Mortal Kombat Armageddon Review - Wii

6

Gameplay: 6
Graphics: 7
Audio: 5
Multiplayer: 6
Innovation: 6

Introduction

This review comes with a disclaimer. If you have never been a fan of the Mortal Kombat franchise, this game is not for you. If you are new to the franchise, you might not see what all the fuss is about. This game is a love letter to the fans, a final hurrah for the franchise as we know it.

With nearly two decades of games under its belt, Mortal Kombat has plenty of characters and story to draw from. Perhaps too much. The introduction of Armageddon hints at the developer's frustration with the lore heavy and character burdened franchise.

The story of Armageddon tells of a great warrior beast that was sealed away millennia ago. The combatants, driven by their own thirst for blood and victory, would be drawn to the creature to thin out the unworthy and restore equilibrium.

The opening movie is absolutely saturated with recognisable characters from Kung Lao and his trademark hat to Baraka and the blades that slide from his forearms, and series mascots Sub Zero and Scorpion, to old but not forgotten characters like Kano and Kabal. There is no shortage of violence.

Each character has their own story, their own reasons for fighting. Some fight to protect their home, others fight for glory, others to seize power. Mortal Kombat's mythology is not a feel good story. It's a young boy's dream, filled with demons, monsters, ninjas, robots, robot ninjas and everything in between. The fact it is all coated in a thickly smeared layer of gore and offal is simply the cherry red still-beating-heart on top.

Gameplay

Mortal Kombat is primarily a one on one fighting game. There is a huge list of characters with plenty of variety and fighting styles to choose from and once you do, you get placed in an arena against an opponent. Controls are different depending on the control scheme you use. As far as fighting games go, the Wii has really thrown a spanner in the works.

For the traditional gamers, the ability to use a Gamecube controller or the Wii's Classic Controller is there, but Midway didn't stop there. Things play much as you'd expect. The four face buttons launch different attacks and, coupled with directions on the d-pad, can unleash special moves and combos.

However, hook a nunchuck up to the Wii remote and things change immensely. Movement is controlled via the analogue stick on the nunchuck and the four face buttons are mapped to the d-pad on the remote. This is where things get interesting.

Holding the B button on the remote and waving the Wii remote in different patterns through the air will launch different special attacks. This makes for a pretty unique fighting experience and definitely suitable for newcomers. Guarding, throws and swapping fighting styles (continued next page)