Games Universe Customer Product Reviews

If you grew up playing arcade games like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter 2 in the arcades, this is an excellent game that brings Mortal Kombat back to its more competitive roots. While the 3D games were kind of fun, they lacked the mortal kombat feel and the fighting was slow and shallow. Specials mid combo were highly limited and being unable to cancel from normals into special moves really hampered the already shallow fighting mechanics. And though the characters had different fighting styles, they largely remained the same due to the limitations of the fighting engine. They were fun games, but they could have been so much better. When the PS3 and 360 were released, MK vs DC came out and though it was largely considered not to be a tournament worthy fighter and made no pretences to be such, it had the best mechanics in a 3D mortal kombat game. As specials were again at the forefront of the mechanics, and not just simple projectiles that can easily be avoided, it helped set the characters apart even more. Despite not having the extreme levels of blood and gore found in previous Mortal Kombat games, the gameplay had a fair bit of depth whilest being very accessible to gamers,and a step in the right direction. Had they simply made a more refined MK vs DC for a new MK game, I would have been content as I didn't really care for the franchise being a tournament worthy game. Now comes Mortal Kombat 9. While still more accessible than street fighter 4, though I will say I believe the difference is largely due to the strict rules for linking normal attacks to make combos is SF4 which made it difficult for many people, MK9 is a more competitive, tournament worthy and balanced game compared to previous entries. The fighting is faster and I dare say smoother than SSF4, but a lot slower than Marvel vs Capcom 3. It's also very brutal. Every hit that connects looks convincing and painful. The Fatalities are over the top, funny and sometimes creative. Babalities from MK2 make a return as well. The game is littered secrets like in MK2 with certain conditions need to be met for hidden fights. If you can activate these hidden fights they are extremely challenging. The gameplay is now tied to frames and frame advantages are a bigger part of the game compared to previous entries. Moves can be cancelled into dashes and dashes can be cancelled into pretty much anything and the 3 stage power meter adds a new dimension to the game. Basically the meter works like this. When you build up 1 bar, you can use it to perform an enhanced special. Unlike SF's ex moves, the moves don't just add extra damage but have different properties that will be different to each character. When the player has 2 bars or more, the player can use 2 bars to break their opponent's combo. Unlike in previous games, you know have to be in mid-combo to use a breaker. Lastly, when a player has built up the maximum 3 bars, the player can perform an X-ray move that shows internal damage and deals damage similar to ultra specials in SF4. Like the Enhanced specials, X-ray attacks have different properties. They can be combo'd into or out of. Must be done in mid-air or must be activated via a successful parry of your opponent's attack. My only real complaint is that I wish the AI could have been more challenging. That said the AI isn't stupid, just that the harder difficulties should have been made more challenging. There's actually quite a lot to this game. I highly recommend fans of Capcom fighting games give this ago as they may be pleasantly surprised if they approach this game with an open mind. For fans of MK, it is a must buy. the game is a lot deeper and pretty well balanced and it's got the classic 2D gameplay.