Mortal Kombat Review

[Ne1butme]

that review needs to end with a small video of Susan doing a victory dance after performing the fatality.

 

[-Samurai-]

I was avoiding the story mode due to past story modes in Mortal Kombat being just horrendous, but I finally dove into it(and finished it) last night, and I love it. The story was good and made enough sense, and it really helped me to get better with each character instead of keeping to the few I always used. Not to mention it gave me enough koins to knock out 2 and a half of the 4 sections of the Krypt.

And I kompletely about the test your luck. Armless+headless upside down fighting in an ice storm is great.

The challenge tower is amazingly humorous. Some of the stuff is just so ridiculous that I can't help but laugh out loud.

I haven't really enjoyed a game this much in a long time.
[small]Use Kanos choke move on anyone(especially Sonya). His evil laugh combined with their ridiculous choke sounds crack me up every time.[/small]

 

[The Wooster]

It's impossible to make any comments on balance yet since the game hasn't been out long enough and and such only really become relevant at really high levels of play. From my experience though, the game is fairly balanced because most characters have the same basic tools and projectiles aren't the huge deal that they are in say SFIV. That being said, characters with a quick dependable teleport you can use to to punish from any range have a little bit of an edge.

Also. I'm a fellow Tager player and hey, at least he's better than Rachel.

1) Awesome.

2) Good for me with teleports. I decided to pick Sektor after looking at the roster, and he has a teleport attack, if I remember correctly the E3 gameplay.

3) I guess you're talking about Continuum Shift where apparently they nerfed her hard (looking at the online tiers, I don't have CS). In Calamity Trigger, Rachel is extremely powerful in right hands (I can't do shit with her, but online players usually don't let me even close the distance to her).

Yeah, Sektor has that bitchy little uppercut teleport which he can combo from. Gets me every time.

Yeah. I mained Rachel in CT. In CS they gimped her hard enough that she was terrible even in casual play. None of her B+B's worked and her damage with full meter and wind was just about reaching the damage of one of Ragna's meterless combos. I wept.

Then to top it off they went and gave her frog diabetes.

 

[Kurt Horsting]

Finally. I was really worried there would be no MK review at all.

So... Glad to hear it's good, but I have one important question - how's the balance? Is there any overpowered character, or one who you shouldn't even bother playing with? It's important to me, because every time I pick up a fighter, it turns out I'm taking the crappiest guy of the bunch (Anji Mito in GG, Tager in BlazBlue [although I managed to skill up with him, so at least I'm able to beat up my friends and sometimes even compete on-line], Rock in Soul Calibur III & IV etc.)

So far (could change once a few tourney results are out) the top characters arn't that op, but the runts are really bad. But the mid is really big and ambiguous right now, which is a good thing. So the tier list so far...(where they are currently and if they will stay at that position is subject to change)

Top - Shang Tsung, Ermac, Johnny Cage, and Nightwolf.
Mid - Everyone else.
Bottom - Quan Chi, Cyber Sub-Zero, Sheeva, Sektor (could be low mid) Kratos (PS3 only)

Not that I'm the go-to guy about MK, but from my experiance, almost everyone has a fighting chance against anyone, and the runts have a few gimicks that make them useful. But it is an up-hill battle for them.

 

[Nurb]

Babalities, animalities, and friendships embarassing? WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU??

 

[Furioso]

Looking at the Wikipedia, no. The roster have most of the fighters from MK3 + Quan Chi from MK4, and Cyber Sub-Zero (WTF? I'm curious about that one) + DLC brings up Kenshi from MK: Deadly Alliance.

Cyber.... Sub-Zero? And that's a little disappointing. Armageddon may have not been the best, but it certainly got points for bringing together most if not all of the (real) characters.

Sub Zero is still there, cyber sub zero is an unlockable that you really just have to play the story to find out why hes there

 

[JWRosser]

I love it.
At times it can get a bit annoying in some of the handicap matches, and Shao Kahn is a *****, but all in all it's a great fighting game.

I agree with what they said about the graphics though - even though the backgrounds are magnificent, and the amount of detail is fantastic, but some of the character models, especially the faces do seem a bit...meh.

Also, Test Your Luck on verses mode is hilarious.

 

[Furioso]

Finally. I was really worried there would be no MK review at all.

So... Glad to hear it's good, but I have one important question - how's the balance? Is there any overpowered character, or one who you shouldn't even bother playing with? It's important to me, because every time I pick up a fighter, it turns out I'm taking the crappiest guy of the bunch (Anji Mito in GG, Tager in BlazBlue [although I managed to skill up with him, so at least I'm able to beat up my friends and sometimes even compete on-line], Rock in Soul Calibur III & IV etc.)

So far (could change once a few tourney results are out) the top characters arn't that op, but the runts are really bad. But the mid is really big and ambiguous right now, which is a good thing. So the tier list so far...(where they are currently and if they will stay at that position is subject to change)

Top - Shang Tsung, Ermac, Johnny Cage, and Nightwolf.
Mid - Everyone else.
Bottom - Quan Chi, Cyber Sub-Zero, Sheeva, Sektor (could be low mid) Kratos (PS3 only)

Not that I'm the go-to guy about MK, but from my experiance, almost everyone has a fighting chance against anyone, and the runts have a few gimicks that make them useful. But it is an up-hill battle for them.

I would put Kratos at least in the mid, he can be devestating once you learn his tricks

Captcha: Furequ princplzesk

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Was really hoping for a John Funk review here, to be honest.

But you'll do very nicely as a substitute, Susan.

I might actually have to get this...I've been laughing at MK since...well...ever. Even the olden days. It seems to have grown competent fighting mechanics, suddenly.

 

[Snotnarok]

This is the best Mortal Kombat since ultimate (1 and 2 were great as well) that's for sure, those others ...oh god they were so bad, so bad. I'm still confused what some people saw in them.

 

[Yossarian1507]

So far (could change once a few tourney results are out) the top characters arn't that op, but the runts are really bad. But the mid is really big and ambiguous right now, which is a good thing. So the tier list so far...(where they are currently and if they will stay at that position is subject to change)

Top - Shang Tsung, Ermac, Johnny Cage, and Nightwolf.
Mid - Everyone else.
Bottom - Quan Chi, Cyber Sub-Zero, Sheeva, Sektor (could be low mid) Kratos (PS3 only)

Not that I'm the go-to guy about MK, but from my experiance, almost everyone has a fighting chance against anyone, and the runts have a few gimicks that make them useful. But it is an up-hill battle for them.

Yep... Ever since I watched the trailers, I totally called Ermac the top. Looks like my experience with other fighting games finally gave me some perks in terms of insight.

Also, if what you say is true (or will stay true, after the tiers will sort out), then looks like my curse will go on, because F that, I'm still going to play with Sektor.

 

[Vanguard_Ex]

Agreed on the God-forsaken fatalities. In training, yeah cool. In actual fights, my character just dances around a bit then throws a simple punch. Why won't you fucking work, dammit?!

 

[Susan Arendt]

that review needs to end with a small video of Susan doing a victory dance after performing the fatality.

I jumped up and down and clapped, no lie.

And thanks loads to everyone going into detail about the tiers and balancing - that's why the Escapist community is tres awesome.

 

[roostuf]

i just love mortal kombat its the only fighting game i actually enjoy, hell even the story i love.

 

[anotherdaydown]

MK through UMK3 are some my favorite games of all time. I was at the arcade as much as possible when those were out. I am pretty stoked at the job they've done with the latest effort. This really is a great game. The only glaring error I found in the review is the mention of all characters being available at start. You have to unlock Cyber Sub-Zero and Quan Chi. I also believe the fatalities in this game are easier than ever to pull off.

 

[Dectilon]

It's too early to make tier lists I'd say. Sure, there is a guide written by the tournament players that helped playtest the game, but true balance is something you need hundreds of players and a lot of time to figure out.

In the meantime I can recommend this extended set of casuals between seb and damdai: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f93jm7cQP5E&feature=feedu

 

[ace_of_something]

This is probably the first fighting game i've ever played that has a story that makes sense.
Though they had to start it over to do it. They tower, minigames, different fighting modes give it a lot more variety than most games.
I gotta ask though escapistmagazine.com... When a game is on both 360 and ps3 do you EVER review it on the ps3? Cuz it seems like you don't. No matter what.

Also, Kratos is totally cheap and his 'hidden costume' is raver chic.

 

[Azmael Silverlance]

I thought it was a bit weird that a woman was reviewing the game.
But at the end when she did the fatality she was sooo happy it just made my day

p.p: why does it say to view full review go to escapist...im already here o.p

 

[Susan Arendt]

I thought it was a bit weird that a woman was reviewing the game.

Uh, why? Admittedly, my fighting game tastes tend more toward the Guilty Gear/Blazblue realm, (with the exception of Soul Calibur which will ALWAYS be my favorite fighter of all time) but I don't really see what my gender has to do with it.

MK through UMK3 are some my favorite games of all time. I was at the arcade as much as possible when those were out. I am pretty stoked at the job they've done with the latest effort. This really is a great game. The only glaring error I found in the review is the mention of all characters being available at start. You have to unlock Cyber Sub-Zero and Quan Chi. I also believe the fatalities in this game are easier than ever to pull off.

Well, yes, I really should've said "almost all" for strictest accuracy.

 

[Azmael Silverlance]

Well Susan i know you are a gamer and all....but just opening the Mortal Kombat review and hearing a female voice i dont know....
Your reaction to the fatality was cute...but i guess thats the issue
Your not suppose to be all cute and cuddly in mortal kombat...id expect F bombs and disturbing comments about how you gona pwn your opponent