Mortal Kombat 9

Verdict:
Damn shame you'll never legally buy this in Australia.

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Review: Banned in Australia, we get our secret agent Adam Rorke on the case to see what we're all missing out on...

Sadly the Mortal Kombat (MK) series hasn’t been doing too well lately. With a strong reliance on gore and violence as its selling point the last few sequels had lacked a certain... impact.

This revealed flaws in the game's combat system. It lacked the depth and flow that other beat-em-ups such as the Street Fighter and Tekken series have. Some of the biggest problems were that the fatalities had become stale and boring and the visuals lacked detail and realism. Perhaps trying to redeem its former glory, the development team have taken the series in a semi new direction with the latest reboot of the MK franchise.

Combat feels a lot more polished and is easily the best in the MK series to date. Players can chain together moves with pre-defined combos. This new approach feels less forced and more fun, leaving the player with a lot more freedom.

Something we weren’t expecting was a focus on the single player and story. As you progress through the 16 chapters the origins of each character is explained. Fans of the series will definitely get a lot out of this. There are also challenge matches where the player must complete a set of objectives. This was a nice addition but will result in much rage quitting.

As you play you earn coins. Save up enough and you can unlock a krypt [sic]. There are many hundreds to choose from and it’s here that you unlock extra content such as special fatalities and alternate skins. Navigating to each unlockable on the other hand is painful and frustrating.

As every Australian has already guessed, this game is incredibly violent. The damage your character absorbs during a match is completely over shadowed by the sheer brutality of their finishing moves. Players have their limbs, skin and heads torn off in many different fashions and each one is as cringe worthy as the last. For those with queasy stomachs you may want to avoid this game as MK doesn’t hold back any punches. This alone is easily the reason it was refused an MA15+ rating here in Australia.

In what seems to be a big middle finger to 360 owners and our biggest gripe of the game is that PS3 owners get Kratos as a playable character. For all 360 owners, you get squat. The decision to go this way makes no sense and is hard to understand; so we won’t even try to. Needless to say PS3 owners get lot more out of this as well as ammo in the 360 vs PS3 debate wars.

So there you go Australia. This is the game you’re missing out on. What sucks for us is that it’s a very good game. It’s fun to play, has loads of content and has all the elements that made the original MK games great. The vast majority of us will have to wait for the R18+ rating until we’re able to play this with our adult friends.

Product Info

Specs:

Reviewed on Xbox 360 Developer: Nether Realm Studios Publisher: Warner Bros Interactive

Supplier:

N/A

price check*

$8.59	WAR Mortal Kombat [9325336124567]Three unknowing martial artists are summon... MegaBuy Technology Superstore (QLD)

$12.89	WAR Mortal Kombat [9325336124581]Three unknowing martial artists are summon... MegaBuy Technology Superstore (QLD)

$17.43	ROA Mortal Kombat [9398710029390]Release Date:23 Mar 2006(M) Shipping gener... MegaBuy Technology Superstore (QLD)

$17.43	ROA Mortal Kombat: Annihilation [9398710185096]Release Date:22 Dec 1998(M) ... MegaBuy Technology Superstore (QLD)

$17.95	WAR Mortal Kombat - Conquest: Volume 4-6 [9325336026243]In a dark and mysti... MegaBuy Technology Superstore (QLD)

$17.95	WAR Mortal Kombat - Conquest: Volume 1-3 [9325336026236]In a dark and mysti... MegaBuy Technology Superstore (QLD)

See more results for mortal kombat on staticice.com.au

*Products and prices sourced from staticICE and are in no way associated with Atomic MPC

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3 Comments

thesorehead Apr 27, 2011 11:15 AM	Lucky PS3 games are region-free...
Aktavite Apr 27, 2011 3:11 PM	Can't play US X-Box games on Australian consoles?
Khamûl Apr 29, 2011 3:00 PM	playasia?

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