GameSpot editors' review
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CNET editors' rating:
stars
Very good
Detailed editors' rating
- Reviewed on: 06/04/2007
- Updated on: 06/22/2007
- Released on: 05/29/2007
- Originally published on GameSpot: Mortal Kombat: Armageddon (Wii) Review
Mortal Kombat: Armageddon is Midway's attempt to take most of the stuff that has appeared in a Mortal Kombat game since Deadly Alliance was released back in 2002 and mash it all into one big game. It is a send-off of sorts of the current fighting style and game engine for the series. It was also a fitting send-off of the previous generation of consoles when it was originally released on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox last year. Now, that game has come to the Wii, where it automatically becomes one of the best fighting games currently available on the platform simply because the options are limited. Armageddon reuses a little too much content from previous games, and as a result, it feels like it is coasting. But it's also the first substantial modern fighting game to be released on the Wii, and that alone, makes it notable.
There's a real kitchen-sink mindset at work in MK: Armageddon. If you can think of a Mortal Kombat character that has appeared in any of the previous games, real or rumored, chances are he or she makes some kind of appearance in this game. There are more than 60 playable characters in the game, each with his or her own fighting styles, though in practice, most of the major differences come down to their special moves. Each character has a handful of special attacks, and the classics are all present. Scorpion will still jab a spear into your chest and yank you across the screen, while Sub-Zero can still freeze you solid for a free attack. And yes, Stryker will still whip out a gun to blast you. All in all, the characters feel balanced, which is a feat, considering there are a ton of them. On top of that, there's a robust character-creation system that lets you customize the look and moves of a fighter, which can be cool if you're willing to put some time into it.
That sense of creation has also crept into the game's grisly finishing moves. While fatalities in previous games were unique, canned sequences of gruesome-yet-usually-hilarious violence, now you can choose how to eliminate your opponents by executing a series of moves after the fight has ended. These moves are simple and include changing your opponent's position, ripping off limbs, punching his or her head off, and so on. It's a clever idea that, unfortunately, totally lacks personality. Sure, it's up to you to decide how to finish your opponent, but nothing that you can do matches the thrills of setting your foes on fire, kissing them to make them explode, or performing any of the other classic fatalities that the MK series has demonstrated over the years.
The interesting thing about the Wii version is that the game has been updated and altered to fully support the Wii Remote and Nunchuk combo. You can do these special moves by holding down the trigger on the Wii Remote and swaying it in a specific fashion. For example, if you move it away from your opponent then toward him or her with Scorpion, you can do the spear. It's a neat idea that is hampered a bit because the Wii Remote never feels quite right. It's difficult to get a high level of accuracy and timing with such an imprecise control method. On top of that, the game maps all of your normal attacks to different directions on the Wii Remote's D pad, which isn't very friendly when it comes to tapping out combos. It's sort of fun to mess around with it, but once you get serious about actually playing MK: Armageddon, you'll be thankful that it has support for the Classic Controller and GameCube controllers.
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