Mortal Kombat an ever expanding series

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Its one of the goriest fighting game series of all time and its a game series that I grew up with, lets take a look at the evolution of the Mortal Kombat video games.

Before we begin here is a brief explanation of the series, you battle your many opponents in one on one battles and the victor of the fight can perform a finishing move which can be either comical, brutal or fatal, these games are not shy on blood and gore and for a lot of people its the gory finishing moves that make the games as enjoyable as they are.

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Mortal Kombat takes place on the island of Shang Tsung, the Island has hosted the Mortal Kombat tournament for hundred of generations, in the tournament warriors battle for the chance to take on the warrior Goro who has never been defeated. You are one of the latest challengers to take on the tournament.

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Mortal Kombat introduced players to seven characters.

Johnny Cage – A martial artist and famous movie star

Kano –  A mercenary who is devoted to a life of crime

Liu Kang  – A Shaolin Monk who hopes to bring peace to the realm.

Raiden – A god of thunder

Scorpion – A ninja that dresses in yellow colours and uses fire as an element of attack

Sonia Blade – A member of the special forces

and Sub Zero –  A ninja that dresses in blue colours and uses ice as an element of attack

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Apart from fighting, players are able to try their luck at the extremely hard and blister enducing test your might game, in this mini-game you have to raise the might bar and destroy various strong materials.

The Original Mortal Kombat was quite basic but it was good enough for a first entry in the series.

A memorable moment from the game for me is the pit where you can throw an opponent onto a bed of spikes after defeating them in one of the levels. The Pit is also where players are able to trigger a secret fight with the green ninja called Reptile and major points are available if he is defeated.

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The game was released on various home consoles after its debut in the arcades, I owned the game on the Sega Mega-drive which is the superior home console version as blood could be turned on using a special code however in the Super Nintendo release blood was completely removed.

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As a side note I thought it might be fun to talk about the original arcade machines for some of these games starting with Mortal Kombat 1. I think the art is really cool on this machine, it has Johnny on the side and it looks like he is kicking a dragon in the head. Good art but not sure if it really shows that its a fighting game I feel like it would be more appropriate to a beat em up such as double dragon.

There is a lot more information about this cabinet on arcade-museum, I will put a link below.

https://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=8753

After being defeated by Liu Kang in the first game , Shang Tsung begs ruler of Outworld Shao Khan to spare his life and also host the next Mortal Kombat Tournament in Outworld, Shao Khan agrees and restores both life and youth to Shang Tsung.

It should be noted that because of the plot of this game Liu Kang winning the tournament in Mortal Kombat 1 was the canon ending.

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Seven new playable characters were introduced in Mortal Kombat 2

Baraka – A mutant that works for Shao Khan

Jax –  A special forces officer

Kitana – A female ninja and assassin

Kung Lao –  A Shaolin monk and friend of Liu Kang

Mileena –  Kitana’s sister and who is an assassin working for Shao Khan.

Reptile –  The mysterious ninja from the first game

and Shang Tsung –  The sorcerer and final boss from the first game although much younger

It should be noted Sonia Blade and Kano did not make a comeback as a playable characters in Mortal Kombat 2.

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The game had three hidden fights that you could access if you hit certain criteria during your play-through.

Jade –  A strange female ninja who fights with a fan

Smoke – A Ninja dressed in grey that uses smoke to help him fight

and Noob Saibot – A very mysterious character that who’s features are completely hidden by its dark colour palette, this fight is the hardest of the secret battles in my personal opinion.

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As well as fatalities there were two more finishing moves you could do in this game, the first was babalities where you could turn your opponent into a baby and the other was friendship which had you do something kind for an opponent after defeating them, hilariously this was made as a mocking response to critics who deemed the first Mortal Kombat too violent.

Mortal Kombat 2 was a massive improvement over the first game, it added loads of new characters, new stages that were better animated, it gave players babalaties and new fatalities along side three brand new stage fatalities, overall a fantastic game.

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I much prefer the arcade machine design here, I love Raiden being on the side of the cabinet, to me he is a much more recognisable character than Johnny Cage is and to be honest in my opinion he is a lot cooler as well.

For more information on this arcade cabinet follow the link below

https://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=8756

After being defeated by Liu Kang in Mortal Kombat 2, Shao Khan uses Shang Tsung to revive his long lost love Sindel, he does this as part of a plan to combine both Earthrealm and Outworld causing billions to lose their lives because of this Raiden sends warriors out to fight Shao Khan and put a stop to him once and for all.

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Mortal Kombat 3 is my least favourite out of the original arcade games, as a child I really did not like a lot of the changes they made and I still do not to this day. Biggest change was removing scorpion from the game which makes no sense because he is the most popular character in the series and nothing happened to him in the last game to explain his absence here. Sub Zero has a new character design and it sucks, I prefer the iconic blue mask and he just does not look right.

The game introduced a good number of new playable characters

Cyrax – A cyber assassin that dresses in yellow

Kabal – A former black dragon warrior

Nightwolf – A native american shaman

Sektor – A cyber assassin that dresses in red

Sindel – Shao Khan’s resurrected queen

Sheeva – A female shoken who is also the protector of Sindel

Stryker – A riot control officer

and Smoke – A cyber assassin that uses smoke as a means of attack

Both Kano and Sonia Blade return as playable characters in Mortal Kombat 3 however Baraka, Mileena, Reptile, Scorpion, Raiden and Kitana did not make a return as playable characters.

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The stages here take place in world settings that are more familiar to players such as subways, cities and streets which to be honest I much prefer to the stages in the first two games.

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A new finishing move called an aqnimality was added which allows character to turn into animals before killing their defeated opponent.

Other things that should be noted are the new stage fatalities which take advantage of the new settings, the ability to change stages during a battle if you manage knock your opponent to higher level, secret fights with a robotic version of smoke as well as returning fighter Noob Saibot and a new sub boss Montaro who is a centaur that is ridiculously hard to beat.

Overall Mortal Kombat 3 is a really good game, and the reason I dont like it is because of the character selection which may seem a little unfair for me to judge it on that but with the changes they made to some of the characters it just didnt feel right and took away from the experience for me.

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Really great artwork on this arcade cabinet, the character choices make sense due to the games plot and the amount of detail is fantastic, I still prefer the artwork for the Mortal Kombat 2 cabinet but this one is a close second for me.

For more information on this arcade cabinet please use the link below

https://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=8754

Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 was released the same year as the original game it made a few updates that improved the overall experience the first was returning characters Scorpion, Kitana, Jade and Reptile, it added two new modes and added new hidden fighters Human Smoke, Classic Sub Zero, Mileena, Ermac, Noob Saibot and Rain.

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The art here is a little dissapointing as they copied the Mortal Kombat 2 art work instead of Mortal Kombat 3 which does not make a lot more sense as Raiden is not a playable character in this game.

Mortal Kombat trilogy was compilation of the original Kombat trilogy crammed into one game, every playable character was back along side Goro, Kintaro, Motaro and Shao Khan.

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The game introduced another finishing move called a brutality where players will beat the utter crap out of their defeated opponents before making them explode.

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A new secret fighter called chameleon can be taken on, he uses the combined abilities of all ninja characters and is really tough

Mortal Kombat Trilogy was the first game to not be introduced in arcades.

Mortal Kombat Mythologies –  Sub Zero was the first spin off game in the series

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Taking place before the events of the original Mortal Kombat, Sub-Zero has been tasked by Quan Chi to steal a map of elements from the Shaolin temple.

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The game was very disappointing, not only was it not like the other Mortal Kombat games but it was also really badly designed and extremely un-fair.

It was a 2D platforming action-adventure game where players needed to gain experience points and unlock special moves by defeating enemies.

The problem was that the game had confusing controls and was very cryptic on how you need to survive, a lot of the time you would not be able to see below the character so if you had to jump onto a platform below you would not know how to time or position your jump, a lot of enemy sprites were very similar to each other so the game lacked in variety.

If you play the Play-station 1 version of the game it has full FMV cut scenes and they are actually really cool and worth checking out on Youtube.

Overall a bad game and I am pleased that they never made a sequel

With the help of Quan Chi an elder god named Shinnok has escaped from the Netherealm after being defeated by the thunder god Raiden thousands of years ago. Shinnok seeks revenge on Raiden and the other gods who helped to trap him in the Netherealm, Raiden requests help from Mortal Kombat warriors to help defeat the elder god once again.

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Five new playable characters were introduced to Mortal Kombat 4

Fujjin – A wind god and an ally of Raiden

Jarek – The final member of the black dragon

Kai – A Shaolin monk and a friend of Liu Kang

Meat – A gory skeleton and one of the hidden characters in the game.

Reiko – The general to Shinnok

Tanya – A traitor to Edenia

Noob Saibot – Finally playable as a hidden character in the game.

Scorpion and Raiden have been re-added to the game after being absent in Mortal Kombat 3

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The game came with 3D graphics, full CGI cut-scenes, hilariously bad voice acting and a kick ass soundtrack.

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Silly finishing moves such as babalaties and friendships were removed to make the game focus more on violence and to be taken more seriously however a new move that allows you to break your opponents bones during a fight was added which was really awesome.

Players can now also use weapons and stage hazards to hurt their opponents, adding a lot of new ways to fight which is really great.

Mortal Kombat 4 is a fantastic game and while its not my favourite 3D Mortal Kombat game it was a great first attempt.

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Mortal Kombat 4 was the last game to be released in Arcades and its art does not disappoint, I love Quan Chi being next to a wall of flames, it reminds me of the art from the Mortal Kombat 2 cabinet which had Raiden using a thunder attack.

For more information on this arcade cabinet follow the link below

https://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=8755

Mortal Kombat Gold was a dreamcast exclusive release of Mortal Kombat 4, it added Mileena, Cyrax, Kung Lao, Baraka and a secret character called Sektor to the game. It even added a few new cut-scenes for me personally this is the definitive version of Mortal Kombat 4 but a lot of people would disagree as the game was hit with mediocre reviews when it first hit store shelves.

I could not find a commercial for this game so we will make due with the opening sequence.

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Taking place before Mortal Kombat Mythologies Sub-Zero, Special forces follows the character Jax who seeks revenge after his comrades were murdered by the Black Dragon Clan, Jax takes on a mission to obtain a mystical artifact called the Eye of Chitian which can open portals.

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The game is a third person beat-em up and shooter, I found it to be quite simple to get used too and at first it was really fun but it became boring very quickly. The game is repetitive, the levels are all very similar and it lacks challenge in both its combat and its boss fights, overall its not great.

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I couldn’t find any commercials or videos for this one so I am afraid we will have to make due with the box art.

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The game was a bad port of Ulitmate Mortal Kombat 3, the limitations of the gameboy advance button layout made it very difficult to play and took a lot away from the experience. At times the game was also really unfair on its difficulties making it near impossible to finish on any difficulty above normal. This is one port you will want to skip.

In the canon ending of Mortal Kombat 4 (Scorpions Ending) Scorpion gets sent back to the Netherrealm by Quan Chi but Quan Chi is grabbed by Scorpion taking him to the Netherealm with him. Quan Chi escapes the Netherealm using a magical amulet which sent him to a tomb of dead bodies, he learns that the dead can be brought back to life and plans to build an army so he teams up with Shang Tsung who then murder Shao Khan and Liu Kang. This causes Raiden to give up his status as a god after realising that if the alliance is victorious Earthrealm will be doomed leading into the events of the game.

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New characters in this game include

Blaze – A secret character and a fire elemental

Bo Rai Cho – Former trainer for Liu Kang

Drahmin – An Oni who seeks revenge against Quan Chi

Frost –  Sub-Zero’s Trainee

Hsu Hao – A red dragon operative

Kenshi -A blind swordsman who was stranded in Outworld

Li Mei  – An outworld native who wants to win the freedom of her native people.

Mavado – A red dragon mastermind

Mokap –  A Joke character added in by the developers

Nitara – A vampire who wants to separate her home from Outworld

Liu Kang and Shao Khan are absent from the game due to their deaths.

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The game looks great and its visuals are a huge improvement over Mortal Kombat 4, the combat remains practically the same although stage fatalities have been completely removed which really sucks.

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Mini games came back in Deadly alliance in the form of Test your Might and Test your Sight, both of these games are very difficult but both are rewarding.

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The crypt made its first appearance here, it was an area that allowed players to spend coins to purchase unlock-able content in the game.

A new mode was added called konquest, this was essentially a long tutorial mode for the fighters but it gave insight to their back stories.

Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance was an outstanding game and one of my personal favourites.

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Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition was a GBA port of Deadly Alliance

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While controlling a lot better than the previous GBA game in the series nothing about this really stands out enough for me to say its a good game, if anything its a lacking version of Deadly Alliance and overall it can be skipped.

After the events of Deadly Alliance Raiden attempts to fight Shang Tsung and and Quan Chi but is quickly defeated. Not long after this the dragon king Onaga comes to gain the power of the amulet, Raiden sends a powerful blast to try and stop the monster, this blast kills Raiden, Shang Tsung and Quan Chi but hardly touches the dragon king leaving only a few warriors feeling brave enough to try and stop the new threat.

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The game came with a new konquest mode and I recommend playing this off the bat because it helps explain more information on the games antagonist.

The game is a full RPG with side-quests, rewards and really fun combat, this is what I wish the Mortal Kombat spin off games were like.

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Two additional side games were added the first was Puzzle Kombat which was a tetris clone with a mortal Kombat spin to it and the other was Chess Kombat which was a game of chess in the style of Mortal Kombat, I recommend checking both of these modes out.

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New characters this time are

Ashrah – A Netherrealm demon

Dairou – A Seidan guardman

Darrius – A Seidan leader

Havik – Archrival of Hotaru

Kira –  A former weapons dealer

and Kobra – A deadly martial artist

Surprisingly Liu Kang and Raiden are playable but with re-designs, Liu Kang is now a zombie and Raiden seems to have a new colour palette.

The Crypt returns but this time is much smaller and easier to collect everything.

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A new finisher called Hara – Kiri was added, its a controversial move which causes the other player to die by suicide.

Stage hazards and fatalities were brought back in this instalment making the experience even better.

Overall an excellent Mortal Kombat game.

Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks was the third attempt at a spin off for the series and this time it was actually good.

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The game takes place during the events between Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat 2, In this game Shang Tsung plans to take over Earthrealm after his defeat by Liu Kang in Mortal Kombat.

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The game is an action packed beat-em up which stars Liu Kang a Lao Kung, players need to slaughter hundreds of enemies and occasional bosses to reach victory, players could perform fatalities in succession as well as a new finishing move called mutuality which kills multiple enemies at once.

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The game is a lot of fun but for the best experience I recommend playing the campaign with another player, I feel not enough games these days allow co-op game-play on story mode so its inclusion here is a blessing.

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The game is packed with secrets including a hidden battle with the ninja Ermac as a well as other characters such as Kano and Mileena. A full working version of Mortal Kombat 2 could be unlocked if you helped the Ninja Smoke on your quest.  A hidden mode called survival could be discovered as well unlocking the ability to play the campaign as Scorpion and Sub-Zero after finishing story mode.

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The game even had a traditional versus mode available with unlock-able characters hidden throughout the campaign.

Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks is a fantastic game and one the best Mortal Kombat games, it shows good spin offs are possible with the correct team behind them and I really hope that one day we either get re-release or a sequel.

Following the events of Mortal Kombat: Deception, fighters from all realms battle to survive in the battle of Armageddon, this battle sets everyone out to survive by doing anything necessary. The deadly warrior Blaze is awoken and must be defeated in order to save the realms from certain death and destruction.

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The character roster in Armageddon is absolutely massive, for the first time ever in a Mortal Kombat game every character was back and playable including previous boss characters and characters who were deceased.

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Fatalities were completely changed in this game and not many people liked this, instead of each character having set finishing moves, players had to brutishly destroy their opponents by combining multiple gory attacks together creating their own finishing moves, this was really cool but it took away a lot of character personality and the fun of learning to pull off tricky fatalities

Another disappointment was that the game had no end cut-scenes or art for players, its still had narration explaining each characters ending but the lack of the imagery to go with this made it really boring and not as interesting as it was in previous games.

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On the bright side the game did have an excellent Konquest mode which introduced two new characters Taven and Daegon who have just been released from suspended animation to defeat the warrior Blaze.

The game-mode is really fun and takes a lot of inspiration from Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks making it one of the best parts of Mortal Kombat Armageddon.

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Another new mode allows you create a fighter using a lot of fun tools and designs, more stuff for this mode could be bought in the krypt.

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My favourite mode in the game is Motor Kombat which is a really silly Mario Kart knock off with Mortal Kombat characters, themed tracks and items as well as plenty of blood and guts.

Mortal Kombat Armageddon brought a lot of new ideas and modes to the table making up for the elements that were lost but overall the game for me a was a little disappointing due to its losses however it was still fin and better than some of its predecessors.

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A PSP version of Mortal Kombat Armageddon was released titled Mortal Kombat Unchained, the game was very similar to the console versions however unchained did have an exclusive endurance mode which allowed players to fight constant waves of fighters until they fall in battle.

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A port of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 was brought to the Nintendo DS titled Ultimate Mortal Kombat, the game was an exact copy of the arcade game.

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This version came with a Puzzle Kombat Mode as a bonus that was not available in the original game.

Mortal Kombat vs the DC Universe was an odd choice for the next Mortal Kombat game as it would include regular Mortal Kombat characters battling characters from another universe.

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The story has players choosing which side to fight for but both campaigns show that Shao Khan and DC villain Darkside both get sent into new realms however due to both of these event happening at once both worlds collide and a new villain named Dark Khan is born.

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I always found the character roster for this game very lacking, yes both sides have the obvious choices but I feel that a few fan favourites such as Smoke, Harley Quinn, Reptile, Killer Croc as well as many others could have made the cut or at least came later on as DLC.

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A new ability was added to stages allowing players to throw characters down to lower platforms beating the snot out them while they are doing this, this could also be done in a similar new feature called close kombat.

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Test your might returns here although its now implemented into ground based stages, this means that in some stages you can trigger test your might by ramming your opponents through walls and other obstacles.

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Due to an agreement with DC and its use of characters, violence had to be toned down in this game meaning that a lot of gore was removed from Fatalities and DC Heroes could only perform Brutalities that did not kill the opponent.

Over all not the best Mortal Kombat game but its one of my favourite crossovers, I wish they kept the gore but I understand why DC did not want Super Man brutally murdering someone or having Batman be sliced in half.

2011 brought us Mortal Kombat 9 (AKA Mortal Kombat) a retelling of the plot from the first three games however this one has a twist, it begins at the end of Mortal Kombat Armageddon with Raiden sending a message to his past self “He must Win” referring to Liu Kang needing to win the Mortal Kombat tournament.

While this does technically continue from the end of Armageddon in reality it was the beginning of a reboot of the series while keeping the events of the previous on going story canon. Throughout the campaign Raiden receives visions from the future encouraging him to make drastic changes to past events but with these changes came some serious consequences.

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Playable Characters in the game included

Baraka

Cyrax

Cyber Sub-Zero – a robotic-ally altered version of the popular blue ninja

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Jade

Jax

Johnny Cage

Kabal

Kano

Kitana

Kratos from the God of War Series (PlayStation Version Only)

Kung Lao

Liu Kang

Mileena

Nightwolf

Noob Saibot

Quan Chi

Raiden

Reptile

Scorpion

Sektor

Shang Tsung

Sheeva

Sindel

Smoke

Sonya Blade

Stryker

and Regular Sub Zero

DLC character were added to the game in the form of

Freddy Kruger – From the Nightmare on Elm Street Franchise

Kenshi  – From Mortal Kombat Deadly Allaince

Rain – A Purple Ninja who was first playable in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3

and Skarlet  – A red female ninja

These characters were free in the the Komplete Edition of Mortal Kombat that was released in 2012

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This game is gory and the fatalities were finally fatal again, DC universe left a lot of people disappointed that the series would never go back to being R rated and Mortal Kombat 9 proved us all wrong.

Stage fatalaties such as the pit returned as well, which was very nostalgic for fans of the series.

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A major new addition to the series introduced in Mortal Kombat 9 was the X-ray moves, these are specifically timed grab moves that break the bones of your opponent causing serious damage to the health bar, broken bones or not the damage you take does not affect how you fight in the game after you are hit with an X-Ray.

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Apart from the amazing story mode of the game, new modes included a training mode which allowed you to practice pulling off moves and fatalities

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Challenge tower was a new mode to the series it offered 300 challenges for players to tackle and if they are successful they would earn currency to spend in the games Krypt Mode.

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Other modes included Test your Might, Test your Sight, Test your Strike, Test your Luck, Tag Team and online play.

A great reboot of the series, it held the Nostalgia of the original games while also bringing a new feel and new ideas to the table, Mortal Kombat 9 is one of the best Mortal Kombat Games yet.

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A re-release of Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2 and Ulitmate Mortal Kombat 3 for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

This version added online multiplayer and achievements.

Two years after the events of Mortal Kombat 9 Johnny Cage and Sonia Blade are fighting to imprison the Elder God Shinnok and Quan Chi. They are successful and Raiden traps Shinnok in an Amulet but unfortunately Quan Chi escapes, the main meat of the campaign then takes place 20 years later and shows Johnny Cage with a group of warriors that he wants to use to retrieve the amulet from Mileena who wants to release Shinnok. The campaign of this game helps to give a lot of sympathy to the characters we all know, the problems that they deal with in the game help to make them feel more like real people than video game characters, I wont spoil the whole campaign story as it gets really good and you should really check it out for yourselves.

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New comers to the roster included

Cassie Cage –  The daughter of Johnny Cage and Sonia Blade

D’vorah –  A member of a race of insects called the Kytinn

Erron Black –  A gunslinger from Earthrealm

Ferra and Torr – A young girl who rides a giant masked monster

Jacqui Briggs  –  The Daughter of Jax and his wife

Kotal Kahn – An Aztec Warrior from the realm of Osh Tekk

Kung Jin – A master thief and the cousin of Kung Lao

and Takeda Takahashi – The son of Kenshi

Paid DLC characters were

Tremor – A bronze ninja and a member of the Black Dragon Clan

Jason Voorhees – From the Friday the 13th franchise

The Predator – From the Predator franchise

Tanya –  A woman from Edenia and a worshipper of Shinnok

Xenomorph –  From the Alien franchise

BO’Rai Cho – Former trainer of Liu Kang

Goro –  A tough four armed warrior who debuted in the original game

Leather Face – From the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise

and Triborg a ninja that is a combination of Smoke, Cyrax and Sector

All DLC was included with Mortal Kombat XL which was released in 2016

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Apart from characters there really was not much new content in this one but the two main differences really affected the game-play negatively in my opinion. Instead of just choosing a fighter in quick matches now we had to also choose a fighting, style and all of these needed to be learned separately and it just made the whole thing much more confusing than it needed to be, I hated this I  just wanted to play normal Mortal Kombat not this new diverse version of Mortal Kombat.

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Anyone who has been reading this website for a while knows that I hate quick time events in cut-scenes. In my opinion they make the story less enjoyable and are lazy attempts to advance a game, they don’t take much skill and are usually boring, these are no exception in Mortal Kombat X they don’t fit well into this series and it distracts players from what was originally a fantastic story mode plot.

With these complaints aside, I actually really like this entry to the series, it still is a lot of fun to play and minus the quick time events had the best plot in a Mortal Kombat game yet.

After Shinnoks defeat in Mortal Kombat X Raiden is left corrupted and dark, he wants to protect Earthrealm by destroying its enemies immediately. Shinnoks mother Kronika rewrites history to remove Raidens interfere by bringing the past and the present together which causes new Mortal Kombat characters to meet the original versions of themselves.

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New comers here are

Cetrion –  An Elder Goddess and Shinnoks Sister

Geras -Kronikas main underling

and Kollector – A debt collector for Shao Kahn

The games DLC characters are

The Joker from Batman

Nightwolf

Shang Tsung

Sindel

Spawn

The Terminator

Rambo

Rain

Mileena

Robocop

Sheeva

And Fujin

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Fatal Blows are a new move that can deal serious damage to your opponent they are very similar to the X-Ray and do not show the bones breaking making them slightly less cool.

X-Ray has been replaced with Krushing Blows a shorter X-Ray move that does less damage but is executed much faster.

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Mercy is a move that allows you to revive an opponent by giving them a small amount of health.

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Character customisation was added to the game, this allows players to add new skins, weapons, abilities and more to the characters in the game.

There really was not many new modes or ideas added to Mortal Kombat 11 but that has not stopped the game from being an excellent entry into the series, I still prefer Mortal Komat 9 overall but this is a close second for me.

In 2020 Mortal Kombat 11: Ultimate version released with all of the DLC from the original version included in this new package.

That leaves us up to date with the Mortal Kombat video game franchise so far, I grew up playing the original games and I have fallen in love with its reboots, this series has had a lot of good moments and bad moments but all of it is nostalgic and brings back a lot of gaming memories for me.

I learned a lot of history and information about the series from a very well put together YouTube documentary series, this series is much more in-depth than the information I have provided and I recommend checking it out if you want to learn more about Mortal Kombat and the impact it has had on gamers for over 20 years.

Join me when the next game is released as we continue to explore this ever expanding game series.

Want me to review a specific game/movie/product or do you have a general question you would like me to answer? if so please email me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

Make sure to subscribe to 616Entertaiment on Youtube who made the excellent Mortal Kombat history documentary series.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWyYPkTpefppyrOO8gcjgfw

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The Simpsons Arcade Game (1991) Review

 

 

Simpsons-Arcade

Created and released by Konami in 1991 the Simpsons Arcade Machine was extremely popular when it was sent to arcades. Not long after hitting arcades the game was ported to MS DOS and Commodore 64, these versions were poor in comparison to the original game and we wouldn’t see a very good port of the game until 2012 when it was released on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network.

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The Simpson family are walking down the street when they bump into Waylon Smithers who has just robbed a jewelry store, the diamond that Smithers had stolen falls into Maggies mouth, Smithers steals Maggie and runs away leaving the Simpson family to fight off Mr Burns Goons throughout various areas from the show on their way to The Nuclear Power Plant to take out Mr Burns and Smithers.

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In the game you can play with up to four players and each player can be one of four characters Homer, Marge, Bart or Lisa Simpson.

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The game is a 2D Beat em up which has the Simpsons traversing through various areas and defeating variants of enemies until the screen has cleared and the player can move onto the next screen. Each character has one attack move and each fight in different ways Homer fights with his fists, Marge uses a vacuum cleaner, Bart rides his skateboard and uses it to attack enemies and Lisa uses a skipping rope to defeat her foes.

In multiplayer two characters can merge together to perform a super attack, these attacks change depending on which characters are being played.

Players can also pick up objects in the various environments to either throw at enemies or to use them as a weapon, the sling shot is the most useful in my opinion.

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At the end of each of the 8 stages you will need to fight a boss battle, each boss is quite difficult and unique to the plot.

Konami has always been really good with their video game soundtracks and this game is no exception, the music is super fun and fast paced and still has that Simpsons feel to it. Its by far one of best soundtracks in a Simpsons game, click the video above to check it out.

The Simpsons Arcade game is a fantastic Arcade game and should be played if you ever get the chance, it is quite tough which is to be expected from games in the Arcade as they are made to make money, it took me 30 credits to finish the Simpsons arcade. If you want a decent version of the game to play at home you can purchase it on Xbox Live and PSN, the Xbox Live and PSN versions of the game even come with some additional modes. If there was anything I would say to improve the game it would be to add an additional attack button as just having one main attack gets a little boring after a while, but all in all the Simpsons arcade game is great 9.6/10.

I hope you enjoyed this review of The Simpsons Arcade Game

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Want me to review a specific game/movie/product or do you have a general question you would like me to answer? if so please email me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (PC) (2002) Review

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A year and a half ago I reviewed a mediocre Philosophers Stone game for the PC, it was a fairly bare bones 3D platformer that was way too short and it skipped over many of the best moments from the film and the original novel, today we will be taking look at the PC video game of the second book in the series Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

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You play the game as Harry Potter the boy who lived who is attending his second year at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, just like the first game this is a 3D platformer where the objective of the game is too attend classes and beat challenge maps, a huge difference here is how you learn spells, in the first game learning magic was awkward because you needed to trace over shapes with your mouse and with such a limited amount of time performing this task became very difficult, thankfully the game designers have taken a different approach with the sequel as now instead of tracing we instead need to hit corresponding keys on the keyboard in a specified order in the style of a rhythm game.

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Quidditch matches have also been heavily modified and I don’t like the changes they have made here, instead of having complete control over your broom so you can fly freely the game controls the broom for the player and all you need to do is bump into the enemy seeker until you are close enough to catch the golden snitch, its boring, it has no challenge at all and the worst part of it is that it feels like the game designers were just being lazy and were trying to rush out the game.

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The graphics are impressive when compared to the first game, everything is smoother and less pixelated but for a game from 2002 they are still pretty bad, on the bright side the level designs are more detailed and are genuinely more interesting to explore, the best part of the game is finding all of the secrets around Hogwarts castle and the castle grounds, through out the game you will learn an array of spells which can be used to defeat enemies and open up secret passageways where you may find a famous witches and wizards card.

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The first game had only 25 cards to collect and for doing so all you would receive was a slightly extended ending, this game has a whopping 101 cards which is the staple for the majority of the Harry Potter games, the cards come in three categories, gold, silver and bronze, the bronze cards are common and for every 10 you collect you will gain an additional health bar, the silver cards are uncommon and for every ten of those you find you will come one step closer to accessing a bonus area which can only be accessed once the player finds all 40 of the silver cards, the bonus room is a platforming level, which is full of enemies and puzzles, the player has a set amount of time to try and find the 11 rare gold cards in the game, again I don’t think its worth going out of your way to collect these but honestly it was much more fun to do so here than it was before.

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You can buy cards from other students around Hogwarts by using Bertie Botts every flavoured beans which can be found throughout the game, this isn’t necessary since every card can be found hidden inside and around the school but it is helpful if you don’t want to back track later on, the best way to collect beans is by entering the bonus bean room which you can only access if your house has the most points during the segments of the game where Dumbledore tallies up the house scores.

The music in the game is what can be expected from a cash grab title that was made to help push DVD sales but its fun to listen too and not once is it annoying nor does it take away from the game play experience.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets for the PC is a fun little game that is worth picking up if you manage to find it really cheap but if you cant your really not missing out on much, I can quite happily say that this is a good game but its far from a great Harry Potter gaming experience 6.3/10

I hope you enjoyed my review of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets for the PC

If you respect my opinion, I will respect yours

By Padawan

Want me to review a specific game/movie/product or do you have a general question you would like me to answer? if so please email me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

You can find me on Miiverse by searching for draskafer

Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone (PC) (2001) Review

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I remember playing Harry Potter video games when I was a child, I used to own the Philosophers Stone on the Ps1 and both the Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban games on the PS2.

There are many Philosophers Stone games and the most rare of them all is the second generation version (Ps2, Xbox and GameCube) due to the price of this game being rather ridiculous I refused to buy it until I could find it for cheap in a flee market or a charity shop so when I saw the PC version being sold for penny’s in my local charity shop I quickly snapped it up expecting to be playing the rare second generation version only to be surprised that this particular game was very unique in itself and actually provided a completely new experience I didn’t expect.

The only question now is was that experience good?

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You play the game as the Young wizard Harry Potter who has just started his first year at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, you spend the majority of the game attending classes such as Defense against the Dark Arts, Broomstick flying and Charms.

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When you attend a class you are almost immediately told to trace over a shape using your mouse, you will need to hit a certain percentage of the shape in order to proceed to next difficulty of the spell learning minigame, you are required to pass level 1 which will award you five points for Gryffindor and after you succeed you will be taken to the next level, the more levels you pass the more points you will earn for Gryffindor but you are only required to finish level 1 in order too continue with the main game.

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The only time that attending a class is any different is when you take part in a flying lesson because instead of tracing shapes this time you will need to fly through many different rings, this section works surprisingly well using the keyboards controls considering that for most of the lesson you will be using the speed up key which makes your broom stick fly much faster than usual.

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After you finish the tracing mini game you are always then told to complete a bunch of challenges which mostly rely on you using that new spell, you will often be taken into a number of rooms to perform these challenges, you will also have the opportunity to collect the challenge stars which depending on how many you can find will award you with different amounts of points for Gryffindor once the challenge is complete, these stars are really easy to find so you should almost always be awarded maximum points for completing these challenges.

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When playing through the main game you will also have the opportunity to collect other items, one of these items is the Bertie Botts every flavor beans which are only needed for you to give to Fred and George Weasley  as they need it for a top secret practical joke they are planning on Slytherin.

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The other collectible items are the famous Witches and Wizards cards which are hidden in secret areas all throughout Hogwarts, some of the cards you can get from Fred and George but the Majority you will need to find yourself, collecting all 25 cards only gives you a slightly expanded ending to the game so its not really worth the effort unless you really want to get 100 percent.

The general gameplay is mostly 3D platforming which works extremely well using the keyboard and mouse, the game runs smoothly providing you play on an XP operating system  otherwise you will have serious lag and slowdown due to the game being so old.

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You will play levels based on many of the famous scenes in the movie by far the most memorable part of the game for me was avoiding Filch and Mrs Norris in the forbidden section of the Library.

There are a few boss fights in the game but they are not that difficult as most of time just casting spells blindlessly will defeat them, the only boss I even had the slightest trouble with was the final boss and even he wasn’t that difficult.

The music is very memorable of the film which is a nice addition to the game, not all the music is from the movie but the original tracks are also very fun to listen too so its difficult to complain about

Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone for the PC is a decent title in the Harry Potter game franchise, this particular version is a lot of fun but it is way too short as it can be finished with just a few hours, the game also feels very bare as most scenes from the film are missing which really is a shame, on the bright side there is a level based on a section which was only in the book which is a nice touch, it has tight controls, fun music and ok game play.

Unfortunately as much as I enjoy this game it is not one of the best Harry Potter games I have ever played but it is a lot of fun for what it is so I am going to rate this game slightly better than an average score 5.5/10

I hope you enjoyed my review of Harry Potter and Philosophers Stone for the PC

If you respect my opinion, I will respect yours

By Padawan

Want me to review a specific game/movie/product or do you have a general question you would like me to answer? if so please email me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

You can find me on Miiverse by searching for draskafer

 

 

Sonic the pornhog

That’s right kids sega has now officially licenced sonic porn or so I have heard
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I don’t know if this is true but if it is all I can say is Sega what the hell

I know that ever since the Sonic Adventure games the Sonic franchise has been going downhill but to have to resort to sonic porn, I don’t know whether to feel sorry for Sega or to find the whole situation funny.

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I want to know what sick pervert thought to draw sonic porn pictures in the first place

I do realise that video game pornography has been available since the dawn of desperate nerds but never before has a video game company ever actually licensed the porn themselves just so they can make some extra cash

How desperate can you be to jack off to sonic porn any way? come on can you honestly tell me you have played a sonic game and thought “man that hedgehog is so hot” or ” hmm that Amy Rose is so fine” because I sure as hell haven’t

Like I said I don’t know if this is true but if it is then Sega I suggest councelling

I hope you enjoyed this raggle fraggle blog

This blog was written by Dan

Super Mario Bros (NES) Review

Super Mario Bros (NES) Review

I was flicking through my video game collection a few days ago and I came across a very nostalgic game from my childhood Super Mario Bros on the NES, now I gather everyone has heard of this game or has at least played it, Super Mario Bros was one of the very first NES released and is a beloved game among many fans but is it all it’s cracked up to be let’s find out in this review of Super Mario Bros. (Just to prewarn you this review will most likely be shorter than the others as the game is pretty basic in all aspects)

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In the game you take control of Mario an overweight Italian plumber who likes nothing more than taking magic mushrooms and eating plat life to gain powers (No he is not on drugs……….Or is he?) any way Mario has heard some tragic news and found out that the girl he has his heart set out for Princess Toadstool has been kidnapped by an evil turtle known as King Koopa (Bowser) Mario must adventure across the Mushroom Kingdom (ok what’s with all the mushroom quotes?) in search of the missing Princess and her kidnapper.

Game play and Graphics

There are three types of levels in the game the usual outdoor/ underground plat former levels, underwater swimming levels and Bowser’s many castles in the game, The game looks and plays great it has a nice colour palette for a game that came out in 1985 and Mario’s controls are tight and easy to learn, Mario moves and attacks in different ways depending on the level you are on and if you have found an item.

Items

Mushroom- If Mario eats the mushroom he will grow twice his size

Power Flower- Eating this flower will give Mario the power to shoot fire balls from his hands

Star Power- Eating this star will make Mario temporarily invincible

1UP Shroom- Eating this Mushroom will give the player an extra life (an extra life can also be obtained if the player collects 100 coins)

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The music in this game is great, It is both really fun to listen to and really easy to remember, one problem there is a total of 32 levels in this game but Nintendo only gave us three songs to listen to, these songs are great the only problem is that listening to the same music over and over again can get really annoying apart from that the music is awesome

Bosses

The Many Bowser’s

I guess you could say that there are 8 bosses in the game but does it really count if all the bosses are pretty much the same apart from little changes like a platform Mario can jump on or the fact that in the later levels Bowser will throw axes and for that reason alone I am not going to go into detail of each boss because you would just read the same thing over and over again, If you have fire power shoot him until he dies, if not jump over him or run under him and hit the Axe to chop down the bridge. I love Nintendo I understand that this is one of their first really popular games but could they really have not been more creative especially with the in game bosses (How about an explanation to how Bowser seems to survive every time I throw him into lava because I’m pretty sure he would die).

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Now I know I’ve done a little bit of bitching about this game but I’m not gonna lie even though I find these issues I still love it, It is one of those many video game titles which will live in my heart forever, I’m not going to tell you to buy the game because chances are you already own it whether it’s on the NES, DS, PC or anything else Super Mario Bros is a great game and it has my seal of improvement 8/10.  I hope you enjoyed this review of Super Mario Bros on the NES this is my opinion of the game if you respect my opinion I will respect yours.

Thanks for Reading this Raggle Fraggle Review

This review was written by Dan