Mortal Kombat: Armageddon

"Strike 3....You're Out"

Well here we are again, a new MK has graced us with it's presence. Over the years I've tried to keep some hope alive for this franchise, but sadly Ed Boon and company drop the ball yet again. For this generation of consoles we first had MKDA. At first I was glad they went with a brand new engine and approach, after playing it however I realized it needed much work.....for reasons I won't get into. Ok fine, no harm done, first attempt. Next we had MKD. I was thinking ok great, they seemed to have filled the gaps that were missing in MKDA, they have more time to refine their new engine, etc. What could go wrong? Well, we all know how that one turned out.....slower game play, infinite throw traps, etc. Now we have MKA, the final attempt at righting some wrongs for this generation, but sadly, this one just adds insult to injury.

GRAPHICS - Maybe the XBOX/PS2 are showing their age, but I was not impressed with the graphics at all. I know perfectly well graphics don't make a game, especially a fighting game, but they still looked mediocre even on my HDTV. Some of the characters looked bland with no color to their skin. Motaro in particular looked really bad, half of him looks rendered while the other half looks cell shaded. Character animations look sloppy still, especially in the air. While they should appear to be flying and fighting, they just look really stiff and goofy looking.

SOUND - Not bad, probably the games best aspect. Voices are crisp, sound FX are great, especially the robots grunting and impact noises. Music is standard MK style, etc.

GAME PLAY - Ah, here we are, what should be the best aspect of any fighting game is this games worst. Lets start by realizing that although we have so called "new characters", they are not. Since the system in MKA is reduced from 3 styles like in MKD, you now have access 2 per character, usually a hand to hand and weapon. What I quickly noticed was that all the new characters were using old styles from MKDA and MKD. Chameleon for example uses Crane, so I felt like I was using MKDA Shang Tsung all over again, not a new character. This problem is rampant throughout the entire cast unfortunately. All they did was take existing animations, add a new skin to them, and toss in some recycled specials. Another example is Smoke, he has some new special moves, but all they are are old animations with new commands. Weapons as well suffer from this. Most weapons are copies of other weapons with different names and slightly different cosmetic changes. The game play itself feels stiff......I can best describe it as it doesn't flow. You never feel like you are pressuring your opponent but more like getting lucky. Breakers make a return, and a new parry system as well. From my time with the game I think in the long run parries will break this game. I found it way to easy to parry most attacks which lead to a free follow up. Since parries are unlimited you have no fear of using them up like breakers. The aerial combat also feels stiff and lifeless. While I should be getting a rush like other fighting games give me when I launch my opponent and jump after him, I feel like this was a thrown in aspect with little to no care given to it. Characters like Kintaro and Onaga also feel extra clunky and didn't make the transition well into this game. I could go on about these things, but overall the games feels like a complete cut and paste job, and more importantly it looks like a complete cut and paste job. Don't let that big roster fool you, every character has been dumbed down and spread thin so not much work would have to be done to accommodate so many fighters. Quantity over quality basically.

EXTRAS - I didn't get much time to spend on Konquest or Motor Kombat, my review is based on the fighting game alone. I would like to talk about the fatalities and endings here though, which sadly are very bad. Endings are merely your character doing kata with text and the announcer reading it. You get no stills, no FMV, nothing. I mean, there is enough useless art to unlock in this game, would it have killed them to draw up some stills?

Fatalities are now replaced with generic strings. You won't be seeing Scorpion doing his Toasty, Liu Kang turning into a dragon, or even Kung Lao using his hat. Punches, kicks, and an ender are what has replaced them. Think of a Brutality from MKT followed by a head rip or arm pull...thats it folks. You input each command yourself losing time on each part. It's supposed to be an innovative way of doing them now, but with no character specific parts it feels lifeless and generic much like the rest of the game. Another short cut taken by Boon that leads little to be desired.

CONCLUSION - Avoid this game at all costs. Casual fans might be hooked by the roster, but I explained the problem with that earlier. Casual players will find no fatalities to look forward to either which will probably shy them away even more. On the other hand hardcore fighting game fans will be turned off as well with the stiff and clunky game play. I don't really see anyone getting into this except little kids who won't be allowed to play it, or die hard MK fans who believe Ed Boon is God. Save your money and buy a real fighting game, you have been warned.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 10/12/06