Mortal Kombat in Prince of Persia style

User Rating: 7 | Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks PS2
Mortal Kombat: Shao Lin Monks is not what one would expect from a Mortal Kombat game.

Since the release of Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, the franchise is experiencing different styles of game play. It began as simply introducing new fighting styles, zounds of movies, pictures, profiles and a simple yet addictive training system. MK: Deception offered a nice combat game and a story mode game, in which one could play a RPG based in the MK universe. Those additions were nice and welcome.

In Shao Lin Monks this so called bonuses became the main game. It's odd to label it a fighting game. It feels like MK in Prince of Persia world. It's all there: acrobatic moves, wall running, wall jumping and nimble dodges at combat. The only real difference is that everything was given a well thought MK touch.

This MK touch is the game's strongest point. The puzzles usually require some gory execution of a given number of opponents or that you kill them in the nicely done Fatality moves. The effort to translate an adventure game to the MK world should not be taken lightly as well as the effort to link Shao Lin Monks with the two previous MK games through a better than average storyline. I gotta say it's strange to see Scorpion wall running over a chasm to step on a certain trigger and open the portal to the nether realm, but it definitely feels like MK when you have to "test your might" to open a city gate.

The fighting styles, weapons casting and fatality moves have been introduced in the game rather successfully and most boss fights are rather exciting.

As a final remark, I could say it's a nice adventure game with a MK touch but that would be unfair to fans of the genre. The game's storyline, extras and link to the previous MK games are sure to please those in love with the MK universe like my wife, who labels Shao Lin Monks the best PS2 MK game. So, if you're a fan, go for it.