Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks

Juicier than a vampire quenching his thirst for blood, Mortal Kombat was the king of arcades in the 90s, and has become the king of brutality on the current generation of game consoles. Packed with combos and overflowing with red fluids, Mortal Kombat let players humiliate their friends with the original and innovative “Finish Him!” system. To say that we were engrossed just as much as we were grossed out – that about sums up our feelings, and we wanted more.

Mortal Kombat’s success led to more than sequels. The side-story games didn’t please the fans very much, which is probably why I can’t remember the names of any of them.

For the developers of Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, that memory loss is very welcome. By forgetting the past we’re able to enter the MK arena and experience the series like never before. Those who are jaded – enter at once! You’d have to be a really depressed gamer to walk away from this game unimpressed.

Excellent!

Shaolin Monks can be easily defined as Devil May Cry meets Prince of Persia meets 3D beat-‘em-ups. Okay, so maybe that isn’t an easy definition. But that’s essentially what the game is, plus all the Mortal Kombat goodness you can think of. Fatalities are a given (would there be any point in making an MK game without them?), but it’s the way in which they’re used that makes the experience unique and exciting. It’s also the first time that you’ll gain satisfaction from finishing off someone other than your one-handed friend.

“Hey, I had an itch! I wasn’t playing one handed!”

Right. Well I’m rubber and you’re glue.

Shaolin Monks is instantly striking for its graphics, a feature that could surpass the prowess of Deception and Deadly Alliance. The distractions that follow are even better: the camera system, the controls, the combat, the enemies, etc. Onimusha, Devil May Cry, Prince of Persia – these are great games, but they mainly have one kind of camera system, either fixated or free-roaming. Shaolin Monks uses semi-fixated close, medium and far-away views that, in almost every scenario, retain the fighting game feel of the series. Shaolin Monks ventures into new territory, but it doesn’t do so by turning the game into Tomb Raider.

Outstanding!

Diehard fans should remember that when the first versions of each Mortal Kombat game hit arcades, there were ways to perform an almost unbeatable, perfect-kill combo. These were cheap, glitchy and don’t belong in a multiplayer game, which is why they were removed with later revisions. They do, however, open up an interesting possibility to the gamer attacking computer-controlled beasts.

After playing through the demo several times it was clear that, in addition to the combo strings (perform consecutive attacks and the combo meter will rise continually), it is also possible to do true, unbroken combos that go further than the standard 10-hit button-tapper. The culprit: juggles and aerial hits. It takes patience, timing, and a lot of trial and error, but most of all it took me back to the golden years of trying to cram an extra hit into every attack. Extra hits meant the difference between life and death in two-player battles. In Shaolin Monks it’s just awesome and fun.

The controls are really smooth and really solid. I’ve played a lot of games in what I’d call the Onimusha/Devil May Cry genre, and most of them are clones. Shaolin Monks holds its own with great collision detection and intuitive character movement that allows you to change who you’re attacking without freezing or fumbling.

Mortal Kombat’s trademark fatalities are implemented the same way as in any other MK game: they take the player away from the environment. The background darkens; the situation looks bleak ... for your opponent! Although I doubt it’ll work this way in the final version, the demo gave me the combination for the fatality (a first for the series). Punch it in and you know what will happen next – more of the red fluids we talked about! The game listed the fatality sequence just once. After that it was up to me to memorize the combination and enter it again when the time was right.

Fatality!

Fatalities can only be performed after the appropriate meter has been filled, and it fills by performing attacks. The beauty of fatalities is that they eliminate pesky enemies who just won’t die, though you may also use it to eliminate enemies without any previous strikes. It’s so simple I’m amazed no one thought of it sooner. The perfect transition from two-player fighting game to single-player action/beat-‘em-up or whatever you want to call it.

Thrusting into stores this September, Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks stars Kung Lao and Liu Kang. Their trademark moves are back, but you can also expect them to unleash attacks you’ve never seen before. No other playable characters have been confirmed, though I honestly doubt that with all the work they’ve put into the villains (including Reptile and Baraka) that they would pass on the opportunity to include them as bonus characters. Surely there has to be one bonus character. Bonus characters are as much a part of the series as fatalities are. Ed Boon has to agree … right?