It’s not Mortal, it’s just Kombat
Would a Mortal Kombat game be the same without Fatalities? Kind of but not really.
Midway’s goal upon porting Mortal Kombat: Armageddon to the Wii was to give any type of gamer a chance to be able to produce special moves and fatalities. When Mortal Kombat debuted in arcades back in 1993 fatalities and special moves were a sign of skill but with the Wii edition of Armageddon a 5 year old can do anything a seasoned veteran can do. So the playing field has been effectively leveled.
Armageddon accomplishes this by allowing a player to produce special moves and fatalities simply by making one of eight possible motions with the Wii Remote. 4 of which are either up/down, down/up, forward/back and back/forward; the rest are quarter circles with the Wii Remote. The downside is that by simplifying the controls they’ve really dumbed down the challenge that made the gameplay exciting. Also in simplyfying the controls they’ve ditched the characters unique fatalities and replaced them with a generic one that can be escalated by the player but they pretty much all end up the same.
Mortal Kombat: Armageddon is pretty close to being a definitive version of the game. There are so many playable characters that I didn’t even have a chance to play as everyone. I did find some of them rather similar though. If you are a true fan of the series you shouldn’t be disappointed in the selection offered by Armageddon.
One of the nice additions to the game is the “Konquest” mode where you play as a demigod named Taven as he tries to figure out why everyone under the sun including his brother is attacking him. “Konquest” is in a very different vein than traditional Mortal Kombats. It’s more of a dungeon crawling brawler than a ladder tournament which has been common in previous MKs. Now sprinkled throughout your quest are traditional one on one fights to the death against some of the other series veterans like Reptile, Sector, Kintaro and others. The pacing works well mixing the brawling and one on one battles nicely. Konquest is also where your are going to unlock the bulk of the bonus “kontent” found in the game including alternate costumes, “Koncept” art, and new stages. Upon completing the “Konquest” mode you unlock Taven as a playable character, big mistake. If I just spent 6 to 8 hours playing as this guy why would I want to play more of him. After playing through “Konquest” for about 4 hours I grew bored of Taven and really wanted to play as someone else. If you’re going to have someone play as one character for an extended period of time you really should make that character super interesting to play, this was not done with Taven.
I must say that I did enjoy Mortal Kombat: Armageddon but I’m getting really sick of paying full price for these ports from other consoles especially when the game has been out for almost a year on other platforms. I also enjoyed having the option to pick my controller depending on my preference or mood. The Wii Remote and nunchuck, Classic controller, and GameCube controllers are all supported and you can switch between them on the fly without having to reset the software. So if your in the mood for a simple ultra violent fighting game give this one a rent. However if you are a hardcore fighting game fan you may find this one so easy that hit hurts.
Please note that Mortal Kombat: Armageddon has been Rated M for Mature by the ESRB. I know I mentioned a five year old may beable to play the game like a vet. That does not mean that five year should be exposed to this level of violence by any means. For more information on the ESRB and it’s rating please visit the ESRB website
July 25th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
Unsurprisingly, this is the same thing I felt when playing the game on the PS2: easy as dirt (even on the harder difficulties), not quite as fun as the others, yet still entertaining with all those characters to play. Yes, some feel the same, but that’s because as they went along with the “story”, they removed some characters that they felt needed to be in every game, so they made another character with almost the same moveset. Cheating, yes, but it worked then.
I’d like to give this wiimake a try, but since I’m very familiar with the game already, I’d just play a few fights with the wiggle controls, get bored of it (again), and ditch it.
July 27th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
The game on all the other consoles is basicly the same. The controls are old school like the game itself. Personally the new MK’s were a pain because it was so in depth I felt if I owned it I’d be good at it. But this one I can rent and play as all my old school favorite guys from the MK’s I grew up on. It was fun, and I loved the custom characters, I personally made Akuma from Street Fighter, Akuma vs an MK guy is fun to watch. And the online was a major plus. Overall I agree with Tim but I don’t see the point of the Wii version when I can buy the same game for probabaly less then half the price on another console.