Mortal Kombat: Armageddon

Mortal Kombat: Armageddon is a game that delivers on quantity but falters heavily on quality, particularly when it comes to the storyline and character handling. No other game in the Mortal Kombat series matches Armageddon's massive roster, featuring every character from the franchise up to that point. It's an impressive feat that undeniably makes the game a fan favorite when it comes to sheer variety. However, this is where the praise ends for many, as the game's lore, stories, and character development feel like a massive step back, especially after the brilliant Mortal Kombat: Deception.

The narrative in Armageddon is nothing short of chaotic. After releasing what many consider the best Mortal Kombat game in history, Deception, Armageddon comes along with a story that seems disjointed and, in many cases, nonsensical. The lore feels rushed, and several characters are thrown into situations that simply don't fit their established arcs. One of the biggest disappointments is how Armageddon treats Kira, a character who had a promising debut in Deception. In Armageddon, she is handled in the worst possible way, becoming a shadow of her former self. Her moveset is altered and worsened, making her fighting style less enjoyable and much less unique.

What's even more baffling is Kira's role-or lack thereof-in the Konquest mode. She doesn't even get to fight, leaving Kobra, who is clearly a less skilled fighter, to handle Taven alone. How does that make sense? Kira had so much more potential, but her involvement is cut short in favor of lesser characters. This disconnect extends to her ending, which feels completely out of place. Kira's fate in her own ending is lackluster, while Kobra's ending oddly gives her a better outcome. It's frustrating when you compare this to Deception, where the Black Dragon characters like Kobra, Kabal, and Kira all had endings that aligned perfectly with each other and felt coherent.

The fatality system in Armageddon is another sore point. The custom fatalities, while novel, are a step down from the brutal, creative finishers Mortal Kombat fans have come to expect. It feels like the developers prioritized quantity over quality here, and it shows.

On a positive note, Armageddon introduced features like the Kreate-A-Fighter mode, which is still one of the best customization tools the series has ever seen. But no amount of customization can save the lore from being an absolute mess.

In conclusion, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon is a game that excels in terms of roster size and features but fails miserably when it comes to the story and character treatment. Kira, in particular, suffers the most, becoming a watered-down version of herself with an unfulfilling arc. After the success of Deception, it's hard not to wonder how this game's lore turned out so disastrously. The reset of the timeline, while necessary after the mess Armageddon made, doesn't erase the frustration fans felt when this game was released.

After many seasons, the realms are now on the brink of Armageddon(I guess spelling wasn't the last victim). One last tournament will take place, and the winner will end the existence of all things... wait, what? Uh... yeah, as far as I understand, that's the idea. Real incentive, huh? Anyway, the last round will be against Blaze. Also, the Konquest mode has Taven(...I dunno, ask someone who knows about these) awaken and given a quest to gather some gifts his parents left for him and use them to defeat aforementioned fire-being, along with replacing all C's at the beginnings of words with K's. The story is kinda meh, and it's pretty easy to tell that they put it together just to take you through the different areas and have you go up against various of the known warriors. There are 9 levels(Jungle, Airship, Arctic, Temple, Krimson Forest, Mountain, Spire, Fortress, Ruins) at around an hour apiece. It's entertaining(if kinda repetitive... and really unnecessarily frustrating near the end) action-adventure with frequent checkpoint saves keeping you from redoing all that much, going up against groups(sometimes with a picked-up temporary weapon, including a lightsabre(!) that you can do varied attacks with), sometimes knocking them into their death(on a spike, into flames, etc.), dodge traps, control the camera(good thing, cuz you need it a *ton*) and you will sometimes enter a regular match. Once you do it once, you can get a lot of the unlockables(media, outfits, arenas, movies, etc.) with the coins you earned in it, taking some away from that encouragement to replay this. There is also Motor Kombat(think Mario Kart lite... it could have been a lot bigger, really... it's kinda... OK at best) for up to four human players(split-screen), with five places(some have cool stuff you have to avoid), there are ten people(Baraka, Bo' Rai Cho, Cage, Cyrax, Jax, Kitana, Mileena, Raiden, Scorpion(and his special ability, that all of these have, is inferior to something in first Lego Racer(no, really)), Sub-Zero), you can bump into the others to shove them, and you will die bloodily(this is as violent, gory, and somewhat as brutal as it can get away with... enemies can be torn apart, have their heart forcibly removed, heads will be ripped off or turned 180 degrees horizontally, etc.) if you hit a wall hard. You turn the Wii-Mote(that you use the gesturing of to execute unique attacks; you can also use the classic controller or the Gamecube one with this) sideways to use as a steering wheel, like others for the console. Endurance mode kinda speaks for itself... keep going until you can't any longer. And Arcade, of course, and it's relatively short. There are a ton of characters... 60+, indeed. You can also Kreate(*rolling my eyes*) them, well, one per profile(Koded... make it stop, please), I think, and there is a *lot* of customization(not to the rules of this, for some reason) to it, appearance, style, etc. All of them have a mêlée weapon each(or a pair of them... or four, if they have that many arms and thus purchase and require a larger quantity of deodorant), and you can go back and forth between using it and going with martial arts any moment you want to. You can string Fatalities together... it's kinda boring and gets old real fast, because everyone has the same ones. The music is well-done and always fits, some techno and heavy metal, sometimes swift, menacing, etc. You can move in all three dimensions, but you'll mostly accidentally jump or duck, screwing up what you're trying to do. It's nice that there are layers to where you take on the others, and that you can toss a foe to a lower one. Most cut-scenes are in-engine, and even more frequently, they cop out further by just giving you a text description of what is supposed to be going on(the CGI opening is cool, if powerfully overdone, incredibly excessive in what happens and the measure of what happens to or for every of the ones you see in detail in it). The fights are fast and intense, with rather nifty moves and a nice amount of freedom(block, counter, and everything I've already mentioned in this review). I'm going to set myself up for an enormous bit of written punishment and say that frankly, I prefer Tournament of Legends to this(and it doesn't make a huge difference that it came four years later, it's for the same machine), in that it is immeasurably less unfair, and everyone in that is equal. Strong? Slow. Quick? Weak. And a middle ground class. And the motion sensor use in that is greater by an unmentionable rate. It is immersive, as games for the Wii are supposed to be(I mean, if they aren't, you'll want to go for another Next Generation one... they have superior graphics, an area that is passable in this with a few glaring misses). The controls are another aspect where this doesn't measure up to it. Anyway, the tone is dark and bleak, with hellish settings, though there are ones that don't go as emo. I think this is made for those who have stuck with this franchise for a while... I haven't played any of the others(certainly not at length, and usually on PC, and if you've ever had the misfortune of trying something like this with a keyboard, you know my pain), I know nothing of the background, the universe, these guys and gals and... whatever the heck Goro and his ilk are. Also, you'll want to get this for the core portions, not the car aspect and the like, those are pretty phoned in and beaten mercilessly by the competition that focuses on what they do. They presumably merely went for those to have something new to put on the cover. I recommend this to any fan of the series(and to those who love VG's like this), as it is a fun entry if not without its flaws(obvious and hidden alike). 7/10

an amazing game with the characters made with every detail. the biggest and the best fighting game ever. street fighter can't hold a candle to the mortal kombat series. Mortal kombat Armageddon with the 60+ characters has the new konquest mode with the shaolin monks engine, the new motor kombat that is like mario kart and the arcade mode fighting has a whole new range of stuff in it such as aerial kombat, the new parry mode, stage fatalities (not deathtraps like deception) and the new create afatality mode with rumoured signature fatalities for each character. Another mode new to the mortal kombat series is the create a fighter where every inch of the character is made by you from their hair to their fighting style names. This is the last mortal kombat game on the playstation 2 and xbox generation and in the game only the characters that survive the Armageddon will go to the next generation consoles and in the intro which is 5 minutes long some characters die and is maybe an insider into who will go to the next consoles. 10/10

Mortal: Kombat: Armageddon is basically the final Mortal Kombat game to be released on the Playstation 2 and the original Xbox (as well as the only Mortal Kombat game released on the Nintendo Wii), and it is not a good way to end the sixth generation of consoles.

Basically, the game offers almost every character (Khameleon is exclusive to the Wii port as time constraints kept her from the other ports) as they are fighting each other for the opportunity to fight Blaze, whose defeat would infuse the victor with ultimate power. While it is impressive, the sad thing is most of the roster is basically copy-and-pasted from Deadly Alliance and Deception (with characters like Reptile and Kung Lao getting outfits taken from Shaolin Monks, the game before this). The only new characters are Taven and Daegon, who were created for the game's Konquest Mode. The characters who make their playable debut in this are either hit-or-miss (Jarek is a hit because unlike MK4, he is given his own moveset, while Chameleon is a miss due to having one special move taken from the male ninjas). Also, there are going to be characters who will share a certain special move, which takes away something making one character unique.

As the roster is going to have 62 character (63 for the Wii port), there would not be space to give everyone the traditional Fatalities, so instead, we get Kreate-A-Fatality, which requires you to do a series of presses in a limited time, each hit reducing the timer. While it sounds good on paper, it also takes away what made the kombatants unique, as while normal and boss characters get their own Kreate-A-Fatality moves, they share the same moves. Also, for endings, we get the character doing a kata while Argus, the father of the two new characters, speaks of their fate. While this is also understandable, since like Fatalities, space issues would have prevented the endings to have pictures like in Deadly Alliance and Deception, it is not well thought out.

As for the fighting, almost all fighter is reduced to two fighting styles (one hand-to-hand and one weapon). Fighters like Mokap only have two hand-to-hand styles, while some bosses like Blaze has only one fighting style. To add some new depth, the game adds Air Kombat, which allows you to pummel your opponent in mid-air. Many classic stages return alongside a select few stages from Deception, and Death Traps make a return, which are the closest we are ever getting to actual Fatalities in the game.

Other than the main mode, there is Konquest Mode, which is done like Shaolin Monks. Playing as Taven, you go through many area fighting your way. Sadly, unlike Shaolin Monks, the mode is short, and it does not give too much variety. Also, there is a kart racer mini-game called Motor Kombat, which parodied Mario Kart, however, that mode is also lacking in content, as it only offers five tracks and ten racers to play with.

One of the things I like from this game is Kreate-A-Fighter, which allows you to create your own kombatant to use in arcade mode or online. While it does have limited choices, it does have a good selection of clothing that can allow for recreating your favorite anime or comic book character, and you can choose the moves and make the ending. While it only appeared in this game, it would've been good to see this in a future game, especially with improvements.

But when all is said and done, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon is a disappointment, and it showed why making Mortal Kombat games annually was a bad idea. While the idea of bringing all the characters back sounded good on paper, when done in-game, it's a bad Fatality waiting to happen. Coupled with the fact that its two other modes don't fare much better due to how little content they have, and the fact that Kreate-A-Fatality was a horrible idea, Armageddon is one entry that should be skipped unless you are one of those people who want to own all the MK titles.

My only problems are: 1) Motaro is not a centaur in the game, he is a satyr with a bit tail 2) Kreate a Fatality system - when you take every signature fatality out of the game, the characters feel raped, as does the player....no more cannibal kiss (Mileena), no more spine rip (Sub-zero), no more Electrocution (Rayden).....nothing but standard violence...Aside from this, the game is all out great. I love the konquest mode and the simplicity of the krypt. This is the only game in the mortal kombat series to not contain bios either. There's not a lot in the game that makes sense (ie Sheeva being alive, etc.) but it still seems to have a story once you play the konquest mode. I highly recommend this game, if you can get past the K-a-F system.