Well, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon has been out for two months, and just recently became playable on the Xbox 360. I figured it’s about time I put down my personal thoughts concerning the game. Keep in mind that these are my own opinions and do not reflect those of Mortal Kombat Online. That said…
So, where does MK: Armageddon stand for me? Well, overall, I actually consider it the best of the current-generation Mortal Kombat games, followed by Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance and then Mortal Kombat: Deception. I’ve been playing the Xbox version now, simply because the game looks much better in 720p than it did in 480p on my Playstation 2. Once I get my Xbox Live Gold service reinstated, I’ll probably be playing a bit online. Konquest mode is also fun, and very reminiscent of Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks. I haven’t messed with Kreate-a-Fighter, mainly because I have no creativity when it comes to those things.
That said, here’s my list of how I feel about some gripes that I’ve been hearing…
- There’s talk that the game is unbalanced. I’d believe it… but all things considered, they did pretty damn good. Even Capcom couldn’t completely balance Marvel vs Capcom 2, and that game had fewer characters.
- I’ll admit, I prefer the old style fatalities to Kreate-a-Fatality. So do a lot of people. But seriously, I don’t expect them to come up with 124+ fatalities for the regular kombatants plus “generic” fatalities for kreated fighters in the time they had alloted. A couple of people suggested reusing fatalities, but not only would that result in MORE screams of laziness, it wouldn’t help those characters making their first current-gen appearance… namely Kai, Fujin, Stryker, Sheeva, Rain, Reiko, Kintaro, Motaro, and Shinnok.
- Motaro has two legs instead of four. It’s a limitation of the engine. “Laziness” doesn’t enter into it. Deal.
- The endings are widely reviled as being crap. Meh. For the most part, I agree… I don’t like them. I’ll take Daegon’s as being canon, though.
- Motor Kombat was fun… really fun. I just would have liked more tracks. :-)
- Finally, a lot of people claim the storyline isn’t canon. It is canon. One just has to understand three things about it: 1) the game takes place at a minimum several months after MK: Deception, 2) the game intro takes place at the very end of Konquest mode, and 3) due to the nature of the game endings, only ONE ending can be canon. The fact that Midway has already started releasing bios is also helping in this regard.
Otherwise, all in all, I’m really enjoying MK: Armageddon. Hell, they even seriously improved my second-favorite MK character, Shinnok. Now instead of being a Shang Tsung clone, he actually looks like an ancient and evil power with his own special moves. Now I’m just waiting to see what they do with the Wii version… heh.
Finally, on an unrelated note, it’s that time of the year when the big media publications are doing their “Best of 2006” series, and MK: Armageddon got nominated by Spike TV and 1UP. What I don’t understand is how games like Street Fighter Alpha Anthology for PS2, Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX for PSP, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 for Xbox 360 are getting nominated by these places and others like GameSpot. These aren’t anywhere close to being new games. These are ports of games that are at a minimum 5 years old. I mean, I might be an MK fan and I have UMK3 for my 360, but still… I don’t think it should have been eligible. Ah, well…
In any event, MK: Armageddon should keep me going for a while, especially as the next MK game is a ways off. We’ll see what Boon and co. come up with then, but for now, I’m having fun. :-)