War Gods

"Sweet Elements, avoid this game. There is a reason no one saw it after it hit consoles..."

It takes a massive ammount of effort (or lack thereof) to make a game truly rank amongst the worst in the industry. Sometimes it is the massive push to reach impossible goals. Take the ol' Atari 2600 ET: the programmer had six WEEKS to make a workable code based on the movie, and see how that did?

At least ET has an excuse in that regard; I have not the slightest idea why War Gods is so awful, or why it just doesn't seem to be fun. But whatever Midway did, War Gods is a cart that is little more than a symbol of an era, and maybe of an experament gone horribly wrong.

First, let me try to explain the game itself. A gathering of warriors (what appears to be eight, though there are unlockable ones) are fighting to see who is the supreme deity and all knowing, possibly so that they may know what the story is. I did not have a manual when I picked the cart up used, and I never really saw a basic plot outline anywhere. And before you say anything about the endings revealing anything, I'll touch on that in a minute.

The plot aside, you have a collection of mythological figures and nut jobs, such as CY-4 (an android) and Anubis (guess) at your control in a standard Midway one-on-one. Being as it is a Midway game, expect lots of gore, bad sound clips, awkward controls, and tolerable graphics. Or, rather, you would expect that in a normal Midway fighter.

The graphics on the N64 version are almost comical. Take Soul Caliber II on the Game Cube, make the backgrounds simplistic and 2D, then use Mortal Kombat-styled character art and there you go. Sadly, I cannot think of a single nice thing to say about the graphics; nothing seems to look like it should, even special moves. Animations are choppy, and are slow to react to your commands.

Speaking of commands, controls are awful. War Gods sports the usual Mortal Kombat control setup of High puches and kicks, Low punches and kicks, and a block button. Instead of MK3's Run button, you have a 3D button, which you can use to move around in a 3D arena. Think of the Deadly Alliance combat engine on any system and there you have it.

Don't take my comparison to Deadly Alliance's smooth setup, as the controls are rarely responsive, moving your character is a chore, and it takes inhuman patience to learn the moves and combos without external help, as I have never been able to pull off a series of combos due to control goofs.

And never mind the AI. Here is why I have not been able to see the endings: the computer is completely unfair on even the EASIEST MODE, as the controls are a highly unfair handicap that can only be overcome by bashing the cart, thus beating the computer.

I wish I had something good to say about this game, but with dull, generic characters, bad controls, awful graphics, grating sounds, and the lingering feeling that this was originally MK3D before being released just make me wonder why they ported it in the first place.

Final Word: Avoid this, and pray Midway doesn't revive it ever.

Score: 2 of 10.

*Best Feature: You can see the origins of MK: Deadly Alliance's control setup. Humble origins indeed...
*Worst Feature: Controls, bland characters, where to begin?
*If you liked it: Go and buy Mortal Kombat Mythologies; if you seriously liked War Gods, then you MUST love bad games.
*Guilty Pleasure: Actually admitting to owning this game. Wait, that's a bad thing...

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 05/11/05