Mortal Kombat is an age-old fighting game series, spanning two full decades. However, this age hasn’t come without its toll. The storyline had become completely ridiculous, the presentation had become questionable, and it seemed as though nobody at Midway knew what the hell they were even trying to do anymore. Known for its outrageous use of blood and gore (and, what the soccer moms won’t admit, its ridiculous humor), Mortal Kombat had devolved from an edgy arcade fighter of the 90′s to a washed up joke that even welcomed the likes of Superman and Batman just to stay alive. Even with the new super powers, Midway went bankrupt. But perhaps due to the success of Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe, WB picked them up from the grave and formed NetherRealm Studios from it. Their first project? The reboot.

Going back to a full 2D fighting engine, the reboot promised everything long-time Mortal Kombat fans had come to want in a new game. It took out a vast majority of the new characters introduced from MK4 and onward, even going so far as to take place during the first few games’ storylines, albeit as a retelling. The story mode ultimately starts out from the end of Armageddon. In a final battle that would decide the fate of the realms, Shao Kahn had emerged victorious above the fallen Raiden. In a last attempt to rewrite history, Raiden uses his power alongside that of his damaged amulet, and sends a series of premonitions to his younger self, before the 10th and decisive Mortal Kombat tournament the first game takes place in. Now having an understanding of what the events predetermined would result in, Raiden ensures that things happen a little differently. Unfortunately, giving out pretty much anything further would probably result in a spoiler, so I won’t go from there. However, the story mode plays similar to MK vs DC’s, in that it goes chapter to chapter, focusing on individual characters fighting a series of battles with cinematic cutscenes in between.

Gameplay? Of course. This game is best compared to a game like Street Fighter’s most recent installment, Super Street Fighter IV (and likely even better, Street Fighter X Tekken, if the trailers are anything to go by). Each character has a wide and unique assortment of moves and tools to use in order to bring their opponent down. Long-time main character Liu Kang has basic high, low and air fireball projectiles, a light speed flying kick and a slower-but-stronger bicycle kick; new to his move list is a counter. However, flagship Scorpion has a teleport punch to hit from behind, the ability to raise fire under a character’s position, and, of course, the spear that brings opponents to him to deliver a swift beatdown to. Like Super Street Fighter IV, all special moves also have “EX” versions that make them stronger, which eat up a single portion of a player’s “super” bar. These improved versions deviate from move to move; some become simply stronger and faster, while others may have a built-in follow-up hit.

On the subject, the “super” bar was introduced earlier in the series, but never really used to this extent. The super bar now has 3 sections, and fills up whenever you get hit by your opponent, or when you use a special move (and more if you land the move). One third of the super bar is used for aforementioned EX special moves. For two thirds, you can utilize your “Breaker”, which is essentially a burst mechanic to break out of a combo. For a full super bar, you can unleash a “Super Combo” esque move called an X-Ray. Each character’s X-Ray is different and some even have special properties (Johnny’s is a counter, while Kano’s is a grab). However, they all deliver a series of devastating blows to the enemy’s skeleton and internal organs, the damage even being shown in slow-motion and detail, using close-up X-ray views, as the name would suggest. Some are somewhat hard to use, while some are conditional and others are even fairly easy to land. On average, however, most characters with easier to land X-Rays do slightly less damage than those that are harder to land.

Another “new” aspect to the series is tag battles. While the series has had 2-on-2 gameplay in older installments, new 2-on-2 tag battles borrow many elements from other tag fighting games, such as assists and tag attacks. Both characters on a team have their own seperate health bars, but they share a super bar. The main thing you need to remember is that the super bar becomes much more important because both assists and tag attacks require a third of the bar (simply tagging out, however, is free of expense). Assists simply bring in your teammate to deliver a signature attack, while tag attacks are similar to assists but they also serve the dual-purpose of tagging, so you can keep that character in to keep a combo going (you can even start a combo with one character, tag attack to the other, and then tag attack again back). This opens up quite a few possibilities in keeping combos lasting.

One thing I have to praise about this game, especially after Marvel vs Capcom 3, is its large supply of different modes. The game features a lot of standard single-player modes, such as a typical 10-battle arcade ladder (there’s also a ladder for tag battles, as well) that pits you against 7 randomly selected opponents, and then Shang Tsung, a random select between Shokan mini-bosses Goro and Kintaro, and then final boss Shao Kahn. Also included is Deadly Alliance-introduced Krypt, which lets you spend coins you obtain from doing pretty much anything in the game on many different unlockables, such as secret Fatality inputs (you don’t actually need to obtain them here in order to use them, it just adds them to your move list), alternate costumes, biographies, schematics and music, alongside a companion viewing gallery to view said material. There’s a training mode, a universal tutorial mode, and multiplayer modes that even accommodate for 4-player tag matches. There’s also a Challenge Tower, which features hundreds of unique challenges that also serve as something of character-specific tutorials, similar to Deadly Alliance’s Konquest. These can range anywhere from simply using a character’s moves, to hitting certain body parts a certain amount of times, all the way to tower defense-esque mini-games that have you shooting projectile attacks at zombies that you have to fend off without letting them reach you. Speaking of mini-games…

There’s three words that are often just as recognizable as the franchise itself. Test Your Might is a mini-game from ever since the original that had the play mash buttons to fuel a bar, and that bar had to hit a certain minimum point before the character could hit the stones in front of him or her hard enough for them to break. This mini-game is indeed back, along with 3 younger siblings. Introduced a few games earlier in the series was Test Your Sight, which had you follow a number of cups around, one of which housing a ball. After they were done switching positions, you had to simply choose which cup housed the ball. A new mini-game, Test Your Strike, highly resembles Test Your Might, except instead of simply passing a minimum point on the bar, you have to also hit it soft enough so that it only breaks the middle block without damaging surrounding blocks. So think of it as a harder Test Your Might, requiring a very specific window to succeed. The last one, Test Your Luck, is a standard fight, but before the battle begins, there are some slot machines that will determine certain details to this fight. These slots not only determine your opponent, but also various conditions to the fight, such as fighting upside down, health slowly deteriorating, certain moves disabled, all sorts of different criteria that will have you needing to adapt to your luck’s will.

Also a familiar phrase to the series, “FINISH HIM!” Or in some cases, “FINISH HER!”, surely a phrase that gives feminists a heart attack upon hearing. Upon winning the final round, you will be prompted to finish the opponent by the seemingly disembodied voice of Shao Kahn. This is where you’ll be able to perform the series’ most popular move, the Fatality. Depending on your character, there are a number of inputs you can throw in here in order to do a stylish and often incredibly brutal visage of killing off the opponent. While there’s one Fatality “unlocked” from the start for each character, there’s a hidden second Fatality, a stage Fatality reserved for stage interactive deaths, and a Babality, which turns the opponent into a baby (and unlike past appearances of the Babality, a character-specific animation that actually works). You will unlock the inputs for the other finishers through finding them in the Krypt, but you can still input them if you know the commands (as they’re unlocked you can find them on your move list at the bottom of the second page). Unlike the DC game, this game goes back to being incredibly brutal, and in some cases even going far past what the series has done before, keeping a sense of exaggeration but also refining it into realistic visuals of disembodiment and blood shed.

Online modes are fairly standard as far as fighting games go in this day. This game introduces the Kombat Pass, which is a one-time code that will allow your system (or more specifically your profile/gamertag) to access the game’s online modes. If you buy this game new, your code will let you get the full package. However, if you buy it second-hand and aren’t lucky enough to have an unused voucher sitting in the box, you’ll have to purchase a code instead. Like it or not, you’re going to have to support the developers somehow! The netcode is fantastic, I’ve had little lag in the few matches I played. There’s standard ranked, player, and friend matches, along with King of the Hill, which is essentially a multi-man lobby with spectating enabled (just saying, MVC3). Kombat Kodes are also back (and you can get a cheat sheet by unlocking them individually in the Krypt), which similar to Test Your Luck can introduce an individual variable to an otherwise normal fight, such as disabled special moves, X-Rays, or blocking, reversed controls, even a no blood option, also usable online in some match types.

For PS3 users, we get an exclusive character in the form of Kratos, from the God of War series. As I’m not really a fan of either the series or the character, this isn’t really that great of an addition. I have noticed, however, that he’s pretty easy to use (read: spam with) and since he’s a magnet for people new to the genre to jump on the bandwagon for, you’ll likely see a lot of him online in the PS3 version. For better or for worse, most of them have no idea what they’re doing and are free wins, though he has some pretty tricky maneuvers (blinding you with Helios’ Head, running over you with Icarus’ Shoes, etc.) that could be useful if played smart. Unfortunately I’ve yet to run into a decent Kratos, so no telling for sure. We also get a stage from the series, which is unique in that its Stage Fatality involves a little quick-time-event of its own, in which you choose where the opponent is going to land, and the outcome differs slightly based on your decision (all three are pretty awesome, though). You’ll also see that there are two Kratos on the character select screen (not sure what it looks like on the 360 version at first, haven’t played it, I’d assume just silhouettes). There are two characters in the game you have to unlock; one of them goes into the same box (the slot is reserved for special characters and DLC, in which Kratos would definitely apply as a console exclusive).

So, with all the good things I’ve had to say about this game, with so very minimal things that deviate into the negative zone in this review, it might be surprising when I say this game, while amazing in its own right, is a very bland presentation. While the story truly explores the Mortal Kombat lore more than any other game in the series, and the visuals and gore finally catch a true semi-realistic glimpse of Mortal Kombat brutality, this game is simply a step under “amazing”. Everything it does, it does well. It hits the standard that the genre has come to expect in virtually every single category it can be judged on. The music stays in the background, offering a somewhat chilling undertone without ever really giving off anything more than a small vibe. The backgrounds are all detailed and revisioned settings of arenas in previous games. As they get assaulted, the character’s wounds begin to show remarkably with blood staining their bodies as they stand tall trying to avoid defeat. Everything is good, if not great, but nothing stands out as simply amazing about the game to me. It’s a well-rounded, well-presented entry in a game most needing a revival, and that is what this game is. It’s fun for all levels of play, and I’d recommend it for any fan of fighting games or even fans of anything that splashes blood in your screen every 5 seconds. So, if you’re reading this, chances are you fit in one of those categories. Don’t expect to be blown away, but it does what it does, and it does it great.