xgollum's Full Review: Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance for Xbox
I remember spending hours, HOURS I say in arcades, playing MK2 (I lost interest after that) Street Fighter, King Of Fighters, you name it. Then all this 3-D crap came along and ruined fighting games for me. I was okay at Virtua Fighter, and I have put aside my anger enough now to enjoy a good round of DOA3 once in a while, but deep in my heart I lust for old school, kickazz fighting.
Lord almight, I have found it at last. I have seen the future of kicking my roommate's butt, and it is MKDA.
I'm sure most of you are familar with Mortal Kombat, but to sum up. Mortal Kombat is a tournament of champions where heroes and villains from multiple dimensions come together to be crowned ultimate victor. As a sideshow, there are rivalries, mortal enemies, and guys trying to subjugate the souls of everyone who exists. And so on. Pretty typical really. The first Mortal Kombat had two good things going for it. It was really bloody, especially when you got to kill your opponent, and they did photo capture of actors instead of animation. Other than that, it wasn't really very impressive. It got better in the next ones, though.
For me, the best version of this was Killer Instinct, which was supposed to be the flagship game for the Nintendo 64, but it was ready before the system was, so it was an arcade game, then a Super Nintendo game, and then the sequel came out for the N64, and I hated it. Everything that worked in the first game they just kicked up three notches and it got annoying. The first KI though, had crisp graphics, a combo engine that capitalized on cheap dragon punching juggling techniques sweaty twenty year olds had been using to take my money for years. They kept the concept of a fatality, and they were just insanely over the top. This was the last true side scrolling fighting game, and I loved it.
What KI was then, MKDA is now. It has a combo engine, it has what the fans want, and it has it just the right amounts. You can be cheap, but not too cheap. The computer is good, but not necessarily infinitely better than you are. There's even a training mode that's actually entertaining. There's also a crap load (approx. 600) dvd items you can unlock in a very entertaining matter.
I'll break this down by modes.
The primary modes of the game, of course, are the arcade modes (1P versus computer) and versus (you versus your roommate or other victim) where the computer actually says, take on your friend...or enemy. This is more or less what you would expect. There are 12 characters to begin with, more than half of which are old classics, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Sonja, etc, with the addition of a blind fighter, a drunk fighter, a sorcerer, and a new rival of Kano's. There are about 12 arenas to begin with (unfortunately none of them appear to have locale based fatalities), and you can unlock about that many more. Some of them have locale based damage, acid, fire, etc, and a few have interactive parts, ala DOA3, like ice pillars, statues, and so on.
The other mode of the game, which I am in love with and will by this game for, is the Konquest mode. Last night I rented Nightfire and this, and played Nightfire for ten minutes just to feel like I hadn't wasted my money. I'll get to it eventually, but I was so wrapped up in Kombat I spent four hours in Konquest. This is a story mode of sorts, wrapped around training. This is a journey where you're this monk in a robe, going along a path that's about 60 checkpoints long, then it recycles. You do the first 8 checkpoints, or dojos, with a random character, and then after that you get to do it with whomever you chose. Eventually, you're supposed to complete this with every character, until you have completed 218! goals. 8 for training and 10 with each of the twenty one characters. Supposedly there are actually 23 characters, but I haven't gotten there yet. These trainings consist of learning each of your three arts, combos, throws, and assorted challenges like juggling hits, stringing combos, or in the case of Kano, making Sonja bleed 80 pints of blood. For accomplishing your goals, you get Kurrency, multi colored Koins to spend in the Krypt. Anyone think this K thing is a little old yet? Me too.
The Krypt is the basement of the arena, where there are 676 Koffins, AA-ZZ, each with a different color and amount Koin on it. You unlock these with the bounty you have earned, some are empty, some have clues, some have video clips, some have making of sketches, and hidden down there somewhere, are 9 more characters, including Raiden, Jax and the new Reptile. Going through these coffins, as cheap as 3 Koins, as much as 6000, finding out what's in each, is a huge motivation to me. Maybe not to you, but I kept fighting just to get to open more of the damn things up.
All of the things you unlock appear on the DVD menu, where you can see making of, music videos, interviews, sketches, and even character endings when you beat the game.
I should probably get into the nuts and bolts now.
As I said, this is old school fighting, but with the best parts of new technology thrown in. Tapping up and down on the controller moves you around your opponent, where as tapping up toward or away jumps. So you can't just jump straight up, instead you dodge. Very intuitive. For some reason, you can only use the D pad, you can't use the analog stick. It'll take you a minute to get used to, but just think of the fun you'll have getting your callouses back! The buttons are straight forward, but you can change them to whatever set up you favor.
Each character has two fighting styles and a weapon. They are as diverse as Tae Kwon Do to Jujitsu to Mantis, to Muay Thai. And as a kid who used to know a lot about martial arts, they did a damn good job. This is the first game I've played where they really tried to keep the feel of the arts and kept it fun (anyone remember Eternal Champions? So realistic they forgot to make it entertaining). The weapons are a hoot! Nunuchukas, tonfas, katana, and good ol' Jax has a sub machine gun. You hit the L button to switch between these, and with someone like Scorpion, you switch from a power based art, to a fluid one, to your sword. It's surprisingly effective, and as soon as you get used to it, it works marvellously well.
The fighting itself has almost flawless mechanics, I didn't notice anything buggy or people getting stuck on each other or blatant misses or hits where they shouldn't be. The combo system reminds me very much of Killer Instinct, with good fluidity and plenty of room for invention.
The graphics of this game are pretty darn good. When the computer zooms way up on the characters after they've won, they're a little grainy, but meanwhile, they've been getting bruised and battered facially from contact, and gouting gallons of blood, so I'll let it go. The cinematics, however, are awesome, particularly when they give you an old MK3 one in the DVD content to compare it to. The motion capture on the characters is great, and the animations, from the taunts to the difference in stances between arts is great. The boob bouncing is a little crazy though, but I guess that's to be expected. You can actually beat the crap out of a guy and then stand there and watch blood drip off your hands and his face. You can't ask for much more than that.
The sound is great. The music is the way it should be, not too intrusive, a little bit of the way it used to be, a little bit more modern. The sound effects are awesome and really make you feel each hit. My favorite is the impale sound effect. Some characters can leave their weapon in their opponent, and they'll lose life as they fight. When they finally die, with a sword sticking out of them, or sais poking out of their knees, blood is gouting onto the ground with little squelching noises.
I think I've babbled long enough. The game is stellar, and everything I've been waiting for in a fighting game. I've been waiting for so damn long I forgot I was waiting, but this has awakened the hunger in me for Kombat! If you like the old school stuff, if you miss SF2 or KI, buy this game.
If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go work on my thumb callouses now.
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