It’s been more than a decade since I last played a Mortal Kombat game and that was in an Arcade called “Time Out” in Springfield Mall (Springfield, Virginia) back in the early 90’s. I liked the game so much that I bought a Sega Genesis so I could play it at home, but it just wasn’t as good as the arcade. A close friend of mine has been trying to get me into the Xbox for a while now and he finally hooked me on Mortal Kombat Armageddon. It has more dimension than the old familiar game and the graphics are much better with true 3D battle arenas and three dimensional character movements.


Mortal Kombat: Armageddon

Mortal Kombat: Armageddon can be played by one or two people on the Xbox gaming system. There are many characters to play and each has special moves and different strategies to prevail. Basic game play pits one character against another in a one-on-one fight to the death. Each fight consists of three rounds with the victor winning two out of three. These matches can be played by a single player against a computer opponent or against another player.

There are many different arenas to fight in and some arenas offer different ways to finalize your opponent; like grinders, lava pools and acid pits. A precise hit in the right place can send your opponent into one of these traps winning you the round. You can also use “finishing moves” to tear your opponent in half, decapitate them, rip off their arms and beat them with their own arms and other such gruesome fatalities. In order to inflict these fatalities, you must hit the right combination of buttons at the end of the match when the familiar voice says “Finish Him!”


Story mode

I played the story line of the game for a couple of hours but I never finished it. It is somewhat interesting but it is more fun to play against my friend to see who can decapitate whom. In the story, you play the character “Taven” and you go on a long quest acquiring skills and items that you can later use to create your own character. Along the way you find obelisks that further your training and abilities.

During the course of the story, which is played in third person view along a “follow the path’ type of course, you have to fight the other characters in regular kombat arenas from time to time as the story progresses. These fights are done in the same fashion as the one-on-one classic Mortal Kombat fights.


Arcade mode

In arcade mode, you choose a character and try to climb a ladder of other opponents. Each match gets progressively harder until you get to the top. If you defeat all the characters in the ladder, you get a little story at the end and then the game credits. This is fun to play and can help you to improve your game with your chosen character but is not the main attraction of the game.


Multiplayer Versus

In Versus mode, you play against another player. Each player chooses a character and you fight a single match of three rounds. Two out of three wins. This is the attraction for me with this game. My friend and I can play for hours trying to better the other with different characters. Just as soon as you think you have mastered a character, your opponent will find another with a better defense or attack against your character and you must change your tactics. I have literally gotten blisters on my thumb from the controller playing this game; hours on end.


Graphics

The graphics are decent by today’s standards. They wouldn’t win any awards but are adequate for the game. I believe the game is a couple years old now so at the time the game was released the graphics would have been considered pretty good. Compared to the graphics I remember from the original Mortal Kombat arcade game, these graphics are really nice. Movements are smooth and fluid and special effects are pretty cool looking. Characters in combat can move in three dimensions in this game unlike the original Mortal Kombat where all action was simply side to side, back and forth. This adds a new tactic to fighting because you can side-step an attack.

The arena graphics are done well and all are three dimensional. Each arena has its own feel and range from industrial underground to outdoors with open sky. One of the arenas is a subway station where an uppercut at the edge of the platform can knock your opponent down onto the tracks where he is immediately run down by a subway train (SPLAT).

Another arena has a giant roller that crushes rocks being dropped on it by a machine. A solid kick or punch near the roller can send your opponent onto the roller where he inevitably tries to get up and run to no avail and as he trips he is rolled over and crushed leaving nothing behind but a smear of blood.


Sound

The sound is pretty good as well. The music is much better than the old MK and the combat sounds are a little more tasteful and a little more realistic. For example; if you get kicked into a lava pit, your character will scream but the scream becomes gurgles as you sink and burn up. There is an arena where you can get knocked into a fan and you can hear the character hollering “Whoa, whoa, whoa!” as he is going round and round. Then you can hear him bouncing around inside the exhaust system until he is spewed out back into the arena through another vent. It makes for an interesting twist to the match.


Kombat Racing

The game includes Kombat Racing which is a silly little racing game where the characters are presented as ridiculous looking bobble-heads in even more ridiculous looking vehicles and race against each other. Each character can use special abilities to try to take out the other racers. For example; Scorpion can shoot his harpoon to try to snag another racer and slow him down or crash him.

The track is full of obstacles and pitfalls and you can get power boosts and coins by running them over. Personally, I don’t care for this part of the game either. My friend likes it and so does his niece but it is just too silly for me. I just like kicking the #$%^ out of my friend ;-)


Replay Value

Well, I have been playing the game for a few weeks now and every weekend I look forward to a couple hours at my friend’s house to play the game. So I believe the replay value is pretty high for multiplayer. However, I didn’t care for the story mode of the game much, or the racing game, so if you are not into playing with other people, you may not get much replay out of it unless you like the story mode and bobble-head racing.


Age range and conclusion

The game is bloody and violent by nature and I believe it is rated M for mature. I would let a reasonably mature 12 year old play the game. You can turn off the blood, but that doesn’t alleviate the violence at all. This game is definitely not for young children or children with behavior problems and I would strongly recommend playing the game yourself before buying it for a child.

The game is fun and I enjoy it a lot. It is definitely not your daddy’s Mortal Kombat. The graphics are good and the multiplayer is excellent. When my friend and I get together to play we sometimes have four or five people over and we make the loser pass the controller so the winner can keep a streak going. So far I am the grand champion with 47 wins in a row using various characters.


Thanks for reading,
Gr8ful ;-)


Recommended: Yes