I was only 3-years-old when Midway first released Mortal Kombat for the arcade and later, the Sega Genesis; and, it was 1995 when I was even allowed to delve into the NetherRealms for the first time with Mortal Kombat 3.

But now, 19-years later, Warner Bros. Interactive has brought the series back to gamers with a reboot that has redefined what a fighting game should be.

Mortal Kombat was released on April 19, 2011.

Growing up as a child of the 90s, I had many opportunities to experience the brutal world of Mortal Kombat. Starting with Mortal Kombat 3 in 1995, I became obsessed with learning every possible move that Scorpion had in his deadly arsenal. I can’t tell you how many times I remember frantically hitting F, F, D, U, R, N to set my opponents on fire with Scorpion’s vicious Toasty fatality.

With this new game, not much has changed. Sure, the graphics are better; the moves are more fluid; the violence is more gruesome and the look has changed, but I’m still frantically pushing as many buttons as I can to own my opponents. With that in mind, let’s take a look at what makes this game so revolutionary and what I could’ve done without.

Retro-Violence

One of my favorite aspects of this new game is how the developers took it back to the basics. During the early to mid 90s (before the big revolution in video game graphics) the MK series was arcade-based. Everything was two-dimensional: there was no running and the movement was limited to left and right. All you could do was jump, punch, kick and block.

When Warner Bros. decided to develop the ninth game in the franchise, they made the choice to go back to that style of gaming, while still taking advantage of the modern technology. What did we gain from that?

Scorpion dishes out a wicked uppercut in the bloodiest installment of the game series.

We gained an arcade experience like none other.

With an updated graphics system, players can now control their favorite character in a 3-dimensional world. That means, the characters are 2D just like the arcade versions, but the fighting stages are high-definition 3D worlds.

The controls are also similar to those of the old Acclaim arcade versions. On the XBOX 360 version of the game, players can use the joysticks to move while using either X, B, A or Y to perform punching or kicking moves.

Personally, I like this new take on the old way of playing. I’ve played just about every installment of the game series and while I have enjoyed the ability to move around in many different directions and performing a multitude of interactive moves, this game makes up for the limitations by creating the most fluid fighting sequences I’ve seen in most games.

What is the downfall? There must be a negative to this, right? Well, there isn’t. Not to me, at least.

X-Ray Feature

The biggest addition to this year’s version of Mortal Kombat is its X-Ray feature. While fighting, the player gradually fills up a meter at the bottom of the screen. When that bar fills up, an “X” appears. Then, all the player needs to do is hit two simple buttons and let the blood flow.

This is just one of the many x-ray moves done in the new game.

This new and artistic fighting system, shows the players just what their character goes through in the intense moments of pain and I must say, I like that a lot. It is very innovative to see something like this because it has been attempted before with other fighting games, but it has never been done this well.

Game Roster

This game came complete with all of the original 26 characters (and some downloadable ones as well) from the first set of games in the series. While each of those individual characters has their own unique styles and moves, I did find myself wishing for more playable Kombatants. 

It is, in this case, that the Playstation 3 version of the game wins. For those who own that version, those players will have the pleasure of playing as Kratos from the God of War game franchise.

Jax is one of the many original characters that has gone through a little bit of a makeover for this game.

 Story Mode

This was the biggest disappointment for me. I feel that this mode had so much potential to offer something new and offer a unique and interactive perspective on the classic storyline.

The cutscenes flow well and they generally work, but the interweaving fights seem forced, misplaced and they just don’t work.

The story mode had potential, but instead was unorganized and dry.

It is too random for me: Just about every fight in the story takes place right after some short, random cutscene. It seems like they took and interesting story and just dropped fights into it. There has to be a better way smoothly put that all together in a good way.

Overview

• Takes game back to arcade basics
• Great graphics
• Smooth fighting
• Unique and interesting X-Ray system
• Gory! Gory! Gory!
• Awesome fatalities!
• Could use more characters to reduce boredom
• In-depth but disappointing story mode

My Rating: 9.0 out of 10.0