The fighting franchise of Mortal Kombat has reached its climax. Thanks to tasteless bloodshed and gratuitous gore, Playstation 2's "Mortal Kombat Armageddon" will awe gamers for generations to come, or at least until they get a Playstation 3 for Christmas.
The game contains enough unlockable items and special features to satisfy any devoted player who has waited for this golden moment. "Armageddon" provides an overwhelming amount of play and versatile options.
No gamer could grumble about a version that provides over 60 characters to choose from, nor the fact that the player is allowed to construct their own "Kombantant." "Armageddon" embarks on a different level than most combative videogames, but it kindly includes characters from previous Mortal Kombat games in order to foster a sense of nostalgia.
The character creation tool will enable gamers to make their own fighters, some of which can resemble that of Street Fighter's Guile or Akuma, and Jason from "Friday the 13th," who comes complete with machete sans copyright infringements.
However, in order to be able to create custom characters, gamers will need to slash through the game's various modes that range from arcade to "Konquest," which have improved over other generations.
In each mode, players are able to collect "Koins" that are utilized to purchase items and unlockables including music, videos and special moves for a customized fighter.
Also featured in the game is "Motor Kombat," an easily forgotten mini game that is little more than a diversion from the everlasting fighting. The mini game resembles "Mario Kart," but isn't anywhere near as fun.
The "Konquest" mode gives players a solid ten hours worth of game time and carnage, and the storyline that supports the new characters is actually interesting. As gamers fight off loads of generic thugs and an occasional main character, the story line tags along. This mode also serves up traps and puzzles to provide interludes to the indefatigable fighting, though these enigmatic inserts get annoying in higher levels.
One important feature of the "Mortal Kombat" series is the fatality, which occurs at the end of the match when gamers can destroy the opponent with one final blow. In Sub Zero's fatality, he freezes the opponent, tears off the head and throws it back at the corpse, shattering the body and leaving small frozen pieces of the fresh tendrils writhing on the ground. In the new version there are only a limited amount of fatalities and every character can achieve them simply by pressing the right button.
Besides the specialized fatalities, each character only has one set of moves instead of the two fighting styles usually present. Luckily, each character retains their unique weapon and special moves. Also new is the "Air Kombat," where moves can be chained into air combos if players are careful enough to push the opponent into a special section of the arena. Furthermore, each stage comes with the tantalizing opportunity to kill the opponent by knocking them into lava, or worse.
With the final battle at hand, this game is filled with enough indulgences to keep any fighter fulfilled. Hearing "Finish Him!" repeated throughout many hours of dedicated play is the only conceivable gripe fit for "Armageddon."
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
