Episode 26: Mortal Kombat 9 Preview

Disclaimer: The Following consists of copyrighted material owned by Ed Boon, Netherrealm Studios, and Warner Brothers interactive.

Airnaruto45 the Classic Critic sat at his desk once more but this time he had a Chinese style hat on top of his head. "Hello I'm the Classic Critic; I remember it so you're not required to." He said as he got to the point of the episode, "Well folks lets face the past 15 years or so have not been kind to the Mortal Kombat series, ever since it jumped to the era of 3D fighting and to be honest many people complained about it. The basic problem people had with games like Deadly, deception, Armageddon, and MK vs. DC Universe was that the 3D fighting engine made it too easy to avoid special attacks by simply side stepping them." He explained showing certain attacks getting dodged by a simple side step. "Though in the case of MK vs. DC the major problems involved what was done to the material involved; such as having the fatalities and gore toned down to get a T rating instead of the traditional M rating the franchise was known for, confusion on which fan base the game was trying to attract, and of course the Heroic brutalities of the DC heroes since they follow the whole heroes don't kill code." Airnaruto said he pulled out his copy of MK vs. DC and showed it to the audience. "However in January of 2009, Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon announced on his Twitter page that production was under way for a new Mortal Kombat game, however this time it would have what fans had been praying for in a Mortal Kombat game since the days of the arcade with Mortal Kombat 1, 2, 3 and Ultimate 3 in the form of a 2D to 2.5D fighting engine, a reboot of the original story, and an M rating." Airnaruto said as he got to the point.

"So how much justice does this reboot do the franchise and rekindle a gamers faith in the elder gods?" Airnaruto asked. "Well let's find out, released in North America on April 19 2011, and released Globally except in Australia due to government interference on April 21 2011, the game is Mortal Kombat 9 or just called…..MORTAL KOMBAT!" He said screaming the last part.

"Sorry about that…anyway two things I need to address; 1. Since the game came out just last week I'm not going to spoil the story modes ending, and 2 I don't own a copy of the game I'm just going by what I've seen on the web, now on with the review." Airnaruto said. The game opens up in the climax of the final battle in Edenia with most of the kombatants on both sides dead save for three maybe four, Raiden, Shao Khan, Shinnok, and Taven." Airnaruto said before the camera cut back to him. "If you don't get it maybe Taven's ending in Armageddon's Konquest mode and Shinnok's arcade ladder ending will explain, in terms as to how Taven is still alive when he's not in the opening cutscene maybe this will help." Airnaruto said as he showed a clip of Taven performing a kata on the top of the pyramid.

Taven: My world has been ripped to pieces. I awoke in a foreign realm, forced to complete a quest set forth by my parents Argus and Delia. This quest though intended to save the realms, has destroyed my family. My brother Daegon became obsessed with winning the prize of full godhood and murdered our parents, and in his madness he sought to destroy me as well. Orin and Caro; dragons loyal to our family for ages were not spared from the curse that this quest has wrought. Daegon enslaved Caro to serve his own ends, the sorcerer Quan Chi killed Orin who was my guardian, though I had nothing left, I was determined to complete the quest. I faced many kombatants fighting my way to the top of the pyramid until at last I alone defeated Blaze in Mortal Kombat. The energy released by his death passed through me, granting me full godhood. The excess power then filtered through my armor and passed into the other kombatants. Though this energy was to have one of two effects on them, death or annulment of their powers, a third unforeseen outcome resulted. The quest did nothing to resolve the instability of the realms, but as protector of Edenia I vow to stave off Armageddon until a solution can be found.

The camera then cut back to Airnaruto; "In other words, Taven and his little brother were sent on a quest to find a firespawn created by their mortal sorceress mother Delia who would sound the signal to Orin and Caro to wake up the boys in Earthrealm and then after getting some key items from their parents temples, whoever defeated Blaze between the two of them would not only succeed Argus as protector of Edenia but will also have saved the realms unfortunately instead of nullifying the kombatants powers it amplified them due to Blaze having his design corrupted by the holy men of Onaga the Dragon king and so after that he left to attend his new post as the God in charge of protecting Edenia but now I'm rambling." Airnaruto said before moving on as to why Shinnok was still alive.

"Shinnok on the other hand is about as Machiavellian as Griffith from Berserk except uglier." Airnaruto said and showed a clip of Shinnok on top of the same pyramid doing a kata as well as Argus explained what happened after he defeated Blaze.

Argus: Shinnok had anticipated the elimination of all the kombatants present at the final battle. He sent his doppelganger to aid Daegon in defeating Blaze. But with Daegon's unexplained disappearance, the false Shinnok defeated the fire spawn. The power of Blaze breathed life into him, making him as powerful as the real fallen Elder God. Shinnok must now face himself if he is to rule supreme.

"The Shinnok that beat Blaze in this case was a clone the real fallen Elder god was still in the Netherrealm." Airnaruto said before moving on, "Anyway with everyone else dead the only two who remain at the top of the pyramid are Raiden, God of thunder and protector of Earthrealm and the emperor of Outworld Shao Khan…" Airnaruto said before getting cut off again by Captain Kirk and The Joker.

Kirk: KHAN!

Joker: KHAN!

(Echoes)

"SHUT UP OR I'LL GUT BOTH OF YOU!" Airnaruto screamed. "Anyway, Raiden is getting his ass kicked all while Khan with his strength increased tenfold by Blaze's excess energy gloats that he's no longer bound by the elder gods and their Mortal Kombat, even going as far as calling them toothless worms. Finally out of Desperation Raiden sends a message to himself in the one place Khan is at his most vulnerable…the past just as Shao Khan is about to kill him." Airnaruto said just as Raiden sends the message back to his past self.

Raiden (Armageddon) to Raiden (MK1): He must win…

"So the past Raiden sees all the visions sent by his future self and tries to do all he can to prevent the apocalypse from happening again. Will he succeed or will his efforts be in vain?" Airnaruto asked as Past Raiden's amulet ended up with a crack on it.

"In other words folks, we're in for a retelling of the story through the first three Mortal Kombat games, with most of the cast from that time available with some DLC on the way and a couple of characters from later in the original canon." Airnaruto said before running down the list. "Among the cast that you can play as there's; Jade, Sonya, Sub-Zero, Smoke, Sindel, Nightwolf, Kabal, Kano, Reptile, Cyrax, Sektor, Scorpion, Noob, Sheeva, Kung Lao, Kitana, Johnny Cage, Raiden, Stryker, Mileena, Liu Kang, Jax, Ermac, Shang Tsung, Baraka, Quan Chi (After you've beaten the story mode.), a cybernetic version of Sub-Zero, yes some of the events in the original canon do get altered in this game, and if you're lucky to own a PS3 you'll receive as DLC Kratos from the God of War franchise…All I can say to that one is FUCKING AWESOME!" Airnaruto explained and then exclaimed.

"The fighting mechanic and graphics for the game are as I mentioned are 2D to 2.5D fighting mechanic combined with the 3D backgrounds and environment respectively and stage fatalities. The combat, is fluid, fast pace, on par with Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 in terms of how fast some of the characters move, and combos are once more reliant on juggling as oppose to long chain and style branching attacks from the three of the previous four which makes it easier for newcomers to pick up and play while at the same time catering to the old school fans. They even throw in a super meter with X- ray moves where you get to see characters breaking their opponent's necks, crushing their ribs, or even gouging them in the eyes with a weapon." Airnaruto said as some of these moves were shown like Johnny Cage's nut punch, Baraka jamming his blade into his opponent's vital organs, Kratos knocking another enemies teeth out with the Nemean Cestus, etc. "The Fatalities now I wish I could kill some of my enemies in ways as gruesome as this and thankfully unlike the last game you get a lot of time to attempt to execute it, here's some examples of some fatalities." Airnaruto said as he first showed Kabal's Intestinal hooking fatality.

Kabal takes his hook swords and pierces Kano in the intestines before setting them down and letting Kano slowly fall into the blades, then He showed a classic one with Sheeva ripping Baraka's skin off his bones, then Johnny Cage knocking Quan Chi's head off and then pulling out an academy award.

Johnny: And the award goes to…

(Smashes the award into where Quan Chi's head used to be.)

The next fatality showed Smoke manipulating some smoke around his index and middle fingers and then pressing it against Sheeva's head causing her skin to disintegrate off her bones.

Kenshiro: Omae wa mo shinderiu (You are already dead)

"Hell they even redo a certain Fatality from the last game but show it how it should have been." Airnaruto said as he showed Shang Tsung shape shift into a Pennywise knock-off clown with the Joker laugh from the MK vs. DC game, he pulls out a pistol and pulls the trigger in front of Jax only to have a sign with a banner saying "BANG!" on it until he pulls the trigger again and blows his head off.

"Other goodies available include, a challenge tower where you have to perform a certain task to earn koins and there are 300 of these challenges trust me some are tough some are not." Airnaruto said before moving on to another goodie. "The Kyrpt makes it's return with the usual bag of treats, hidden fatalities, alternate costumes, concept art, the usual stuff." Airnaruto said before he did a little nitpicking.

"Now as good as this game is, I do have some complaints, 3 of them to be exact; Number 1: The bosses in this game are broken and cheap constantly hitting you with the same attack and never giving you a chance to breathe, and Shao Khan is the biggest offender of this flaw." Airnaruto said, "Number 2: The fact that this game has been prohibited in Australia not meeting the standard rating system there. If it meets the requirements to be sold here in America it should be sold there too damn the Australian Parental Association." He said finishing his second complaint, "Number 3 and most importantly the story mode ending but I'm not going to spoil it but I will say this… You mean to tell me that if what didn't happen did happen in the original Mortal Kombat 3, then none of the shit that occurred from Mortal Kombats 4 through Armageddon would have happened? As logical as the ending may seem and I know this has been said by many gamers but still…WHAT THE FUCK WERE THEY THINKING?" He screamed.

"Overall this is the reboot that Mortal Kombat fans have been waiting for with a new plot, classic characters, terrific game play, and loads of BLOOD, TITS, GORE! GORE! YOU SEE THAT TARKATAN NOT ANYMORE HE'S FUCKING DEAD GORE!" Airnaruto screamed again. "Sorry but of course there are the flaws I did find when I saw some of the playthroughs that I mentioned but other than that go out and buy this blood bathing son of a bitch." I'm giving it 5 fatally fractured skulls out of 5." Airnaruto said.

"Well folks that's it for now and don't forget to check out my profile page to vote for which harem anime I get to review for Harem May starting next week. Until then I'm the Classic Critic; I remember it so you're not required to.

Mortal Kombat Recap:

Pros: loads of stuff to unlock and do, story is well done; combat is finally back within a 2D plane and fluent and more violent than ever.

Many characters from the first three games with a few extras

Kratos on PS3 as DLC

Tag team Battle (I forgot about this one)

Cons: Cheap boss battles

Final Rating ***** out of 5 (Fatally fractured skulls)

A/N: Well ther you have it folks so until next time read and review