If you’re a PSN user you may have noticed a demo for the long awaited Mortal Kombat (2011) appeared this past week. After having some friends over for a few play sessions I thought give some of my impressions for the 360 owners who’re missing out on this demo for the time being.
Your Soul Is Mine
My history with fighting games goes way back. My first ever home console game was Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, so growing up I’ve always had an affinity with the fighting game genre.
Then at some point during the mid nineties the Mortal Kombat franchise exploded. It was everywhere, they had Movies, a cartoon show and by that point three games. Everyone was talking about it; kids in the school yard would tell myths about the game. Like how you could uppercut people onto the hooks on the Deadpool stage or play as Goro if you did a crazy button combination in less than a second.
But enough reminiscing lets get down to business
FIGHT
Mortal Kombat (2011) is a 2D fighting game which features 3D polygonal characters similar to the recent Street fighter IV series. You have two punches and two kicks mapped to the face buttons and character specific special moves that can be performed with simple button combinations.
The fighting in this game feels similar to Mortal Kombat vs. DC only with a lot more polish and with all the fighting fixed to a 2D plain the projectiles are much more effective.
It just feels great to play, every hit connects with the appropriate impact you would expect from a battle between two super powered ninjas.
The combo system rewards experimentation a lot of the normal moves can be cancelled into specials giving you a lot of options to keep your opponent off guard.
In addition to their special moves each character now has super powered move activated by hitting L2+R2 called the X-ray attack.
When this attack hits it results in one of the most impressive looking attacks I’ve ever seen in a fighting game. The camera zooms in to show you the internal damage you’re attacks are doing in glorious bone crunching detail. This move is guaranteed to get an audible response from anyone who sees it. Words can’t really describe how impressive these attacks are so check out this video to see it for yourself.
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The fatalities they have shown so far are a return to form after MK vs. DC’s Heroic Brutalities. In the final game each character will have multiple fatalities they can use to humiliate the opponent after they win the match. In the demo there is one for each character but for some reason they didn’t impress me as much as the X-ray’s did. Johnny Cage’s and Scorpion’s seem almost identical apart from one guy uses a sword but this is a demo so some of this stuff might be improved when the game hits shelves.
Oh Chinese Ninja Warrior
The demo includes four characters to play as: Scorpion, Johnny Cage, Mileena and Sub-Zero. They all come with their classic moves, a split second look at the moves list and you’ll throwing out spears and ice balls like its 1995.
All the characters have their own playstyle but once you get a feel for the combat you won’t have much trouble transitioning between them. Out of all the characters so far Mileena is my favourite she can do a lot damage very quickly and as a bonus her fatalities are pretty easy to pull off.
During the course of the fight the character will sustain visible damage from the attacks they’re getting hit with. So even when your character strikes their win pose they might still look like they’re been in a car accident unless you pulled off a flawless victory.
Mortal Kombat (2011) is shaping up to be one of the most impressive fighting games we’ve seen so far. It looks great, plays great and it’ll be hitting stores April 22 in the UK so get your pre orders in now!
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