A huge roster of Kombatants tries to cover up mindless button-mashing in this final MK romp.
But here’s where the “treat” gets sour. The gameplay is pretty much “choose a combo and stick with it”. Special moves are nice to look at, but not as effective as a 3/4/5/6-hit combo. Most characters will have a 3 or 4 hit combo that will work just fine, so there’s no incentive (or desire) to learn the massively long combos that require to you change from your hand-to-hand combat style to your weapon style. Too much work. If you have a character that has 2 hits then a pop-up on the 3rd, then it’ll be a piece of cake. While they’re flying helplessly in the air, you reposition yourself to do the same 3-hit combo as they’re coming down and you’ll get a 6-hit combo (which gives you nice, shiny Koins to use in the Krypt). So, the combos help you out, sure… but its cheap and mindless. Anyone can do it. The Fatalities are corny and too generic for a Mortal Kombat game. Plus, they’re not that easy to do sometimes. The timing has to be just right, or the Fatality meter will go down to nothing, then your opponent will fall over in boredom because you couldn’t rip his head off. The character-specific Fatalities appear to be gone, and you now have to do a sequence of “moves” in order to pull off a Fatality. Its just disappointing not to see Scorpion take his mask off and incinerate his opponent. And to “Finish You” properly, Midway decided that the opening movie was enough eye-candy for their MK fans, so once you defeat Blaze in Arcade Mode, you’re subjected to a bland ending. Your character performs their kata while the announcer tells you about the fate of your character after defeating Blaze. Some are laughable… some are absolutely ridiculous… and some leave you scratching your head and wondering why. If they can do an awesome opening, then the ending shouldn’t feel like you got hit with Johnny Cage’s groin punch.
I haven’t gotten very far into the Konquest mode, but it seems to have a decent storyline, although the MK characters you run into along the way kind of just pop out of nowhere, and they all have something against you. But, its as good, if not better than the previous MKs’ Konquest modes. I don’t like the fact that you can only find the “god-like” armor for your Kreate-A-Kombatant characters… I think you should have more choice in their outfits. But, the Konquest mode seems to be a slightly redeeming factor. Unlike the Motor Kombat, which is what a horrible-controlling, awful-looking, Mario Kart port for a V-Cast cell phone would be like. Its horrid… don’t bother with it.
The other interesting idea that didn’t pan out was the Kreate a Kombatant mode (or Kreate a Fighter… whichever its called). Those are some of the ugliest fighters I’ve ever seen… they make Milenna and Baraka look like supermodels. On top of that, the selection of martial arts, special moves, and weapons are no different than the ones the 60+ Kombatants already use. Sure, you can mix things up and have a character that can do Ermac’s martial arts, have Nightwolf’s tomahawks, and use Scorpion’s spear special move… but why? The original MK characters look a lot better, and there’s no story for your new fighter in the Arcade Mode… the ending is just them doing the kata like the other MK characters, but no announcer. Whoop-dee-doo. The only use it could possibly have is for XBOX Live. You show up in a match with your Kreate a Kombatant, and your opponent doesn’t really know what to expect (fighting-style wise… they know to expect an ugly opponent) until the fight has started. But, even that will get old after… oh, one or two matches. So, overall, the Kreate a Kombatant mode isn’t worth the time and effort to use.
MK: Armageddon is definitely one of the best MKs of the series, even with the previously mentioned useless game modes and button-mashing mayhem. I think they should have kept the character-specific Fatalities, and let you do this generic combo-type Fatality system as well. I also think they should have included more than two outfits for the characters to wear… design a special farewell outfit if this is indeed the final chapter in the Mortal Kombat series. And I feel like this game should have been done for the next-gen systems… if you’re going to end it, then go out with a bang. Not with something that looks good on the box, but fizzles out after you’ve got it going. For die-hard MK fans, this one is a must-have. For those who like MK games but aren’t the fanatics, or for fighting gamers… rent this one first to decide whether you’d want it in your collection. I also recommend the previous two MKs: Deadly Alliance and Deception. (Both on XBOX, but only Deception is backwards compatible with the XBOX 360 at the moment, along with Armageddon.) The storylines are pretty good, and if you want quality MK mini-games, you can’t beat MK: Deception’s version of “Puzzle Fighter” and Kombat Chess. Plus the Konquest modes in those games aren’t bad either.