GameSpot has obtained an early exclusive first-look at the demo of
Mortal
Kombat: Shaolin Monks that will be available at the
E3 Expo next week. The
one page overview of the playable demo provides a link to their
official
movie 3 video clip of the game in action showcasing a one on one brawl between our two heroes,
Liu Kang and
Kung Lao, as well as showing
The Tomb in miraculous 3-D.
Provided as well are
seven new screenshots for your viewing pleasure. From the preview:
Shaolin Monks goes out of its way to create a vibe
very much like that of MK II. The opening level has you battling ugly,
ogre-looking creatures inside Goro's lair. As you progress, you'll eventually
end up at the bottom of the classic pit stage, complete with plenty of corpses
impaled on the spikes around you. In fact, once you climb out of the pit after a
brief platforming sequence, you can uppercut enemies into the pit. À la MK II,
the game even goes the extra mile of switching to a top-down camera view of the
enemy shrieking as it falls to its doom. The graphics shown in the demo weren't
exactly awe inspiring from a technical perspective, but aesthetically, they
caught the feel of old-school Mortal Kombat very well.
Of course, Liu Kang and Kung Lao aren't the only
classic characters to make an appearance in Shaolin Monks. During the course of
our play time, we counted no fewer than three brief cameos from characters like
Raiden (who acts as your tutor during this first level,) Johnny Cage (who shows
up just long enough to uppercut an ogre into the pit, as well as put on his
trademark sunglasses,) and Reptile, (who disappears via his invisibility power
before you get the chance to take him on). The demo was also bookended by a boss
fight against everyone's favorite Outworldian ginsu knife, Baraka. The fight
began simply enough, with us executing combos on the bladed one, while he did
the same to us. After Baraka's health was depleted to a certain level, however,
he jumped back across the stage to grab a couple of caged monks and then set
them on fire. This made things a tad more difficult, as we now had to fight
Baraka while a pair of flaming monks ran wild, constantly knocking into us and
damaging us. It took a couple of well-placed fireballs to finally do away with
the monks and resume the fight. The fight continued to build up to the big
climax, and then right before we could actually vanquish Baraka, the game
thanked us for trying the demo and ended. A painful, harsh tease, but effective,
as we now can't wait to see what happens next.
Read the entire preview in full
here. GameSpot's official movie 3, as well three additional
raw footage videos featuring Fatalities and Raiden, and a new intensive
Developer Interview with series co-creator Ed Boon, can be found via this
link; with the screenshots available at this
link.
Thanks goes out once again to site member DECEPTION for breaking this
news!
