Today at E3, we at Mortal Kombat Online got a chance to play a demo version of the latest installment of Mortal
Kombat: MK Armageddon.
As is well known, Armageddon uses an updated version of the fighting engine used in Deception. Unlike the last
fighting game installment of MK, however, there is only one hand-to-hand fighting st
yle and one weapon st
yle per
character. This is a logical move, as there are too many characters planned for each one to be able to have two
unique fighting st
yles. Sadly, this means an absence of st
yle-branch combos which were very powerful in Deception,
but on the plus side, it's now a lot easier to get out your weapon. The breakers from Deception are back as well, and
are even able to be used on aerial moves. In fact, Aerial Kombat is pretty intense, as combos of punches and kicks
and even throws can be done on an opponent who is airborne. The little light indicators from MKD near the energy bars
are gone; though yellow and red indicators in the arenas still reveal where the traps are.
The character select screen had the following characters available - Scorpion, Rain, Jarek, Sub-Zero, Kintaro, Reiko,
Fujin, Shao Kahn, Sheeva, Shinnok, Stryker, Kai, Goro, Sektor, Sareena, and the custom character (named "Kombatant" by
default). There were a lot of characters who were darkened out because they weren't available in this build - so much
so, that an extra button for "rotate" was added to access the additional characters. On the versus screen, Blaze is
shown in the beginning and appears to be much bigger and stronger than he was when he was last seen in MKDA. One
wonders if he was somehow merged with another being like Reptile was in MKD when Onaga used his body as a vessel.
A lot of the characters return with their signature moves, as well as new special moves that are based on their old
Fatalities. For example - Sektor has his Flamethrower as a special move, a regular missile, a missile that goes up
and lands down on the opponent (like Kai's vertical fireballs from MK4), and a teleport punch that looks somehow
reminiscent of Cyrax's net from MK3 with the green computerized 0's and 1's that fall to the ground whenever he does
the move (trust us, it looks cool!). Shinnok now his own set of moves, and his old Fatality where he summons a giant
hand can be used to hold the opponent down or as a projectile. He also has a teleport-type move that involves him
opening up a portal and travelling through it quickly enough to appear on the other side of his opponent. It should
be noted that he uses a staff as his weapon which cases his Amulet - fans of the storyline can speculate on how this
came to be. One more fascinating special move worth mentioning - Reiko has a special move where we when he attacks
you, he actually appears to wear Shao Kahn's helmet for a brief moment before it disappears.
The loadings screens this time around are all animated. This really seems to give the impression that the game is
loading faster as its not just a stationary image on the screen any more. As with the previous fighting game, each
mode has its own unique screen (eg, Konquest Mode will have its own animated loading screens which are completely
separate from the regular fighting mode screens). In fact, versus mode doesn't even use loading screens, per se - you
actually get a versus screen similar to what was in MK3 that actually shows your two characters as they prepare to go
up against one another. (Note that if you create your own custom fighter, you will just see a generic vs. mode
picture in place of your custom one, though we were told that may be possible to change by the time of final release.)
The new "Create-A-Fatality" system is surprisingly easy to pick up - there will even be a couple of them revealed in
videos in a future update. Every step you take while in Fatality mode is counted, and that will determine what type
of Fatality you did. For example, a Fatality done in 1 step is just a Fatality. A Fatality done in 2 steps is called
a Deadly Fatality. There are 10 different levels in all, with the 10th level being called Extreme Fatality. We've
seen that it is possible to actually do more than 10 steps while in Fatality Mode, but anything above ten will still
be considered an Extreme Fatality.
The Create a Player system was also present in the E3 build. You can choose the character's gender, size, weapon,
race, basic and special moves, as well as a host of other features. One of the best created characters at the show
had to be an Incredible Hulk someone had made. You can give them other attributes as well (such as Baraka's mouth or
Nitara's fangs), and you can come up with a name for your character - as well as a name for their weapon, their moves,
their homeworld, and even a paragraph you can write as their bio. A lot of the created characters posted in the Fan
Submission forum would probably do well if adapted to this mode and used online.
Of course, this game also features a Konquest mode. This Konquest was a much more polished version than was seen in
MKD. There are koins, but apparently only one type of koin will be used as opposed to having different colors of
currency. Treasure chests can be unlocked by more than just visiting a place at the right time of day - you may have
to punch a tree stump a couple of times or even squash one of the many bugs walking around to unlock a hidden chest.
Characters can actually be Fatalitied in this mode as well. When fighting against the NPC's (non-playable characters)
their enegy bars appear, and when low enough, any of the main buttons will each do a different Fatality on them. The
main character, Taven, is apparently guided by a spirit who is using the image of his father to train him. Along the
way, he runs into the Black Dragon members Kira and Kobra who try to prevent him from crossing a bridge, Kabal who
tries to recruit him, Sektor who kidnaps him and keeps him prisoner on his Tekunin War Ship, and Sonya Blade who
attempts to rescue him from the Tekunin. Other characters are mentioned as well, and Blaze especially seems to have a
critical role to the storyline.
There is also no Krypt for this game - there will be a new system for using koins to unlock kontent instead, though no
word on what it's called.
Hundreds more images can be found in the E3 MK: Armageddon
Media Page..
Finally, we got a chance to play MK Unchained on the PSP. There were only a couple of characters available -
Scorpion, Goro, Shao Kahn, Noob-Smoke, Baraka, Sub-Zero, Jax, and Bo Rai Cho. They seemed to play just like normal as
in MKD, and the graphics were much more crisp than expected. The FMV intro is here in all its glory. And wireless
mode is working great! There is one problem where pausing the game doesn't stop the action from going - your opponent
isn't stopped form playing and will therefore beat you mercilessly. Other than that, it seems like a perfect
translation of MK Deception and will, in fact, be better when they add the exclusive characters to the roster.
