Mortal Kombat Review (PS3)

Klassic Krippiling Kombat makes a return…Kripes

The world of Mortal Kombat has always been a difficult one for me to get my head around, mainly because of the gory fatalities that finish off every round. As you watch many a torso tear, you can’t help but feel there’s a much simpler way of resolving scenarios. Whilst people are mutilating blood thirsty fighters to death metal, I’m whistling ‘Why Can’t We Be Friends’ in vain hope of a calmer resolution, at least a merciful K.O. Needless to say, it doesn’t look like I’ll be on the Mortal Kombat DLC roster any time soon.

The blood soaked saga has spanned for almost 20 years, and has gotten increasingly more complex with each instalment, so the 2011 edition of Mortal Kombat wipes the slate clean with a interesting twist. The corpses of near every major fighter in the tournaments history lay strewn in pieces across a battlefield, and Earth’s only hope for survival Raiden is taking a vicious pummelling. Just as his skull is about to be caved in, he sends a message to his past self as a warning of the coming destruction in a bid to change the course of events. Unfortunately, signal strength isn’t exactly great in the baron wastelands of the apocalypse, and these key events of the future only appear as cryptic flash-forwards for the past Raiden. In a bid to change his and everyone elses’ fates for the better, he must relive the first three Mortal Kombat tournaments and the oncoming onslaught of destruction.

The story mode takes pride of place in this addition, and quite rightly so. Playing through the events of the first three MK games with slight revisions and additions to some of the major scenarios making it an intiguing plot for fans and a great way of introducing us younglings to the franchise. For those who get a bit sick of Johnny Cage’s obnoxious flirting in unskippable cutscenes or the constant convenient camera angle allowing many a side boob to flash up, a more traditional arcade ladder is available for players to freely fatality their way through with no restriction from the MK lore. The most intriguing mode of all, however, is the challenge tower. Comprised of 300 random missions of increasing difficulty, the challenge tower almost acts as an invigoratingly fresh training mode. You won’t simply be battling one on one with opponents, but stumbling through battles without a head, denying teddies from psychopaths and fighting waves of zombies all provide great breaks from traditional fighting, and is undeniably fun, yet incredibly challenging.

Heading back in time doesn’t just screw up the space time continuum, but halts any form of evolution in 3D planes. Combat has returned to 2D environments and feels stronger for it. I personally have always felt free moving beat-’em-ups to be a frustrating mistress to tame, and bringing it back to 2D landscapes makes movement seem more cohesive and structured rather than broken and fiddly. Every punch, every kick and every grapple feels like it’s genuinely making an impact on your opponent. The basic set of moves offered for each character, with enough practise, can easily transition from one another, making it easy to string together combos to your style, with each battle feeling like a intriguing lesson. It doesn’t feel like science, like it’s bogged down in frame rates and jargon which ‘enlightens’ the know-it-alls and leaves the inexperienced throwing in the towel at the hard fisted nerds. It just feels like a bloody good fighting game. Even when going up against more dedicated fans, I would still give them a run for their money by even surprising myself with some pretty fluid moves.

The bitch slapping and leg tripping will only get you so far though, and it’s not like Mortal Kombat is a no frills fighter. Each fighter has a Super Meter for a more tactical battle. Each time they take damage, the super meter gets that little bit larger and fills up the three bars on offer. Filling up the first simply makes a characters unique move just that extra bit more awesome. Spending two bars allows you to unleash a combo breaker, giving you half a chance to snap out of one of those frustrating pummels to death. Saving it up until it’s full, however, brings on a new addition, a brutal ‘X-Ray’ attack. Missing these can prove near fatal for you, yet landing them almost twists the game in your favour. Snagging someone with these special moves brings impact to slow-mo speeds, stripping away the flesh of opponents and witnessing rib cages cracking, skulls splitting and the less said about eye-balls the better. Of course, this doesn’t steal the show from the main trademark of MK finishing moves. It’s no surprise that ‘Fatalities’ have returned and are looking just as gory as ever. The cast of 30 all have their own unique finishers, and even though they’re always in danger of becoming dull over time with all falling into the same disfiguring boat, the large ensemble make it fiendishly enjoyable to discover the strangely imaginative ways the sick minds choose to finish off their opponent. Alternatively, if you do get bored of one too many tethers of organs, you can just go the comedic route and trip them up to kill them Benny Hill style.

Satisfying online and offline modes ensure an exceptionally long life-span for even the least competitive fighter

If one fatality per character just isn’t enough for stump fetishists out there, there’s no need to worry. ‘The Krypt’ makes a return, standing as a huge graveyard/torturing ground/suicide hotspot. Practically any slightly impressive activity from 4 hit combos to completing story chapters earns you Koins which you can spend in the Krypt busting gravestones and slaughtering innocents. Doing such atrocities opens up a plethora of goodies, from concept art and soundtracks to extra costumes and fatalities. There is an immense amount of content available to unlock, and should you find yourself really delving into combat, you’ll definitely reap a cavalcade of rewards. PS3 users even get the God Of War Kratos to massacre Mortal Kombatants as, equipped with all his staple weapons of destruction, QTE’s and all.

The dark and twisted undertones of Mortal Kombat remain rightfully present in this new addition and looking better than ever. Characters look nicely rendered and better than their 20 year old sprite counterparts, but really stand out when they’ve taken a few scrapes. After a thorough beating, flesh is torn of, eyes punctured and skulls poking out of faces and is a grim delight to behold. Placed amongst some classic and beautiful backdrops, it’s a shame so much blood has to be painted around to gorify it up.

In my opinion, fighting games have always been better played with pals in the same room and Mortal Kombat is no different, but MK is trying to blur the line between its offline and online modes. Online is occasionally laggy, but this could be due to ‘King Of The Hill’ mode, an advanced spectator mode, avatars of other players queue up to partipate in battle, and cheer, borr or even hol
d up cheese and throw tomatoes to express there views on the battle at hand. It’s a great addition, but unfortuantely doesn’t offer up a can of Spam as an option to pathetic opponents who constantly bash far reaching combos.

It’s very difficult to actually find any cons with Mortal Kombat, and this coming from someone who really doesn’t delve into beat-’em-up games. There’s constant flaming on the internet about which is the greater series out of MK or Street Fighter, and should you be part of these unbelievably biased cyber clans, then this addition to the franchise isn’t exactly going to change anyone’s opinion. When playing on my own, however, it did feel the odds were tipped against me at times with some balancing issues. Constantly coming up against tag teams whilst on my own in story mode became a minor nuisance, but was nothing when compared to the final few bosses on the arcade ladder. Going for an opponent’s juggular when they were mid-attack caused them to simply flash, taking on no damage and not even stagger. My game plan became that of humiliating spamming. Some dedicated MK fans I’ve spoken to don’t mind this, comparing it to a traditional final boss character, but to a newbie this instalment has done so brilliantly well to win over, it still feels plain cheap.

Never a fan of the uber gorey, ligament infested history of the franchise, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by Mortal Kombat. It ignores the agility and flashiness that most modern fighters have started to focus on in recent years and goes by a gameplay system which relies on tense close combat and fluid combos. The ultimate revamp for die-hard fans and an interesting premise for newcomers makes this instalment hits the best of both worlds, and the treasure trove of extra along with traditional secrets along with some satisfying online and offline modes ensure an exceptionally long life-span for even the least competitive fighter. A much needed and interesting throwback into the history of a decade spanning franchise Mortal Kombat is worth its place on anyones shelf…but not one within reach.