Late reviews are one of the things I hate do post, because I feel I've neglected my readers valuable time. So for the sake of those who read my blog, and were expecting this review sooner, I appologize. I actually have some things I want to say in this post that may seem controversital,but really it comes down to ethics on-part of the designer.
Mortal Kombat 9, the lastest in the Mortal Kombat series, released earlier this year for the Xbox 360, and the Playstation 3 is a retro take on the old fighting franchise. How do you keep an old dog with old tricks releveant in this age? With a new engine. Although the graphics engine for Mortal Kombat 9 is the same one used for Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, it is actually much smoother this time around. The characters are all the same from past games, no real new characters are found here, excluding DLC, but we'll get to that later. The game consists of almost every fighter from the first three games, and includes Quan Chi as an added bonus. The game itself is a rip-roaring smorgasbord of violence, carnage, and everything fans have grown to love from this franchise.
Mortal Kombat 9 brings back famous characters who are on a first-name basis with fans,with the likes of: Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Sonya Blade, Johnny Cage, Reptile, Liu Kang, Raiden, Kano, and loads more. Not the most amount of fighters seen in the game's history, but a close second. Playable characters are enough to keep hours, if not days of gameplay enthralling, even without the downloadable content. The game is consistent, realistic, the new fighting engine, including the surprisingly fun X-Ray moves, are not as stale as I expected them to be.
Fatalities are back, and can be unlocked in the returning krypt, or they can be found out in the pratice fatality mode, which allows you to pratice all different combinations to discover seceret fatalities. All characters have a stage fatality, which is similar to what could be done in MKII, considered the best game by an engrossing amount of fans, and babalities have also returned for certain characters.
The fatality system has not changed much since its inception, to no one's real surprise, it still takes a buttong combination to pull off the stage ending video, where your opponent is split and sliced into itty bitty gore parts. Considering Warner Bros. said they wanted a 90s style game back on the market to sell, it's no surprise that Boon and company pulled out all the bloody stops to make this game a no-go for parents. The times have changed though, as much less outraged can be seen over this game, and although this game is far less graphic in content to say the Grand Theft Auto series, and even horror juggernaut Dead Space 2, there is a surprising amount of gross moments, and many comical ones as well.
When you look at the overall game, there was a lot of love placed into it, and the game shines, and has some droughts, but overall, it is a classic game in a new engine. Fans should not be disappointed, and newcomers to this series will find they have a world of history to explore if this sparks their interests in the older games. I'm sure HD remakes will be hitting the PSN and XBLA soon enough, but this game in-itself is a fresh start to the franchise. I would actually be excited for MK-X if and when it comes out in the future.
Levels from the first three games return in their HD glory, some famous ones being the Living Forest, which I was not too impressed with, but compared to its predecessor, there is no rival. Then there's the Subway station, which looks better than the first one, and its stage fatality is a fun one to use. The Rooftop stages are the best known from MKIII, and are some of the most detalied in MK9. Level design was done so well, that it makes you forget that this game is really an amazingly detailed hock of the first three, but does that mean the storyline pales in comparison from the first time around? Eh...you decide.
The story is that Raiden, after losing to Shao Khan in Armageddon, with all the Earthrealm fighters dead at their feet, uses some mystical telepathic power to reach his predcessor, the full God Raiden, back at the first tournament. Raiden warns himself that there is going to be a horrible future if he does not change the past, and if Armageddon happens, all of the realms will come under attack by Shao Khan. Seeing as Shao Khan is the tyrannical emperor of Outworld, a big guy with a Napolean complex, it does not shine the best light on Earth's future.
Using a broken medallion as a smybol to "mend" the past, the past Raiden uses images sent by the future Raiden to change the course of history. This turns out to take place over the first three original tournaments, as Shang Tsung, the great socceror to Shao Khan, loses both the first and second tournaments to Liu Kang and his Shaolin brother Kung Lao. These change the storyline so much, in-that it becomes a whole new timeline, and we are left to wonder what great changes will happen. Turns out, a lot of things change. One thing that changes is that Sub-Zero becomes a cybernetic ninja instead of the Lin Kuei member Smoke, and although Jax still loses his arms, and Kabal is still fried chicken, it seems like many of the Earthrealm warriors gain status where there was none before. Stryker becomes a more important character, while Liu Kang becomes on par with Kun Lao. Scorpion learns more about Quan Chi, the sourcerer that brought him back from hell, and though the original Sub-Zero does become Noob Saibot, and Cyber Sub-Zero teams with Shao Khan for a while, much of the change comes from the outcome of Shao Khan's death. The fourth game seems it may be skipped altogether, but that will be shown in MK X if it is developed in the future.
Besides the Quantum Leap storyline, the old-style of 2-D vs. 3-D, the game itself is a testament of all that is lvoed about Mortal Kombat, and all the petpeeves we as fans have had about the game. I can't say much has changed in the almost two-decade long era, but I do hope to see great things come from the series. I am not just finished though with this review, because if I were to rate the game as it stands now, I'd give it about an 8.5 out of 10. Yet, we still have some DLC to get through.
The DLC of MK 9 is not all entirely released, but so far we have two characters: one old, one new. The first is Kenshi, now before we get into this, if you've read my blog in the past, you know how I feel about DLC (Downloadable Content) and how much I cannot stand it, simply because if forces extra payments to a game I've bought already overpriced. DLC is unfair in-that if you do not have a cable modem, you cannot use it, and it costs more money than the download seems worth, but besides all of the negatives, and DLC is here to stay, here is my takes on the two chracters.
First mentioned is Kenshi, who become a playable character almost a decade after the first game's release. He is a blind swordsman who replaced Ermac in the Deadly Alliance and Deception titles. He was a fun character, a fan favorite for the new generation of Kombatants, and he is a powerful adversary. He returns to break up the timeline a bit, but is quite similar to the Kenshi we all have played in the past. The render of the character looks great so-far, and though I have little experience with the new characters, I can say they are not worth download just yet, as I hope a full-package is made a few months after the last few DLC characters come into play.
The second character is brand-new to the series, although it is a character created out of one of the famous mythos of the first three games. Skarlet was supposedly a playable character in the second game, but turned out to be a swapped render of Mileena. She is playable here for the first time on DLC for MK9, and is a blood-based female ninja. She uses similar, though not copied moves that Nitara had in MK:Deception, but she is a big part of the mythology behind the Mortal Kombat Universe. Many fans have hoped and wished for a Skarlet character, and now Boon and developers have come to terms with giving the fans the character that is literally a decade in the making. She is worth downloading if you are a super fan of the old games, but she has no real relevance to the timeline just yet, we'll see if the fans accept her, and if she returns as a stock character in the next game.
Overall, the game is fluent in its execution, Mortal Kombat 9 is perhaps the fastest game out, but considering other fighting titles, it's still in the stone-age. A more conservative fighting game, and it is more mature this time around, not so-much in violence, but seems our little MK franchise is finally growing into a classic. The story isn't the bad, but not great, the dialogue could still use some work, and the gameplay, including the A.I. need some kinks removed, but overall, this is by far the best "new age" Mortal Kombat game to date, and I'm so glad that Kratos is a playable special character over Robin, that would've been the worst decision ever made. I enjoyed the game, and if you're a diehard MK fan like myself, this review wouldn't matter anyway, but thank you for reading through it anyhow, and enjoy Mortal Kombat 9.
I just found out that Freddy Kruger is going to be a DLC character coming this August. I will give a full review in the up-coming month on this, and Rain, which has been out, but I have not much to say about the character. Rain does seem a bit overpowered in the preview, but I will put it to the test this upcoming month
I am Malacast Agent, and this is the Malacast Editorial, thank you for reading all of the reviews, and enjoying the many posts on this site. You can follow me on Twitter @mcasteditorial, or add me as a friend on Facebook, just search for Malacast Agentt, the extra t is because FB refuses still to acknowledge my name as real. Also check out the blog here at mcasteditorial.blogspot.com for more information on my newest project: The EntroPhenom Internet Radio Show.
As always. thank you for reading the Malacast Editorial, expect new posts up in the near future.
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