Mortal Kombat: Armageddon (Xbox, 2006)

Why I bought it:

I bought this game for a number of reasons. First. I am a long-timie fan of the Mortal Kombat(MK) series, and this game has virtually every charactor that has ever been in an MK game. Secondly, this game also has a feature called Kreate-a-Fighter that lets you make your own MK Kombatant. That feature is worth the price of the game by itself, IMO. Third, MK:A is supposed to be the last installment of MK on xbox/ps2, and as a fan of the previous games, I just had to have it.

What I liked most about it:

Aside from the things mentioned above, the game also features a Kreate-a-Fatality, in which you can literally make up your own fatalities on the fly. Midway decided to scrap the old '1 fatality per character' deal and came up with this setup instead. It lets you string together combinations of moves, and you end this string of moves with a finishing move. The system works very well and is one of my favorite parts of MK:A. There's also the re-vamped Konquest mode, which is kind of a blend of the mode from MK:Deception and the game MK:Shoalin Monks. This mode sets up the story behind MK:A and re-introduces you to many of the charactors in the game. It is not only a fun mode to play, but it also lets you earn alot of koins, which let you unlock things from the krypt like charactor costumes, productioni videos and such...even charactors themselves. All in all, Konquest is a fun mode to play, and it does a good job of tying everything together for this game.

What I dislike about it:

While I loved this game dearly, I do have a few dislikes about it. First, I would have liked to have seen more options in the Kreate-a-Fighter mode. I would like to have seen EVERY MOVE IN THE GAME available for use in this mode. This is especially true with some of the special moves, as the selection of moves is somewhat limited in places. This is also true of the weapons selection. I also don't like that you can only have 1 created fighter per profile that you have. This is a bit of a hassle when you're playing MK:A with your buddies and everyone has their own created fighter, because of all the time spent loading profiles and whatnot. It is not a game-killer by any means, but it is something that should be looked at for the next MK.

One other thing I dislike about the game probably has more to do with Microsoft than with MK:A or Midway themselves. When I bought this game back around the 1st of November, I did so expecting that it would someday be made backwards compatible(BC) with the xbox 360. I was expecting this BC update to come sometime in November, and here it is December 5th, and the BC update still hasn't come yet, which means I STILL can't play this wonderful game on my xbox 360. Now fortunately for me, I kept my old xbox when I got my 360, so I am still able to enjoy the game. Unfortunately, many others got rid of their xbox's when they get their 360s, and because of this, there are many, many people who cannot enjoy this game as of yet. Every piece of information that I've come across says that this game WILL be made BC with the next update. The problem is that no one seems to know when that next update will hit. I know that I, for one, will be darn glad when it finally does hit.

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Last E3 we saw previews of the latest Mortal Kombat game featuring every character in the revolutionary game's history from 1992 to 2006. For 14 years, the Mortal Kombat team have been constantly adding new features to the growing franchise. Once again, they may have rushed it.

The regular gameplay where two kombatants duke it out in different arenas hasn't changed much. Howevere, there are a few new features to note. A new defense system called 'Parrying' will stun an attacking opponent if performed correctly. This technique is hard to execute and gets boring after a while, and quite frankly, this move can't be performed in the air as advertised. 'Aerial kombat' can lenghten kombos with as high as 8 additional attacks (those who can trick the game can go for infinity. I can.) but it's really nothing more than eye candy. I mean, come on, who doesn't like seeing Liu Kang swirl like a tornado? Another advancement in the fighting system is 'ground kombat', something that was never advertised the slightest. Once on the ground, a player has the choice to stay on the ground and rise up with a sneak attack. It's quite funny looking.

Konquest mode was changed to mime Shaolin Monks where a player goes around killing foes. This gets repetitive. This mode is one-player revolving around Taven and his evil brother Daegon. The story is quite cliched. This side game could've been improved with multi-player ability and a jump button to avoid being surrounded.

Motor Kombat was a welcomed diversion because of the option of four-players, online or offline. There are a good amount of characters to choose from but only 5 arenas. This can get boring after a while. Imagine Mario Kart with Scorpion and Sub-Zero. The big heads have returned here from previous Puzzle Kombat in Deception.

The graphics are the same ones used in previous Mortal Kombats of the generation. Some characters were improved all around but some were left in the junk bin. They all seemed to play the same.

The sound is often not heard because of your main focus on the game. And the tracks are repeated in lame Konquest arenas lacking interactivity. No fresh ideas were seen in Armageddon. The producers mainly recreated classic arenas.

For $20, I must quote Steve Martin from The Pink Panther. "I think I got myself a pretty good deal."

If you are a Mortal Kombat fan, or if you can remember playing the original versions in the 1990's than this is the game for you! It takes all the characters over the years and makes them available in this edition. If you are creative you can create your own characters and give them special moves in addition to their pysical appearance. In addition to playing Arcade, versus an opponent or computer there are some other editions to the game. There is a adventure mode similar to (Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks). There are also some mini-games where you can race against each other in a race car game similar to early Xbox race games.

This re-kindles my experiences of playing MK for the first time in the 1990's. It is nice to bring all the characters back. The only way it could be better is if you could choose the edition of the character you select since the characters changed somewhat over different versions thru the years. This shortfall does not diminish the gameplay.

If you can only own 1 Mortal Kombat game this is the one to get.

Great all-in-one MK game with tons of characters. The create-your-own character feature is great and offers a ton of options as far as their appearance and basic attack moves go. When you accumulate coins from vs. or arcade mode battles, you can purchase upgraded options, such as good sunglasses or any of the MK character special moves for your own.

The vs. play with destructable environments is good and are a little more "fair" than previous games.

Overall, a great finale to the mortal kombat series that I'd recommend to anyone interested in a good, vs. game.

You will no doubt enjoy this game if you are a fan of MK. Every character is available to play. The graphics are the best from the Xbox/PS2 series of MK games, but the movement and fighting seems stiff. The HUGE drawback for most people was that they did away with fatalities and in its place put in "Kreate A Fatality" which is very weak. The Kreate A Fighter, while limited, is still fun and engaging. The Konquest mode is probably my favorite part. A well enough told story is enough to get past the bad graphics and controls (which are already dismissible since this is an extra mode thrown in on top of the main game.)

If you're getting this game because you love MK, then you shouldn't be TOO disappointed. If you're looking for a well-made fighting game you may want to pass.