Ahhh, Mortal Kombat. Memories of collecting 20 cent coins and going to the arcade, whacking buttons and wiggling joysticks whist people stood around yelling stuff like “down – forward – two back – HIGH KICK” in order to perform the ever so gruesome Fatality. A decade on, after three sequels and two movies, we come to Mortal Kombat : Deadly Alliance on Xbox, proving that we’re not sick of the game and gore just yet.
The story this time – the sorcerers Shang Tsung and Quan Chi have allied and are preparing to raise the lost army of the Dragon King, and if they succeed they will be able to wipe out both Outworld and Earthrealm. The heroes must once again journey to Outworld and defeat the Deadly Alliance. But who really gives a toss when you’ve got up to 20 old and new characters to kick butt with.
It’s tempting to dive straight into Arcade mode, but it’s best to start in Konquest Mode, where you truly get a feel for each character and the game. Before doing that, it is wise to create a Player Profile to make the most of the game. Using a memory card or your Xbox’s hard drive, you create a profile to which your progress and Koins are saved. A Kode, a combination of controller buttons, keeps your player separate and locks this profile. To load it, you simply press the Left Trigger on the main menu, and input your kode.
On to Konqest mode. After 8 rounds of basic training with any character, you have the ability to choose each character and move through 10 levels of training, learning the special moves and combos of the characters. They each have three fighting styles, two unarmed and one with a weapon, and you learn how to use all three fighting styles together to defeat your enemies. Not only is this extremely helpful in learning how to fight with each character, after every successful training mission, you receive koins, which unlock Koffins in the Krypt.
Once you’ve created your profile, you also gain koins in Arcade Mode after winning a match. When playing against a person, you can wage koins, which are added or subtracted from your profile, and this is a quick way of building your funds. You also get koins by winning the fun mini games of “Test your sight” (follow the pea on screen) and “Test your Might” (mash the buttons then hit the trigger to break the object). The Krypt is where you use koins to unlock, amongst other things, concept art, alternative costumes, new arenas and new characters. With 676 koffins of some amounts over 3000 koins, it takes some time to unlock them all and gives the game a little bit of life beyond the standard fighting fair.
The gameplay itself is the fast and furious type we’ve come to expect from Mortal Kombat, but only takes small advantage of the power of the Xbox. The graphics are gorgeously gruesome but lack the definition of games like Dead Or Alive 3. The sounds are authentic to the series and add to the excitement of the game. The arenas look superb but are not multi-level and as interactive as in DOA 3, yet they suit the style of the game and are fun to play. Some people may be disappointed that some characters aren’t available, but the new characters more than make up for those that are missing. My only complaint would be the AI doesn’t seem consistent – the level of difficulty between 40% and 50% doesn’t seem in the same proportion as between 30% and 40%, giving you the impression the game is cheating. And the character Moloch seems to be able to get past your every move for a slam, even though you do your best to avoid him.
MK:DA is an excellent fighting game that looks lush and contains lots of goodies for fans of the series to play and unlock. Whilst not taking advantage of the full power of the Xbox as a game like DOA3, it’s a wonderful addition to the Mortal Kombat family, and the unlockable koffins and extras like music video and “making of” video give it longer playability than other fighting games. And, of course, no other fighting game has the Fatalities which are so much fun!