Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks

"Mortal Kombat takes a shot at action with a success"

I've always been a fan of the Mortal Kombat series; its over-the-top gore effects served the double-purpose of making me laugh and ticking off politicians. However, as big of a fan as I am, I have to admit that all of the Mortal Kombat attempts to go Action/Adventure have, in the past, been rather...lacking...and by lacking, I mean they just plain sucked. So when I picked up Shaolin Monks, I had low expectations...but not for long. This is a good, solid game.

Graphics (8/10)

The graphics are good, and the animations are fun to look at. You have a pretty wide variety of environments; you'll fight in a burning castle (well, castle/town/village/), within a living forest, in the Mortal Kombat equivalent of Hell, and, of course, in plenty of dungeons. All of these areas are pretty well detailed, and even throw a bone to series veterans: there are plenty of areas directly out of past video games. However, in comparison with similar games in its genre (ie Devil May Cry, God of War), the graphics are just good, not great. Still, nothing wrong here.

Sound (6/10)

Well, nothing special here. The music isn't bad; you'll never find yourself thinking "what the heck am I listening to," but you'll never find yourself amazed by the music either. Sometimes, the dreary background music can actually get old. I, personally, turned off the music from the main screen and played "Eye of the Tiger" in the background. However, the sound effects are very well done and seem quite natural. I'd kick this score up a notch or two, except for one thing: the voice acting is very, very bad. Sonya's voice assaults my ears (although you don't hear her that often), and Raiden's voice actor is just plain bad. Everything else is tolerable, though.

Plot (3/10)

The plot doesn't really matter that much (heck, its a Mortal Kombat game. You're not playing it to be moved to tears). It's pretty standard fare; some dude from a different realm wants to take over Earth, and its up to you (surprise) to stop him. End of story. The game does throw a twist at you, but its not really a twist, since they give it away at the very beginning of the game. And the ending, although not what I was expecting, still wasn't a great difference. Ultimately, the plot bites, but its a Mortal Kombat beat-em-up; enough said.

Game play (8/10)

Now, this is a fun game. You have two characters to start off with, and upon completion, you can earn an additional two characters to fight with. The premise is very simple. You are a warrior protecting Earth, and you've got to bash up some baddies to save it. This is done using a combination of styles. You have short, weak, fast attacks (mapped to the square button), medium, launching attacks (mapped to the triangle button), and slow, strong attacks (mapped to the circle button). Using a combination of these buttons, you can rack up some pretty sweet, long combos. My max, so far, has been 112 hits. If that wasn't enough, you get the addition of your favorite moves. You can teleport, shoot fireballs, do bicycle kicks, and throw your blade-tipped hat to do additional damage. If you don't want to kill people in the traditional beat-em-down method, don't! Use a fatality to kill a foe instantly, a multality to kill several foes at the same time, or a brutality, which sends you into this massive rage where you can pretty much destroy anything. The game also provides you three classes of weapons, all of which are very fun and interesting to use. In order to get stronger, you gain experience (which is multiplied by how long your combos are) and then spend the experience to buy new combos or upgrade your special attacks. As for boss fights, all of them have multiple stages and very interesting (each fight finished with its own unique fatality, of course). Oh, and there is also an amazing Ko-Op mode where you can play with a friend, and then there is a versus mode you can play as well. But...as fun as this game is, its not perfect. First of all, you can master the game really quickly. Once you learn that perfect combo, you can use the perfect combo over and over and over again, if you really want to. Plus, while the experience system is interesting, its over very quickly. If you're good with your combos, you can upgrade yourself fully within the first hour. This eliminates some of the fun, as you have nothing to look forward to for the rest of the game.

Replay? (9.5/10)

Okay, check this out. If you beat the game with either one of the first two characters, you unlock a new one. This means a whole new set of moves, a whole new set of things to unlock. Each character has a very distinct feel and very different moves, so its definitely worth it to play through the game again. Furthermore, the game has tons of content to unlock, including picture, concept art, movies, and the original version of Mortal Kombat II! On top of all this, you can unlock tons of additional characters to play in versus mode, meaning a lot of characters to play around with. Trust me; you'll want to play through this game again, especially if you have a second controller and a friend.

Total Score: (8/10)

So, to sum it up, this is a great game which can keep you entertained for a long time. If you're a fan of Devil May Cry, God of War, or even if you just like Mortal Kombat, this is definitely the game for you. I'd definitely recommend buying it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/26/05