Mortal Kombat 9 Review

Mortal Kombat 9 Review

In this review I will talk you through the different aspects of the game that I think are worth discussing, many different aspects of this game are good and bad which I will mention below in the full review.

Any Questions or Queries regarding my review please feel free to pm me or simply post below and I will try my best to answer A.S.A.P =)

I will talk about Game-play – Graphics – Usability – Story

Game-play

For starter’s game-play, playing trough the game itself I found that the reverse game style returning to the 2 dimension aspect defiantly changed the whole playing aspect of the game for the better. A switch from a 3D layout to a 2D layout requires a change in tactics as its just not as simple as side stepping out of the way anymore.

This I was quite pleased with as a Mortal Kombat fan myself I liked the idea of playing old style MK1-2 again.

While playing the game itself it is quite easy to control your characters and yes button bashing is a option in this game (not the best way of doing things though ). The moves themselves are mapped very sharply to the Controllers themselves and react very well if typed right.

One of the issues I would have with the game-play is that a lot of moves can be used for a few characters constantly, which overall can give a disadvantage to your opponent. For example Smokes Special move teleport can be used quiet a lot and most the time the NPC struggles to block, and on recent tests its also quiet unfair against players that haven’t played the game before. Others moves such as the jump kick can be used a lot too to overwhelm your opponent making it easier to defeat them.

Nether Realm Studios however have fixed this simply by adding small things like increased CPU speed or if your move is blocked you will spin in mid air, giving your opponent the chance to take advantage of the situation.

To sum up the game-play overall I was very pleased, I truly enjoyed it up to the point of screaming at the screen to defeat one opponent.

Graphics

This was one of the biggest aspects to surprise me when I first played the demo itself. This was a whole next step on graphics for MK, Everything looks so crisp and clean, everything reacts very well and the characters themselves look very realistic.

One thing in particular I was impressed with was the detail made to the damage your character took over time, if your punched in the face the whole match it will hurt, and it will show. For example the more you whack Scorpion the more his mask falls off revealing his skull under it.

The main titles themselves are also very nicely pieced together, good sync with the animation in the background and with the sounds linked to the movement of the titles.

The only issues I would have with the graphics are minor problems with the 3D Models of the characters themselves. While playing the game on the first few days of release some characters had some clothes glitches and complications, For example Scorpions spear would stick into the character and stay there and have no effect on the opponent what so ever other than this big chain flying around the screen. Minor problems like these will only hang around for the first few weeks of release as no game is ever perfect of the block.

Overall however the graphics in this game are absolutely astounding compared to the first MK all up to MK 9, don’t you agree?

Orginal MK



MK 9



Usability

In this section the game is in different parts for me. Especially the main menus themselves, it can be a little confusing getting the hang of the 1 player 2 player layouts, sometimes I think it would be just as good using a classic plan instead of this new idea.

All character layouts are very nicely presented and easy to choose from, other than the costumes which had to take a bit of thinking to figure out but once sorted it was no problem.

This however is and always has being the fun part of MK, having to figure out new things slowly but surely, perfect way so it gets hard to get bored of the game quickly.


Story Mode

This was other another part of the game that surprised me greatly. I was really impressed by the whole new style of story MK was presenting to us this time around , no doubt thanks to Warner Brothers part in creation of the game.

The whole story mode has the same layout as a film, runs very smooth and all works pretty well together in my eyes. I wasn’t bored anyway through and kept playing to the early hours of the morning curious to see what’s coming up next.

This in my eyes is how a proper story mode should be made, not too repetitive and just kind of nice for the user to follow the story, rather than playing constantly. The actors in the story themselves actually all suit the characters pretty well, all relate in my mind to what the characters would sound like in real life itself.

Playing through the story line you can clearly see Ed Boon (Producer and Creator of the MK Series) wanted the story line this time around to be much more entertaining and different from previous versions of the game.

This is defiantly one my favourite parts of the game.



Final Thoughts

Overall I was impressed by the new instalment of the MK Series; it relates very well to the whole series and has all the classic moves from all the previous games. Especially some of the fatality’s I found very entertaining, a large mixture of classic fatality’s such as Sub Zeros Spinal Rip or new fatality’s like Kung Laos Buzz Saw (see below). As always completely unnecessary, yet completely necessary =).

Kung Laos Fatality's (One of my Favourite)



This was one of the games I was very happy I purchased as not only does it let you have endless hours of fun beating the crap out of immortal fighters, it also lets you have great fun with friends. =)

I hope you enjoyed my review of MK9, Any questions atal ask away and ill do my best to answer =)

Were you planning on publishing this anywhere else than Glitch, like GamFAQs? If yes, there are plenty of grammar issues that should be attended to, for example the notorious, defiant 'definitely', that eludes the correctness of your typing constantly.

Compare:
"The pup's so defiant. He won't learn anything I teach him."
"I got him to do something right after all! Now he definitely comes on my call."

Also, I would rather like the forum jargon kept separate from the article itself. Dividing the forum post parts and the article by a few enters and a line or something makes it a more professional, articulate and generally enjoyable read.

So much for the semantics and form. I liked how you had a clear opening paragraph and a conclusion, and pointed out well what you liked and what not in between. The text is simple and cohesive to an extent that it is easy to follow and your point is easy to pick up. I liked in particular your video links. The opening of the story mode reinforced your point, and I found myself immersing myself to the game with more videos to see what happens.

The review was long enough for a review, but could've done with a bit more content in the form of text, arguments, examples and humorous remarks. On the other hand the text never got too bulky, and it was not lacking in the required fields.

All in all the review held interest, was well structured and emphasized your own devotion to the game - a detail that adds soul to the text, makes it immersive and adds to the credibility of it in the eyes of the reader. It was published poorly, however, and I would have liked to see a distinction of friendly jargon and smilies, and the actual review. Also grammar and spell check require attending. These flaws clutter a fine idea and a dedicated attempt just a little, but not enough to distract the reader to an unconfortable extent.

- - -

...sorry, got a bit carried away. It was a good one. Thanks for the effort.

My own opinion of the game: The game's flawed 'cause I didn't win.

Thanks Petrus for your reply and don’t worry, in my eyes a critical reply is the best type of reply, makes you see how many stupid mistakes you can make typing a review very late at night

Regarding publishing I don’t think so, I was not planning to at least, I just thought for the forums sake a review on a newly released game would have being beneficial to other members of the forum to hear other peoples thoughts on the game itself.

Besides while writing it I never even considered publishing, hence why its not completely perfect, if I was going to publish something like this I assure you I would spend much more time on it to insure it is wrote in a pristine condition

All of the spelling mistakes themselves will be cleaned up tomorrow when I’m not half asleep and the review will make much more sense

Other than that Thanks Petrus for taking the time to read the review and discussing your thoughts

Any other thoughts on the review will also be much appreciated

Thanks -- Daire