Part 1: Kratos Kombat?
Mortal Kombat is a series I follow religiously, ever since the 2-D games on the Genesis and Super Nintendo. I’ve stuck with it since it was done by Midway, the company that also brought gamers Spyhunter and Primal Rage. The game is almost two decades old, and has made a mark on gaming history. Lately, the games made for the current generation systems have been a bit unique, particularly the game Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. This game hit a sour note with many fans that have followed the game since its inception, but nothing really drastic has been done to the series since the combination of Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, Mortal Kombat: Deception, and Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. These games were the foundation for the sixth generation gaming systems, and were well received, despite some minor discrepancies in the fighting system.
The first Mortal Kombat for the seventh generation consoles sported a teen rating, and left behind the typical blood and gore found most prominently in the series, and replaced it with minor violent images, and sported Detective Comic’s characters. So Sub-Zero fought Batman, Raiden fought Captain Marvel, and Kano took on the Flash. Sure, these ideas are interesting, similar to that of Marvel vs Capcom, but never did it represent the core fan base.
Now, with a promise of a new Mortal Kombat being released this upcoming year, a promise to go back to the blood and gore that made the series innovative, along with a 2-D fighting system has had much hype over the past few months. It was recently released that the game would be coming out in the very near future, mid 2011, and many fans are anxious to start using all the new features like tag-team Kombat (Similar to that of Marvel Vs. Capcom, and Teken Tag).
With a handful of characters released for the roster, and a promise to tell the first three games over again in a new story, wills the game live up to its hype? Or will it sink NeatherRealm down before it has a chance to swim?
Mortal Kombat, the 2011 remake of the classic game series will sport familiar favorites like Kung Lao, Sub-Zero, Scorpion, and Sonja Blade. The game will be released around the time the new movie is set to launch in theaters, perhaps a bit earlier, but it seems Mortal Mania is arising, just with a cautious flag of hope across the desert landscape. The game is perhaps the biggest remake in the history of renovations, as the game will be a total of three games via story mode.
Perhaps the biggest announcement made is that a special character has made the roster list, and that is none other than God of War’s own Kratos. I was personally shocked to hear that Kratos will be a playable character in the next game, and found it a mixed blessing.
The fan boy inside me was screaming with joy, but the skeptic also was staring confused at the article, lost on the concept that Warner Bros. Has here.
Granted, Kratos is a character familiar with killing and ravaging enemies in the most bloodiest fashion, but there also coincides a conundrum I cannot understand: If Kratos is going to be in the game, does that truly make it a Mortal Kombat game? We the fans were promised a game we would fall in love with as a true original, honest Mortal Kombat game that has not been seen in years, and now they decide to add in a character that is obviously there to sell units.
Another problem I see is that if Kratos is in the game, will he be on both the Xbox 360 version, as well as the Playstation 3 version? I would take a wild guess and say no, as Sony owns pretty much all the rights to the God of War series, and that would in-term give Microsoft a character that is exclusively Sony’s work.
Which brings up another question in this bold move, will that mean some famous Microsoft character will be playing the role instead of Kratos on that version> I’m not sure how cool it would be to see Master Chief fight Scorpion, but I’m sure something is being worked out for this launching title in 2011.
Aside from Kratos, Seems almost every character from the first three games originally released in arcades, and for the home consoles of Super NES, and the Sega Genesis. This gives play to dozens of characters, so expect a roster of forty to sixty characters, give or take a dozen. This will be as exciting as the release of Mortal Kombat II into the arcade. Perhaps the biggest makeover is a bit over-the-top to say for the newest Mortal Kombat, it’s more correct to say that this is going to be a revising of the original games that we all know and love.
Interestingly enough the game will be a two-dimensional fighter, similar to something of what we’ve seen from the previous Street Fighter titles. The game will be perhaps the most goriest to date, and every character will have their on personal move set, fatalities, and costumes. The game is set for release some time late this year. The game will consist of almost every kombatant, including the first six, Shao Khan, Nightwolf, Reptile, Jax, and Ermac are just a few confirmed. Others will be Kitana, Mileena, and Scorpion. Sub-Zero will be playable as well through story mode, which seems to accumulate all the characters (excluding Kratos, who is only playable in arcade mode.) Not much has been revealed about this game, specifically, the storyline, characters, and arenas, but what has been revealed so far looks to be a plus in every way.
First off, the developers have returned to 2-D fighting systems. That means that this will be the first game since MK Trilogy to have this sort of game play, how it will work on a next gen console is yet to be seen, but if it is as fluid in kombat as what we’ve seen from the likes of Street Fighter IV, we should be in for a grand surprise.
Secondly, the game will have a tag-team option. It’s not quite sure if this will be allowed in single player mode only or if it can be used in as a two-on-two match as well. It would be interesting to have a co-op tag similar to Tekken Tag, but also similar to the Endurance match found in the Playstation 2 and Xbox versions of Ultimate Mortal Kombat III. This allowed for two-to-four players to fight in a four-on-four character bout. Meaning each player had two characters to face off against another four characters respectively.
Okay, so that’s a little confusing, to put simply, if the new tag option is like Teken Tag, or similar games, it can be interesting to see online factions, or four players in a room playing like an old school arcade tournament.
Speaking of which, there was a hint from developers that all online fights will be like arcades where two powerhouse players battle it out in an arena of spectators via a sort of forum which allows online players to what combatants and get a glimpse as to what they’re fighting next. Perhaps there will be a jump-in style of game play where one player continues to fight oncoming opponents in a sort of endurance online mode. Speculations are starting to seem more realistic with more and more information leaked about this game, coming out mid to late 2011. Many different release dates have been announced, but none of them have been set in stone. Mortal Kombat should be quite the spectacle, especially with what’s to come, and the secrets we’ve yet to hear about, which will be far great I think, than just a Kratos appearance.
Let’s get back to that idea though; Kratos and Mortal Kombat seem to have a way of complementing one another in their varying differences. God of War is an ultra-violent game that uses button combinations throughout to pull off sick ending moves that leave a bloody mess. This is perhaps the biggest way that God of War and Mortal Kombat are in sync with one another. Is this the biggest news of the year yet? Perhaps, but most likely not, as I do wonder so many different questions about this pair up, it is almost confusing as to whether it was the best choice, or a PR decision that would branch the game to a much larger audience. Perhaps a fear of Midway going out of business last year, and hopes for a larger selling game, or making a game that will appeal to an audience of a younger generation that have not grown up with the arcades and 2-D versions of the earlier games. Believe it or not, this is truly the last generation of the arcade era. Truly online play killed the arcade giant, but this is also a blessing in disguise, as we will be playing an innovative multiplayer the likes of which have never seen before.
Part 2: Going Old Skool
Mortal Kombat for 2011 is going back to basic 2-D fighting homage to the arcade days. See, most kids growing up today, don’t really recall the golden age of the arcade hall. Sure, there’s arcades left in malls, movie theaters, and some cabinets can be found on occasion in some pizzerias and restaurants, but they are nowhere near as frequent as they were in the early 90s. Arcades have become arcane, and no one really wants to admit that Internet killed the arcade halls. Arcades were really the only place where you could truly test your might against the other players in the district, sometimes even players from across the country, even the world.
I remember walking to the arcades as a kid, some good two miles away, and playing the newest games to come out from developers. Most brand-new games would first hit arcade halls before seeing the light of day on a home console, and the port would never match the experience of the arcade versions. Lines would go out the door for the newest games, and people would put thousands of quarters into a machine a day.
If you wanted to prove you were the best, you’d stand at the machine, with a hundred people behind you, waiting for their turn at the machine, cheering or booing you along, ready to pick up where the last loser left off. It was a character builder, and you learned more in the arcade than any strategy guide could teach you, and a win counted more, because it was your hard earned money going up on the cabinet.
Interestingly enough, the new Mortal Kombat takes this concept to a whole new level. The developers actually use the Internet to their advantage, and have online forums where players watch and comment on two players going head-to-head in a match, reliving the sort of pressure that was once felt in arcades, but to a whole new level. So simple an idea is this, yet so modern an idea as well to bring social gaming back to a level it’s yet to achieve on the home front, excluding titles like Littlebigplanet.
Mortal Kombat wants to make it so the player that is waiting patiently up next can be eying the other competitors like a piece of meat, ready to tear away at what’s left of the victor, and claim his or her spot as the next in line to defend a winning streak. This element will be quite crucial for gamers who have never experienced that particular form of competitive gaming, and in a long-shot, this may start a wave of online arcade tournaments, that will force games like Street Fighter and Teken to follow suit.
Sure, there are similar things out there for games using ventrillo chat systems, but to my knowledge, the first attempt to strategically do this sort of game with this type of forum. With the 2-D fighting system back in play, how exactly will this play out for most people who started out with Deadly Alliance, or even Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe?
It’s actually quite simple; the games of yesteryears, particularly the ones that come from the Super NES and Sega Genesis days are actually quite simplistic. They invented the juggle combos that are so often used in most fighting games today, creating combos that are close to 100 hits each, if the player was good enough to pull them off. Mortal Kombat really allowed for players to create and combine combos out of the blue, having professional players leave amateur button mashers lost in a state of confusion on just how the character pulled off such an amazing feat.
It’s interesting enough to see the game develop as news is released every few weeks. The question is, with so many big reveals, that the majority of characters from the first three games will be present, a tag-in mode, and a challenge tower in place of the ladder system that challenges players as they continue to beat the game, what else can they reveal? Speculation would lead that the tests your might mini-game will return, perhaps during Kombat, like the MKvsDCU game? Time will tell. Other speculations can be made that the storyline will further invoke a demand from loose ends that must be tied up from Armageddon and Deception. Will characters to playable make cameos, like Quan Chi. Perhaps yes, perhaps no, but we will find out in a matter of months. Crazy to think that 2011 has already come and is on its way. This year does seem to be shaping up to be the year of fighting titles, but will Mortal Kombat reign supreme again, or will other newer titles take charge?
Part 3: Total Revision
As you may also know, there is scheduled to be another Mortal Kombat movie, this one will see theaters, and is completely a revision of the mythos, perhaps a lead-in to the new game, and to future titles. Now that Warner Bros. owns the rights to all of what were Midway’s games, will this mean a bigger budget for film ideas?
The free five minute opening of the movie has been up on YouTube for some time now, and with a release date set for either this year or early next, one can only wonder if we’re seeing 1992 all over again, but in this new modern age, can older games withstand the test of time? Mortal Kombat will be twenty years old next year, will the violence, so over-the-top as it is, become stale? Will the movies continue to be terrible? What about the future of the fighting genre? Are we to see new classics made from out of the rotting tombs that make up games like Mortal Kombat, or Street Fighter? Maybe the answer is not buying a new dog, but teaching the old one calculus. Yes, seems that mistakes have well been learned by Ed Boon, a very celebrated man in the whole of video games, up there with the likes of Myamoto and Dave Jaffe. Not to leave out great developers like Cliff Belelinckzi, but what comes next? Has the fighting genre reached its toll or is the best yet to come?
In a year where the top three most anticipated games are all fighters Twisted Metal, Mortal Kombat, and Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, when will we see something completely out of the blue to the genre? Sure, Primal Rage 2 could become a reality, even a remake of the Bloody Roar series can be coming out shortly, but what exactly could stand out in that key demographic. Something that wows, something that puts an end to the oligarchy system that has troubled the genre to mere spectator sport? The answer will be Mortal Kombat.
I do believe deep down that this Mortal Kombat will entice fans to seek out future installments in the series. This will be a major breakthrough for the fighting genre as well as the game franchise itself, soon to be released in March or April of this year.
Thank you for reading the Malacast Editorial, please be sure to check out the twitter feed @mcasteditorial, and you can always read further reviews, previews, and more at the Malacast Editorial, at mcasteditorial.blogspot.com
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