Mortal Kombat: Armageddon

"Armageddon is here... But is it all there?"

Armageddon has come. The final battle for this generation is here. All the Kombatants have returned for this last, great confrontation. But is it all that and a side of fries?

The answer is... well, sorta.

The character choice range is simply fantastic. It's great seeing everybody back again with new, updated looks for those who hadn't been in the 3D realm yet. And although some may disagree with me, I say that I think it's good that they kept the Deception/Deadly Alliance costumes for some of the returning characters, as they were my favorites. There are some characters I wish were in, like the female Khameleon, and I STILL don't understand why she was dropped in favor of the male Chameleon, but whatever. It's aggravating, but not enough to make me not like this game.

As I have not played Deception or Deadly Alliance, I cannot comment on the gameplay from those two. However, in this game, the gameplay is fairly straightforward. I had a little trouble with it at first, but that was mainly because I was used to the Namco style of 3D fighter. After some adjustment, I've been able to do pretty good. (I've had some trouble with my character not moving when I'm getting beat up, but that's probably because I've never gotten used to there being a block BUTTON and because I was using the d-pad rather than the analog stick, for ease of special move use...) They've preserved the feel of a lot of characters despite some of them missing trademark moves (Cyrax's net, Sonya's leg grab, Cage's splits punch, etc.), and the bosses feel like bosses. They are especially fun to play as when I'm feeling mean, because they can only be thrown by other bosses and projectiles don't work on some of the bigger ones, like Blaze & Onaga.

The graphics feel a little improved from what I've seen in vids of Deception and Deadly Alliance, but again, I can't fully comment on it.

The soundtrack of the game is simply marvelous. One of the best I've ever heard in a Mortal Kombat game. Each theme captures the effect of the stage it's in perfectly.

And as for the stages themselves, they're great too. They are beautifully rendered, making for a dramatic fighting environment. Many of them are excellent remakes of past MK stages, and are welcome additions. There seem to be not as many Deathtraps as there were in MK Deception, but that is made up for when you unlock some hidden stages from MK Deception in the Krypt...

Motor Kombat is a nifty little distraction, but they really could have done a whole lot more with it. It is fun, however, for when I'm not in the mood for Relic hunting in Konquest. (Just a few more until I've unlocked everything in the Krypt...)

The story & endings are... um, ew. That's the best way I can describe it. It sucks, and only ONE ending not even in the Arcade mode seems likely to be canon... The katas should have been used in bio movies, or as extras like in Soul Calibur 3.

Kreate-A-Fatality is trash. It's far too generic for my taste. I'd rather have the classics back, although I could never get any of them right...

Kreate-A-Fighter is interesting, and one of the better ones I've seen, at the very least equal to SC3's godly Character Creation mode. There's a lot of different pieces, and the MKA team probably added some parts intentionally knowing what people would try to create. (LOL at seeing Guile and Akuma hair in the choices...) The most interesting of all the pieces (in my view, at least) is the Elder God armor, which you can find in various golden chests scattered throughout Konquest. Find them all and you can create a truly imposing Kombatant... Kreate-A-Fighter also allows you to control facial characteristics, including cheekbones, jawline, eyelids, lip size, etc. Rather unique and very interesting in my view. (Females get one extra feature in the characteristic alteration screen, Breast Size. I doubt few male players will actually make them smaller, though, heheh.) There's also the rather unique feature of choosing what attacks your character can use, their win stance, their weapon stance, their special and basic moves, and the ability to name their styles to whatever you desire. You can even write your own bio for the character in the game, something I don't think is featured anywhere else.

The Extras are pointless. Why Boon & Company waste space putting them in, when they could put in more Mortal Kombat-related content, is beyond me. It's self-promotion and it's stupid and arrogant.

The Profile system is awkward, and probably is mainly meant to be used for Kombat Online, which I myself DON'T use, so I can't really comment fairly on either feature.

The Krypt is smaller this time, which I think is a plus, as there is less random fun-but-useless stuff to get this time. Also, the Krypt can easily be completely unlocked simply by finding all the Relics in Konquest, allowing you to save all your money for buying Kreate-A-Fighter pieces. There are some low points, such as the fact that space that could have been used for things like character bios or ending viewers are taken up with photos of the MK Team (who cares?), concept art (interesting, but not worth the space), and test videos (I want ending videos, not test videos).

Konquest is rather interesting. Taven is an interesting character with a good personality, and his story is well told throughout, with a good deal of coherency. There are some moments that don't make sense here and there in the plot, but they are relatively minor. Some say the gameplay is similar to Shaolin Monks, but I don't see it, really. (No jump button, which would be a great, aheh, boon in certain places, can be found.) The generic enemies are fairly easy to beat (especially after you get the room clearing Ground Pound), and REALLY fun to beat during sequences where you have a weapon. Fatalities, in the rare moments that the game gives you the opportunity to do them on the generic foes, are easily done (Neck break, Uppercut decap, & Pick up and chest punch) with a single button. The only part that's really annoying about Konquest is the instant kill traps. Some of them are VERY tricky to avoid, and if you aren't careful, you'll be continuing a great number of times. Fortunetly, you get infinite lives to do this. The Relics system for unlocking some hidden features (including three new characters, one of whom is the final boss Blaze) is surprisingly simple, and you should easily get all sixty of them on at the most your third run-through, and that's only if you don't have a guide to work with.

Pros
-Decent gameplay
-Good graphics
-Amazing soundtrack
-Beautiful stages
-HUGE character selection
-Kreate-A-Fighter very fun to play with
-Motor Kombat is a fun little mini-game
-Fun, interesting Konquest mode
-Smaller Krypt

Cons
-Missing one character to truly make it the return of every character in Mortal Kombat fighting history...
-Useless extras
-Garbage endings & storyline
-No character bios
-Kreate-A-Fatality too generic and feels unfinished
-Motor Kombat too small a mini-game, feels unfinished
-Very little useful stuff in the Krypt...

There's a feeling of 'incompleteness' to Mortal Kombat Armageddon. There's a lot of missing elements in this game, and it's baffling to wonder what was going through Boon's mind when they weren't included. That, however, does not completely detract from the game's fun factor, it merely reduces it a little. And who knows? Maybe the mysterious code you enter in ???? box in the vault will unlock the missing pieces...

Overall, I give the game a 7/10. It's good, but more could have been done with it.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 10/16/06