By Sam Coles:
2005 was a good year when it came to gaming we got some
excellent games such as Resident Evil 4 and Star Wars Battlefront as well as
the launch of the Xbox 360. A game that also released the same year is a title
that I don’t often hear people talk about and that game is Mortal Kombat
Shaolin Monks for the PS2 and Xbox. It was a complete shift with the standard
formula in the series as this time it was not a one on one fighter, but it
instead goes for an adventure style similar to God of War. Does it still hold
up 12 years later? Absolutely, especially when you play it with a friend.
The story takes place during the events of Mortal Kombat II
where Liu Kang defeated Shang Tsung and he has retreated back to Outworld,
where he has reported back to the emperor Shao Kahn about his failures. Shao
Kahn is displeased with his failure and devises a plan to start another
tournament to take over Earthrealm, but first he sends soldiers to attack
Raiden’s Shaolin temple, where Liu Kang and Kung Lao must defend it. After
these events Raiden sends them to Outworld to investigate the issue, what
transpires is a brutal and gory adventure with locations ripped from the arcade
game. The story is not great with terrible voice acting although there were a
few lines that made chuckle but that was because it was unintentionally funny.
The gameplay as I said before ditches the fighting game
formula and goes for an adventure game style, as Yahtzee coined “like God of
War but…”. It is very much like God of War with the fixed camera angles and
gory action, but in this game you can play it two players which is a lot of fun
juggling enemies between each other. You
can pull off finishers which are flashy and fun, you first get the classic
fatalities which can be hilarious to brutally disturbing, you have brutality
which sends you into a frenzy and you attack faster and harder and finally you
have multalities which can take out multiple enemies. These are fun and varied,
but over time it can get a tad repetitive as you see the same animation over
and over again, but I can’t really fault it due to the technology of the time.
The game controls surprisingly well consider its age, moving
the characters around is smooth and snappy, although there are few platforming
areas which I had trouble with but I think that was due to the camera in some
areas. Combat (no I’m not spelling it with a K) feels great with crunchy sound
effects coupled with the excellent combo system which just feels like a good
fighting game thrown into a brawler.
Visually the game looks good in some sections, but shows its
age in others with bland and flat textures, my favourite area visually is the
forest with the sentient trees that eat enemies when you throw them in their
general direction. Character models don’t look too bad although the animations
in some cutscenes don’t look great with stiff and clunky animations.
Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks is a fantastic spin off to the
franchise and is a must have for your Xbox or PS2. It always boggles my mind
why they never made a sequel or spiritual successor to this game as it is a
great idea for the MK universe. It is easy find and is super cheap these days,
so if you have a PS2 or Xbox knocking about get this game.
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