Finish Him.

In 1992, that simple phrase helped revitalize an aging American arcade industry, extend the competitive arcade fighting scene, and singlehandedy manage to get politicians interested (and concerned) about video games and their effect on children. Yes, I’m talking about Mortal Kombat; originally slated to be a digitized fighter starring Jean Claude Van Damme, the game quickly grew into a behemoth of a franchise.

Many years and many sequels later, interest in the franchise began to wane. After three 2D arcade installments and countless console ports, the transition to 3D wasn’t handled quite as cleanly as it could have been. The PlayStation 2 era games (Deadly Alliance, Deception, and Armageddon) – though decent in their own right – lost some of the simplicity that made the first few games so popular. By the time Mortal Kombat Armageddon had “koncluded,” the timeline of the series ended up in a very sequel-unfriendly state. Basically, the world ended.

Game: Mortal Kombat
Publisher: Warner Brothers Interactive
Developer: NetherRealm
Genre: Fighting
Price: $59.99
Verdict: A stylish update to a classic fighting series.
Pros: Gorgeous graphics, tight gameplay, and loads of content.
Cons: Corporate shenanigans like retailer-exclusive DLC, Online Pass, and product catalogs.

Acquired via Purchase

Following the decidedly non-canon and super-tame Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe on current generation consoles, there were a lot of questions from fans regarding the future direction of the series. Publisher Midway’s widely publicized bankruptcy in 2009 made many fans of the series entertain the possibility that Mortal Kombat may never see another installment on console or otherwise. However, Warner Brothers Interactive rescued the Chicago Mortal Kombat studio from certain financial fatality, placed original creator Ed Boon at the helm, and set them to work on what would become one of the biggest fighting games of this year:  Mortal Kombat.

The simplicity of the game’s title signifies the fact that it is indeed a full reboot of the series – with a twist. The game actually begins during the events of Armageddon, when Raiden is about to be defeated by a Blaze-infused version of the Outworld Emperor, Shao Kahn. Right before he is killed, he sends a vision to himself immediately before the events of the first MK tournament. The message in this vision is simple:  “He must win.”

Raiden spends his time during the events of Mortal Kombat 1 to Mortal Kombat 3 attempting to decipher the meaning of the message, and his interference in some of the previous games’ “canon” events creates some unexpected outcomes in this game’s storyline. The story itself is impressive, especially for a fighting game.  However, for reasons I cannot disclose here (out of respect for those avoiding spoilers),  the resolution will disappoint fans of a few core characters of the series.  The ending isn’t unsatisfying, but it opens a gigantic can of worms that is going to have to be handled carefully by the inevitable sequel.

Mortal Kombat‘s gameplay is a return to its 2D roots.  All the backgrounds and characters are carefully, lovingly crafted in high definition while the gameplay remains on a 2D plane. For fighting game fans, it’s not a stretch to say that Mortal Kombat does for this series what Street Fighter 4 did for Capcom’s flagship franchise. The game is a return-to-form; it manages to remove a lot of excess fluff and failed gameplay changes (such as kreate-a-fatality, fighting stances, and konquest mini-games) introduced during the post-arcade era and instead hyper-focuses on delivering a solid tournament-worthy fighting experience that is both familiar and novel.

In this, Mortal Kombat succeeds brilliantly. The roster is expansive and consists mostly of characters from the first three games in the series, with the additions of Quan Chi, a cyborg version of an existing character, and (for owners of the PS3 version) God of War‘s Kratos. Each character has a wide variety of special moves and fatalities – many of which are initially locked. It is clear that every character in the roster has received a lot of attention in terms of animation, special moves, and character balance. Though the roster may initially seem small compared to Armageddon‘s, the care put into each fighter more than makes up for the lack of the dozens of cookie-cutter characters that kharacterized that title.

The controls are similar to the early titles in the series (LP, HP, LK, HK, BL), but chooses to eschew the Run button and Rage meter in favor of a super meter that behaves quite similar to the one currently used in Capcom’s Street Fighter 4. The super meter is filled when a player inflicts damage or receives damage, and has a variety of uses. Powered up special moves can be executed using a quarter of the super meter, while breaking out of a combo currently in progress by an opponent takes half. For maximum damage potential, the entire meter can be spent on an X-Ray attack – Mortal Kombat‘s answer to Street Fighter 4′s Ultra Combos. These moves are almost as gruesome as many of the game’s fatalities and are extremely satisfying to pull off in a fight.  Dial-a-combos haven’t been eliminated from the game entirely, as there are plenty of 3-4 hit chains that can be done by most characters, but their damage potential was deliberately limited to encourage combo creativity. This is certainly a change for the better, and gives each player plenty of chances rebound after taking damage. In a lot of fighting games, a single mistake can cost a player an entire match as they are strung up in an infinite combo; Mortal Kombat seems to have been deliberately designed to minimize this phenomenon.

Mortal Kombat‘s selection of modes is expansive. Other than the typical Arcade ladder (which can be played in either 1v1 or 2v2 tag mode), there is the Story mode (putting the player in the role of various characters throughout the twisted timeline of the first three games’ tournaments), a Challenge Tower that rewards users with special Kurrency for completing tasks under various “konstraints.”  The tasks are varied, including fights with various handicaps, new versions of Test Your Might and Test Your Sight, as well as other mini-games that mix things up, and timed dexterity challenges. The Kurrency earned in this mode (and many others) can be used to unlock fatalities, costumes, Kombat Kodes (yes, the pre-fight kodes introduced in Mortal Kombat 3 make a comeback here), and concept art in the newly redesigned Krypt. Unlike some of the PS2-era titles, there is only one type of Kurrency. Players wishing to farm Kurrency for fully opening the Krypt will find it’s fairly easy to do so. Setting the computer AI difficulty to “Beginner” and spamming projectiles in the Arcade Ladder mode will accrue large amounts of Kurrency quickly, as will completing the Story mode on any difficulty. The game is also packed with secrets outside of the Krypt. Aside from two unlockable characters, classic fights against the likes of Reptile (in ninja form), Jade, Smoke, and Noob Saibot were also added.

Online is full-featured and a lot of fun. While playing with some friends located in different areas across the country, there were intermittent bouts of lag, but due the nature of Mortal Kombat‘s gameplay it didn’t seem to cause too many game-breaking issues. King of the Hill mode, where users can rate others in fights in progress, is some of the most fun I’ve had in an online fighting game this generation.  Also, as a bonus – sorry Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 – this game has spectator mode as well.

I will be the first one to admit that I didn’t expect much from Mortal Kombat after being disappointed with the PS2 iterations of the series, but the game really surprised me.  The sheer amount of features, characters (nearly 30), backgrounds (nearly 30), and series nostalgia will make this title a staple in the genre for a long time to come. The imagery is amazing, and NetherRealm even managed to include the persistent damage to character models – a bit grotesque – but suits the game perfectly. The game’s new features make for enough complexity to be tournament-worthy (the game is one of the headliners for this year’s Evolution in Las Vegas – an event normally dominated by Capcom and Namco Bandai titles). The gameplay is classic to anyone growing up playing the games in the arcades, but contains enough new elements to hook newcomers into the series’ complicated mythology.

However, there are some problems with this new version of Mortal Kombat. Netherrealm Studios’ acquisition by Warner Brothers appears to have added a few chinks to the game’s armor that manage to slightly taint the experience. Sadly, most of these issues have nothing to do with the game itself – rather, they deal specifically with the handling of this title by Netherrealm’s new anti-consumer corporate overlords.  The first and most obvious problem is the abundance of retailer-exclusive downloadable content. Depending on where the game was preordered, users will be given a code to unlock a classic costume version of Mileena, Kitana, Reptile, Sub-Zero, or Scorpion, complete with a unique classic fatality. Ermac’s classic costume and fatality can only be unlocked with a code found in Collector’s Editions of the game. Completionists will be frustrated by the difficulty in obtaining most of this content (and so will long-time  fans who would find the additions of the classic fatalities especially appealing), so it’s only a matter of time before codes for these outfits are sold on eBay for obscene prices. It also appears that Goro, Kintaro, and Shao Kahn have been deliberately made unplayable  in order to support DLC later in the game’s lifespan. Additionally, online modes are only accessible by entering a Kombat Pass code that comes with the game. Like many of EA’s current titles, the inclusion of this Kombat Pass locks out online features to those purchasing a used copy of the game unless they pony up an additional $10. Finally, maybe it’s just me, but my copy of the game didn’t come with a manual. Instead, my game case contained a DLC code for the Kombat pass, a menu-sized “Katalog” listing Mortal Kombat franchise DVDs, T-Shirts, and Strategy Guides available for purchase, and a small fold-up flyer stating how to connect to the PlayStation Network. No manual. Seriously, Warner Brothers?!

In conclusion, I can’t say enough good things about this version of Mortal Kombat. The game was a love letter to long-time fans of the series from start to finish. Although the team took some risks with the storyline and its handling of classic characters, it is clear that they have huge plans for this series. The game is simple enough for the casual Madden/HALO crowd while at the same time being complicated enough for dedicated fighting enthusiasts. Additionally, enough kontent is packed into this release to keep dedicated players busy for months.  The problems I have with Mortal Kombat have nothing to do with the game itself, but with the crazy amount of corporate BS surrounding the title. Classic characters that would be desirable for any long-time  fan have been locked behind retailer-specific preorder codes, online is Pass-enabled, and Warner Brothers decides to print a full-color “Katalog” of  franchise merchandise instead of a proper game manual. Fortunately, even though Warner Brothers tried its best to ruin the day by packing the game with consumer-milking money-grabs, there’s still a ton of content here. Two serious thumbs-up, NetherRealm.

Fatality.

GrE Grade: A

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