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5 Responses to “Mortal Kombat Armageddon”

1. 
   Lisa Shea
   Sep 2nd, 2010 at 10:16 am

   Review by Lisa Shea for Mortal Kombat Armageddon
   Rating:
   Mortal Kombat has fixed a lot of problems with their latest release, Mortal Kombat Armageddon. There are trillions of characters and some fun mini-games too.

   The basic plot – as if this blood-drenched game really needed a plot – is that the Gods are sick of all the fighting going on. They send their two sons down to try to get things under control. In the meantime, there’s a gigantic pyramid in which the various Kombatants can duke it out to see who reins supreme.

   There are many ways to play in Mortal Kombat Armageddon. There is a story mode where you do have a plot – you walk along paths in jungles, explore spaceships, have random fights as you go, gathering up coins and treasures. In arcade mode, you have instant access to about 60 different characters in a series of fights. If you get stuck with one character, you can try again with a new one.

   The characters are drawn from all of the Mortal Kombat games. Some only showed up briefly in previous games. If you’ve been following up on the Mortal Kombat saga, you’ll see all sorts of references to previous situations and feuds.

   All the coins you earn in the various stages can be used to unlock items – new skills, new outfits, and more. They actually tell you what you’re going to unlock, too! That’s a nice change. Also, there’s only one type of coin – so everything you earn goes into one bank account for you to spend however you wish.

   There is a REALLY cool character creating system where you can set up a character, male or female, with exactly the hair, eyes, body shape and costume you want. The tweaking is pretty impressive with eye color, nose shape and more. You expect this level of detail from a RPG – but from a fighting game it’s a great bonus.

   Speaking of bonusses, if you like games like Super Bombad Racing, you’re in for a treat. They include an entire racing game as a bonus, with little cartooney versions of Mortal Kombat characters zipping around on a track.

   Are there downsides to the game? Well, while the arenas you fight in are destructable, have the ability to go from one area to the other and have interactive items, they are not as “lushly gorgeous” as a few other XBox fighting games.

   Also, while it’s pretty tame now compared to other mature games, it’s worth noting that Mortal Kombat is very bloody. When this series first came out, a lot of people were in an uproar over it. Now the blood spurting out seems almost normal. Still, not a game for little kids.

   It also seems a bit silly that you have fully detailed cinematics – sometimes VERY long cinematics – setting up situations … but when you end an important battle you often get a text message saying “And then [insert important boss name here] decided to stop fighting and run away”. It’s a bit anticlimactic.

   Still, these are minor complaints in a game that is really quite stellar. They let you play tons of characters right from the beginning, so you can easily get to your favorites. They have a ton of things to unlock, and the coin system is very easy. You know WHAT you’re going to unlock.

   And, to be honest, I *love* that they have male and female characters, side by side, kicking butt. I’ve seen male and female players choosing both male and female characters without any problem, knowing that both can be equally strong and skilled. That really makes me happy, that we’ve reached this point.

   Highly recommend for mature fighting game fans.

2. 
   Kent
   Sep 2nd, 2010 at 10:34 am

   Review by Kent for Mortal Kombat Armageddon
   Rating:
   I have been a Mortal Kombat fan since the original game and I am always impressed with each new MK game (although I have yet to play MK: Mythologies).

   I was a huge fan of Mortal Kombat Trilogy simply because we were finally able to play as some of the characters that we couldn’t play as before: Shao Kahn, Goro, Kintaro, Motaro, etc. But it was only available on PS1 and the N64. I had always hoped that Midway would bring out something similar for the Xbox and PS2 consoles. After several more Kombat games, Midway finally did it! Here we get a roster of about 62 characters, four of which still need to be unlocked. But the fact that we virtually get all the characters unlocked when we first put the game in our consoles is absolutely amazing! I was expecting to have to unlock at least half the roster but that’s not the case here!

   What about some of the features? Well, for starters, like the last two MK games, there is The Krypt where you can use koins you’ve earned in Arcade and Konquest mode to unlock items. However, there are not as many unlockables in this game compared to the previous two; the reason could be because of the huge roster which took up disc space and a few other odds and ends. Sadly, there isn’t much of anything special to unlock here except for alternate character costumes and arenas. The concept art is…well…just that. And the movies are basically test footage of some of the characters and about one or two promo ads for a couple of the newer MK games. What is especially nice about The Krypt this time is that there are no multi-colored koins to collect. There are only gold koins, making it easier to unlock items.
   
   Konquest mode has been redone as well, making it more fun, in my opinion. Anyone who has played Shaolin Monks will easily see the resemblance here. This makes the mode much more fun because you have to interact more with the environment than in previous Konquest modes. However, there is probably one drawback to it, just like with any other previous Konquest mode, it is basically there for you to unlock items and to collect koins.
   
   Another interesting feature here is Motor Kombat. What it is is a simple spinoff of the Mario Kart series of games, only with MK characters. There are ten characters to choose from, each with their one special abilities to try to win the race. There are also five tracks. The unfortunate thing about this mode, however, is that it is small, not offering us many characters or tracks due to the already large amount of disc space the roster takes up. This mode is something just to kill some time with and really nothing more. Some may find it more fun than Chess or Puzzle Kombat, but it is personal preference.
   
   There is also a new Kreate A Kharacter feature. All you need to know about this is that it is, seriously, the DEEPEST character creation engine I have seen on ANY game to date! This mode goes in really deep and what makes it more fun is that you can take your character online and battle with others.
   
   There is a Kreate A Fatality feature as well but it is only within the Arcade mode. When you defeat a character and FINISH HIM is flashing, you have a certain allotted amount of time to due a fatality. It is fairly simple to pull off 1-3 of them with simple button pushing, but you can do as many as you wish. The more experienced you are with the game’s controls, the more you’ll be able to pull off. There is one catch however, with each fatality you pull-off, the amount of time lessens for you to pull-off the next one. So you have to be quicker about it as you progress. What makes this feature dry is that the individual character fatalities are gone. Disc space, once again, is the reason for this. So the fatalities are nothing more than simple ripping off of limbs, busting skulls, etc.

   The graphics are still looking good here. But they do seem to look slightly more bland than in the previous two installments due to the large roster. The arenas and characters, although still very nicely detailed, are not quite as detailed as they were in Deception or Deadly Alliance. Nevertheless, they are still very well done.

   The gameplay is still very good here. The characters are relatively easy to control. What I like about this installment is that the boss characters are much easier to defeat than they were in previous games; like Kintaro, Shao Kahn, Motaro, etc. They are not the cheap AI fighters they were in previous MK games. Also, in the two previous Kombat games each fighter had three fighting sets. Two hand-to-hand styles and one weapon. But due to disc space, the max you will see here is two. Some of the characters, like Onaga, only have one. While it seems like a loss, it’s not all that big of a loss. Of course it would be interesting to see some characters, like Onaga, have a weapon as well.

   Mortal Kombat Armageddon is a Mortal Kombat fan’s dream game! With over sixty fighters, everyone is surely going to try beating the game with a vast number of characters. The only drawback to the game are the quality of the unlockables in The Krypt, the extras, and the fact that in Arcade mode, there are only about eight fighters you have to go through before getting to Blaze (the boss). For a game that has a story that points to the coming of an apocalypse, the amount of fighters you have to go through seems very small. Too bad there wasn’t an option you could choose like in Mortal Kombat 3 and Trilogy where there were different tiers with a different number of fighters in it. The only way to get a good challenge out of this is to simply up the difficulty level.
   
   The game, overall, is really what we had expected: A Mortal Kombat game with every fighter available for us to use! Sure we were hoping for some extras that would keep us occupied as well like the previous two installments, but isn’t the main reason we are buying this game is so we can play as all the characters? That is the main attraction here and it delivers! Armageddon will most certainly go down as one, if not, the best MK game to date and is sure to be a big seller with Christmas right around the corner!

   I highly recommend this game to any Mortal Kombat fan!

3. 
   Deimos
   Sep 2nd, 2010 at 11:17 am

   Review by Deimos for Mortal Kombat Armageddon
   Rating:
   I’ve been a Mortal Kombat fan since MK 1, owned and mastered all the Kombats since and I can say this is the best MK yet. Awesome arenas, all the fighters from every Kombat game, finally a kreate a fighter which is amazing, kreate a fatality, multiple fatality’s, motor kombat is loads of fun a kicks Mario karts behind, and Konquest mode. The new Konquest mode is way better than the Deception one, completely reinvented for MKA. So much stuff to do, so many fighters, endless possibilites. This game is also playable on Xbox 360 which I play it on and it’s so much better to play it with a 360 controller. Get this now you’ll never get tired of it! MORTAL KOMBAT FOREVER!

4. 
   B. A. Gibson
   Sep 2nd, 2010 at 11:41 am

   Review by B. A. Gibson for Mortal Kombat Armageddon
   Rating:
   Mortal Kombat Armageddon is supposed to be the finial installment of the Mortal Kombat series for the Xbox and Playstation 2 consoles. It is supposed to end the franchise with a mighty bang, but ends up being nothing more than a weak whimper.

   Since this is supposed to be the swan song for this iteration of the series, they have thrown in nearly every character that has ever been in a Mortal Kombat game which gives you more than sixty characters to play with. On top of that, you can even create custom characters.

   The graphics and character models are good for the aging Xbox platform. The stage design is acceptable, but they are not nearly as engaging as those presented the previous games. They are decent, they work, but they are nothing to get excited. Everything seems to be a bit overly dark and gloomy to me, and I can’t help but wonder if this has been done to hide limitations in the game engine. The sound is adequate, nothing special, or memorable.

   The kombat game play works well though. It hasn’t changed much from the previous titles. The biggest difference I noted is that you now have two fighting styles instead of three. I assumed this was done to accommodate the huge roster of playable characters. This game also marks the return of aerial attacks which have not be been present in the series for at least the last two games.

   Mortal Kombat: Armageddon has multiple play modes. There is the traditional arcade mode, versus mode, online mode, Konquest adventure mode, and Motor Kombat. In the traditional arcade mode you fight a series of progressively harder opponents until you reach the boss character. The versus mode lets you play against your friends on a stage of your choosing. The online mode lets you compete against other players worldwide. The Motor Kombat is basically a dumbed down version Mario Kart with a dash of Mortal Kombat violence thrown in; it’s entertaining, but it’s not the real meat of the game.

   By far, what I found to be the biggest disappointment of the game is what they did to the Konquest mode. In the previous title, Mortal Kombat Deception, Konquest mode was a full blown adventure game. You could of almost called it `The Kombat RPG’. It was a vast and fully fleshed out game, though it lacked any real ending, it was very entertaining and enjoyable. I spent a lot of time playing it.

   I beat the Konquest mode in Mortal Kombat Armageddon in two sittings. And the only reason it was two sittings instead of one was because I had to get up to use the bathroom once.

   The Konquest mode in this title was basically watered down version of Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks, without the in depth character progression, freedom to explore, or story scope. It amounts to little more than a uninteresting imitation of one great games, and an unworthy successor to another.

   Mortal Kombat Armageddon is a decent game. It is disappointing when compared to other recent Mortal Kombat games like Mortal Kombat Deception and Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks. It you are a fan of the Mortal Kombat universe, it will undoubtedly tickle to get to play will of the characters presented. If you are not a Mortal Kombat fan, I would at least suggest you rent the game and try it out. It does have it’s enjoyable moments.

   Knot every kombat game is going to be a killer knock out, but at least here you have a klue as to what is koming and what to expect.
   

5. 
   Lady Raven
   Sep 2nd, 2010 at 11:58 am

   Review by Lady Raven for Mortal Kombat Armageddon
   Rating:
   i like it,and i’m glad i got it because they gave it a low rating and i think it should get higher. I enjoy the konquest a little better this time, the fact that they brought out all the players scored extra points with me and the mini games was good for me enjoyable a keeper