone in the arcades go crazy for: blood and the killing of opponents. That game was Mortal Kombat.

19 years later, the ninth Mortal Kombat game has hit the home consoles with both a decidedly retro feel and a whole new feel at the same time. This is the best Mortal Kombat game, to date.

In the Mortal Kombat canon, the newest game begins at the end of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. All the fighters from Armageddon lie dead at the bottom of Blaze's pyramid, except for Raiden and Shao Kahn, who are fighting at the top of the pyramid. Shao Kahn defeats Raiden, making Kahn's ending from Armageddon the canonical ending; wherein he destroys all the realms with his newfound powers. However, before he strikes the killing blow on the Thunder God, Raiden sends a message back to his past self to try and alter the events that have occurred.

The story then jumps back to the beginning of the Mortal Kombat tournament from the first game. Raiden receives the visions, but does not understand them. All he knows is that Shao Kahn cannot be allowed to destroy all the realms. As events unfold, we're taken through a retelling of Mortal Kombats one through three, but with enough changes and plot twists to make this new timeline entirely different from the old one.

The story mode is well paced, with what might be the best story in a fighting game, yet. Not that's saying too much since most fighting game stories tend to be a bit far fetched to begin with; but this one is coherent and well written with voice acting that makes most of the characters believable. Oh, and Johnny Cage comes off exactly as you'd expect him to be. This is a good thing.

The story mode does change up the canon throughout, though. Showing off that characters that weren't introduced until MKII or MK3 were at the first tournament, as well as giving us a glimpse at pre-cyborg versions of Cyrax and Sektor. As you play through, you'll take on different characters to move the story along, fighting a few fights and watching cut scenes that flow nearly seamlessly together with no load times. The story's presentation is slick and very welcomed.

The story mode isn't the only single player mode, however. There's also an arcade-styled ladder mode which can be played as a single combatant or as a tag team. The single player mode pits you up against 7 random fighters, Shan Tsung, either Goro or Kintaro and then finally Shao Kahn. The ladder mode gives character specific endings and can unlock other nice things as well.

There's also the challenge tower; which consists of 300 different challenges for you to go through. Challenges range from absurdly silly, to ridiculously difficult. But they all seem to fit in the odd reality that is Mortal Kombat. Rewards are given for every challenge, with some special rewards given at certain milestones.

Mortal Komabt has a tutorial modes to give you the basics of combat and a very well designed Fatality Trainer to help you pull off the sometimes gruesome fatalities.

Then there's the Krypt. A menagerie of unlock-ables to keep you busy and hopefully wanting more. There are 299 things to unlock, ranging from concept art to alternate costumes to revealing extra fatalities for each character. Unlocking these items costs Koins, the in game currency awarded during story mode, ladder mode and the challenge tower.

When it comes to single player content, Mortal Kombat has more than you can shake a stick at.

Of course, what's a fighting game without multiplayer? Well, only half a game, really. Mortal Kombat brings the multiplayer action to the forefront. You and some friends can play in the same room, switching off every win in single combat, or with up to four players playing in the new tag team combat mode. There's also online play, where you can  play ranked matches, player made matches, join lobbies that hold up to 100 people for challenges from strangers and the king of the hill mode. King of the hill is a nice concept, putting up to 8 players in a room with 2 of them fighting and the rest spectating. The winner stays on, the loser goes to the end of the line. It feels like putting your quarters up on the arcade machine.

Unfortunately, my time online has been anything but smooth. On both the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live, lag has been a constant hinderance. This seems to be especially true in king of the hill matches. In fact, the king of the hill mode has frozen my Xbox 360, twice, so far, both times when I was in the middle of a match. With luck, NetherRealm studios will be releasing some sort of patch to help clear up the online lag issues. As it stands right now, I don't enjoy playing online as much as I should.

Mortal Kombat also introduces a super meter to the series. The super meter is broken down into three parts. The first part allows for enhanced versions of special moves, most often being an extra hit or change in the look or duration. The second part allows for a combo breaker to be performed. Then there's the x-ray moves, devastating combos that can only be used when your super meter is full. These moves not only do a ton of damage when they hit, but their stylistic look inside the characters makes them look extremely painful. In fact, some of them honestly should kill your opponent when they hit, but in the mystical reality that is MK, well, people can come back from a blade through their skulls. Well timed x-rays can mean the difference between a crushing defeat or bringing the match back to a more even keel.

There's not a whole lot to find fault with in Mortal Kombat. NetherRealm studios has taken the Unreal Engine 3 to a fidelity rarely seen, which could be owed to the 2D fighting plane. The return to the 2D fighting plane is welcomed and was definitely where any new MK game needed to go. The sound and voice acting are well done, with great remixes of older Mortal Kombat music used on stages. The fatalities are a welcome thing, for the most part, with most of them being great to watch and perform. The combo system, while I blow at it, can make for devastating and painful looking attacks.

But, there is one fault that can get annoying, quickly; and it's a design decision. The cheap boss fights. Goro, Kintaro and Shao Kahn can be some of the cheapest bosses to fight in history. I guess it wasn't bad enough that they do double damage and take half damage; but they also now can take full hits without being phased, allowing them to counterattack with devastating results, far too easily. Shao Kahn is the worst for this. It then becomes even worse when you realize the only real way to constantly beat them is to use cheap tactics, yourself.

When it comes to which version is better? Well, I suppose it can be a matter of taste. The PlayStation 3 version does have an extra character, with Kratos, as well as an extra stage set on Mount Olympus with a stage fatality; while the only extra the Xbox 360 version gets is the ability to use your own Xbox Live avatar in king of the hill matches for the spectator mode. But one character and stage does not a decision make, in my book.

Instead, my preference is for the PlayStation 3 version if you only have the stock controllers. While I normally prefer the Xbox 360 controller for most game genres-- and despise the PS3 controller for those same genres; the Xbox 360 controller is absolute garbage for fighters. With the normal controllers, the PlayStation 3 version wins on controls, hands down. The imprecise 360 D-Pad makes fatalities and even special moves a chore, causing you to jump more often than doing the move you want; and the analog stick isn't any better.

You won't often hear me say this, but the PlayStation 3 version is the version to get-- if you only have the stock controllers for each system. If you have arcade sticks, well, then the game plays pretty equally on both versions and then you can just decide if you want Kratos that badly or if you prefer Xbox Live over the PlayStation Network.

Mortal Kombat is a return to greatness for the series. Its well paced story, incredible visuals, fluid combat and the return to 2D gameplay with great fatalities make this a must own for fans of the series. If you're an old school Mortal Kombat fan, like me, you won't be disappointed in the newest game. In fact, you'll be wanting more.

For my video review for both the Xbox 260 and PlayStation 3 versions see My Blip.TV page at http://worldofpodcast.blip.tv/ or my YouTube page at http://youtube.com/unclethursday for the 12 minute review.