Mortal Kombat
Retro Rewind – Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance
Written by Podunker:rrquinta
Here’s another one of our Retro Rewind series, where we will offer you a “preview experience” as if this game were brand-new and being released in a few weeks or months. Relive the excitement, so to speak. Don’t look at Retro Rewind as a review written after playing a game. Instead, look at this as a preview of what to expect and get excited about before you do (play it). Let’s turn back time to the game known for reviving the Mortal Kombat series, Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance.
If you could travel back in time (but isn’t that sort of the purpose of this series?) to 2001-2002, before Deadly Alliance was announced, and conducted a poll among many gamers about the future of the Mortal Kombat franchise, you may have been lucky to find anyone who had anything positive to say, unless they were reminiscing. So when Ed Boon, the series co-creator, announced that the fighting game was seeing new light, being revamped completely to try to regain the trust of the most die-hard fighting fans out there, he was met with much skepticism.
To symbolize the rebirth of the franchise, Mortal Kombat hero Liu Kung is killed almost immediately at the beginning of the game. While this may leave many die-hard fans disappointed, other franchise favorites still fill out the roster: such as Sub-Zero, Sonya Blade, Scorpion. The balance of these fighters (23 total) is much improved, one of the elements Boon promised to fix in this new release.
Another major change from previous iterations is the ability to use different fighting styles, and to switch these mid-battle. Think: Tae Kwon Do, et. al. In fact, nearly every martial art style you can dream up is included, realistically, in Deadly Alliance, increasing the depth (and variety) of the game dramatically.
Another interesting addition to this reboot is the tracking system, which will keep a record of your wins, losses, and other stats. As an added bonus, you can save your record on a memory card, take it to a friend’s house, and have access to not only your stats, but the various bonuses (such as Kombat Koins) to use with your friend, adding an interesting twist to traditional multiplayer.
These Kombat Koins come in a variety of types and are earned during your battles, based on your performance (in Arcade mode). You can then bring them to the Krypt, where you can spend them on over 650 unlockables such as new characters, bonus costumes, hints, and more.
Gameplay modes include the story mode (Arcade mode), which follows your character and enables you to discover more about them; multiplayer (Versus mode), where you can battle a friend; a training mode; and “Konquest” mode, which works both as a way to train and practice as well as adding to the storyline.
In terms of the specifics of gameplay, Mortal Kombat has evolved here from its simple, 4-button roots, to a far more advanced, 7-button system. Many of the buttons’ commands will vary with each character, so that pressing “square” for one character may produce a kick, while pressing the same button for another may produce a punch. Adding another layer of depth, these attacks may also vary depending on what fighting style you are currently using. Certainly, this control system is vastly improved for hardcore gamers over simpler style of previous Mortal Kombat games. Deadly Alliance also maintains the “block” button (press to block), which is ideal in a 3-D fighter, while introducing a new command, the “Special Move,” which gives you up to three options depending on the character you are playing and the fighting style you are using.
Each character has three fighting styles available to him/her, and these can be changed on the fly during battle, as often as the player would like: one of these is weapon-based, while the others are not. This new system adds a layer of depth previously not found in Mortal Kombat: not only does it enable you to do an enormous amount of combos (severely limited in previous games), but certain opponents have weakness to particular fighting styles, introducing an important level of strategy to the gameplay.
In terms of visuals, Deadly Alliance makes an impressive leap into full 3-D. Particularly engaging are the facial animations: as your character takes damage, the effects will appear in his/her face in the form of bruises, swelling, etc. Add this to the traditional franchise staple of plenty of blood, along with unique characters and interesting backdrops (including rain, smoke, and snow), and Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance is sure to win you with your eyes as well as in terms of its gameplay. Likewise, especially if you have surround sound, the music and sound effects will blow you away and only serve to draw you further into the experience.
Fans of the series, or fans of fighting games in general, definitely deserve to treat themselves to this experience, as hours of addictive, strategic fun are to be had, especially as we look, uncertain, toward the future of the Mortal Kombat franchise.
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