I’m not quite sure what I’m supposed to say about this. Oh yay, another port of an old Mega Drive game for the Nintendo DS! You’ll forgive me if I find it hard to feign interest in yet another ten year old game that’s been dusted off for the most under-valued console in the market.
Alright then, what volume of the classic Mortal Kombat franchise has Midway decided to bring back to life? The PS1 game Mortal Kombat Trilogy, which combined the best bits of the first three games into one bumper slobberknocker?
Nope.
OK, well maybe they’ve opted to provide us with the first three games in their original form, in a Street Fighter Alpha Anthology style fan-pleasing fest?
Nope.
Right… well, did they go for the best game in the series, Mortal Kombat 2?
No. Ultimate Mortal Kombat is a rejigged version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, which was in turn a rejigged version of Mortal Kombat 3 and pretty much the most boring adventure the Kombateers ever faced in their 16-bit days.
Great.
Luckily though, headlining alongside UMK is Puzzle Kombat, a derivative puzzle game that served as a bonus mini-game in Mortal Kombat: Deception.
Ah well.
OK, I’ll calm down now. I’m reacting to the very underwhelming prospect of this game, and not the game itself. This could be a surprise hit. God knows I enjoyed Mortal Kombat in its time; I played over 300 games in one sitting on the Mega Drive version of Mortal Kombat 2. My thumb fell off.
For those unfamiliar with the franchise, Mortal Kombat caused a media massacre in the mid 90s when it took the Street Fighter II one-on-one beat ‘em up concept and splattered oceans of blood all over it. For the gamers amongst us who looked past the blatantly silly gore, it added the first properly digitised graphics to the beat ‘em up genre and added the classic concept of the death move (the ‘fatality’).
It tells the story of an annual martial arts competition between us normal folks and the demonic inhabitants of the Outworld. Coming into Mortal Kombat 3, the Outworld’s leader has lost two years in a row and has now pulled off some crazy magic trick that allows him to stomp onto Earth and kill every single person on the planet. The only ones who survive are those whose souls are protected by the good god Raiden, and there are some robots too (they don’t have souls). It is their job (and, subsequently, yours) to fight against the warriors of hell in the ruins of Earth in order to somehow bring everyone back to life.
It seems a real shame that this sequel was chosen to represent MK for the new generation because it really is the worst of the bunch. The characters are cookie-cutter and samey – secret characters included, there are about five male ninjas, three female ninjas, and four robots that all look the same. The environments are dull when compared to the Oriental and fantasy-style stages of the first two games, although same of the stages offer the chance to uppercut your foe into a second screen and pull off stage-specific fatalities. Unfortunately, the game engine just doesn’t work.
In some cases, it’s because the collision detection is often comical. In others, it’s because certain characters can just trap their opponent into loops of one or two moves (Scorpion’s harpoon, for example) until endgame. Most of the time though, the frustration from the game comes from the fact that, after a couple of battles, the difficulty hikes up ridiculously – your opponents are super-speedy, cheesy and relentless and, if you guessed there’s no difficulty option to tweak, you win a prize.
Playing this wireless online or with a friend will bring a lot more smiles than solo games, but unless you can secure an internet connection or a friend with a copy, this won’t help you dealing with the solid thumping the computer provides. You can play this single-card download play, but only with a limited selection of fighters.
There is no real attraction to playing this game with or without friends. I wish I could say Mortal Kombat has stood the test of time, but I can’t. Not with this example anyway. Would the prettier, more balanced Mortal Kombat 2 have scored better results? Or the hardcore original? I can’t say for sure, but there is an element of probability.
Puzzle Kombat stands up slightly better than the main game, being a block-dropper puzzle game in the same vein as Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo. You represent a character in a one-on-one puzzle-off, and the bricks of the same colour that you bring together and then explode are forced down onto your opponent’s screen, bringing pain and agony to their very souls. While this simple but charming puzzle game plays out on the bottom screen, super-deformed versions of your battlers scrap on the top, with the victor of the game pulling off a suitably gorey finisher. This is a top quality game, but really needed more development in order to save this cart.
Either games haven’t exactly been spruced up for the DS, but there have been some extras added. What appealed to me the most is the ability to create Profiles, which keeps track of your win/loss records, fatalities and unlocked secrets (of which there are 41 to collect). In addition, the top screen provides a handy cheat sheet which supplies your available specials and fatalities. This is great for the specials, but you still need to perfect your timing and positioning for the fatalities, so don’t expect an easy ride.
Yes, there is blood, and yes there are death moves. But this is 2008 and that’s not enough to sell a game anymore. In Ultimate Mortal Kombat’s favour, it is one of about two one-on-one beat ‘em ups on the DS, and it does shine in comparison to its only rival Guilty Gear: Dust Strikers. And, of course, if you’re a MK fan, you’ll love it. Personally, I’m holding out for Street Fighter. Or King of Fighters. Or Tekken. Or anything.
