Mortal Kombat PS3 Review

• 26th Apr 2011

Mortal Kombat kicks its way onto PS3 at last after a variety of sequels and cross over titles. It’s here, and in all of its 18 rated glory

So what do you get? – All your favourite characters, unlocks to be found, and a variety of game modes to try your skills at.  Beginners may want to head to the tutorial to learn the basic moves. It’s a handy and compulsory option for those yet to come to grips with the title.  It gives you your sure footing, but as for character moves – well, you will have to learn them as you play or practise (The pause menu gives you a drop down menu for all available special and basic fighting moves – so expect sore thumbs!).

Nobody likes to have to learn a lot from the get go – but honestly if you are to progress and become an expert at this then you have to do your homework. Thankfully you can do much of it as you play. So we suggest starting on a less difficult level.

The game modes include the basic fight arcade option.  Fight until you rank as supreme champion!  There is also the story mode – which recaptures the first three titles storylines as you try to alter history and save Earth realm.  The script has a good idea and graphically plays well, but I hate to say it but the fighting makes little sense in it.  The championship doesn’t appear to have much in the way of logic in who gets kicked out of the competition and who is going on to win – and the sporadic fighting between tournament bouts seem like excuses to squeeze characters into the story line and have more fighting. This approach may give screen time to a variety of characters, but it kills any forward momentum. Honestly though I like a little story in a story mode.

And forget about saving!  The ability to pause and save is virtually nonexistent during the cinematics. You have to exit the game before or during a fight. When you reload you’ll have to watch the cinematic again before you get back to that fight – with no way to skip past the movie.

Perhaps in the future a story mode will follow whatever character you pick – or continue regardless of whether you win or lose the fights you get into. Might require a bit of writing skill and development for the creators, but it would raise the tile high up above others in terms of what these titles are capable of.

Elsewhere there is also the mean feat of tackling the tower – which is 300 challenges to beat – from the basic to the ultra hard! We also suggest checking out the Fatality practise area as well if you are a gore hound. It is great fun and some of the kills are very inventive.

The fighting can get a bit fiddly – and it is annoying when you punch in the right combination for a move and then nothing happens (only then to have your ass kicked). But there are such a variety of moves for each character you will be at it for a long time. But some of the moves are easy enough – Like the X-Ray attack which is a joy to see. The return to the 2-D look is a blessing, but a little more fluidity would be nice. Overall – a good return for the title, but with plenty more room to manoeuvre.

Steven Hurst