Mortal Kombat: Armageddon

"Mortal Kombat barely survives Armageddon"

Mortal Kombat Armageddon has now been released, to many a MK fan's joy since Mortal Kombat Deception was released in 2004. This MK is definitely better than Deception in some ways, and others... not so much.

Visuals: 7/10
The graphics in this game don't look much better than what one has seen in Deception. However characters have good detail and the game animates slightly better.

Sound: 8/10
Sounds are crisp, the voices aren't garbled. You still have the gibberish, but it sounds good and every aspect of the game's sounds can be made louder if you so choose.

Gameplay: 6/10
ARCADE:
You play old school style and fight warriors on a ladder, similar to MK trilogy. As you go higher up the ladder, the difficulty increases. With the final boss being Blaze, some characters will have a hard time with him, and some will dominate him. Overall, the fighting system has improved with new abilities like parrying and air combos(which aren't exactly easy to do). The roster is also updated, with over 50 characters, 4 unlockables and slots for your own created characters in versus mode.

The fighting also goes a bit more smoothly but it's still the dated old robotic mechanics MK fans have gotten used to and oddly accepted. The new moves while decent additions, add little to the gameplay or fix the fighting engine's underlying problems. Not only that, but many exploits like infinites are still rampant. The newly added characters while great with their unique special moves, some of them still suffer from cloning syndrome with their mixed styles from Deadly Alliance or Deception, with some characters getting the shaft with bad styles. Overall it's the same old same old.

MOTOR KOMBAT:
Motor Kombat is a funny diversion. You get a selection of many racers like Jax, Cyrax, Mileena and Scorpion and take to the small amount of tracks offered. Each racer comes with a special ability, like Cyrax and his bombs or Scorpion and his spear. There's also little traps and gruesome deaths awaiting when you screw up and fly off the track.

Unfortunately, aside from character abilities, you only get boost and coins. The tracks are also pretty barren and short. this mode may serve as a little fun for a while, but it gets old very fast when there's little to be offered.

KONQUEST:
Konquest has been improved significantly since the abomination that was Deception's Konquest mode. Instead of wandering through terribly bland looking worlds, collecting items, meditating and interacting the MK cast, instead you... wander through average looking but diverse worlds collecting items and interacting with the MK cast. Except NOW, that the gameplay has changed a bit. The gameplay outside of interacting with the MK cast now resembles a simple beat 'em up. You have a small set of moves to dispose of your generic, out-of-the-woodwork foes who will appear every so often. Fighting MK characters is still limited to the default fighting engine in arcade mode which does keep things interesting. This mode is actually a very good diversion, and one of Armageddon's few strengths.

The downside is that this mode doesn't offer much replay value as most unlockables will be in plain view and literally litter the game world, it's also pretty easy. Short and average is the best way to describe this mode.

KREATE A KHARACTER:
The MK series now has a mode where you create your own character to use offline and online. This mode has a large variety of clothing options for your custom characters, which aren't limited to the certain era unlike Soul Calibur 3.

You start with their hair, then make your way down to their face, torso and legs. Wished Scorpion/Sub Zero/Rain/Noob/Ermac/Smoke/Kitana/Mileena/Jade kept their human ninja forms/original moves? You can create them in KAK now! Wanna create Goku/Chun Li/Akuma/The Incredible Hulk and show your friends online? Then KAK may be just for you! This mode gives you a great deal of control over how your character looks.

The downside to this mode is that first of all, you can only create one fighter per profile, which means you'll have to waste many profiles if you want an archive of custom characters. Also with the fighting being as robotic as it is and the limited moves to pick from, the fighter's good looks will be one of the only reasons to keep using this mode. Most of the KAK parts also have to be unlocked, so playing other modes for a few hours before tackling KAK mode is a good idea.

ONLINE KOMBAT:
Playing online is good. You can also bring created characters online and aside from the predictable move sets, anticipating who's on the line can be exciting. You can play Motor Kombat or the arcade style of kombat online. In my experiences, Arcade works well enough but it's kind of laggy. Motor Kombat plays better, but sometimes I get more disconnects. Pretty much what you'd expect online.

Lasting Value: 6/10
Aside from creating characters and maybe online play, this won't truly satisfy 4 years down the road. The fighting system is pretty much the same from other games and very dated, Motor Kombat offers little fun, and Konquest is as I said, short, average and offers little to no incentive to play consecutive times. I also suggest against buying the premium edition. Yes $10 extra is a small fee, but in my opinion the extra content(such as the "arcade perfect UMK3 and the extra videos) isn't worth spending $50 on. That kind of stuff should've been in the normal release, as it would've made the last current generation MK game a little sweeter.

If you're a hopeless MK fan who can't stay away from the gorefest no matter how lackluster, buy this game and like it. If you're anyone else, I suggest renting the game, it'll be the best [insert $ amount you spend to rent games here] you ever spent.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 10/18/06