Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks Review (no fat)

Game Description

If you were supposed to pick ten of the most influential early PC games there's a big chance Mortal Kombat will be among them. These beat’em up classics were not necessarily profound games. In fact, some gamers despised the series for being too simplistic, but most believe that this is where its success stood. Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks is the latest in the long like of MK games, but did Midway reinvent the series, or is it just a rehash that tries to milk some more money from the diehard MK fans?

It's hard to give a direct answer. They did keep what seems the key ingredient, the sheer simplicity of the game, but Midway has done more than just throw up a new Mortal Kombat licensed game. Unlike their previous attempts at making the beat'em up genre more serious and complex, Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks is intended to be just as simple as it can be without going overboard.

Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks takes the story further, starting with Shang Tsung's recent defeat. Shang Tsung manages to escape, and the island that has been hosting the tournament starts falling apart. The fighters try to evade the island, but Liu Kang and Kung Lao cannot make it and fall into Goro's lair, which makes the starting point of the game.

Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks is much more story-driven than its predecessors. This adds up to Midway's attempt to recreate the atmosphere in the movie, even containing elements from Hollywood's production. Still, as we will see later, they are occasionally taking it a bit too far.

Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks Gameplay

Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks offers two game modes: the usual single-player mode and a cooperative mode. At first, not all characters are unlocked, and you will need to make your way through the game to get more. However, there are two rather unfortunate choices made by the developers. First of all, after you manage to unlock some players, you should make sure that you really like the one you will start with, because you won't be able to change it. Second, once you start a single player game, you won't be able to turn it into a cooperative game. This is rather unpleasant because unless you have a brother, a girlfriend or a wife who likes gaming, you'll miss the cooperative mode, which is much more interesting.

The coop mode is the one that will probably reward you more. It's not just that the game is more interesting this way, it's also that the game itself seems to be focused more on this side of it. This is also quite closely related to the movie itself, where the fighters were working with each other a lot more than they seemed to do in the games. Occasionally, you will have Johnny Cage or Sub-Zero as AI-controlled allies in a single player mode, but it's really nothing compared to the experience of playing it with a friend.

Both of these modes could have proven to be more interesting though, if the game was correctly balanced. Unfortunately, this doesn't happen. Parts of the game are wonderfully balanced, but some are simply too easy, making the gaming experience a bit inconsistent.

In an attempt to make the gameplay more challenging, Midway introduced a number of features. You earn experience points when fighting, and you can use these experience points to "buy" new moves, unlock features and even unlock a recreated, arcade version of Mortal Kombat II. The levels are also more interactive than they used to be, allowing you to use a lot of objects and borrowing a few ideas from the movie. Remember the scene in the movie where the enemies were smashed into living trees? Well, you can do it in the game as well.

In fact, Shaolin Monks does a great job in remaking the atmosphere of the series. It even spices up the atmosphere at times, by introducing some interesting elements, like one particular turnaround of the game when Sonia is kidnapped. However, they're taking it a bit too far. The game is too tied to the movie in some aspects, and solving some puzzles (which are compulsory if you want to finish the game) is a little bit difficult if you haven't watched the movie. Not that the movie is not fun to watch.

A significant role in building up the action is played by the 3rd person view. This is a remarkable change, and a very well implemented one at that. The main challenge that developers face when trying to introduce such a camera view is the fact that players will have a hard time hitting what they actually want to. Therefore, the player can focus on a single enemy, and remain in a semi-defensive stance that blocks any attack from other enemies. It is possible to sneak an attack on an enemy you are not focused on, which will prove useful at times, and you can also storm into your enemy, although this will leave you very vulnerable. This is an inspired model, which, along with the control system, makes the action itself quite fun.

The controls make the game easy to follow, in the way that the spectacular moves from the older Mortal Kombat games have been brought down to more "human" combinations. Still, there are a few wiser moves which will require some careful timing and will probably stimulate the piano player in you. However, the learning curve is less steep than in the older games, ensuring that the game is playable by people who are just starting.

Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks Technicalities

Technically speaking, the developers have pretty much done their job, but not more. This is not necessarily something bad though. The graphics are not breathtaking, but the Mortal Kombat characters are nicely designed. Less successful was the developers' attempt to create some new characters, but that can be overlooked. The audio part is at the same level as the graphics: not bad, but not top-notch either.

Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks 2cent

Fans of the series get a new taste to the beat’em ups, one with a strong movie flavor. Even though Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks is a rather short game, the replay value is quite worth the money.

Price

You can get Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks for 29.99 USD.