With more camp prepping and the dark shadow of school looming in my future the time to play games and clear my massive backlog is slowly drifting away. So I was hoping to play a few PC games that I bought from from garage sale, but Thief The Dark Project would crash after walking forward, and Diablo II would work for about a minute before bursting into rainbows. Well fine Mr and Ms PC games. I see my middle ground computer isn't good enough for you. Well I can play mean too. I'll just go play Mortal Kombat instead.
This is the part where I explain the history of Mortal Kombat, but come on, its freaking Mortal Kombat. Everyone has at least heard of this game and its infamous reputation, but I'll explain anyway. Released in 1992, Mortal Kombat was an arcade game that was made popular by its digitized actors and its copious amounts of blood, mainly through the use of fatalities, where once the opposing player was defeated, the winner could use a specific combo to rub their victory in the others face by taking their heart, blowing them up with lighting, or ripping their head right off of their shoulders. So yeah, it was violent, so violent in fact that parents wanted the game banned from arcades, which lead to the creation of the ESRB or the Entertainment Software Rating Board for the uninformed. It was through this that the game was a success giving it a huge following and massive legacy, leading to many sequels, spinoffs, and even a movie. So this game is big in its history, so let's take a look at the game that started the series.
First of all, it should be noted that the version I'm playing is the Sega Genesis version of the game, which boasts a better sounding, well, soundtrack, and just being easier and cheaper to find. I've never played the SNES version and playing the arcade version is later on the previously mentioned backlog, so this version will have to do. Also in order to save on paragraphs in this review, the first Mortal Kombat has no explanation of the plot. You can get biographies of each of the characters that explain their motives for entering the tournament, but overall, no plot is explained until the sequel, so for right now let's just say that...all of the fighters entered the tournament to claim the last Twinkie in existence.
As for the gameplay, well, its a fighting game. Your goal is to defeat your opponents by using the regular fighting moves of punching , kicking, uppercutting the usual stuff. By beating your opponent, you move onto the next one, and repeat the process until you beat the final boss. Because this is an arcade game, you'll gain points for violence during the fight, performing fatalities, time left at the end of each round, and making it through a round without taking any damage, or a flawless victory as its called in game.
There are seven characters in the game, and while they all have the same punches and kicks, they each have their own special moves too, like Scorpion is able to grab opponent, pull them over to him, and deal damage at the same time, and Subzero, who can freeze opponents, setting them up for an uppercut. As I mentioned before each character has their own biography detailing why they entered the tournament which you can see by beating the game, but this leads to my next point. Mortal Kombat is hard. Very hard. I still haven't beaten this game, and I was playing on easy with six credits. The first few matches are easy, but after that the opponents won't hold back and you will lose.
On the topic of graphics, the digitized actors look good, and the environments look good as well. The game looks good, but its nothing great. The soundtrack is great however, containing catchy fighting tunes that stick with you while your playing.
Of course, you don't play Mortal Kombat for the soundtrack or the graphics. You play it for the bloody violent action during the fights. Mortal Kombat is still a satisfying, and fun game to play. Just expect to be given a challenge, because you will lose, and you will need to practice in order to win. Mortal Kombat is available on multiple systems such as the Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 meaning you can get your daily dose of fatality on just about any system.
The Silent Protagonist made it to Endurance 3 on his Easy run. Beat that!
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