BACKSTORY

Mortal Kombat is the funniest gore fest fighting game ever created, when the original game hit the arcades in the early nineties it shocked and amazed. Using digitized sprites created using some of the earliest use of motion capture the characters would come to life on screen and proceed to beat the living shit out of one another. Raised as a competitor to Capcom’s mammoth Street Fighter 2, Mortal Kombat chose to focus on extreme violence and hilarious special moves to differentiate itself from street fighter’s highly technical and complex game play. MORTAL KOMBAT was never intended as a platform for serious competition; the special attacks required ridiculously quick and precise button taps and the mechanics allowed for unfair game play (playing as Shang Tsung in Mortal Kombat 2, I remember performing an endless combo attack). This didn’t stop the game from becoming a hit. Mortal Kombat has gone through eleven iterations, this newest eleventh outing simply titled “MORTAL KOMBAT” is now under the umbrella of Warner Bros. Has going back to the drawing board brought Mortal Kombat back to its early nineties mega success?

THE STORY

Mortal Kombat is a retelling of the first three games story lines with an added twist. Raid-en a lesser god and defender of Earth Realm is bloodied and broken, faced with the destruction of Earth’s warriors and the conquer of Earth at the hands of Shao Kahn he sends a message back in time to his younger self. This Raid-en must interpret broken visions of the future to change the fate of the world. The story begins during the first Mortal Kombat: a tournament between the realms that will determine whether Out-world (the realm of Shao Kahn) may rule over the Earth Realm. This structure will be pleasing to new fans and old alike as people who have never played a Mortal Kombat game will get a feel for the characters and see their origins at the same time players familiar with the story will be pleasantly surprised by some new twists.

The game’s story mode is extremely well executed and truly unlike any other fighting game, it is presented as a long CG film created using in engine graphics as well as some very impressive lip-synching. While watching this long and deliberately campy movie you will be introduced to battles played out under whichever character that chapter of the story happens to focus on. You will be placed into a character’s shoes for about four different battles before being handed off to another warrior. Playing through the story mode will familiarize you with about half the cast, as regrettably you won’t be able to play through the game’s main story as the bad guys. The story mode will vary in length based on your skill level (some of the later battles can be very tough, as should be) but will probably take you about six or seven hours. This however is not the only single player progression, playing through the fight mode (a standard ten battle arcade based affair) will net you a cool story cinematic for whichever character you have chosen and thankfully this mode can be played through with any character. It is rare to see a fighting game that includes a story mode that is as long and fully featured as Mortal Kombat.