By now most of you have played and formed an opinion on Mortal Kombat (2011). For MK fans such as myself, it was a revival of a series that was starting to lose touch with its roots. It returned to a darker, more violent gameplay, boasted a solid roster of characters, and offered up a variety of classic and new modes. It was my personal favorite fighting game of last year, and colleague Will Johnson did a great job of explaining why so many people loved it in his review.
Briefly in my own words, Mortal Kombat just did an excellent job of drawing upon its massive and rich history while simultaneously making itself fully relevant and modern. New gameplay mechanics such as Enhanced Special Moves, X-Ray hits, and fighting position significantly increase the depth and the amount of strategy skilled players will implement to be successful. Meanwhile the return of violent fatalities and The Krypt, as well as new Test modes (Test Your Luck is addictively cool) add further spice and fun to the mix. While this Mortal Kombat doesn’t feel quite as dark and serious as MKII, which is the atmosphere I prefer for Mortal Kombat, it still does a tremendous job balancing those darker and more violent elements with the “lighter” side. In other words, MK doesn’t take itself too seriously, but if it laughs at itself it’s only for short and controlled periods, if that makes any sense.
So, few would disagree that Mortal Kombat was an excellent game. Inevitably, after its release, Netherrealm and Warner put out a lot of DLC for purchase. If you had the PS3 version from the get-go, you already got Kratos, of God of War fame, as a playable character. Kratos, while a bit slow (other than the Hermes charge) and a bit limited (he’s not able to throw out his Chains of Chaos like in God of War series), is a surprisingly competent fit and fun to play as. Like the other characters, he is here to defeat Shao Kahn, who used dark magic to conjure Kratos into the Outworld. Kratos isn’t about to succumb to Kahn’s command though, and instead sets out to destroy him.
Getting back on track now, both the 360 and PS3 versions had four downloadable characters released last year. These include Kenshi, who was first introduced in probably my favorite MK to date, MK: Deadly Alliance. Kenshi is blind but his hearing is supernatural. He was a dangerous foe back in the Deadly Alliance days and is as valid today as he was then. Kenshi relies on telekinesis and his blade to get the job done, and in some ways (color scheme and telekinesis) reminds me of Ermac.
Rain is back, too. Rain was one of the new characters in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, the purple ninja. I always thought he was really cool and the motion capture postion/animation used for his lightning strike attack is still vivid in my mind, after all of these years removed from the arcade screen where I first saw it. I’m not crazy about the character design, in terms of appearance, nor of the voice package used for Rain this time around, but I’m happy he was chosen to come back. Watch out for Rain’s ability to use water and lightning attacks to get the upper hand.
Skarlet is a third new fighter who was created with the blood of many warriors and Shao Kahn’s own dark magic. She fits in with Jade, Katana, and Mileena as far as the scantly clad female warriors go. She’s quick, uses daggers, and has a disappearing drop kick attack that is eerily similar to Milenna’s. I don’t know that I rank her very high in terms of creativity, but she’s a good addition to the roster and another character for fans of the female kombatants to master.
The fourth DLC character is one that I don’t think anyone saw coming — it’s Freddy freakin Krueger from Nightmare On Elm St (1984). See, Freddy was just minding his own business, stalking sleeping humans in the dream world when Shao Kahn started eating up human souls. Krueger, a soul-eater himself, didn’t take to kindly to that, and the two battled in the dream-scape, but Kahn was able to send them both into the Outworld. Krueger is intent on destroying Kahn and getting back to harassing sleeping humans.
Krueger was a surprising and creative addition, and playing as him can be pretty satisfying. Of course his primary weapon is his sharp glove, which he slashes and even throws.
All four characters add to the overall experience. Skarlet felt like the weakest to me in terms of adding new, creative ways to play, but I’ll take her over another Sub-Zero anyday. Fifteen classic costumes are also included on disc, although embarassingly — I don’t know where the heck to find them at. Also, three Klassic Fatalities for Scorpion, Sub-Zero, and Reptile are here. The other bonuses for the Komplete Edition, i.e., the Mortal Kombat movie download and the Music Inspired By the Warriors, are available with the enclosed download vouchers, which do expire in about a year. These are nice touches, and do well to both give Komplete Edition buyers something semi-unique without upsetting those who have already bought Mortal Kombat and possibly the DLC over the last several months, too.
To the summary…
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