Next MK will have every fighter ever

[Qloxx]

I'm gonna create a player and name him bully oh the humanity lol

[Synchronomyst]

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[New Era Outlaw]

Believe you me. If I could write on all of the follies and the things I sheerly hate about Wacko Jacko, I'd have written a best selling novel by now. Anyhoo, enough about him.

I just recently got my copy of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon.
If you're wondering why did I take so long, it's because I ordered the Special Edition from Wal-Mart, and it took exactly one month to get here.

Well, just a first impression here, it came in a very nice box with Kano and Sonya on the cover (the latter being the reason why I chose that particular one), certainly a nice variant from the plain MK logo on the generic copies. The box itself was still cardboard, but it seemed almost like it was high quality tin. I tapped it a bit just to make sure.

When you open the box, you're greeted with several things. The first thing you'll notice is the Bonus DVD which has video bios for the 50+ roster of the game (a feature I haven't checked out as yet, but I will, mind you.) I also came with this neat little envelope with an animation cell of the cover art with Ed Boon's printed signature on it. Neat little nuance they threw in, and I think it's cool. Overall, a very nice presentation.


Now, on to the actual reason I got Armageddon....the game.

The first character I chose was Baraka, and I prepared myself for whatever new things I would be seeing in this game, and also hoping that my experiences in Deception and Deadly Alliance would serve me well.

Right off the bat, you'll notice that the gameplay is faster, and you can actually perform aerial attacks with ease, just like in the traditional Mortal Kombats. I'm not kidding...flipping back and forward and hitting your enemies with jump kicks is as easy in the game as it was back then, 3-D gameplay or not.

Also, hitting your opponents with pop-ups has virtually the same effect as in Marvel vs. Capcom 2....it launches them into the air, and you can follow with an aerial rave ending in a knockdown or an air throw. Extremely fun for a MvC veteran like me, let me tell ya.

Also, fans of the wakeup game will be happy to know that this game now has a wakeup engine that allows you to kick your opponent, roll to the side, or stay grounded once you fall down. Effectively, this kills a lot of the infinites that took advatange of 'Unduckable Throws' from Deception. In addition, you can now Parry incoming attacks by hitting Forward + Block, so you're no longer hounded by constant chipping.

However, on the downside, it seems that hit detection takes a slight dip here. You'd find yourself missing a few moves where you'd swear they should've connected, and personally, I think it may have something to do with the faster gameplay. Still, it boasts somewhat improved gameplay that Deception, as many of the broken combos and infinites are effectively nerfed.

Now, there are two types of characters in this game. One would be your standard playable characters, such as Baraka, Noob and Reptile. These characters play normally how'd you expect a standard character to play. The second batch consists of boss characters, namely, the huge monsters like Moloch, Onaga and Kintaro. These guys are immune to some projectiles effects, fall to the ground faster if popped up (if they are popped up at all), and do a lot of damage in their combos. It does a number in terms of balance issues, because I practically annihilated people using one combo with Onaga, whereas I fought tooth and nail with characters like Baraka and Smoke.

Now, some of the downsides to this game.

First of all, the Kreate-A-Fatality feature.
While it can be fun to mix and match Fatality moves (I managed to get a Mortal Fatality purely by experimenting), I still feel it's a cheap cop out from the unique Fatalities each character used to have. As even the people who don't play MK could tell you, the biggest draw for ANY MK game was the Fatalities. Even people who hate the game are at least curious to see what Kabal would do to a defeated opponent, or how Goro could tear apart somebody limb from limb. It's the biggest selling point for the series, for crying out loud. The afterthought of knowing that any character is capable of doing the same Fatality as you (which almost always end in decapitation) is somewhat of a bitter pill to swallow, and ends up making the game feel very, very incomplete. So, off the bat, I will tell you now, some people will like this feature, some will hate it, but many from both will tell you that this should have been done in addition to unique Fatalities. As is, the KaF feature feels good, but like it's missing something in a big way.

Secondly, if you're a mythology buff like me, and you were expecting a riveting story like in Deception....err, sorry. None to be found here. There are no bios, and hence, no reason why several of the characters that got their left testicles mashed with a ball peen hammer are even alive to begin with (such as Motaro). The closest thing you'll get are the endings, which are a disappointment in itself, because instead of unique character artwork and narrated endings, you'll get.....your character dancing and an extremely BAD ending. Well....some are passable, but others are pretty bad. I nearly bowled over laughing seeing Noob Saibot crawl all over the place like a monkey. It's hard to take the endings seriously when it looks like your characters are auditioning for the next remake of 'Flashdance'.


However, on to the other parts of the game.
Kreate-a-Fighter was pretty awesome, and does basically what a Create a Character does....you choose a name, design a look, and come up with your own fighting style for your character. I was able to render my own character in the game with relative ease. However, there's a slight hiccup here. You don't have access to things like Guns or Baraka's Blades as weapons here....only Swords, Clubs and Axes, which royally SUCKS. Also, the Special Moves are somewhat limited....there are no moves to emulate characters like Baraka or Stryker, and you don't have a choice in how they're performed or how many moves you get. I guess this is their way on ensuring balance so you don't end up making the Invincible Infraggable Krunk or anything, but let me explain. You have a choice of:

- One Projectile Attack
- One Stun Move
- One Charge Attack
- One Taunt
- One Teleport

On the flip side, you can render a lot of famous characters here (you can get away with rendering Paul Phoenix here, down to the hair.) Very good feature, overall.

I just started Konquest Mode, and it starts off a lot better than the one in Deception. Plays a bit like Shaolin Monks (but not exactly), plays a bit like Deception's Konquest, with the character fights and all, so, a bit of both worlds. You take the role of new character Taven, who is a participant in a contest between him and his brother, Daegon, to find and defeat Blaze and gain God-like power to ward off Armageddon and ensure that the kombatants do not destroy all of reality with their fighting. I haven't gotten past the first stage as yet, but it's okay so far. Also, you collect things like Relics, costumes and coins for purchasing stuff in the Krypt along the way. The Relics are important, like Pokemon, even. Catch 'em all for something big. Not gonna say what. Figure it out.

Speaking of which, the Krypt is back, but it's more like a Mausoleum than a cemetary this time. There's about 288 hidden things to unlock this time. Right off the bat, you know what's hidden, instead of being surprised (which is a good thing and a bad thing at the same time.) It's up to the player which, really.

Haven't played Motor Kombat as yet, unfortunately. I'll have to get back to you on that.

UMK3, the game included with the Premium Edition (gleeeeeeeeeeeeeee) works like a charm, albeit it suffers from slight load times from the arcade edition. The only thing is, you must unlock Ermac, Sub-Zero and Mileena, and you can't change your controls. >=(

So, is Armageddon the best of the batch so far?
Not really. To me, Deception's still king of the hill, because it seemed a whole lot more polished.
However, that doesn't prevent this from being a fun game. MK diehards should pick this up, while others....I suggest you rent it first.

I'll probably post up some pictures later. Until then, I'm out.

[shivadee]

i was VERY dissapointed with this game. I did not want a MK with ALLLLL these characters you cant wait to play and then have the Deadly Aliance esq style atall. It sucks, i hate it, its lame. I feel like wasted my money buying the game. I bought the MK3 Ultimate for 360 and that im enjoying allot. So i guess it balances out.
Spoke to one of my friends who works at EA as well. They hate it too. Some of them are REALLY hardcore MK players and are very dissapointed. They actually had a meeting with the Midway reps telling them to make an MK Armageddon Ultimate or whatever....same concept and for gods sake go back 2D. Do wtf you want with the background. boy some of them fellas real pissed LOL

[New Era Outlaw]

Yeah....the game reeks of 'severely rushed', doesn't it?

But, as for the 2-D....they're not ever going to do that. Ed Boon already stated that they've gone way too far to do that now.

[shivadee]

Interesting.....But we heard otherwise

[rb]

i wonder what would happen if the game systems in mortal kombat ever became like guilty gear (ie the air combos and what not). They did say they were gonna do an engine overhaul. Face it the core fans won't appreciate anything thats not  like the classics, thats probably why sfex never took off. Although the core fans don't amount to $$...

[New Era Outlaw]

Yeah....I'm very curious as to what they have in store for MK8. They're starting over from scratch for this one with a completely new engine and possibly even characters as well.

As for the fans....some of them seriously don't know what the hell they want, actually.
I remember a common complaint about the first four games was "The characters are all the same, it's only the special moves that makes them different!" And now that they put in a system where no one character moves exactly like the other, they go "We miss the old Mortal Kombat!"

You know, they aren't willing to try anything new or be flexible, despite the fact that they gripe non-stop about things getting old and boring. It's really frustrating to hear some of these hypocritical asses whine, sometimes. Of course, that's not to say all people who didn't exactly warm up to DA gameplay are hypocrites....there could be diehard fans of the series who are accustomed playing a traditional way and hate seeing things change so drastically, or some could feel alienated by the experience, which is understandable.

But when somebody walks up to me whining that things should change only to gripe about the good old days when things actually do in exactly the ways they wanted, they deserve a swift kick in the nuts. No, heck with that....several pummelings to the holy grapefruits  should suffice well enough. Change can be good or bad, depending on how you look at it, and opinions vary from person to person, but when you start acting like that, you're simply being annoying and difficult.

Bleargh. Went off on a rant again. I should really save it for the 'Politics' thread.