Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks

"Shaolin Monks revives a long thought dead genre: the beat 'em up."

If you are old enough to have been following the Mortal Kombat series since its first instalment, then you were probably also unfortunate enough to experience Mortal Kombat's awful attempts into other genres of gaming. So naturally, when Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks was announced pretty much everyone's reaction was something like "Oh God please NO!". However, thankfully for us Mortal Kombat fans, Shaolin Monks has developed into a surprisingly successful and entertaining game.

Story:
Fans of Mortal Kombat II will be pleased to know that Shaolin Monks revolves around the Mortal Kombat II storyline, where you take the role of Liu Kang and/or Kung Lao immediately after the first Mortal Kombat tournament. This is great for classic and new Mortal Kombat fans alike, as classic players get to relive their favourite game in further detail, and newcomers get to experience storylines they may have previously never known.

However Shaolin Monks being centered around Mortal Kombat II's storyline does create for some controversy within the events of the game. For example, the original Sub-Zero died at the end of the first Mortal Kombat tournament, and was killed by Scorpion. However, in Shaolin Monks' opening cinematic, Sub-Zero is shown running away along with the other Earthrealm warriors and does not appear to be killed until sometime after this tournament by Scorpion. This is clear because when the player meets Sub-Zero during the course of the game it is the new, younger brother of the original Sub-Zero, which is evident due to the scar on his right eye.

Contradictions aside, Shaolin Monks has a pleasant story which takes you through the universe of Mortal Kombat, so anyone who enjoyed the mythology of Deception's "Konquest" mode will greatly enjoy experiencing Mortal Kombat's universe in Shaolin Monks, although on a much more enjoyable level. Fans will also appreciate that every Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat II character makes an appearance although some of them are optional and are difficult to find.

Gameplay:
As stated previously, anyone who enjoyed exploring the world of Mortal Kombat in Mortal Kombat: Deception's "Konquest" mode will immensely enjoy exploring the world of Mortal Kombat in Shaolin Monks. However do not let that fool you, Shaolin Monks is a much more enjoyable experience over the Konquest mode in deception. Many changes include a multi-directional fighting system in the world, better graphics, super fun gameplay and overall a much more sophisticated experience.

What makes Shaolin Monks so unique is that it is so different from everyone other Mortal Kombat game, but it feels so much like Mortal Kombat its almost impossible to notice a difference, once you get into it. The fighting in Shaolin Monks is superb, because every attack can be linked into another almost endlessly. There is none stop attacking in every direction and you can even bring the "kombat" into the air for super long combos and air juggles.

Shaolin Monks takes a lot of its replay value from being able to upgrade your character by using your experience points to buy new combos and special moves. Every character still retains their signature moves from the fighting games and they are fully intact here. They can also even be upgraded to be much more powerful, for example Liu Kang can upgrade his fireball to shoot multiple times in rapid succession. What is so much greater to this game is that Sub-Zero and Scorpion are unlockable characters to be played in single-player and multiplayer (along with several other multiplayer characters). But the creators have catered to game so much to fans of Mortal Kombat II in many regards. A demonstration of this is that in the new Mortal Kombat games Sub-Zero signature ice slide attack has been replaced with a sliding charge, instead of going under the opponent sending them up in the air, which he used to do. The reasoning for this change was because the under-slide was a "novice" move and was given to the new character Frost. However, in Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, fans of Sub-Zero's old slide will be pleased to know that it is intact and better than ever, which can be upgraded to have an ice uppercut after the slide or an ice ball launched afterwards. Another example of this is Scorpion, who retains his teleport punch, instead of the new teleport kick, which was given to him in Mortal Kombat: Deception.

All things aside, Shaolin Monks truly shines in one area, in which most games nowadays generally ignore, or just have it tacked on at the end. This is the co-op mode or "ko-op" if you will. What is so great is that Shaolin Monks uses co-op in true beat 'em up fashion. Anyone who remembers playing beat 'em ups on their Super Nintendo or in the Arcade, remembers how fun it was to play with a buddy or two. Shaolin Monks caters immensely to these people, while the game is still fully playable and enjoyable by one person alone, it is a much more entertaining experience if it can be played with a friend. Shaolin Monks contains many unlockable secrets in typical Mortal Kombat fashion; however it also has many unlockable areas and secrets which can only be obtained by playing with two people. This does create one problem though, arcade games were known for their ability to have people drop in on a game anywhere by putting in a quarter and pressing the start button, sadly Shaolin Monks is lacking this feature. There is no way for a second player to jump in on your single player game by simply pressing the start button, in all actuality single player and co-op games are completely different games in their own right. If you want to play the game with two people you must start a two player game from the beginning, if your friend leaves you must leave the game and resume your other single player game. This is a little frustrating, but does no detract from the overall gameplay experience, but it could have made the game have a much greater value, since all beat 'em ups have had this as a standard feature.

One other absolutely insane and cool feature worth mentioning is the fatality system. Every time you attack and kill enemies your fatality gauge will get higher and higher. The fatality gauge is in the form of an orb which fills up with blood. During the course of the game you will be able to fill up to three fatality gauges and different types of fatalities will use different amounts of the gauge. Naturally a simple fatality will only use one gauge, while a "multality" will use two, and kill all enemies instantly within a certain radius of your character. And finally brutalities make a glorious return, and naturally consume all three of your fatality gauges. Brutalities are especially cool because you can absolutely beat the living crap out of anyone around you. In a certain sense it is like a "God mode". Characters like Liu Kang will be able to shoot infinite and extremely rapid fire balls, completely beat the crap out of anyone usually instantly killing them and so on and so forth. Although you can only do this for a certain amount of time which would approximately turn out to be 20 seconds maybe more, as I've never really counted.

Graphics:
While not the most technically impressive game on the Playstation 2 or Xbox, Shaolin Monks is a generally decent looking game. The characters models look sharp on the screen and the environments are often detailed and contain many aspects which would be clearly noticeable by the fans. Also a cool aspect is that much of the environments are interactable. There are some issues though, close up some characters don't look so hot. However, certain characters look very good, for instance Sub-Zero and Scorpion, who have updated, but "not to far updated" versions of their original outfits. These updated versions of their outfits are really cool looking, and while Sub-Zero and Scorpion are the two original Ninja's who are really the only ones that still look like each other, and the original Ninja outfit they still have distinctive differences that set them apart, but still keep them looking somewhat similar. These differences are enough to give them their own distinctive and cool look.

Shaolin Monk's graphics could have been better in the enemy department, as the main characters look generally very good, the enemies are a little lacking in variety. Pretty much every Tarkatan warrior you will come across will look exactly the same, except Baraka. This also goes for any Black Dragon clan warriors, Oni demons, ect. There is a good variety of enemies but to many of them look too similar. Although surprisingly Shaolin Monks is capable of having many foes on screen at once without the framerate taking any hit whatsoever, so the game has pretty much a perfect framerate throughout.

Sound:
Once again fans of Mortal Kombat II will be pleased to here many of their favourite tunes returning, such as the dead pool, the living fortress and many other locals. The music like most other Mortal Kombat games is excellent, but the sound has one other tradition the game is notorious for following. While the announcer, and the sound effects and music are all completely awesome the voice acting is a little lacking. That's not to say it's horrible, or bad, it's just not as good as it could have been. Some characters don't have much emotion and seem like they just got some random guy off the street to read a couple lines and then called it a day. Liu Kang, Kung Lao, Sub-Zero, Scorpion and Raiden are perhaps the best the game has to offer. None of them are great but they are good enough to get the voice acting done and that is all that really matters.

The sounds effects are really cool, especially the announcer who will say things like "excellent" and "superb" while you are beating the crap out of your foes and getting super high combo numbers for loads of experience.

Value:
While not the longest game in the world, capping off at about six hours the first time I finished the game, Shaolin Monks has incredible replay value, which is true for most beat 'em up games. Although I finished the game in about six hours the first time I was done I only had 66% completion, meaning there was a lot of stuff I didn't find or do. Upon finishing the game the first time I immediately began a new game with Sub-Zero, and this is the first time in video game history where I have started a new game IMMEDIATELY after finishing. I didn't even leave, I was still sitting on my couch, and I started a new game instantaneously. This goes to show how enjoyable this game was, because after the game is done you won't really care about the story anymore, you just want to keep beating the crap out of your enemies with the new super fun free style combat system. I myself am on my third playthrough (not counting the time I've spent playing with my friend in co-op) of the game and it's been just as fun as the last every single time. For a Mortal Kombat fan Shaolin Monks retains incredible replay value and is definitely worth a purchase. Fans of beat 'em ups in general will find this game fun and appealing but perhaps a rental would suffice. Also again once catering to Mortal Kombat II fans, the original Arcade version of Mortal Kombat II is unlockable, and is even on the menu, but it is greyed out. However one small disappointment is that due to a stupid move on Midways part Smoke is not accessible. (Also note MKII is NOT unlockable in the PAL (European) version of the game).

Score:
Gameplay: 8
Graphics: 8
Sound: 8
Value: 9
Tilt: 10

Overall: 8.8
Simply put, Mortal Kombat: Shaolin monks is a great game that any Mortal Kombat fan should play, whether or not you have played and loved Mortal Kombat II. Also any beat 'em up fan in general should definitely give this game a try and if you are sceptical, a rental would easily allow you to decide whether or not you feel this game is worth buying and adding to your collection.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/23/06