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I hoped for more

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: October 18, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game was a huge letdown. All the potential this game had went completely to waste in a Madden type effort to take more of your money. This is far less of a game compared to Mortal Kombat: Deception. I bought this amazed to see it in the store and went home to play it rather eager. I'm a big MK fan and loved the depth that MK:D created with 3 fight systems and a whole new level of AI. However the AI here is gone and button mashing is in. The computer is able to do moves, combos and air juggles that are not possible by human players. I've tried mimicking their moves and cannot duplicate it at all.
The scale of difficulty increases as you go along fights. The first few fights are easy enough then they get a little harder but by the time you get to the 5th fighter it's nearly impossible to get one hit in. The CPU has preference over you and no matter how fast you do something, their move will hit you first. You have to constantly block and hope to counter a move just to get one or two hits in. Using specials constantly helps winning. The CPU will block moves but almost never block specials. I have done moves and combos and had my hits completely miss the CPU even though I was right there hitting it. This game was very badly made and the fatality system is rediculous. The days of Scorpion's face melting and Sub-Zero's freeze fatalities are gone and replaced by generic fatalities any character can do. They are not character specific at all. You can't use their special moves or weapons to do any amazing fatality move.
Simply put this is a horrid remake just put out to reap cash from MK loving consumers. Sure it has every character in the game, that's the only reason I gave it more than 1 star. However the mechanics and play of the game are horrid compared to others. Button mash all you want, you'll probably have a better chance of winning that way. Online this game might be great but I haven't tried it. I wouldn't have bought this game if I had known how badly it was made. I went back to play deception, it's much better. I miss Kabal's awesome combos from MK3. Oh and some of the special moves you love and remember are gone and replaced by something else.

Deception was better

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: October 13, 2006
Author: Amazon User

There are a lot of ups and downs to this game. I like how you can be every character. I do not like how they only have one fighting style and a weapon style. So you can't really do any combos that change from one fighting style to another. Another thing I don't like is that you can only create one character per profile, unlike the wrestling CAW's. The konquest mode, in my opinion was pretty weak. First, they producers said there would be 2 modes- a good, and an evil. It is neat, however, how Taven fights in the konquest mode, but you fight people every other second, and you really cannot explore. What happened to the Chaos realm? Orderrealm? You don't see much of the realms at all, and my favorite part of Deception was the fact that you could explore all kinds of stuff, meditate and get secret things, talk to people and do side missions. It feels as though they rushed this game a tad.
I'm not saying it is a bad game, by no means, because it's not- I'm just saying, in my opinion, it's not as good as Deception. And why is Blaze all of a sudden the main character and a giant monster? Cool, yes, but it's kind of odd that they chose Blaze. To be honest, the story mode is a tad confusing. It almost seems like they are trying to cram way way too much into it, but without dedicating a lot of time to the story mode.

Also, I don't like how you cannot do wagers in versus battle. So, basically, you have to complete the konquest mode multiple times or do the arcade a lot to get koins to create a fighter. I'm not a fan of the krypt, either. They made a huge fuss about how they wanted it to be called the Vault.
And, just like with Deception, they promised to have ripped clothing etc. when you fight in the arcade, and yet again they failed to do so.

I know they took a chance with fatalities, and that's ok, but I think I speak for a lot of people when I say they are pretty weak fatalities. I mean, most of the fatalities in the last 3 games weren't too great and didn't seem to have a lot of thought put into them.

Overall, there are a lot of cool things in the game, but more disappointing things, especially when they claim it's the mother of all MK games. You can't go back into the story mode and explore anything, which is a bummer. I do like a lot of parts in the story mode, but it's not long enough and you can't really see the realms in all of their glory.
I've been playing MK since the 1st game came out- so I am a loyal fan, but this game just isn't all it was hyped up to be. But, nevertheless, overall, it's not a bad game. It is MK, afterall.

Hope they do better next time....

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: October 16, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I really wanted to like this game but so far the thrill is dying fast. It's mainly due to what many have stated before and that's the new fatality system. The uniqueness is gone. I personally think this game was built backwards. If space is going to be a problem then give the fans what you know they'll love (fatalities and plenty of 'em) and then if there's space left over add the fillers. I'll keep playing and see if this grows on me more but fact that I haven't shut myself in after playing it once is a sign it may not get any better.

I enjoyed Konquest mode in Deception but after 5 min of Konquest in Armageddon I'm already tired of it. Why oh why did they trade off the fatalities for this stuff. I know 60+ fatalities would have been a lot but I think the loyal MK fans will agree it would just have been another challenge to conquer. I pray on the next gen consoles they get it right.

Let The Dream Battles Begin

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: October 16, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The main reason I wanted this game (along with being an avid MK fan since MK2) was because it was going to have every MK warrior in it....and it does! All of my favorite characters in one game and in the awesome art style established in MK: Deadly Alliance and Deception. Konquest mode is great. Kombat Kart is a trip and a great comedic break from all the doom and gloom on the battlefield. The Krypt is back and I'm relieved that the Koins are one Kurrency now. The opening movie is great. The new "air kombat" feature is pretty impressive. I was totally surprised when I performed an air combo by accident because I didn't know it existed. Very nice.

The "Make A Fatality" (or "Dial A Fatality" as I like to call it) is a bit of a let down. I understand that with the number of kombatants plus the addition of Kustom Fighters there possibly wasn't enough room and/or time to put in individualized fatalities but it's still a noticeable loss especially to fans. The new system isn't a total failure. The key presses are easy to perform and discover and I still get that dark enjoyment from finding as many ways as possible to mutilate my defeated foe. So the spirit of the Fatality is still there and it still accomplishes it's purpose of putting the final touches on a successful win. Some of the new death traps are difficult to pull off. I uppercutted an opponent like 3 times by one of those catapult traps but I couldn't get him into it. Still, when you can pull them off they make great alternatives to the "Dial A Fatality". My favorite stage is Shao Khan's arena with an acid pool, lava pit, grinder, and spike pit.

And yes, there are no cinematic endings or illustrated scenes. All the characters get a "kata" ending where they demonstrate a martial art while the narrator reads the outcome. Again, probably due to time and space contraints. I wasn't too dissappointed since I care more about the story than the pretty colors anyway.

Overall, I love this game. Except for the new fatality system it's everything I hoped for. The old characters look and feel great and it continues the dark and brutal atmosphere re-established in MK: Deadly Alliance. At the very least, this should be considered MK Trilogy 2. If you liked having all your characters on one disc then you'll love this.

PS - For those interested in getting the Armageddon Two Disc Edition I would say this is for only die hard fans. There's only a brief documentary called "The History of Fatalities" where the game creators share how the Fatality was born along with favorites and least favorites. The disc also includes "Kombat Kards" for all the characters. Each card is a "featurette" with facts about the character similar to the ones featured in MK: Deception. And that's it. The Collector's Edition is available at Best Buy, WalMart, EBGames/Gamestop, and Game Crazy.

A solid entry in the classic fighting game series

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: October 17, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Mortal Kombat: Armageddon.

INTRODUCTION:
The Mortal Kombat series is, well, anything but mortal. Ever since its birth in 1992, the series has been loved and hated by many. With its unique take on the fighting game genre, as well as blood and gore galore, it's the series that has taken the world by storm and never let go. After a lengthy hiatus following 1998's Mortal Kombat 4, the series made a comeback in recent years with games like Deadly Alliance and Shaolin Monks. The most recent entry in the series in Armageddon.

OVERVIEW:
Mortal Kombat Armageddon was released in 2006. The game features numerous gameplay modes, including traditional arcade play, Motor Kombat, Endurance, Konquest, and a Kreate-A-Fighter mode. The fighting roster features every playable character from every traditional MK game so far.

REVIEW:
When the Mortal Kombat series went on an extended hiatus following the release of Mortal Kombat 4, a lot of people forgot about the series and lost interest. I was amongst them. New titles began to surface, but I paid them little attention. But as soon as a friend of mine introduced me to Armageddon, I was almost instantly back into the series. MK is back with a vengeance. And this is the finest installment to date.

-THE GOOD-
-HUGE CHARACTER ROSTER. Every character ever featured in a Mortal Kombat game as a normal, playable character or a boss, is playable here. From the well-known members of the cast like Sub-Zero and Scorpion, right down to the forgotten characters like Reiko and Kabal, they're all here. The characters from the most recent installments on modern systems appear too. Plus there are a few new characters. The total roster comes out to around SIXTY CHARACTERS!
-KREATE A FIGHTER MODE! I honestly doubted whether or not this sort of thing had a place in the Mortal Kombat universe, but after giving it a whirl, I forgot my doubts. This system works out great. You get to customize your character's appearance, moves, backstory, and plenty of other stuff. You start the game with limited options, but can unlock new moves and clothes in other gameplay modes, and with the currency you get in other modes.
-MOTOR KOMBAT. The real oddity here, but fun nonetheless. Imagine Mario Kart but with Mortal Kombat characters and gore. It's a fun, simplistic game, but definitely worth checking out.
-ENDURANCE MODE. Think you're the best MK player out there? Then take a fighter and pit them against opponent after opponent until you die. It's the ultimate test of skill.
-TONS OF UNLOCKABLES. Throughout various game modes, you'll earn currency you can trade for unlockables. These include pieces of music, alternate character outfits, new levels, concept art, videos - the list goes on! This aspect of the game definitely adds something the old pre-hiatus games lacked. The currency can be earned in nearly every mode of the game, as well.
-MULTIPLE FIGHTING STYLES AND WEAPONS FOR CHARACTERS. Weapon fighting, which was godawful in Mortal Kombat 4, is perfected in this game. The fighting styles appeared in other recent titles as well, and they definitely add something to the experience.
-KONQUEST MODE. This is essentially a story-oriented mode revolving around the new character Taven, and it mixes Shaolin Monks-style action/adventure play, as well as traditional MK one-on-one deathmatches. In this mode you can find plenty of unlockables, further adding to the mode's value.
-MAKE OUR OWN FATALITY. This is an innovative feature, and an interesting edition to an excellent series.

-THE BAD-
-REPETITIVE PLAY IN THE KONQUEST MODE. This mode is required to unlock stuff, so you'll find yourself playing it a lot. But you'll also get frustrated by the repeated scenarios and instant death traps. They could have done a lot more to keep things fresh.
-UNEVEN COMPUTER INTELLIGENCE. Sometimes the computer plays a smart game and/or cheeses you to death, other times it doesn't seem to know what the hell it's doing.
-MOTOR KOMBAT NEEDS WORK. I think this was an excellent idea, and I'm glad they put it in the game. But the gameplay is repetitive and the control needs work. More diversity in this mode would have been nice.
-ONLY TWO FIGHTING STYLES PER CHARACTER. Not a big deal to me, but it will be to gamers who played the last few MK games which had three of them per character.
-NO CHARACTER SPECIFIC FATALITIES. I was glad to hear about the Fatality creation mode, but had no idea it would take the place of the age-old, classic, character-specific Fatalities that have defined the series since the beginning. As such, Fatality customizing gets old fast, since every character does the same things.
-NO "SPECIALTY" FATALITIES. What happened to Babalities, Friendships, Brutalities, and Animalities? I miss all this stuff. When's it coming back to the series?

OVERALL:
Mortal Kombat is back with a vengeance. If you're one of those guys who lost interest after the fourth installment, this is the entry that's good enough to get you back on the series bandwagon. Do yourself a favor and pick this one up if you're fan of the series, old or new alike, or a fan of fighting games in general.

EDITION NOTES:
The game is a recent release and readily available at most major video game retailers.

huge disappointment

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: October 29, 2006
Author: Amazon User

this game was a huge disappointment.i wish i never bought it.sure every character is on the game but they hardly have any moves.the comboes are weak.some of the boss characters are weak.also i didnt know that kreate a fatality would replace their individual fatalitys.that was real disappointing.The kreate a fighter pissed me off alote.You can only make one fighter per profile.if you want to make another fighter you have to make another profile and earn more money to make him.i dont think you should have to unlock anything in kreate a fighter.This game is boring.when ever i want to play mortal kombat i will play deception not armageddon.

Another lame effort that simply falls flat

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: October 15, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Let me start off by saying, I really thought this game had potential but in the end it looks like just another half hearted attempt...

Ok, let us begin with the good. You can play as any character from the series in any of the games! Good graphics. Create a fighter mode.

The bad- Fighting is absolutely terrible, even worse then the previous games. Now it feels like one of the old Tekken rip offs from the arcades that was only a quarter to play. You can have your weapon out and use it the whole round. You can be knocked into hot lava and killed after 1 hit!
There are no specific fatalities at all, the characters have lost their sense of identity. The value and presence of projectiles is next to nil, Shall I continue?

Overall, this game looks and smells like a weak cash grab from a strugging franchise. You will be happier and still $40 wealthier playing UMK3 from the PS1!@

Fun But Completely Pointless

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: October 26, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The endings have nothing to do with anything. Midway said they would end all current storylines in this game. Technically they did. Usually by killing everyone in a pointless ending (since it isn't recorded anywhere so there is really no reason to beat it, you can just read the endings at gamefaqs).

If you love Mortal Kombat for the fighting then you'll love this game. If you're like me and love the story, then this game will seriously piss you off.

On the up side the kreate a fighter is cool. I have five so far. Including He-Man. It's great.

Basically this game is really fun but serves absolutly no purpose and has a pointless story.

Invite your friends over, then finish them.. gets old when played alone.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: February 05, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game is great for playing with a group of people. Having every character gives the game the greatest variety of fighters availible in a MK title. Great graphics and sound, and some awesome "death traps" to add to the fun factor.
However, as a single player game, the replay value isn't as great. The Konquest mode is great the first time, but quickly gets old. As it is the fastest way to unlock certain items, you're forced to play it again whenever you create a new profile.
Also, I am a huge fan of games with the Create-a-Character mode, but I found this one to be very limited. Of all the weapons and special moves used throughout the game, only a small portion of them are availible to add to your own character, even with the unlockables. Plus, you can only add one piece of clothing to each layer; one cape, one T-shirt, etc. On top of that, since you're required to create a seperate profile for each character, you can't have showdowns between your created fighters, unless you go online. Not nearly as much variety as the Create-a-Character mode in THQ's WWE Smackdown series. I could spend hours with that.
The Create-a-Fatality is fun, but I think each character should have had at least one of their original fatalities. No ice shatter (Sub Zero), no blade impaler (Baraka)... It feels as though a major part of the game is missing.
For veteran MK fans who are looking for a grand showdown with all their favorite characters intact, this game delivers. Just don't expect anything ground-breaking and new.

Incomplete and unsatisfactory product rated higher than it should be

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: October 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I do not understand how any Mortal Kombat fan, or at least any real Mortal Kombat fan, can walk away from this game without being dismayed. Sure it does have some good things in it, but overall it falls very short of being both a satisfying entry into the franchise, and a solid gaming experience in its own sphere.

Before ripping the game for its flaws, it's worth looking at the positives, which as I have said are there. Not everyone agrees, but I thought it was a good idea to cut the number of fighting styles down for the characters. Sure maybe it would have been too much to ask them to have three fighting styles for all those characters, but even with the smaller rosters from Deadly Alliance and Deception, I thought that there was just too much to remember, making Mortal Kombat lose touch with its roots. I was glad to see Armageddon cut down the excess combos for each character. That plus the rebirth of air combat really made Armageddon come close to having a classic feel in the fighting. I also wish to praise the team for making almost every character scream differently. Sure they started the different voices back in Deadly Alliance, but it didn't seem to stick out much until Deception, quite possibly due to the lack of arena death traps in Deadly Alliance. Back on MK Trilogy I thought one of the most fun things to do was knock opponents down the Bell Tower because the repeated screams were often quite amusing, but there were only three or four different varieties of them among more than twenty-five characters. In Armageddon you can certainly have some fun listening to the variety of 50-60 different screams as you knock characters into death traps, which also happen to be another of Armageddon's strengths. Armageddon picks up where Deception left off with the traps, adding some of its own as well. Some of the new traps are quite interesting, especially the one in the Wastelands.

Next it's worth examining the characters themselves, where the results are quite mixed. Some characters are greatly improved from their last 3D appearance. Characters such as Hotaru, Mavado, Kitana and Reptile for example all have more moves in Armageddon than they did in Deadly Alliance or Deception. It was painful to see favorites in Deadly Alliance unable to do much, and Armageddon made up by giving more moves to certain characters. I'd even say that Armageddon improved some of the characters' voices from their previous appearances in 3D, such as Mavado's and Hotaru's to name just a small amount. However, whereas some characters are improved, others are completely ruined. Noob Saibot immediately strikes me as the most ruined character. Appearing in 3D for the first time without being in the Noob-Smoke team, his appearance is very forgettable. Gone now are all the cool properties his moves had in MK Trilogy. Instead of the no-block fireball, he now just throws ninja stars. His teleport slam no longer bounces opponents into the air for a free hit, and few people are ever going to get hit by that stupid cloud move. It's kind of sad when Reiko, the character who basically copied directly from Noob Saibot, is now a better character. Interestingly enough Noob Saibot is also among the few characters that don't even get the dignity of having their own Kombat Kards in the Premium Addition... Yet Noob Saibot is far from the only character to suffer. Plenty of other characters are also missing some of their classic moves, and others should have been given more; Kabal being a good example in this latest category. He has little more than the fireball and web spin moves, no longer being able to shoot the fireball in the air. That move when he and his opponent slam is just dumb, and for a guy of Kabal's appearance, I'd rather see something more brutal. He had that ground saw in MK Trilogy, and something similar in Armageddon would have been nice.

In retrospect yes of course Mortal Kombat: Armageddon has a few strong points, but unfortunately its problems equal or overshadow the positives. Most people say that Konquest is greatly improved from Deception and list it as one of Armageddon's strengths. I say that is only partly true. I will give those people that yes, Taven is definitely much cooler in every way possible than Shujinko. He looks cooler, acts cooler, and although not all his moves are necessarily original or innovative, at least he doesn't just STEAL moves from other characters as Shujinko did. Taven I'd even say is one of the few newer characters actually worth being made, but sadly he alone doesn't completely save Konquest in Armageddon. Armageddon's Konquest is admittedly more user-friendly than Deception's, but it is not nearly as immersive. Even though parts of Deception's seemed slow-moving, I just feel as though I got much more out of Deception's Konquest. I was also really hoping to see Reptile's realm in Armageddon, and not only does Armageddon's Konquest fail to do that, but it also acts as if some of the realms in Deception never even existed. At no point do Seido or the Chaosrealm ever appear in Armageddon's story, and almost no characters from those realms are present at any point in Armageddon's Konquest. In fact, less than half of all the Mortal Kombat characters appear in Armageddon's Konquest mode, and many who do appear have very lame appearances. If Armageddon is supposed to be the last game in this part of the Mortal Kombat story, shouldn't ALL of the characters have made a meaningful appearance, or at least all except dumb ones like Mokap, Meat, and a few others? Deception included every character made up to that point in its Konquest mode, even if only for a brief cameo or optional side-quest. Guess that was too much to ask this time around.

As for the other elements of the story, don't even get me going about their ruination. Don't even get me going about the joke of all the characters who have died and come back for lame reasons. Don't even get me going about the character endings... it's sad when the best thing about endings in a Mortal Kombat game is that if I hated a character's primary costume and didn't want to see it his or her ending, which happened to be the case at times, I had the choice of seeing each character in the alternate costume instead. The whole fiasco with the story is now at a point in which I don't even care anymore about the lack of character bios in the game. Even if some Mortal Kombat games throughout the years really were technically inferior to the likes of Soul Calibur, Street Fighter, or other competition, Mortal Kombat was always able to distinguish itself for its deep story and therefore give itself appeal rarely, if ever, seen in other fighters. The fact that it has now thrown this appeal away is just sickening. However, even more sickening may be Armageddon's Kreate a Fatality system. What EVER made them think that it would be a good idea to substitute the classic fatalities with this garbage I will never comprehend. Why didn't they just bring back brutalities instead if they wanted something more interactive?? I wouldn't mind seeing a Brutality with weapons! And if disc space really had been an obstacle to putting in classic fatalities and bringing back Hara-Kiris, they should have axed Motor Kombat and Kreate a Fighter. If the new fatality system split fans, so be it; I'll take one side and stand by it regardless of what other people think. Anyone who prefers Kreate A Fighter and Kreate a Fatality over classic fatalities and Hara-Kiris has no business calling him or herself a Mortal Kombat fan. The makers even had the nerve to mention Hara-Kiri's in one of the endings after being too lazy to put them in the game... What likely happened with this travesty is that Boon and team knew the game would instantly sell with the appeal of bringing back "every" character and therefore just got lazy. I'm beyond being furious at them for this, so I won't bother writing more about this area.

The selection of arenas was also somewhat disappointing. It's shameful that on the game which will supposedly close "this chapter" of the Mortal Kombat story they didn't bother putting in some classic arenas like the Pit, The Living Forest, the Portal, and some others. Yeah they brought back some that hadn't been around for a while like the The Evil Tower, Bell Tower, Soul Chamber, Subway and a few others, but some of these returns weren't very impressive. In particular the Evil Tower's music in Armageddon is nothing like the foreign, almost sinister tone it had in MKII, and its death trap wasn't all that impressive. The Bell Tower's new trap, although amusing, to me just doesn't build up the excitement that knocking them through six floors did. They should have done without a few stages from Konquest and put in more classic ones instead.

So what's the current state of Mortal Kombat? That obviously depends on whom you ask, and if you ask me, Armageddon gives little hope for the future. We'll just have to see which characters they "kill off" in the next game. Hopefully if the ninja characters come back some of their newer, crappier costumes will not (Sub-Zero's Shredder look, Reptile's unmasked tail look, Rain's Armageddon primary look), but enough speculation on the future now. For the present, due to the continuously deteriorating story, lack of classic fatalities, lack of hara-kiris, lack of character individuality and perpetual appeal, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon is little more than a mindless time-killer to pop in if you have nothing else to do. Rarely has there been a collection of such awful ideas as ill-timed as the case here, and as a result, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon serves more as a sad reminder of a greatness that once was instead of being anything worthy of standing on its own. In fact, I nearly decided to just read all the character endings online instead of actually beating it with every character, something I was much more inspired to do back in Mortal Kombat Trilogy. After knowing the endings, regardless of how you come to know of them, the only thing that will likely bring you back to the game is killing some time knocking people into the more amusing death traps, or watching some of the Kombat Kards on the Premium Addition. It's really sad they couldn't do a complete job on this game. There was all the potential in the world and some parts were there, but at this point, I may be looking more forward to a movie that might never happen than the next game.

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