April 2021 Part Deux
Finish him/her Them! - MK Series
Mortal Kombat Theme Song (Original) - The Immortals
Mortal Kombat Theme Song (2021) - Benjamin Wallfisch
Due to the Mortal Kombat movie coming out in April, the hype had lead me to play through some of the earlier games. Some of which I had not fully played. I tried to keep the reviews relatively short due to inexperience with creating collapsible reviews manually.
Onto other news, my recent move has finally finished and (after some organization) I should be hyper focused to backlog killing! \o/ This plus my increased resistance to buying new games should help reduce the mountain that I climb… assuming this heat doesn’t kill me first.
Mortal Kombat
The game that made people question the values of society and gaming. Much like the original game in a fighting game series, it introduces a basic mechanic but overall is massively flawed. The fighting is very basic w/ very little combo potential. A lot of the roster is relatively unbalanced with specials far superior than others. Combat is usually best to jumping kicks, upper cuts, and spamming projectiles. The final boss is at least interesting and not wildly unfair like most final fighting bosses. What made this game more unique, aside from a general focus on ninjas, is the amount of blood and violence that made (America at least) question the future of morals for kids, teens, and adults alike.
Lewd? Nope
Recommend? Meh. It’s pretty average at best while being second worst MK in my ranking.
Mortal Kombat II
Many praise this sequel and somewhat fairly so as it improves on the general combat of the first and brings the combo potential with more moves, bigger roster, and changes to existing moves. However, I have quite a different feeling towards this game as a solo player. The AI is absolutely ridiculous. Playing arcade mode will have enemies literally read your inputs to do perfect counters. This hardly results in improvements on the players end, but rather has the player using cheap moves and exploits against the AI (I.E. Baraka and his shredder move = a moth to flame for the AI). Additionally, Shao Kahn closer resembles what is wrong with most fighting bosses that remove any combo potential or use of most abilities. Of course, this can be in part of the reading inputs. Despite this obviously being a way to eat quarters in the arcade, it is still wildly unacceptable.
Lewd? It does ya dirty, but no lewd.
Recommend? Nope nope nope. Maybe against other people this game has redeeming qualities, but AI reading inputs is too much. This puts this at the bottom of my MK ranking without a doubt.
Mortal Kombat III
A huge improvement from MK2 and one of the better 2D MK games. This game introduces cool dark and urban in-depth arenas, a wide variety of new characters that break the ninja motif, and even more mobility/moves than before (including the ability to run). The AI is a little bit more well rounded and does not seem to read inputs thus removing the worst thing ever.
Lewd? Nope
Recommend? Yes, easily one of my top ranked MK games.
Mortal Kombat Trilogy
This conveys the gameplay and story of MK3, but adds characters and arenas from the previous two installments. Just as solid as MK3 and a bigger roster to boot.
Lewd? NOpe
Recommend? Yes
Mortal Kombat Gold
For the most part this is just MK3, but with a different cast of characters. The combat remained more of the same, but the game now has CG cutscenes for endings. The endings were incredibly short and offered very little story wise. However, they did tie into each other more so than usual, creating an overall picture rather than a personal ending. It’s biggest downfall is that it really didn’t add enough to really justify buying this release. Still the game is enjoyable enough.
Lewd? Nope
Recommend? Yes, again not too much changes from MK3 which is both a benefit and a con.
Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance
MK’s first addition to include 2.5D combat and multi-stance fighting. This game is more of an awkward teen as the new additions behaved a little awkward and overall felt a bit slower than both it’s predecessors and future installments. Each character holds 3 different stances, two hand to hand styles and a weapon stance. This opens up some combo potential, but also limits it drastically as switching stances can take time without inputting specific combos. The 2.5D transitions and graphics are pretty mediocre with more emphasis on the graphics. Interesting enough, this is also an entry that did away with main protagonist Liu Kang and introduced a new cast of characters to take his place. Somewhat trying to revitalize the series with a new hero similar to what Tekken 3 did. The new characters, however, are rather uninteresting and quickly forgotten in future installments. The final bosses are the deadly alliance themselves and fairly fair for fighting. That being said the “Goro” of this game (the monstrous intermission you have to face as a sub-boss) more than makes up for the lack of stacked difficulty against the player from the actual bosses.
Lewd? Nope
Recommend? Generally, yes, It is lower on the ranking but still an interesting and enjoyable fighting game. Definitely the weaker of the 2.5 games.
Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time
My distaste for Tools of Destruction was massively removed as A Crack in Time feels a little more like Ratchet & Clank and showcases the visual capabilities of the PS3. Unlike the previous entry, this games weapons have satisfying feelings as you use them. Graphics are surprisingly beautiful, and best of all the story is one of the best despite splitting up our two heroes for the majority of the game. Just when you can’t think it can be better, you realize that motion controls have been reduced greatly.
Lewd? Nope
Recommend? Yes, easily one of my favorite entries particularly of the Future trilogy.
Gratz on all those assassinations, I definitely feel a little jealous.
Thank you kindly! I definitely am lucky that I was able to find a little more time on my hands that month. Good luck on your backlog!
Thank you! I try my best :)