A "T" rating? Why so serious?

When I heard that the first Mortal Kombat game on the Xbox360/PS3 was going to consist of Mortal Kombat’s characters fighting against the characters of DC comics, I thought it was a joke. Honestly, I’ve never been a major fan of DC comics – I read Marvel – but, the heroes Superman, Wonder woman Batman, Catwoman and Joker   are well known to everyone because they are American culture icons so I did know that it would be interesting seeing a battle of this magnitude.  My first thought was that, the DC characters would simply be reskinned MK characters doing similar moves and that the game was gonna suck, or, that it would only offer an average experience for an MK game – especially after owning MK: Armageddon.    

 In a lot of ways, I was absolutely right.

  If you were to remove the DC characters and theme, you’d basically have a  below average 3D Mortal Kombat game (compared to Deadly alliance and Armageddon). 
The game doesn’t offer anywhere near as much as the last-gen Mortal Kombat games but, it does manage to look updated because of the use of some of the capabilities of the new hardware afforded to the developers.  Still, nothing is new here with the exception of some presentation elements.

THE STORY? 

Mortal Kombat games haven’t had very well written stories since the original game because the creators don’t want the story to ever end. Anyone who dies can come back to life through sorcery  to keep the story going (and sell more $60 gamepacks).

Superman has defeated Darkseid and is prepared to destroy him, when Darkseid attempts to escape through a trans-dimensional portal back to Apokolips. However, superman attempts to melt him with heat vision and rather than killing him, it causes a disturbance in the force, which causes Outworld and the earth of the DC universe to begin to blend together. This also causes Darkseid and Shao Kahn to merge into one being called “Dark Kahn” (very inventive huh?).  The merger between the dimensions causes the powers of super beings like Superman to go on the fritz leaving him open to offensive attacks while it gives more power to others inporportionately – like the Joker.

Raiden assembles the Kombatants and sends them to stop Dark Kahn before the worlds merge into one. Because of this “merger” many of the maps include an obvious boundary where the worlds are merging that passes through the ground in front of you and runs off into the distance in an effect similar to the distant view of the ring in Halo.  Darkseid’s nightmarish world Apokolips is also a background in other stages.

Its not that much of a hook, but its enough to get you playing right?

The game includes a Story mode and an Arcade mode. Arcade mode functions just like the traditional MK games, while Story mode forces you to experiment with each character from their universe. The only major difference is, there are no Fatalities in story mode.
You are given two perspectives to choose from, the DC side or the MK side in the very beginning of the game. To get the full view of the entire storyline, you must play both perspectives. Playing through both perspectives also allows you to unlock both of the “two” locked characters: Shao Kahn or Darkseid.


CONTROL

I will speak about control of the game first because I think it’s the most important aspect that has changed since we last met Mortal Kombat: Armageddon.    Mortal Kombat games in the 3D era, beginning with Deadly Alliance, have changed  a lot of the fighting mechanics of MK even though the basics still remain the same. The major change is that offensive attacks in the 2D era could simply be blocked with a block button or by jumping  over them. In the 3D MK games,  blocking is still useful, but it also became possible to simply move to the left or right against the 3D plane to just move out of the way.   Projectile attacks  and most other offensive moves, therefore,  became only useful if you could surprise the enemy before he had a chance to dodge.

This time around, your Left analog stick still manages you’re movement in the 3D plane, while your D-pad allows you to move strictly in a 2D fashion (back, jump, squat, forward).   
The multiple fighting styles  of Deadly Alliance, Deception and Armageddon are gone.  *Poof*-  just like that.    
The L trigger can now be held down to allow you to move with the d-pad in a 2Dimensional fashion.

Does it work? 

Forget the analog sticks entirely. This game is only playable with the D-pad. 

  I got used to using the analog stick back in “Armageddon” simply because it felt like the easiest way to quickly dodge offensive attacks. However, pulling of special moves like Sub Zero’s freeze are easiest when using a D-pad.  You can alternate your control methods but you have to get used to it first.  If you go the combo-route and simply get in close and wail on the opponent with chained combinations, then projectiles aren’t as important and can be forgone. This it the only point using the analog stick helps.

Now things get tricky.

If you get close to an enemy, and press the [RB] button (depending how your controller is setup), you initiate “close kombat” mode where the camera zooms in on the fighters. The face buttons of the 360’s controller pop up on both sides of the screen for both players to see. The initiating attacker presses an attack button to start his combo. The defender must press the same button as the attacker  in order to do a block/reversal.  If the defender does manage to reverse the attack, the camera zooms out and the close kombat ends. If not, then the defender gets wailed on.
This same method of close kombat is repeated if the attacker knocks the defender off a platform and they begin falling – “free fall kombat”.    As you are both fighting while in freefall, there is a meter which builds up. If that meter makes it past the checkpoint, you can press the action button to execute a special humiliation move that will drive the defender into the pavement.

There is also a new “test your might” system. This time,  one player rams the other player through wall after wall like a wild bull. Both players must franticly tap the action button –as if playing tug of war – while a meter builds up to the side of the player who is losing the button mash. Whoever does lose, ends up taking a huge damage penalty.  It reminds me of Juggernaught smashing through walls near the end of XmenIII and it does look pretty cool if you’re observing the chaos.

There is also a new “Rage” meter which fills up as you take damage. Just like your typical comic book character getting his butt kicked – who decides he’s had enough – when this meter hits 100%, tapping both the triggers will cause you to become enraged and super strong (eyes glowing !) and you can temporarily break your combos being levied against him, OR, shatter opponents with a strike of pure attrition that can even break blocks.

Overall, the combat system does offer enough to allow the game to be accessible, but most of the time, fighting feels sluggish - especially during the “close kombat” battles.  Ultimately, the problem is, no matter what,  3D Mortal Kombat games come down to button mashing  with alternating buttons only to generate combos.  Lets see if Street Fighter for Xbox360/PS3 does any better.


CHARACTERS

After having  several dozen characters to play in Armageddon,  MK vs. DC’s character list is quite underwhelming.   There are 22 characters to choose from, 11  for each side.   All of the Original MK characters are here plus Baraka, Jax and Shao Kahn. Unfortunately Johnny Cage is absent.   The most notable characters from DC include:  Superman,  The Joker (not Heath Ledger’s),  Catwoman (not Halle Berry or Eartha Kitt’s) , The Flash,  Wonder Woman, Lex Luthor (with a cyber suit), Green Lantern and Batman (definitely not Christian Bale’s).

The character’s do have their own personality traits.
For example, the Joker will dance around laughing at you if he hurts you with a combo, but, Mortal Kombat games have been using super moves so long that most of the moves and animations I noticed in the game looked just like previous MK game’s animations.   Superman can pound you into the ground as a fatality. Guess what? Jax did that before.  The MK characters keep their signature moves allowed in a “T” rated environment. Rather than rip your head and spine out, Sub Zero freezes you and shatters you on the ground.  
Character’s uniforms, like in the comics, will  show permanent signs of damage. If you hurt Scorpion enough, his mask falls to the ground;  Superman’s nylon can be torn,  and Catwoman can show scratches for example.

Am I happy with the Characters?

Well, considering what the last generation MK games offered, I think this game should have offered every character from the first 3 MK games.  Furthermore, considering the expandibility of the next generation game systems, I expected to see even more characters or downloadable options.  There aren’t even alternate costumes in this game !?!  Why?   Why can’t Superman look like Cyborg superman. Where is Lex Luthor’s white Suit?  It’s maddening that this game doesn’t offer more in the character list – especially after Armageddon gave us a CHARACTER KREATOR where we could piece together a character from the ground up and make him look just like ourselves… or even…make it look like Henry Paulson.

Dark Khan is basically a reskinned version of Armageddon's "Blaze".

The problem is in the balancing - which usually negatively effects games of this nature. Some characters in the game have moves which can't be blocked and can be exploited to gain easy victories.
For example, Superman has a "ground pound" where he hits the ground twice to knock you off your feet. Used once, its not so bad, but used continuously, you can't stop it at all unless you managed to fill your rage meter to gain temporary invulnerability.
Scorpion has a move where he can set your feet on fire - anywhere on screen - damaging you...and then he can set himself on fire to keep you from hurting him with anything else but a projectile or ground pound.  To make the story short, its easy to cheat in this game.

On XBOX Live, during laggy sessions, some moves are ridiculously hard to connect with the opponent and you can end up losing because hits aren't registered.



GRAPHICS / SOUND
 
As I already mentioned, the special moves that most comic books popularize have already been digitzed by previous Mortal Kombat games. Raiden could fly like Superman. Kano could fire lasers from his eyes like Superman.  Sub Zero could blow freezing breath like Superman., etc,etc. I’m a little underwhelmed by the special moves simply because they’ve already been done. Even the Flash’s move where he runs past you and you spin was popularized by Kabal  (who is missing here).   Joker drops bombs? Guess what? Cyrax did that. Been there, done that.

The fighting Environments look good, with tremendous draw distances and sharper textures than the original XBOX, but, still, after seeing what’s possible in Halo3 and Gears of War with this technology, I’m surprised there isn’t more depth of field when fighting through environments. After all, this is the first Mortal Kombat game to grace the Xbox 360 and the PS3 so you’d expect it to be taking advantage of all that memory and those  dual core processors.   

The character models, besides showing damage like cuts and tears in their nylon outfits, should be even more detailed.   Frankly, this game feels last-gen if you overlook the sharper textures.
The Free Fall Kombat and the Test Your Might scenes are the only specific moments in the game where you realize you’re playing on a Next Gen system. 

I think another major problem is this stupid “T” rating. Obviously its done to sell more games, but the developers should have stayed true to the roots of MK and gone all out “M”.  I want to see fully destructible bodies – with bleed out.  You should by now be able to do realistic damage to character models just as sure as you can chainsaw people in half in Gears of War.  After all, this game isn’t using all the processing power available simply because its presentation is modified 3D with a 2D theme.

As much as playing Solitaire on a Alienware PC is a waste, so too does this game feel shallow.

After all, this game is running on the UNREAL 3 engine: the same one as Gears of War 2. After playing through Gears 2, I’m just expecting a lot more that some characters looking as if they have plastic skin.
Most of the sound effects sound lifted from other MK games and the stage music has that “epic battle” apocalyptic base to it as if it came from the last battle scenes of a Spiderman  or XMEN film. A lot of the voicework sounds cheesy, and scripting could have been a lot better.   
Still, sound is crisp and clear with high quality HD audio.



OVERALL 

This game is ripe for an Arcade  or to rent before you buy, but, on the next generation systems, its lack of unlockables, short character list and last gen audio and graphics don’t make it worth $60.  It’s a great start, however I don’t believe there will be a sequel. What would really be good is a Mortal Kombat vs. Marvel game were  MK characters square off with XMEN, but that may not ever happen.

I’m not sure who this game is targeting.  If its targeting DC fans who’ve bought superhero games, then those buyers may get a lot of fun out of this game.  If they were targeting dedicated MK gamers like myself, they  missed the mark entirely  since our expectations have gradually grown higher and higher with the 3 Ps2/Xbox games released in the last generation.

And a “T” rating?  For a Mortal Kombat game?   
Are you kidding me? That’s Sacrilege !

There are two fatalities that are censored in the US Version but not the European Union's. Thanks to the magic of Youtube, you can see them both here:    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gZ7joPRLyA

As far as I’m concerned even the slick presentation isn’t enough to disguise the fact we are missing out on a lot of innovation that could have made this game spectacular.