But most recently, during my story mode play time with Cyber Sub Zero, I was able to create my own cool combo by understanding the game’s systems and applying them on the fly. For the first few hours of the game, I was aimlessly mashing buttons and spamming special moves. The new combo system gives you more creativity to link together combo sequences and special moves in neat ways, such as through the use of air juggles and ground bounces. While the basis of the dial-a-combo still lives (which originated in Mortal Kombat 3), the sequences are much shorter and aren’t nearly as restrictive. While you totally can still finish Scorpion’s spear with an uppercut, there are a a ton of other (and better) options at your disposal, thanks to character-specific normal moves, throws and a much better thought out combo system. To me, Mortal Kombat’s combo system was nothing more than finishing Scorpion’s spear with an uppercut, mashing high punch repeatedly until your opponent staggers back, or dialing in canned combo sequences. I’m glad to see that Nether Realm Studios has taken the time to flesh out the fighting experience for those that want to sink their teeth into something meatier.ĭuring my initial sessions with the new game, the game’s combo system feels like it’s been completely revamped. However, you’d be selling the game mechanics short.
Yes, you can play it like the old games in the sense that the input of special moves and fatalities are the same, and in the sense that sweeps and uppercuts are still here. But what I can tell you about are my experiences with the game so far, is that from a gameplay systems perspective, this is probably the deepest Mortal Kombat ever.įor all the talk people have been saying about this game being a return to its roots, I generally feel that this is a surface-level assessment. I’ve only spent a few hours with it playing the story mode, tutorial and some versus matches with my coworkers, so it wouldn’t be fair for me to pass final judgment about the game now. With that said, Ed Boon, the creator of Mortal Kombat, said this new one was aiming to cater to the hardcore crowd.
MORTAL KOMBAT 9 PC STORY MODE QUALITY SERIES
I can still have a ton of fun playing the Street Fighter II series games of the same era, but those early Mortal Kombat games just don’t have the depth of gameplay to hold my attention nowadays. I loved Mortal Kombat I-III, but having grown into a hardcore fighting game player these last few years has really coloured my perspective on those games in hindsight. Case in point: Super Street Fighter II Turbo is still being played at major fighting game tournaments this year, while the entire Mortal Kombat scene has virtually never had any sort of tournament scene to speak of. For Midway/Warner Brothers, this lead to consistently good sales throughout the series history among more casual fighting game fans, but the hardcore have pretty much shunned it. Mortal Kombat has traditionally, been a fighting game series built primarily on style over substance. Do you think about it’s rich and deep fighting game engines? Probably not. When you think about Mortal Kombat as a series, you think about blood and fatalities.