Mortal Kombat 9

Official screenshot originally from playstation.com

Mortal Kombat is a fighting game that first appeared in arcades in 1992. Since I ever played this game I became in love with it because it used moves of motion captured martial artists like Daniel Pesina (Johnny Cage, Scorpion and co), Ho Sung Pak (Liu Kang) and Philip Ahn MD (Shang Tsung MK2). This game was not like other fighting games most probably because it was not done with competition in mind - MK games are quite unbalanced. The combatants in the game had a basic set of moves which all they shared the controls for and unique special attacks. While this was a very limited amount of movements and no combos were present the game had something other games didn't - violence and even more violence in the form of Fatalities. Fatalities are a special finishing moves that are used to kill the opponent in a rather gory way.

The game went through an evolution unlike any other game. What mesmerized me in MK1 was still present in MK2. MK3 while still having digitized movements changed in terms of game play. Run button was added. The game introduced combos. Each combatant had one combo that was quite a long and had to be memorized. These were thankfully dropped in MK4. MK4 turned from 2d to 3d models which also meant a change in style. MK4 was still a hybrid game though as it started the fight in a 2d style, but one could side step using 3d space instead. MK4 also came up with weapons and interaction with other objects in the arena. The execution wasn't the best since these objects would get knocked out of the fighters hands immediately after they took a hit. We also got combos each character could use and unique combos. The game was still a very good one and true to the series.
MK5 though was drastically different and was quite controversial in the community (I did not like Deadly Alliance much and hoped for a return to more traditional MK game). It introduced different fighting styles per fighter and weapons (as one style) that stayed in the hands. This is something that became the standard in the 3 following games. These games were in full 3d. The graphics while rather behind other games was getting better and there were many more animations and interactions with the environments. MK Armageddon the 7th game in the series felt like the end of MK. It provided it us with a lot of content and similar game play but also the story ended with everyone dying. Who knew what would be the future of MK. MK vs DC Universe was then released as the 8th installment of the game and I thought that it was over for Mortal Kombat series. You wouldn't be reading this review though if it were the case.

After a very long time (5 years from MK: Armageddon) another game bearing the name Mortal Kombat came out. It doesn't have a number or additional name but it is the 9th game in the series thus many will talk about it as if it were named Mortal Kombat 9. This game returns to the roots of the original 2d Mortal Kombat games while keeping the good from the 3d games. After several years Mortal Kombat is coming back to the 2d style and controls. Also the story goes back to the beginning. MK9 combines the storylines of the three first tournaments and thus you can expect a similar constellation of characters as in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 with the exception that in this game there is less characters in total. Storyline wise, the story begins where Armageddon ended. Shao Kahn kills everyone and that's were Raiden comes in. In his last fight he tries his best to tell his younger self of what is to come so he could prevent it. Younger Raiden gets understands the message and tries to change his present to change the future. That's how alternate Mortal Kombat history was born.

MK9 features a story mode that takes you through the alternative history of the first three tournaments for different characters reexplaining the fight between Earth realm and Outworld. Switching from one character to another will allow the player to familiarize with controls for the different characters but it may also make the experience worse for some if they can't control some characters well enough to go through the story mode with ease.

As for other player modes, you have the standard tower/ladder mode which can be played with one character or a tag team of 2. Then there's challenge tower which will take you through different kind of challenges within a time limit. If you remember Test Your Might from MK1, it found its way to Mortal Kombat 9 along with other Test Your 'mini-games' including Test Your Sight or Test Your Strike (accuracy instead of strength needed) and Test Your Luck which will add modifiers for the combat and well make it a bit more tricky.

Online play is available that also provides different options (primarily if you want to play a ranked match, any online player match or a private one). There is also a possibility to run a KOTH tournament which you can watch when not currently playing your own match.

Screenshot by Klaster_1, available at mobygames.com

As for game play, as in other MK game you have characters that can use basic moves and their own special moves and combos. The game doesn't flow that well like known well Japanese fighting games so chaining combos is not particularly easy. The novelty in this game is a special bar that fills with each hit your character takes or deals. It has three segments and gives you three options how to use it. For 1 segment cost you can make a special attack stronger (by a lot). For 2 segments you can break out of any combo which may be very important at times. If you fill the gauge and use all three segments the character will form a devastating X-ray attack (with rather brutal slow motion animation in x-ray). The attack needs to be executed from specific range (like Fatalities) so it is possible to miss which can be quite devastating for you. The X_ray is a nice feature but unfortunately way too easy to trigger which may become rather annoying when you are trying to concentrate more on actual combat and you are not looking for easy wins (or easy massive amount of damage).

As for graphics, the game has really neat graphics and environment interaction. Also as the characters get beat up it shows on their 3d models and this stays till the end of the fight which is something I did not expect to see in MK game. On the other hand MK is actually the game where the visuals are more important than in more competitive games which is why I was quite surprised that MK lacked this for years. The camera angles for the fights are quite nice and there are really nice highlights (fully using the 3d environment of the game).

Unlock system is the The Krypt which was present in previous 3d MK games. Here you need to spent money you earn to unlock new stuff (including new Fatalities!). There's hundreds of unlocks and it will take you some time to unlock everything.

And I forgot to mention one of the elements that was advertised everywhere - the game features Kratos from God of War!

Personal Rating: 4/5

I really like this game. I was nicely surprised by the quality of this title. It truly is a Mortal Kombat game. This is the direction the game was supposed to take after MK3.