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An honest review...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: October 15, 2006
Author: Amazon User

OPENING RANT:

I keep seeing, "i'm an avid fan of MK", and "i've been playing MK since the begining" and BLAH, BLAH, BLAH. Okay...who cares? That makes little to no difference about the quality of Mortal Kombat Armageddon. So telling everyone how much of a fan you are, isn't going to make much of a difference. Because your fandom does not reflect the overall enjoyability of MKA. It just means you have extremely high standards, and you're (possibly) bashing the game simply on the grounds that you think that being a "fan since the begining" is going to make a difference on what people think about THIS GAME.

It will not. It only makes you a whiner.
So save it, and get to the point.

NOW FOR THE REVIEW:

Okay, now STANDARDS and "i'm an avid fan, blah, blah, blah" set aside. MKA is actually a pretty average game. It's alot like MKD, only improved in some areas, while taking steps backwards, in others.

PROS:

-Aerial Kombat
-60+ Character Roster
-Kreate a Kharacter
-Konquest Mode

CONS:

-No Individual Fatalities
-Motor Kombat
-Crappy Endings

That's it.
Simply 3 CONS. And 4 PROS.

The good outweighs the bad.

THE CONS (Descriptions):

If Ed Boon and co. were to have given each character their own 1 individual fatality, while KEEPING the "kreate a fatality" system in the game as an alternate method of doing a fatality (I personally find it kind of interesting), this game would've flatout gotten 5 stars.

Motor Kombat is just stupid. I hate racing games. And turning MK into a racing game was a pointless act, in my honest opinion. I did however try it out, and found it to be decent. Although if it weren't for the added "MK Touch" to this racing mini-game, I honestly wouldn't even have given it a 2nd glance. Nonetheless tried it out.

If it were up to me, i'd have gotten rid of Motor Kombat, and given each character their own 1 individual fatality. Thus, making this game perfect.

The endings...are non-existent. And are a letdown. No stills. No cinematics. Just your character doing fighting movements (katas) atop Blaze's Pyramid, while a commentary guy, speaks your character's ending. Words also appear in which allow you to read the spoken ending, as well.

THE PROS (Descriptions):

Konquest Mode is back yet again, and better than the last 2 times. In Deadly Alliance, it was pointless. In Deception, it was somewhat fun. In Armageddon, it's extremely fun, and more to the point. No longer is there time to extensively search. To travel the realms. To do pointless side missions for kurrency. Armageddon's Konquest Mode, is a flatout quest that your character (Taven) must embark upon.

The action in Konquest Mode is highly based on that of Shaolin Monks.

Meaning, you'll do alot of fighting. You'll do alot of killing. You'll follow an actual quest storyline. And you'll still be earning kurrency, to help your created characters, become more advanced.

I like MKA's Konquest Mode, because it's more action-packed, and less dull and lifeless, like it was during the last two installments of Mortal Kombat. It's now fun. It's now dangerous. It's now more than just an optional "training" sequence. It's now an actual quest, that will require you to fight for your life. And kill doing so.

To me, Konquest Mode is the best part of MKA.

Aerial Kombat was a much needed implimentation, to the fighting portion of MKA. You can now perform combos in mid-air, throw combatants while in mid-air, etc. It keeps the action going, and makes the characters seem less stiff. It also makes the game seem alot faster, and more action-packed.

Kreate a Kharacter is vast. It's huge. There are quite literally hundreds, if not thousands of options to place upon your created character. You can create just about anyone. From custom characters, to movie characters, game characters, etc. It's fun. And again, extremely vast. And you can earn more and more stuff, with the games kurrency. Which is now only one type (not multi-colored), so it'll be easier to earn stuff quicker.

And finally, the ability to play as every single character ever conceived in the MK tournament games, is just awesome. Even joke characters like "Chameleon" and "Meat" are now playable 3D characters. And yes, you can even play as all the boss characters from the past tournament games.

Motaro is here...for the most part.
Shao Khan is here. Onaga is here. Goro is here.

All the bosses are playable.
Everyone is playable.

If I had to complain about any of these characters (in terms of character models), it'd only be Motaro. Because cutting off 2 of his 4 legs, kind of screwed with his image. Plus, they made him severely shorter than he used to be. So Motaro is my ONLY character model complaint. Aside from him, everyone else looks beautiful.

Aside from everything else i've said. Purchasing any of the PREMIUM EDITIONS of MKA will only intensify the fun-factor of the game. As the actual game disc itself, comes with a fully playable version of UMK3 (Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3) in the "extras" section. It'll be exactly as you remember it from it's arcade days. Character availability and all. 3 hidden characters. Etc.

NOTE: The STANDARD editions of Mortal Kombat Armageddon, DO NOT come with UMK3 loaded onto the MKA game disc in the "extras" menu. It is ONLY available for purchasers of the PREMIUM EDITIONS of MKA.

Plus, the PREMIUM EDITIONS come with a bonus DVD. The DVD contains a "history of fatalities" featurette, which is somewhat interesting, but overall useless. And kharacter kards (with featurettes containing commentary from Ed Boon and co. about the characters) for every single character in MKA, which are all very interesting.

So don't let the negative reviews, and the "i'm an avid fan, I know what i'm talking about" BLATANT B.S., discourage you from atleast renting MKA. If you ask me, it's a fairly average game. And with the inclusion of individual character fatalities, the game would've been flatout perfect.

But since it didn't contain those, I knocked simply 1 star off.

By the way, the "step backwards" from Deception that MKA took, was limiting the characters to only 2 fighting stances, instead of 3. One fighting stance. One weapon stance. This really isn't a problem to me, nor did it seem to really bother me that much. So I didn't list it in the CONS. Chances are, you'll get used to it. And will do little to no complaining about it, whatsoever. As it really doesn't effect the overall presentation of the game.

I give the PREMIUM EDITIONS of MKA 4.5 out of 5 stars.
I give the STANDARD EDITIONS of MKA 4 out of 5 stars.

UMK3 really did help redeem what the standard game had lost.

So if you're thinking of buying MKA, make sure you get one of the PS2 PREMIUM EDITIONS. It'll be well worth the purchase! But if you've only got an XBOX (in which has NO PREMIUM EDITIONS), then I suggest giving MKA a rental before buying it.

And that's the honest truth.
"I'm an avid fan" B.S. set aside, MKA is a fairly average game.

Def. not the best game in the series (I leave that to MKII).
But def. not the worst, either.

FINAL VERDICT:

4.5/5.0 stars - Premium Edition
4.0/5.0 stars - standard Edition

Not quite the finale the series deserves, but still a solid fighter

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: October 14, 2006
Author: Amazon User

MK:Armageddon is the highly-touted finale to the Mortal Kombat series. Although it is more than likely this series will return to the next-gen systems, this game is meant to represent a grand send-off for the current consoles. The problem with any finale, however, is that they rarely satisfy the fans. Nothing can match that kind of expectation, and MK:Armageddon is no exception. A solid game, but hardly a swan-song.

To get the negatives out of the way, this latest MK is actually a step back in many ways from the earlier PS2/XBOX versions. The fighters no longer have 3 different fighting styles (which you could switch through, giving fighters unbelievable range) but only 2, a hand-to-hand and a weapon. Although not initially a problem, as it kind of stands as a nostalgic throwback to the old fighting games, it just seems cheapened compared to MK: Deadly Alliances and MK: Deceptions. A big problem is the loss of the classic Fatalities, which gave not only the game its personality but set the characters apart as well. Ed Boon has tried to integrate a new interactive Fatality system that fails to satisfy the way the classic finishers did, especially since the characters all have the same ones now. One of the worst crimes in the game is in the presentation itself, namely the ending cinematics for characters - or lack of any, in this game. Characters are robbed of any satisfying closure for the characters, not even in the primitive slideshows they recieved in the earlier games. This is a definite disappointment. Acclaim should have done away with the lame kart racing mini-game and given us a decent conclusion for each fighter.

There are positives, however. The game is still a fun fighter that is a riot to play with friends. One of the selling points of the game is that every major character from all the MK fighting games are playable now, including bosses, which is a major accomplishment. Each level still has a high amount of interactivity and Fatality-inducing booby traps that can prove to be a lot of fun. The best part is the new create-a-character feature, which allows you to make a fighter from different pieces, much like the WWE:Smackdown series. I was completely impressed by this feature and look forward to making tons of characters.

Although not the game to end all games I was hoping for, MK:Armageddon is a good addition to the old library for fighting fans and MK fans, although both camps can find better games for any system. A blast with a group, but disappointingly bare in dramatic flair, it's a game that's best rented first.

Not entirely fun

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: December 22, 2006
Author: Amazon User

For a game that supposed to end the era for PS2 games, and the one that incorporate every single character from past games, this sounded like an homage to previous MK games at first. None is the case.
1. The plotline. MKA ditches all other rational plotline ever to grace the MK universe and gives a somewhat forced ending: a freshed-out storyline that mixed every character together in one fluent mess. Call me perservative, but the original MK storyline (up to UMK3) should have been extended. Heck, even parts from MKDA and MKD sounded appealing and proved to be excellent continuity (Shang Tsung and Quan Chi forming an alliance; Shang Tsung, Quan Chi and Raiden joining forces to stop the Dragon King). For an homage, MKA should have considered that, giving us at least the story we knew, weaving every character into the plot in a rational sense, but with updated graphics.
2. The characters. Wide variety to choose from, yet something amiss. Maybe it's the reduced fighting styles that we grew accustomed to in MKDA and MKD. Maybe it's the alternate costumes, since not all have their familiar outfits (sure could use the old purple ninja Rain, or green ninja Reptile). Or maybe it's some characters durability - don't know, but Liu Kang wasn't all that great playing with as opposed to MKD.
3. Fatalities. What made MK1, MK2 and UMK3 great were the individual fatalities. This MKA creat-a-fatality is sure a cheap way of getting out from ditching them whatsoever. I'm sure if they smarted up for ditching the Motor Kombat feature (and maybe simplifying the Konquest), a lot of room could have been reserved for individual fatalities. If you go on a homage, why don't go all the way?
4. Kreate-a-fighter. For an exclusive online feature (but not only. It could be played in versus mode), it could be left out. That way, A LOT of room would be spared for individual fatalities. Not all the special moves are here, and that feature just seems disconnected from the rest. Be smart and release it seperately (like Matrix Online), with not all 60+ characters to fight with. That way, a place is reserved for MKA to become the homage it was intended to be :P
On a side note, the graphics and arenas are great, as were MKDA and MKD. With a little more effort, this could have been a better product.

They dropped the ball on this one...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: October 13, 2006
Author: Amazon User

What happened???

This game is bad man... alright here we go:
Pros:
60+ Character availibilty
Kreate a Fighter

Cons:
Motor Kombat(?)
Kreate a Fatality
Konquest Mode
No Individual Fatalities
only one fighting style per character

Right off the bat this game is a dissapointment... It looks beautiful and the fighting is fun but after a while you start realizing the limitations of the game and start thinking it might be a little more worthwhile to throw in Deception or Deadly Alliance.

Here was the process...
I put in the game started playing the regular kombat mode and it was interesting but i was looking forward to Konquest Mode because it was great in the last installment. Well, Konquest Mode Armageddon? awful! I was done with it in less than 6 hours and it wasn't even worth it... It was very rushed and the story was awful. And since when did Blaze all of a sudden become some unique supreme being? He was one of the lamest characters and still is...

Alright so after being dissapointed with that i ventured in the regular fighting mode... Than after toying with the Kreate a Fatality mode I was very angry... This is the worst dissapointment in the whole game. No individual Fatalities for the characters (Who is Meat anyway?) which basially kind of strips away their indiviuality oof being characters. Sure there is sixty of them but nothing really makes them unique or worth it in the end. They don't even have one personal fatality... wow... If they gave the characters at least one fatality (TWO PREFERABLY) and had the Kreate a Fatality system, This would have been great. Also there are no character endings. it's just the character practicing their fighting tyle while taven (who is this wonder boy?) gives you a commentary of what happens?????? wow.....

Next, Motor Kombat(?)
Alright Kombat Chess was a little lame. But much much better than this garbage...I won't even spend time writing about it...

Kreate a Fighter
This is pretty cool. But you have to go through the lame Konquest mode to even get the money to pay for your fighters stuff and abilities. Not to mention you can only have one Kustom Kombatant per profile. Those Lame wrestling games can do more why can't Mortal Kombat?

Ultimate MK3
This comes with the premium edition. All in all it's nice and cool if you like the old school games and it a nice port of the arcade game.

All in all,
This game was not thought all the way through. It was rushed and not cared for by it's staff or "Kreators". The basic idea was cool but fell extremely short. You want the ultimate finale for MK on these consoles? here you go.
1. 2 fatalities per character

2. Keep kustom fatalities or axe them (your choice and who cares?)

3. the 60+ roster of fighters

4. Spend time on laying out your Konquest mode and make it actually worth while like you did in the last game.

5. Bring back friendships and Babalities Hell even Animalities And what happened to Hara Kiris? They were so good! Bring them back!!!!(Just for laughs, Do you know how cool that would have been?)

6. Give character specific endings as opposed to the terrible commentary on what happens.

7. Get the hell rid of Motor Kombat and use that space to fit the rest of the game.

There is your finale. This would have brought a proper closure to the series and given us a proper finale. What you guys at Midway and Ed and Tobias Goon or whatever the hell your names are, did, was rip us off. Present us with a quality product next time. And i hope that this installment does not serve as a template for what you hope the future of Mortal Kombat is to be.

Much Ado About Nothing

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: October 16, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I have been an avid fan of Mortal Kombat for as long as there's been a Mortal Kombat. Each time I have waited in great anticipation for the new installment. Usually, I have been pleased--rarely disappointed--until the last two installments.

Although I enjoyed "Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks", I found it to be disappointing in that although the different realms were "marked", their individual rooms were not; therefore, I spent hours looking for a particular room and could never find it. Also, if you have to fight three bosses in a row--each one more difficult than the first--then at least they could give you a little more health than they do. As for "secrets", well...I never found any. I don't guess I was a good as I thought. MK Deception was another waste of time.

MK Armageddon arrived in stores on October 6, and by October 7, I was pretty disappointed. If I am expected to plunk down $50 for a game, I think it is a complete ripoff to then come out with a "guide" (at $20) for that same game because it's obviously too difficult to master on your own. Thus, they have taken the fun out of it. And I don't care how many other bells and whistles they've put in the content of the game, it doesn't make up for me feeling like I've been ripped off. They have taken the fighting away for all this other junk that I don't enjoy. Aerial combat is fun; the "Mario Kart" rip-off game is not. The Konquest Mode, well, I'm already stuck on it. Seems I can't figure out how to navigate an icy path from one door to the other. But then again there are no clues; nothing. After a while, this becomes increasingly bothersome because, well, how do you find out anything? Oh; I forgot. You plunk down that $20 extra for the "guide". No thanks.

The people behind MK Armageddon say this is their last "visit" into repetition because the next game is supposed to have all new characters and an entirely new story. Hooray for that. I've played Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Kung Lao, and Liu Kang until I'm ready for a change. It appears to me that you can indeed create your own fighter, but it also appears that you have to unlock certain items in the Konquest Mode in order to do this.

Extremely disappointing.

REUBEN ROA IS THE REAL DORK!!! THE GAME FLATOUT SUCKS!!!!!! BEWARE OF THIS TRASH!!!! DONT EVEN RENT IT!!!!!!!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 8
Date: October 14, 2006
Author: Amazon User

not only do i agree with gamerarocks and the rest of the fans outhere, but this is game is actually an insult to all mk fans....the negatives are clearly stated ans YES they are a "REAL" reason to call this game a piece of crappola...one set of fatalites, (step 9 being the ultimate)to a whole cast of 60 something fighters...not too smart!!!! ohh, and wait!!! 9 sorry fatalities,,,they dont even look like fatalities at all!!!...step 1 and 2 are just punches,,then you finally rip an arm in step 3,,WOW!! steps 4 and 5 are just punches to the gut, then you rip another arm or heart then finaly if youre lucky a leg or head....THATS IT!!!!!!! thats for everybody!!!!!!! SECOND: no animated endings , no photo endings, just plain letters!!!!!....in my opinion mk4 had best endings..(cinematic)..THIRD: THE KART-RACING IS TERRIBLE...NO GRIPP,NO STEERING,JUST ACCELERATE AND YOULL BE FINE....;).....the bonus ultimate mk is just repulsive, disgusting, and insulting...right out of the genesis 16 bit port!!!! its that bad.......this game is a failure, so please dont fail to buy this.and no it doesnt deserve to be called one of the hottest or "the" hottest game up to date,,,cause its not!!!!!

Things To Please, Things To Anger

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: October 12, 2006
Author: Amazon User

There are many things to like about this game and there are somethings that will annoy the fans. The Konquest mode on this game is definitely the best out of the three we have seen so far (Deadly Alliance, Deception and Armageddon). You play Taven, a half god that has to complete a quest that he doesn't know about or Armageddon will destroy Earthrealm. Konquest mode was really well done and the story is addicting and very interesting. No longer do you have to learn tedious combos to progress through the game. That is a big plus.

It is really great to see all of the characters on the arcade mode. There are a few flaws here that may make fans angry. One thing being that the individual fatalities are gone. Now it is just random button pushing that causes different things to happen (rip off arms, legs, heads and so on). Another problem is that when you beat the game, the end story is told only by a voice and the only thing you see is your character performing martial arts moves (katas) on top of the pyramid.

So, overall, there are things on here that will make a lot of fans happy. There are also a lot of things that will make fans angry. I still say it is worth buying. Having all of those characters to choose from to play makes up for where the game lacks.

Armageddon Is Upon Us!!!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: October 28, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game yesterday but, because of many negative reviews on Gamespot and other sites, I wasn't sure if this would be as good as I was hoping. However I gotta say that this game is MK gold!

Starting with the obvious: there are around 60 Kombatants (fighters) ranging from the Mortal Kombat originals Scorpion, Lui Kang, Shang Tsung, Sub-Zero etc. to the newcomers from Deadly Alliance and Deception such as Kobra, Onaga, Kenshi, and Kira. The one character that I couldn't wait to play as was the ultimate Outworld ruler: Shao Kahn - he was pretty crap on the originals but this time he is very strong and has some pretty good special attacks along with his warhammer. Characters that were hard to unlock in previous games, like Charmeleon, Kahn, and Onaga, are already unlocked so you can get straight into the action and beat your opponents to a pulp. The characters are fab and look excellent. Just don't expect to beat Blaze and Onaga all that easily.

The Kreate-A-Fatality is a pretty good decision, but does have its flaws e.g. it is now easy to perform fatalities, but every character can use the same fatality (such as ripping out their opponents lungs and spine) and so there is often little variation. But, on the positive, there are plenty of different moves to perform - some being quite hard to do and some very easy - and you can literally dissect your opponent with up to 10 different moves in a fatality.

The Kreate-A-Character mode is great, and you can do everything from appearance, to moves, to weapons, to biographies. The better moves often cost more than the cheap, pathetic moves, but you can use any move for your kharacter, from Scorpion's Spear to Cyrax's bomb attacks. You have to buy most hairstyles, costumes, armour etc., which I guess makes the game last a bit longer.

The Konquest mode...is okay. Deception's konquest style has been scrapped and a style of play similar to that The mode has certainly improved from last years, but so far I have reached the Red Clan base (a couple of hours into the mode) and have got enough money to buy most of the krypt's 'prizes'. I'm hoping that the mode will get harder otherwise I'll have bought everything within a week of playing.

Motor Kombat is a really cool little mode, best played with a friend. Chess Kombat and Puzzle Kombat have been scrapped from Deception (damn shame about Chess Kombat going!) and this is the replacement. There are only 5 tracks and about 9 racers (I think that they are Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Raiden, Bo Rai Cho, Mileena, Kitana, Cyrax, Jax and Baraka) but it is normaly fast racing with an MK twist. Also the mode is a great way of collecting lots of money to buy parts for your kreated kharacter.

The graphics and gameplay are pretty much the same as Deception, but the huge amount of characters makes this game a bit better in terms of improvement.

So if you like are a MK fan, or just love violence, then this game is for you. If you don't have an MK game then I suggest you get Deception first to see if you like it, but if you are a true fan then you'll love Armageddon. A good send off for the Midway classic, and look forward to the next-gen games!

A-B-A-C-A-B-B

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: November 06, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is great!! You start off being able to choose from all the old characters, and there are a couple of new guys to unlock too who are pretty sweet. ("Meat" tears it up once you un-lock him)

At 1st I was bummed about the fatality system (like a lot of posters before me), but after a few days I figured it out and now I realize that it is way better than the old "single fatality" system. In Armageddon, you can still have Sub-Zero rip out spines (Down, Down, Circle) and there are a bunch of new cool finishers too. For example, you can use any character to rip off any other character's "Thigh" with (Down, Down, Square). To top that off, you can string together as many finishers as you are able to key in during the avaialbe time, so the sky is the limit.

The arena's are much improved too. A lot of them have special stage finishers that add some strategy to the fights.

Konquest is a little boring. It reminds me of a stripped-down Double-Dragon.

Motor Kombat is a nice addition. It is a low-budget mario-kart, each character can only use their 1 special item, but it is still pretty fun. It is a nice compliment to the rest of Armageddon.

I've had this game for about a week, and I like it more each day. It takes a cuople of days to adjust to some of the changes, and realize that they are improvements.

Final Kombat

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: November 22, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Reportedly the final Mortal Kombat game (I'll believe that when I see it), Mortal Kombat: Armageddon rounds up every single fighter that has appeared in the past six MK games. That's right, there's over sixty fighters present in Armageddon, which is reason enough for long time MK fighters to pick this up. Every fighter, from fan favorites like Johnny Cage, Raiden, Kitana, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Kano, and a zombified Liu Kang, to obscure fighters like Kai, Stryker, Chameleon, Mokap, and Jarek, to old bosses like Shao Khan, Goro, Kintaro, and Motaro; all of whom are brought together to do battle and fight to take on demonic final boss Blaze. Those who have had avid experience on Deadly Alliance and Deception will feel right at home here and be able to get right into the game, mainly because nothing has changed. The graphics are still the same (although by now they are dated) and the gameplay is virtually the same as well. The only real changes to the gameplay is that every fighter now only has one fighting style and a weapon based style now, instead of having two different styles and a weapon style. Now, it's understandable that perhaps there wasn't enough room or time to implement every single fighting style into the game, but this is a bit of a disappointment. Not to mention that the individual fatalities for each character are gone, replaced with the Kreate-A-Fatality feature, which is pretty much a method for saving space on the game disc. This is Armageddon's most disappointing aspect, and does hurt the overall rating. Also, for being a final boss, Blaze isn't that hard to beat. Sometimes he can be frustrating, but he isn't that hard to put down like Shao Khan or even Onaga (who is also here) before him. Konquest Mode is back, and it's better than ever here, having become a full fledged third person adventure. The Krypt is back as well, and finally only runs on one Kurency to unlock extras, and the online features are back as well and just as good as they were on Deception. There's also a new mode called Motor Kombat, which is basically a bloody version of Mario Kart with Raiden, Cage, Baraka, Kitana, Mileena, Baraka, Cyrax, Jax, Scorpion, and Sub-Zero racing each other, with mixed results. All in all, despite the negative press that this game has received, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon is still a fun fighter that delivers the goods, and is a fitting send-off for the long running and influential series.

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