Mortal Kombat Creates Kaos on the Wii

Some of you may have seen the video review on my mac site (http://web.mac.com/agitatedhellerphant) for the new Mortal Kombat game out for the Wii. Now it’s time for my in depth review of the newest addition to the aging series.

While Armageddon is an in depth fighting game, many who have already played this game on the Xbox will most likely steer clear of paying for a game they have already bought and completed. To tell the truth I wouldn’t shell out again just to use some very basic Wii motion sensitive controls and a few new characters. 

So to break it down for you lets start with visuals. While it is visually appealing, I feel they could have squeezed a little bit more out of the Wii. One thing that really grinds my gears in the blood. Now I know in a game like this it would not be recommended to have blood that looked too realistic, but the blood in this game looks woeful. Other than that though, character models look fantastic, and so do their animations. Although I haven’t played the Xbox version, I would say that the standards in the visual department are about the same

Now the biggest questions most of you will be dying to ask will be to do with the control scheme. First of all if you are an old school Kombat Veteran, the Wii does allow you to play the game with the Classic Controller or a Gamecube controller in replacement for the Wiimote and Nunchuck. This will keep people happy, especially if they get sick of the Wiimote setup

Now I’m not saying the Wiimote setup is bad, but when getting into the harder skilled parts of the game it can be tiresome. Now one thing that takes some getting used to is using the D-PAD on the remote for your kick and punch moves. Fortunately with a few hours practice, you can master most of the combos which does make life a lot easier. All the special moves are performed by holding down the B button and performing some simple gestures. While it works most of the time, the times they don’t can often cost you the round. I also noticed while playing as Scorpion while trying to perform the Dragon Kick move, about 50% of the time it would perform the Spear move, which often rendered me useless to the combo awaiting for me at the end of it. I think the Wiimote setup is decent, but definitely not flawless.

The gameplay is decent. Offers the standard Arcade mode we’ve grown to love, throws in a story mode to extend gameplay, and offers a bunch of extras. The most exciting feature of these being the Kreate a Fighter feature. During the Arcade and Story Modes you collect coins which you can spend on features for the Kreate a Fighter screen. This is an attempt to get you to play through the story mode and unlock things such as hair-do’s, clothes and accessories for your personalised fighter.

Multiplayer is good fun, but I feel the lack of online features does hurt the game in the long run. All in all I think Mortal Kombat, while not perfect, has something to offer everyone. Fans of the series will love it, new comers will enjoy it in the short term. I would definately recommend you pick it up if you see it for cheap at your local retailer

7.5/10

Good Points
* Biggest Character sheet of any game in the series
* Bunch of features to keep players coming back
* It’s FUN

Bad Points
* Wiimote controls are not always spot on
* People who aren’t into the series will find it repetitive
* No online features