Mortal Kombat: Armageddon

"The end of an era, but not the big bang you'd expect it to go out with."

Mortal Kombat: Armageddon

The very title of the game was enough to make many die-hard fans of the fighting series quiver. Something big was going down in the realms, and anyone who was familiar with Mortal Kombat's later, more story intense entries, must have thought that some big changes were going to be made.

The game was hyped up incredibly by many gaming magazines and other forms of media and especially by the creators themselves. The options of creating your own fatalities as well as your own combatants was enthralling and, well, captivating for many people. However, the biggest announcement was the inclusion of supposedly every character to ever grace the Mortal Kombat universe.

Mortal Kombat has been known in the past as the series that triggered the ESRB rating system, bringing gore and death in an awkwardly entertaining and humorous manner to many public domains through means of console systems and arcade machines. In the original installment, a handful of impressively animated characters created from live footage would battle each other, wielding the fury of the elements in the palm of their hands, through grueling blood battles, where one would have the choice of ending their opponent's life in a gritty death sequence involving gore and missing limbs, or simply knocking them over.

As time went on, the success of a series grew more and more, and the not quite impressive gameplay would continue to play second to the ever detailed death sequences, the evolving storyline, and the many returning characters that would all grow to have their own cult like followings.

Several entries came and went but the crossover the three-dimensions wasn't as easy as many had hoped. Mortal Kombat 4 was considered a waste of good opportunities and the series almost seemed to be over, until randomly Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance emerged from the ashes on the PlayStation 2. The game was prettied up and still as violent as ever, and the gameplay was more developed, though not without its quirks. Time went on, and Mortal Kombat: Deception emerged offering more of the same. Then a successful, though simplistic, adventure game arised in the form of Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, and brought along the hope of a new Mortal Kombat every year.

And now, a year later, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon is here.

The core game is the fighting, of course. However, there's not a whole lot to really say here. If you're familiar with Mortal Kombat's previous tournament-esque entries on the current generation of systems, you know what to expect here. The fighting engine is pretty much the same as its first conception in Deadly Alliance. Characters feel a little more fluid, but not as much as other current fighters like Tekken or Dead or Alive.

The combo system is much of the same. Most characters have two fighting styles (a downgrade of the previous game's three), one hand-to-hand and one weapon. The styles seem to be randomly assigned to characters and are also poorly represented. It's obvious they're just here for aesthetic value. Some styles are noticeably weaker than others, which allows some of the character tiers to be more than blatantly obvious.

But, despite the downgrade in styles, it is still fun. Sure, the system is aging as this is it's third cycle in four years. They tried to fix up the flaws by adding a little more speed into the mix, and the graphics, though pretty much the same, help to mask what everyone has come to expect.

Combos are still performed in the same old dial-a-combo system where you just hit the buttons in the right order as fast and correctly as possible and you can sit back and watch as your attack is still going as you stopped hitting the controller. A dated, but not necessarily bad system.

A parry system is implemented as well as the return of the breaker system, which allow you to turn the tables on your character. Blocking is essential to ensure survival, and while someone is attacking, holding block and pressing forward will cancel their attack and knock them back with no damage incurred. Holding block and pressing back will bring you arm forward and if an attack hits that arm, you can knock your opponent off balance and capitalize. However, though this system is relatively new to the Mortal Kombat franchise, they were a bit late on implementing it.

Air combat is a welcome addition, however. Now, but knocking your opponent in the air or meeting them mid-jump, you can do another dial-a-combo and knock them to the ground. Though it defies physics, you can't help but think it looks nice and pretty.

The newest feature, however, is the new fatality system. No longer do you just sit back and watch a pre-recorded fatality run by after you input the buttons upon hearing the classic "Finish Him/Her." Instead, you have a small meter on the screen, where you input a short button sequence to hit the opponent. You can string together multiple combo chains (up to ten) involving hitting the opponent, ripping limbs, or tearing out organs. You also have the ability to switch their positions to give you access to more moves, and these "transitions" will not count towards your total hits but will reset the current timer. In the end, you can input another short combo to finish the opponent with the fatality portion, usually involving the tearing of the head, snapping of the neck, or ripping of the spine.

It's a welcome addition, to be sure, but at the same time, many die-hard fans dislike the fact that just about every character has access to the same combinations (boss characters and those with swords have access to a bit more or less, depending) and therefore, the characters lack individuality. Fatalities and powers have defined many characters for people, and now their one-step closer to uniformity.

Of course, stage fatalities (a fancy, bloodier form of ringout) are still present, though they don't seem as varied as those in Mortal Kombat: Deception, and, as such, people may get tired of them. They still serve their purpose though, however: meaningless bloodshed.

The returning Konquest mode is much different than it's predecessor and plays similarly to the previous adventure game, Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, without the depth of course. About six hours long on your first run through, with subsequent one's being much simpler, you play as the character, Taven, running around against the clock of the realms to try and end the Armageddon and save the universe, running into multiple characters. Through Konquest mode, the only form of story in the game as most arcade endings or obviously not-canon, you learn some of what occurred in the last game's story, which is a plus.

In this mode you essentially find "koins" (game currency for the Krypt and creation parts), unlockables, and run around and punch, kick, and throw your way through battles, filling up a "gore gauge" when you enter battles by killing enemies. When fighting actual characters, you go into classic, arcade like combat, however, allowing you to get a better feel for your character. Just about everything in the game can be unlocked through this mode, except for character parts, which leads us to the next section.

You can now create a character for the Mortal Kombat universe which is a welcome addition. Many people will love to create their own fighter and customize their own moves and combos and bring their alter-ego into the fray, even online. Nice first attempt, though some will notice a lack of customization as well, namely a shortened movelist.

Of course, the Krypt returns, playing host to where you can buy many unneeded pieces like concept art and soundtracks and developer photographs, but there's also some levels and costumes to unlock here, as well as the the fabled '?' which you need a code to unlock. However, with everything save for the '?' able to be unlocked in Konquest mode (not to mention you can only unlock the characters in Konquest mode), the Krypt is just a waste of space.

Of course, the drawing feature to the game is the fact that the developers said every character would be playable. This is true, for the most part. With a roster of sixty-two characters, only four of which need to be unlocked, as well as the ability to create your own characters, there's not much left needed. The only face not to return in the game that has been in a tournament style game before is Khameleon who was only available on the Nintendo 64 version of Mortal Kombat Trilogy. Other adventure game characters aren't available also, but two of them are able to be seen in the Konquest mode, and all of them are able to be created.

A diversion has been added as well in the form of a Mario Kart-esque mini-game known as Motor Kombat. You drive around with a chibi style character and pick up power ups while trying to defeat your enemies in a race. The AI adjusts to the player, with someone always being directly behind you, but the computer slowing down to allow you to catch up.

All in all, this is a good game. With such a large (even if canonically unexplained) roster, a tried and true yet aging battle system, nice graphics and animation, and a multitude of modes to play, the game is good fun. However, with the ability to unlock everything within a short adventure style diversion, some may get bored within a few days of their purchase.

For a game saying to mark the end of an era before the series changes almost entirely, however, you'd expect more of what makes the series to be present, such as all of the levels and character specific fatalities which were sacrificed in way of filler material like the Krypt and Motor Kombat.

All in all, I give it a seven out of ten. A solid and enjoyable experience, but it's obvious that Mortal Kombat fans will get more out of it than a gamer new to the scene.

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