So thus the end of the series for now has ended on a high note, and we can expect to see games in the future. Truly the gaming franchise has seen good things on the sixth generation consoles, and has made quite the impact on gaming society. Now we can look forward for the seventh generation of games to perhaps take this franchise to a whole new level…or is this console’s generation of kombat truly over?
Enter Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. This game’s title says it all, as the true end of Mortal Kombat comes to a conclusion…for this gaming era anyway. If you are the diehard fan, the true cannot live without some blood, fatalities, and that sick sense of humor that Tobias and Boon bring to the table, then stick around for this one.
MK: Armageddon is going to be the biggest thing for this gaming franchise i.e., it will be out with the old and in with the new on more than one level. We are talking every character from the entire series making some sort of appearance, and as of now 60 playable characters! This end of an era theme is not just about the end of this game on the sixth generation consoles, but also refers to the fact that these some of these characters will be making their last appearance ever in this franchise. It is not for certain in the storyline as of now who will stay and who will go, but it appears that people should be getting their bets on that everyone is up for retirement, So start making your dead pool lists, because it is open season on these beloved characters.
Picture from http://ps2media.gamespy.com/ps2/image/article/692/692901/mortal-kombat-armageddon-20060301041308070.jpg Classic Kombatants Rain and Sheeva squaring off...for what might be their last time In MK: Armageddon.
This game is going to blow the rest of them away, or that is the hype we are getting. I feel that it will have the same fighting system, just a little re-vamped. You can now combo in the air, and stop attacks as well. You can also create your own character, which is a first in the game’s history. Some polls have been going up recently what character you would create from real life, and the response shows that this will be a well-received concept for the game. The new create a fatality mode is quite interesting in that a player can jam in a certain number of combos to pull off avant-garde fatalities. Concepts tossed out for this new idea are a combatant ripping out the brain, then the heart, liver, etc. and having it done by randomly pushing in a set of combos, and I can only assume it is sort of like a juggling fatality that will continue as long as you hit the correct buttons. There is still a set amount of time you have to pull off the fatality moves, and that it may be more tricky this time around due to the new form of what seems to be a tribute to the brutality.
The now infamous Konquest mode gets pumped up on steroids, and has been rumored to have two main characters now, one good, and one evil. The game takes up a Mortal Kombat: Shalion Monks style, in that you will fight not only one person in kombat mode, but many characters at once in a knock around fighter similar to old games like N.A.R.C. and Streets of Rage. It is still skeptical on how secrets will be unlocked, but I can only assume that many secrets will come from the vault (What replaces the Krypt…perhaps symbolic to “opening” up the history of MK, or perhaps “locking” away the old, and making room for a whole new generation of MK story, characters, and concepts) and from finding things throughout the Konquest mode. It was rumored that all secrets can now be unlocked through any part of the game, so if another concept style is created, (e.g. the matching blocks game from Deadly Alliance) then there will be several areas to open up secrets. I would also make a hypothesis on how this game will be a tribute to all other games in the past, and should have secret characters like khameleon, Chameleon, and Meat, but those are simply guess or rumors that are being spread about. One thing that Boon and Tobias make sure, is that the fans are kept guessing until the opening of the game’s package.
The game sounds huge, and that it will pack a hefty size for the current generation systems to spin out, but then again, there has yet to be a huge number of two disc games for the current generation titles, could this be the first one? I thought Deception, with its Chess set style gaming, and other add-ons would be at least two discs, but I was shocked when it was just one playable disc that rendered well, with decent load times. So this may in fact be the current systems being pushed to their limit, because Boon and company believes that life in these systems is far from dead.
The game will have to tie up all loose ends, and there are a lot of them, especially for most characters that we have not seen since MK Gold, the Sub Zero Mythologies game, and even MK: Special Forces. (All games that did not sell too well, and have either been canned from development, or not well accepted by the fan base. These games are considered overlooked, and put in the past.) Most of the endings of characters are not tied into the true concept of the MK storyline, but each fighter does have a history, some origins are still unknown in the storyline now, so this must tie up in some way for the sake of the fan’s lust for knowledge.
I believe certain characters making their appearance for the first time in a while were concept characters that were not suppose to become big names, but did, and now have their own story to tie into this universe. Names like Rain, Motaro, Kintaro, and Goro return to tie up the ends of their story, and what really their significance is now, since Rain has not been seen in either Deadly Alliance, or Deception. Nevertheless, fans will have to wait for these answers on October 2, 2006, when the game is to be released to the many fans of the world.
I hope this games sticks with the route it was going, in that the Martial Arts is a factor, and the history behind the feudal-like world of Asia is respected, and returns. I know that there are to be two fighting styles per character, or so is true until final production, and weaponry will be more optional. (I can safely assume that areas will have certain weapons that can be picked up, like in the previous title.) I also know as of now, that these characters are all playable, the roster of characters is shown below, and comes from the game’s mother site www.mkarmageddon.com. Lastly, I know that the roster is still being questioned, and that if it can expand, or if characters not playable will make a cameo appearance in the Konquest mode.
Stay tuned in for Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) where new information on many upcoming games will be revealed. E3 is scheduled for May or June this year, and will be a three day affair of video games, new hardware, and perhaps a sneak peek at the last two big “next-gen” consoles (Playstation 3, Nintendo Revolution) will be revealed. There may even be playable games on the floor, and if so, live coverage online, and on television may be shown.
Go to www.gamespot.com for more information on this, and other MK games I have mentioned, or check out G4tv on your cable or satellite provider for all the video game information you need. I will do another report on Mortal Kombat: Armageddon when more information is leaked, but knowing Boon and Tobias, it will be quite a task to pry any information away from them. Thank you for reading this series of blogs, and thank you for supporting Malacast Editorial.
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