Gameplay - 9/10
Graphics - 8.5/10
Story - 7/10
Fun Factor - 10/10
Replay Value - 9/10
Total: 87% (Awesome)

Possibly the best MK ever. Definitely my favorite game of the year so far

Gameplay - 9/10

Graphics - 9.0 (rounded to nearest ten place)

Foreground Fighters: 8.0/10;

Backgrounds: 10.0

Interaction Detail: 10.0

Story - 9/10

The story had some missing plot points that have the potential to be filled in when a sequel is released but it only starts at the tournament. There is no real beginning and backstory is limited throughout. However, the story is sound within itself and that grants it a 9.

Fun Factor - 8/10

All the game's known secrets were cracked in the first week of release and most fatalities and krypts were released on Youtube before the game was officially released. Plus to achieve certain achievements (Master my Kung Fu) will take a lot of boring repetition to master everything for every fighter.

Replay Value - 5/10

As it stands, it's very low. In fact I am considering selling my game and Xbox 360 within 3 months to a year. The Internet killed the best of the secrets with early leaks of fatalities and babalities before anyone had any real chance to try them themselves. The ONLY saving grace that will raise the replay value is DLC, assuming NRS does not run into any politics with WB, the prices are kept minimum, the game receives several patches to fix its flaws (especially lack of detail in some things, like performing the Hell stage fatality on Sindel) or allowing a fight to end with the screen scrolled above the fighter's knees (happened to me on a challenge tower). The game pretty much now is good for online fighting, solving the remaining 23 or less achievements I need, finding Reptile and Jade. Pretty much a lot of time will be wasted trying to find these out. Oh and finishing the challenges I skipped so I could have Mileena's Alt 3 and get that achievement.

Overall - 70% or 35/50 Needs Improvement

The game is marketed as returning to the MKII days. And so it felt but it definitely will not lure me away from MKII. The lack of finishers when compared to MK3, along with Toasty glitch and a lot more, are making this game feel like a "base" install where update patches and DLCs will finish it to what it should have been. It feels rushed and a lot of time will be wasted to unlock the Krypt, which only gives you two achievements, achieve the Kung Fu Mastery achievements, especially with the Bloodspill and devotion ratings, finishing Arcade Ladder with everyone and nothing happening, koins as the only reward for beating the 4 hidden fighters (how about unlocking them upon defeat?), anime-style graphics. Thankfully, the game was not overhyped except by MK fan sites, which prevents the game from an even lower score. Unfortunately, I know know why Portal 2 and SoCOM are beating out MK... because you can practically do 95% of the stuff in MK in a week.

Its a great game and overall i would give it a 9.5 out of 10 they really hit the mark with the story mode though its fucking beautiful graphics and reliveing the old mortal kombats with a modern touch and graphics is intense.

Gameplay: 9/10 seriously one of the funnest fighting game I played in a long time

Story: 9/10 well made story that keeps interested

Design: 10/10 the best looking mk ever

online: N/A haven;t played online yet

over all: 9.5/10 great game well worth the wait.

Concept: A solid retelling of the original MK Trilogy with a few twists thrown in to alter the story completely. Great plot. 9/10

Graphics: Very dark with a lot of grit, like how a true MK game should be. 9.25/10

Sound: Amazing music and character voices and also the creative idea of including the klassic music easter egg. 9.5/10

Playability: Definetely keeps players coming back for more action, secrets, and of course... FATALITIES! 10/10

Entertainment: One of the most fun, entertaining MK games to date and quite possibly the best in the series. 9.75/10

Replay Value: High

Overall Score: 9.5/10

A pretty average game but the pinnacle of the MK saga from all prespectives.

Gameplay - 8.5/10
Graphics - 8.5/10
Story - 7/10
Fun Factor - 9/10
Replay Value - 7/10

great game overall definitely my favourite of all mks yet. 8.5/10.

story: only good part about the ending were who the survivors were.

everything else: PERFECT

.

Gameplay - 9/10 -- solid; fun to play, and challenging to master
Graphics - 9.5/10 -- Beautiful environments and nice character designs (for the most part)
Voice acting, music & effects - 8/10 -- Great sound effects, but some BGM is very uninspired and way too quiet. The character select music is dull! Many classic arena tracks are far superior to present music. Voice acting, for the most part, is great.
Story - 8.5/10 -- Wonderful story mode, though some parts seemed a bit rushed, and some parts of the original storyline were altered heavily (i.e. Mileena's very recent creation, and Shao Kahn's reception to her.) I didn't even realize certain characters died until two scenes later. However, fun and very informative for newcomers.
Fun Factor - 10/10 -- So many modes to choose from; if you get bored of one, try one of the others; fun to learn how to play as a certain character
Replay Value - 9.5/10 -- High. If Challenge Tower doesn't keep you coming back, you have the Krypt to unlock, Test your Sight/Might/Strike/Luck, (Tag) Arcade, and Story Mode. When online is functional, even more options open up. Also, with DLC coming, there are many reasons to keep playing.
Overall - 9.25/10 --Outstanding!

Edit: @-Brad-
I have tried that, but I still dislike a great deal of the new music in this game. The Temple's new BGM comes to mind as a major disappointment.
I don't even want to talk about the character select music anymore.... Thanks anyway!

.

Gameplay:

This game is solid as a rock gameplay-wise, it has the nostalgia vibe while feeling incredibley fresh, the new additions of the power-bars and tag-team make this a very intricate fighting experience. But for some reason, I can't put my finger on it I just haven't been as pulled into it as I expected. 8.5/10

Graphics/Design:

For the most part this game is stunning, I only have two quibbles, texturing on hair longer than say Liu Kangs still looks wonky to me. Also a number of the alternate costume designs feel rather uninspired. 9/10

Story:

Story mode was an enthralling ride, some of the death's and changes feel really clunky to me, the sequel cliff-hanger has me hooked already though. The Bio's and endings were all however done excellently, though I do wish they hadn't gone down the "Blank beats Shao Khan this happens" route again, having organic story paths like in MKDA would have been ideal to me. 8.5/10

Sound:

The sound in this game, just like in any MK game is stunningly well done, BGM is a little to clubby in a few places but other than that it's fantastic. 9.5/10

Lasting Appeal:

There is SO much to do in this game it's incredible, I almost don't know what to do at times 10/10

Fun-Factor:

The gameplay itself feels somewhat detached to me for some reason, but everything else is a blast 9/10

Online:

I haven't been able to play one match of online play yet, once PSN is back up and running I'll update this. I was just lucky to get my retro costumes NA/10

Over-All:

A fantastic game that I would recommend to anyone 9.25/10

Gameplay: A lot of games try to adhere to the old "easy to learn, difficult to master" mantra to varying success. I think this MK really nails it. The team managed to retain the pick up and play feel while really giving the hardcore players a lot of room to breathe and make their own combos. The game's speed is the fastest we've seen since MK4 which is really a good thing. Everything feels fluid and hectic.

9/10

Graphics: This game is absolutely beautiful. The star of this game is without a doubt the arenas. The enviroment artists at NRS damn well have better received a raise for their work. I have literally found my eyes wandering from the fighting and noticing all the little details and colors (dark and gritty greyscale be damned) used. That's about the best compliment I can give to them.

The character models vary in success from character to character. There's the overkill(Scorpion) to the bare bones(Nightwolf/Sheeva). But for the most part, they've managed to enhance a lot of characters, without losing what made those looks so special in the first place.

The blood and battle damage is a take or leave it prospect. I've heard many say it's a bit overkill, and I can definately see why they'd say that. The option to turn off the battle damage could've eased a lot of people's minds. They did it for story mode(my guess is online is probably the reason it didn't happen). I for one like it. Probably the best blood effects we've seen in the series ever. The chunks from the 3-D days will not be missed. The battle damage is visceral and really sells the whole...fight to the death thing.

9/10

Story: I have to be careful how I write this, because honestly...I liked the story. To say everything needed to be shaken up after the gigantic cluster fuck that was Armageddon is an under statement. There we're sections that just didn't need to happen. Cyber Sub Zero immediately comes to mind. Also the slaughter of the entire cast had me shell shocked. I just couldn't believe it. I am very interested in seeing how this impacts the Neatherealm's impending invasion, but just tossing the whole cast aside in sloppy fashion was hard to watch.

There was things that I think that should've been addressed that wasn't. Raiden not acknowledging who he had become was a huge disapointment. Once again, Cyber subs could've existed without sacrificing Kuai Liang. Maybe I'm clinging on to what Kuai Liang eventually becomes in the original canon, but this was the point when my faith in the story was tested.

But like I said, overall, the storyline took us to some unexpected places, and left me excited to see what's next, like I said, I'm just a little shell shocked.

8/10

Replayability: This is a huge strength in this game. the story is roughly six hours or so. Then there's the arcade mode, the staggering challenge tower, all the things to unlock in the krypt(a mixed bag), Online, and DLC to look forward to.

9/10

Online: the one aspect of the game I havn't tinkered with...thank you asshole hackers.

N/A

Overall 8.7

Presentation :
I thought that the presentation of the overall game is as perfect as it is going to be. The visuals are really detailed and concise like high definition viewings. I like the Asian theme of the “Choose Your Fighter” screen and the arcade ladders. I think they should keep that type of font throughout the upcoming series of games. Also the character endings’ were good and presented nicely also. The creative team definitely took time to really re-imagine the background stages from MK1-MK3.

Some suggestions I thought would be cool would be if they created wallet sized sinister facial pics of the characters just like in MK1 and MK2. And when the game cuts to the “Vs.” screen to display who is fighting who, the characters can execute a form of their martial arts fighting style. Almost as Soul Calibur 3 does in their versus screen when a character is selected. I think this idea and display could be implemented in the arcade ladder screen as well. As a fighter climbs their way up the ladder so to speak, their opponent and the character the gamer is playing with can execute a brief form of their martial arts style like when you select a character from Soul Calibur 3. It could be in motion capture like the bios from the original MK1. Also the mechanics of the moves in the game could use some touching up. I don’t know what models were used for some of the motions of the characters performing moves. But it would seem like some of the moves performed by the characters weren’t rendered with experienced marital artists. Sub-Zero’s side kick and spinning heel kick look very amateur as well as some of the other characters renders of the those moves. So I would also say the mechanics of moves could be sharpened and crisp as a real martial artist would move. 8/10

Graphics :
I think the graphics in this game are amazing. I thought this game sets the standard of how a fighting game should be displayed. The blood spill, to the details of characters attire to the background scenery,
all have very vivid displays. It makes for a authentic simulation of how a real fight would look like in most cases. I think MK and the staff should try making this the standard and if not enhance the graphic displays of their fighting games in this manner. 10/10

Game Play:
The game play is great. The new X-ray moves are very innovative idea to implement in the game play. Although I thought some of the X-Ray moves were a bit far-fetched, specifically Sonya's X-Ray. I thought her doing a bicycle kick and then slamming her opponent on their head looked very cute. I just think with the X-Ray moves, there's so many ways that physical hits can do internal damage that I think that normal physical hits can do the X-Ray moves justice and showcase the damage either way. This leads me to talk about some of the fatalities. I think fatalities along with X-Ray moves should focus around realistic motions and movements. Sonya Blade's leg-grab fatality looks far-fetched in my humble opinion. I mean, why doesn't she save the effort and just do that during the match instead? The fatalities that I've seen, but also like a lot, would be Scorpion's sword disection, Smoke's Smoke suffication, Kung Lao's Hat decapitation, Stryker's point blank gun shot, Kitana's fan opener (I think that's my favorite), Sindel's scream and Baraka's limb decapitation. I understand that I'm not going to like everyone of the fatalities but I just feel that MK's creative team should focus on pratical fatalities instead going for the "woo" factor. Some of the older fatalities were pretty good as well, Shang Tsung's Soul Steal, Kano's Heart Rip, Sonya's Death Kiss. Those were fatalities that I felt made sense and were more believeable. Also I think some constructive criticisms I have of the game play would be some of the air juggles of the game. When characters get hit in the air, it would seem like the flap their limbs like rag dolls, making it seem unrealistic and cartoonish in a way. Or when a character gets slammed to the ground and bounces back up for a set of combos, they again flap their limbs in the air like rag dolls. I think if that could be adjusted to simulate a person getting hit in real life, or the air juggles could emulate Tekken’s mechanics of when a character gets hit in the air, it would make for a better display of game play for everyone. Another issue is the way that characters fall down when they receive a knockout hit. It's like they fall down like statues. It looks to be a little cartoonish. I think if the way characters fall down at the end of a fight and recover back to their feet for the second round of fighting could be touched up. Again I think Tekken is spot on with their renders of that aspect of their fighting. Also I think if their could be the return of Endurance Matches in the arcade ladders, it would make for a better challenge for video gamers. I’d also think that if there are tag teams, why can’t there be endurance matches? In tag team mode, I think it would be more realistic, if the tag in character would just do a front summersault in the match, or a ground roll instead of special effect theatrics or dashing in and out. Much like in MK1 I really liked how the tag in partner just performed a simple summersault into the match when they were tagged in. Also I think it would be more realistic if the fallen character in a tag team match would just be displayed laid out on the ground instead of being knocked out of the screen. Again I think it would be more realistic to see the body of the defeated character laid out during the course of a fight. I also think that there should be more of a challenge to beat the game. Therefore it would cool if the boss characters were harder to beat and they had a greater degree of difficulty on their gameplay. Shang Tsung looks to be the best agent for this position in my humble opinion. I think the fact that he can morph into all the characters in the game is feature that should be played with in his level of difficulty to fight against. Goro, Shao Kahn and Kintaro's game play are great too, I just think that it's a little too easy to beat them in this game. Maybe if they had more powerful hits with their moves and took off more energy or more specialty moves such as knocking off the limbs of their challengers witin reason like in Challenge Tower, this would increase their difficulty to fight against. 7/10

Story:
I think the story mode is absolutely amazing. I like how the fights intertwine with the plot of the story. It’s almost like watching the plot of a good movie. I don’t think it could have been done better. It would be a good idea for MK and the creative team to implement this feature in every one of their series of MK’s, to better explain the origin of their characters and further develop their biography. That way there would be no confusion about certain details of the characters. I think this is one of the biggest highlights of this version of MK. This can be something to build on for future games. My only complaint are some of the unexpected twists the story mode takes. I've seen a large part but not all of the story mode, but I heard the ending is real unexpected. 9/10


Sound:
The sound is spectacular. I was expecting some of the sound effects from MK1 and the developers created even better sound effects for this game. The grunts and battle cries during the course of a fight sound amazingly authentic to a real fight would sound like. I don’t think the sound effects system that was used in this game should be changed at all. They really hit it spot on with the sound effects this time around. Even with the catch phrases of the characters weren’t too corny or far-fetched. I still feel that some of the lines uttered in the game should be centered around trash talk like athletes talk in a competitive game, or when someone is being overmatched. The only other complaint I might have would be “Scorpion’s iconic catch phrases”. When he yells, “Get over here!” or “Come here!!”, he needs say those lines with more conviction. It sounds like he’s just saying the phrases nonchalantly instead of yelling them with conviction like he’s angry or pissed off at his opponent. The catch phrases from MK1, I thought were perfect simulation of how Scorpion should say those lines. He sounded like he was saying them like he was pissed off or had had a bad day. I think that’s how he should always say those iconic lines in the game. 9.5/10

Special Effects/ Computer Animation:
The special effects for the display of the specialty moves were great in this game!!! I love the effects that were implemented specifically behind Smoke’s specialty moves. The smoke clouds in this game for his teleport and other moves were spot on. I hope that MK and the creative team use this same engine to create the specialty moves and graphics on the next MK. Everything from Liu Kang’s bicycle kick, in which I think was perfectly rendered, to Sub-Zero’s standard freeze. They all looked amazing!!! I don’t have any complaints about the way the character’s moves were rendered. 10/10

Online Play:
Haven’t played on-line yet so I can’t offer a useful opinion. Pending.

Longevity/Replay Value:
I think this MK of all of the MK’s ever released has the greatest replay and longevity value. There are a lot of fun and creative modes to keep fans engaged and entertained with useful messages and hints throughout the game as well. You can tell the developers put a lot of effort, and thought with the variety of modes that were installed in this game. The Challenge Tower is a great innovative piece to the game, I think it should be made a part of all the MK’s to come with a better prize at the end maybe. The Story Mode is again incredible as well as the Tag Team modes and King of the Hill mode. I thought that was a thoughtful way to include fans that weren’t necessarily involved in the game but still engaged in the game. Again I think that should be made a part of the next MK. I think MK has built a blue print to grow on for the next MK’s to come.

Maybe next time there could be Adventure mode, like the first shooter like mode, where you can take your character and fight off Tarkenians in Outworld, like Halo, Dynasty Warriors3 or Killzone3. I think that mode could bring in another segment of video gamers that may not be necessarily fighting game fans but still enjoy the third shooter type formatted games. This mode could also pose as a piece of the game that store hidden secrets in the game to be unlocked, like hidden characters, secret fatalities, hidden stages and other parts of the game that people would like to uncover, while keeping hyper-active fans engaged. It’d be a good change up to the fans that might get bored with all the one-on-one/tag team fighting. 8/10

Fun-Factor:
This game from MK1 has always been fun to me. I feel this game will keep me entertained with the variety of modes in this game and also it catering to the new generations of MK fans with the Training Mode is a great idea that should stay in the game with later series of MK’s. I don’t think I would get bored with this game at all. It stimulates my imagination and creative juices. As long as they keep the fighting engine or improve upon the fighting engine of this game I will stay a fan. 10/10

Characters:
I love the updates and renovations they made to some the iconic and older characters. It is a vast improvement from some of the newer installments of MK. Specifically, Sub-Zero with his specialty moves and look. I’m so glad they got rid of those spandex striped pants and big blocked suspenders from Sub-Zero’s MK3 outfit. Also I liked the selection of his specialty moves. The frozen ice pick from the ground weren't really impressive moves and for Sub-Zero and other iconic characters I think of at least 5 to 10 more creative specialty moves for them to have that would make them more potent and unique. Sub-Zero's new look is more realistic and ninja like. I also like the addition of the retro-ninja palette costumes from MK1!!!! Thank you Ed Boon and whoever on the creative team is responsible for implementing that classic look!!!!! Those costumes for Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Smoke, Reptile, Ermac, and Noob Saibot are iconic!!!! Please do not get rid of these costumes!!!! Please make them an option for these characters to have throughout the series of MK games to come in the future!!!!!

Other characters like Smoke, Noob Saibot, Sindel, Stryker, Ermac, and Jax I thought were sub-par characters in previous Mortal Kombats, but the render and play of these characters are so amazing that I’ve become fans of these characters now. I seriously thought that Ermac was a corny character, Stryker was the worst character created of all time, along with Smoke, and Noob Saibot, Sindel and Jax. But they’ve restored these characters into likeable fighters in the game. I hope they can throw their creative magic on some other underdeveloped Mortal Kombat characters of the past and possibly implement new ideas for characters, or fan-made characters (Black Widow, Poison Ivy, Frost, Forage, Cuchillo, Monolith, and Oblique) and turn them into stars like they have with these series of characters they’ve done to in MK9. 9/10

Creativeness:
No question that creativity was at a all time high with this game. The characters have some life in them now and personality that allows them to stand out from each other. I think some fans can even identify with some of the characters in the game now. I think this will enable fans to stay engage with the characters, give them longevity and longer lasting/repeat plays in the game. I think tournament players will appreciate some of the creative improvements on strategy and game play that was thought of specifically for them. I do appreciate the implementation of some of the creative sparks that fans communicated to the staff and developers of this game as well.

I think a way to make some of the series of MK’s better is to hold a contest with MK’s niche of fans, and devise a legitimate platform for fans to showcase their ideas for characters, games, modes, arenas, fatalities, character costumes, weapons etc...to possibly be implemented into the next Mortal Kombat. I think the would present a great way for MK to stay in-tuned with their core fans, further their creative process with an ever-changing/evolving video game market, lessen the workload on the game developers/programmers/creative team and reduce the marketing/advertising costs with producing the game. This could be a more efficient way to keep the game fresh and savvy but also increase the video games reach to untapped video game fans that are otherwise ignored or overlooked. 9/10

Gameplay - 8.5
The fighting is smooth and the combos are fun and rewarding to pull off, some characters are definitely easier to use than others but that's just a learning curve. The challenge tower is fun and entertaining but some of the challenges feel uninspired and lackluster. Ladder is fun and challenging although I feel bosses are cheap on higher difficulties.

Graphics - 8/10
I've not much to say about the graphics, whilst they certainly raise the bar above a lot of other fighters they're nothing spectacular. For an MK game I'd give them a ten, but comparing them to the current market I feel they only deserve an 8. This is not a bad thing, the game is certainly not ugly to look at.

Story - 3/10
Diving into the story I was ready and eager, the first few fights and cutscenes were awesome and I was really into it, but then I felt like it started to fall apart, the fights were getting boring, I was using characters I'd never used before then once I'd got a feel of them I was thrown right into the next character. The reason this is only getting a 5 is the amount of people I felt unnecessarily killed and how some characters were clearly favored over others. SPOILERS AHEAD. The scene were Sindel came a long and killed everybody pretty much ruined the story all together for me, it was unnecessary, and even with the soul of Shang Tsung inside of her (I presume) she'd have never realistically defeated all of them warriors.) At this point, I just wanted the story over, my characters unlocked and my achievement and I will not even look at it again.

Fun Factor - 8.5/10
The challenge tower and online is what is giving this an 8.5 online is fun due to fighting real people, and King of the Hill (from my experience) is really nice and seems to have a good community who rate fairly. Challenge tower has 300 challenges that is bound to keep players going for many hours.

Replay Value - 8/10
As long as you have a steady internet connection I feel you could continue playing this game for months without getting bored, the real hardcore fans could still be playing this in years to come. However, once you've done story, challenge tower and ladder with everyone, it really is only player vs player left to satisfy you.

Total: 72/100 (Pretty damn good.)

(Keep in mind the score would be much higher had I not been so disappointed with the highly anticipated story)

Its a Great fucking game. End

OTHER IDEAS

- During the closing credits of Mortal Kombat, background music can play “Farewell” by ApocalypticA and show highlights of winning arcade/tag team ladder matches in similar fashion when video gamer lands final knockout hit against Shao Kahn, maybe just highlighting the great hits and combos landing during the course of one’s climb up the ladder either in arcade ladder or tag team mode.

- In tag team mode, it would be cool if the tag in partner enter the match with a simple front summersault or a front ground roll and also exited the matches with back summersaults unless executing a specialty move for partner in match. It’d be cool if they also after being knocked out would stayed laid out on the floor during the course of the match like in MK1. It’d look more realistic instead of being knocked out the screen.

- It’d be cool in the “Courtyard Arena” that the monks in the background would clap only after a won round like in MK1, instead of throughout the match and if the claps sound effects were louder.

- It’d be cool if in the “Choose Your Fighter” screen, that they presented the fighters with sinister looking facial pictures of them instead of the mini-sized pictures of the fighters. And in the Arcade/Tag Team ladders, once they cut to the “Vs.” screen, they execute a brief form in their martial arts style of fighting like Soul Calibur 3 does in the character select screen.

- Maybe sometime further down the line in a future Mortal Kombat, there was a presented Adventure Mode. This could be a change up from the monotonous one-on-one/tag-team game play. It could be formatted like the third shooter video games like Halo or Dynasty Warriors. This can also offer another mode for fans to unlock hidden secrets, characters, arenas, fatalities...etc.

- It’d be cooler if Scorpion did not have a pair of authentic ninja katana swords on his back in his retro-ninja costume.

- It would be cool if there was a new twist to training mode or it could be a whole other mode like a practice mode to where there was a stage specifically designed for this mode such a dojo. In the dojo there would be a fighting mat with fighters in long sleeved gi and pants surrounding the mat. Or training room like in the movies “Matrix I” or “X-Men” inside the mansion. Here, a sensei, Sifu, Grandmaster like character could watch a sparring like session in a high chair with student like fighters with novice skills surrounding the fighting pad. And as you progressively get better, you fight more skilled fighters up to a novice level so it wouldn’t be too difficult. And a visual demonstration of this would be the student fighters you’d spar with would were different colored belts indicating their skill level until you’d get to a student wearing a white long sleeved gi with a black belt wrapped around their waist. As you’d advance you would receive “1st level dan” achievements or “2nd level dan” and so forth and so on. Also fatalities or specialty moves would be disabled or not allowed to be performed in this scene because of your learning. Finally you’d have to take on the Sensei, Sifu, or Grandmaster like character in a sparring session. It could be like your training for the tournament Mortal Kombat. It could also be a testing ground before you could actually unlock the normal format of the one-on-one/tag team mode of the game and this could apply for each character you choose. You’d be required to past this entry level mode of the game before unlocking Mortal Kombat with your chosen characters. This also could be just an additional mode when this mode has been past by all of the selectable characters in the game.

- Or you have another “Test Your Knowledge” Mode where video gamers would be quizzed on Mortal Kombat history and obscure characters and facts of the game. And then with the game can also test your knowledge of button combinations of your characters specialty moves, fatalities, novice level combos, X-Ray Moves, with you having to enter in specific button combinations across the screen to match the actual console button combinations. Prizes could be Koins or other unlocked materials, secret character, arenas or whatever.

GAMEPLAY:
Offline its very smooth and fluent. Online there's a ton of lag as everyone already knows. The one thing that makes me itch a bit is that its very super-sensitive to the touch of the controller. This is a great thing, but can be an annoyance from time to time, and you know its a problem for others when someone has posted a video on youtube to take apart and adjust your game controller!...lolol...The good, is that it responds to the immediate touch, almost making you feel like part of the controller. The bad, is that if your touch is even a slight bit off and not precise with the button combinations and controller motions, sometimes you do not perform the move you need at that one last second time of despair!...lol..its a bit aggrivating, but it is what it is....I find myself using the el-cheapo GameStop controller, insetad of the official x-box one, for this particular game a majority of the time. It just gives me better control.

SCORE: 95/100

ONLINE EVERYTHING:
Impressive...not impressive...a mix of both...The problem with participating in most of the online stuff is that you need thousands of hours of winning to work your way up the ranks and be in the top 50 or constant King Of The Hill. When the number one player in "Ranked" games has played a few thousand matches in just under 3 weeks, I simply can't compete with that kind of time put in, as i have a family and a job! THUS, in turn, knowing that I'll probably never even make it to the top 50, thus resulting in many people becomming too intimidated to even finish a match with you, and/or people who simply don't care about the ranking systems. FOR EXAMPLE: I started out in 875th Place in RANKED games. After 2 weeks of playing for only a few hours in the mornings, I managed to fight my way to 198th Place. I took the weekend off to spend time with my kids and when I got back on Monday morning, I was back up to 310th Place! You can lose damn near 100 spots in ranking after not playing for a mere two days! Sooo, if you go on a vacation, you're screwed pal!!! If you have 0 wins and 10 losses, and your suddenly up against someone with 130 wins and 7 losses; that can be a bit of an intimidation as well. I've seen people forfeit and leave matches after Round 1 because they couldnt even touch their opponent! The competition is very-VERY thick!!! And so is the la-a-a-a-g-g-g-g...lolol Hopefully they'l fix that up soon! I say that the best thing to do online as of right now, is to just get a group of your friends together and duke it out in a King Of The Hill for a few hours, and don't even bother worrying about the ranking system...just have fun with it...Can't wait for the DLC to begin!

SCORE: (as of right now...80/100)

CHARACTERS and EXTRA CHARACTER CONTENT:
LOVE the cast of fighters!!! LOVE that they have 3 or 4 finishing moves! The Babalities are now entertaining! LOVE the secondary costumes for each character! I love how easy it is to actually utilize and do all of their combos and special moves, and that they give you more time to perform a Fatality! I really enjoyed finding the klassic secret characters and discovering the stage fatality locations. From what I understand there's gonna be a ton of downloadable stuff from extra characters to extra stages...This makes me love the game even that much more.

SCORE: (99/100)

STORY:
WOW!...well, I'm gonna assume that if you're a die hard like i am, you already know all of the MK games' stories...I was so frickin happy to see that this was somewhat of a continuation with altered events to change the past and then change the future that we all have known. The Star Trek effect!...hahaha...whatever works to renew the franchise!...But that's just it...IT WORKS! To make a long story short, it really takes you back to the old-skool, while making it fresh and new! Things happen that you wouldn't expect, people die that you didn't expect to die, and the game even leaves you hanging with the possibility of another game-dun-right...AMEN! I love how each character holds a significant part of the story and everybody gets a decent amount of "screen-time"...I wish to hell they would turn this into a movie! It pretty much was, but with CG characters!...lol...

SCORE: (90/100)

KRYPT and NEKROPOLIS:
AWESOME! the krypt never looked better and has never been so confusing!!!...hahahaa...to find some of the krypts, occasionally you'll be zipping back and forth, front to back, and every which way to try to find a particular one. BUT it is quite amazing and atmospheric what they have done since they introduced the krypt back in Deadly Alliance. Most impressive!!! And Nekropolis is a fun and organized way to keep track of all the crap you unlock! (you know; the alternate costumes, secondary fatalities, and the 675 pieces of artwork that nobody cares about!)...haha

SCORE: (89/100)

THE CHALLENGE TOWER:
Over-hyped but fun and yet reduiculous!!! Lemme explain...you either like 300 different crazy fighting situations or you don't...I prefer just straight-up Kombat...so what I do is I fight a bunch of ladder mode stuff and story mode stuff, and then I just buy my way through MOST of the tower. Some of the challenges are fun and testy. Some of them are merely challenging. And others are damn near impossible to beat! I just like to play the TEST YOUR MIGHTs and TEST YOUR SIGHTs...TEST YOUR LUCK is fun too when you have the upper hand. Most people might disagree with this method, but with only a few hours to spend in the mornings, I just like to get crap done with and unlocked. PLUS, when i heard about what the reward was at the end of the tower, I really wasn't impresses. All that hard work for a small prize...Hell, I rather just buy my way through everything and just unlock it and get it over with!!! Personally, I like playing the tower with a friend, this way you can pass off the controller to each other if one person is having trouble with a certain task. BUT, it is a rather cool and unique feature to the game.

SCORE: (65/100)

TAG TEAM MODES:
Great for when friends are over so that you can team up. Haven't really played too much of this, as I spend most of my time trying to master one specific character let alone two at the same time. I may dive into this mode more at a later time, but for right now...

SCORE: (80/100)

X-RAYS and POWER BAR:
AWESOME!!! But you later discover that x-rays are mostly "shock value". The real power to use in a fight comes with the super-special moves and the breakers for a more powerful advantage in a match. Play online and you'll discover that you'll lose most of the time against people who know how to utilize their enhanced moves and breakers, on top of using good combos.

SCORE: (95/100)

OVERALL COMMENTS: The music and other bells and whistles are just fine. I don't need to tell you how fantastic everything is if you've been playing the game. But I will say this: "This new game is the purest definitive-embodiment of what Mortal Kombat has always been, how it should have stayed, and how it should remain for future MK games to come!"...What an amazing piece of the franchise!!!

MMMMORTAL KOMBAAAAAAT!!!

OVERALL SCORE: 95/100

best MK game i'v played could have been a little better with a few alt costumes and the story side!

verdict: TOTALLY AWSOME!!

I'm going to review this with a cold impartial eye. You've been warned.
Seeing as how I've already beaten the Challenge Tower and Story Mode, I'm kinda wondering whats in here to keep me coming back.
I never get an opportunity for multiplayer so, thats out of the picture.
The PSN is down, so online is also inaccessible.
Lets also compare its standard features to MKA.
The Kreate-a-Fighter Mode alone was endless fun.
I can quite comfortably say i spent most of my time creating characters there.
Then there was s side game, which felt very full and fun to play.
And there was also the bobbiehead racing thing, which was ridiculously awesome and again barrels of fun.
I think MK9 needs MORE.
I'm tired of fishing for trophies.
Its more work than it is just fun.
And the krypt is FULL... of stuff I could care less about.
Speed paintings? Really?
Aside from pristine graphics, smoother gameplay, and a flawless presentation, I find MK9 lacking.
Sure its amazing in what it does do right, like, fatalities, x-rays, combos etc.
But when I owned MKA, I played it SO much I never took it out of my PS2.
Now, after beating Story Mode, and the Challenge Tower, and unlocking over 50% of the krypt on MK9...
I was desperate to buy my other games back.
Always top notch fun while I'm playing it but nothing to keep me running back for more.
overall: 8/10

Gameplay needs improvement and escape options,,and actual frames oh and plasma based fireballs should cancel each other,, basically the game needs STRATEGY,, im not saying make it SF,, but obviously it wants to be SF with EX moves and ultras being in MK,,

One of the best fighting games I've ever played.
I would place it above tekken 6, blazblue cs2, and Mvc 3.
I'd say that it's a tie between this and ssf4. This is the mk game that I wanted for the past 10 years. 2d gameplay, tournament worthy fighting system and half decent fatalities. Sure it's all opinion when it comes to what fighting franchise you prefer but in terms of overall content and replayability mk9 is 2nd to none. I'd give it a 9.5/10.

Gameplay-

To me, it feels better than previous installments and the inclusion of the meter makes it more interesting in trying to create combos. X-Rays could also decide the match for you at times,or cost you the match(if you miss and your opponent capitalizes on the opportunity). Although, pulling off some moves could be a pain,probably because of the 360 controller and its pad. Otherwise, the pad isn't that bad to me. Tag team is great,especially when playing with more than 2 people. I've had some exciting matches playing with 4 people.

Graphics -

This game looks AMAZING, especially on an HDTV. Fatalities and X-rays look great, characters look great, but the arenas especially look outstanding. Also,the art and renders I looked at in the Nekropolis are beautiful. Well done NRS. Well done.

Sound-

For the most part, I like it. The main problem is how soft it is. I turned it up in the options menu and its louder,but the special effects(they sound great btw) kinda overpower the BGM. Also,when using klassic music, while I love it, the..orchestration? of it during the intros weren't as I had expected. Khan's Arena was done well with the klassic, but others like The Rooftop could have been done better IMO.

Thats the main stuff. Some other stuff I feel should have been done/be fixed are:

If I have to fight Kintaro, he should be fought in Khan's Arena, like in MK2. Everything about him just screams needing an audience, and making me fight him in Goro's Lair, most of the time not in front of Goro, kinda kills it for me.

Shao Khan's random laughter and commentary in matches thats not against him. In MK3, after doing a combo or getting a beating, he'd laugh or say something. Why not in this? A mix up of Khan and Shang Tsung laughing or saying stuff randomly would have been cool.

When I fought Goro in MK1, he'd jump out the ceiling and grab me and pound me to death. Unless he just doesn't use the move, I feel he should have it.

The character select screen and the ladder could have been alot better IMO. MK1-3 had their pictures with a background that had relevance to their character(Johnny Cage with stage lights in MK1, Scorpion with fire behind him in MK2 and UMK3). If they were going with renders and not the dancing people, they could have done something like MKD with a sort of background behind the render instead of having it so plain. The ladder now,it should have Choose Your Destiny and suitable music to match. I'm not too sure how well the klassic music would work given how its presented, but I definitely don't like how its a kinda boring tune going up the ladder, instead of sounding like a big fight is gonna happen. Also, in MK2, you were going up a spike or tower with Shao Khan standing at the top with his arm in the air and at the bottom was blood surrounding it. I feel they could have done something like this, be creative with the presentation of the battle plan instead of just showing you who you're fighting and where. MK3 and UMK3 had the background as the portal/the hidden portal,giving an atmospheric feel. This one just feels like "these are your opponents,fight".

Versus mode,when waiting for the match to start(the versus screen with the Kombat Kodes), they could have had some versus screen music or a short tune or something instead of leaving it almost silent.

Khan's intro could have included some of his taunts. Leave the intro just how it is, but instead of grunting, have him slam the hammer and say something. Randomize between his taunts. One time he'd say "Prepare to die", another time he'd say "I rule this world" etc.

If Khan beats you, after 1st round he should say "I WIN!" His victory pose after two rounds/finish him! should be him walking up to your fallen body,point at you and say something like "is that your best?". After losing multiple times, he could then say "are you still trying to win?"

Also tying in with Kintaro in the arena and khan's intro, when you beat Kintaro, you should see a small cinematic where Khan points to some guards to carry Kintaro away, he gets off his throne and does his intro(slamming hammer into ground and taunting).

I still love this game though. If it had what I wrote there, I would love it even more. 9/10 for me.