| Mortal Kombat:Deadly Alliance |
| Presentation: Mortal Kombat, the game the forever changed the fighting game genre(then all too quickly needed a change itself) is back(with that much needed change.) Right from the start, this game hits you with a major change. I don't want to give too much away, but I'll just say, a couple of fighters won't be returning. The basic storyline(yes fighting games can have one) is that Quan Chi escaped from Outworld and formed an alligence with Shang Tsung. Quan Chi has also discovered the secrets of ancient ruins and has found an ancient undefeatable army. With Shang Tsung, he plans on taking souls of fallen warriors, and placing them into the bodies of the undefeatable army. Each character has their own reason for entering the fight. For some it's to destroy everything in existence, for others its revenge, or for the good guys....it's to save the world. Gameplay: This is what seperates MK:DA from being just another MK. The gameplay is top notch, everything has been built from the ground up. The fighting engine is great. Of course it's not as deep as Virtual Fighters, but then again, I think VF 4 has the deepest fighting engine in any fighting game. Each character has 2 hand to hand combat styles, and 1 weapon style. The ability to switch fighting styles on the fly is great. At first I was a little confused with it, but after a few tries in the konquest mode(more on that later.) I got the hang of it. There are quite a few different modes of play this time around. Of course you have your standard arcade and VS, but thrown into the mix is a new "konquest" mode. This is basically a training mode, but the great thing about it is, it's specific for each character. No generic just pick any character and learn his or her moves. To finish this mode you must pick every character, and learn how to use that character. Also by playing the konquest mode(and arcade) you earn kurrency, in the form of koins. These koins can then be used to unlock hidden items in the kyrpt. Theres 6 different types of koins used to unlock over 600 items. These items include hidden characters, hidden areanas, promo sketches, background stories for characters, etc etc. If you want to unlock everything, you're going to be playing this game for weeks, if not longer. The best use for koins, hands down, is the ability to bet them in the VS. mode. Now if you have that braggart friend, he can put his money where his mouth is. The only downside in the gameplay, may be the difficulty adjustment. There were just too many times I found myself beating the first 7 or 8 missions for a characters konquest, and then the last 1 or 2 were just impossible. I don't know why Midway continues to do this. They did it back in the NBA jam days, and no one liked it then, and I don't imagine people liking it now. Controls: If there's a falter in this game, this is where it is. The controls are by no means bad, but analog control would have been nice. Although digital controls do fit Mortal Kombat, seeing as though most specials are done by tapping, insread of rotating. You have your basic MK setup of 4 attacks(no longer 2 punches, and 2 kicks, just attacks 1-4), one block, but gone is the useless run button. Replacing it is the fighting style button. There is also a Special Move button, which depending on what stance your character is in, can act as a throw, reversal, taunt, or impalement. The combos are all pretty easy to pull off, although the timing on a few is a little...different, mainly the ones that involve the style branching. It seems like you have to press the button a little later then in a normal combo Graphics: I was really impressed by the graphics in this game. The arenas are very well detailed and designed. There are many varied arenas to fight in, with many objects to interact with. Snowflakes fall in the background, or smoke fills the air. Theres always something going on in the background. My personal favorite is the acid bath level, where if you go too close to the statues, they spit acid on you. There's also a cool spark shower that happens whenever you fighters weapons meet. The game supports some real time facial damage, keep gettin hit, and you face will be bloody. Also one of the coolest effects has to be, whenever you get hit, the blood will now drip down your body, instead of just falling to the floor. But of course there is also the Midway typical lack of detail in certain areas. Namely they always seem to use the same effects even if somethings not quite the same. For example, I could have Subzeros sword out, which is made of ice, and hit Kanos butterfly knives, and it still looks and sounds like 2 metal objects hitting. Sound and effects: Basically what you would expect for a fighting game. The music for each arena is quite good. The score is very ominous, and sets the stage very well. The effects are dead on, from the cackle of Raidens electricity, to the buzz of Kanos eye laser, they are all good. With the execption I mentioned above. The screams are still overexaggerated in typical Midway fashion. Midway chose not to change much in the sound department Overall:If you're a Mortal Kombat fan, you're going to want to pick this up. It's got enough replay value to justify its price. It is definately one of the better in the series. It's better then 3 and 4(though thats not saying much.) Now as for MK2....it's a toss up, 2 just had something about it that made it a great classic game |