Mortal Kombat Armageddon

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In an attempt to find cross-console success, many companies are seeing fit to port their existing games over to the Wii and throw in a handful of Wii-centric features that naturally center around the Wii's unique control options.

Pros

  • Plenty of characters and modes to check out, fatalities are still fun.

Cons

  • It's a lazy port with badly implemented controls.

Bottom Line

Yet another uninspired 'Wii-make' that adds little to the PS2/Xbox original.

Would you buy this?

  • Price

    $ 99.95 (AUD)

None of those games have managed to bring any spectacular new dimensions to the table, excepting the stunning new price tags that are usually associated with a brand new game. Mortal Kombat: Armageddon for the Wii is no exception as the Wii-specific controls are fun for while, but quickly degenerate from thrilling to gimmicky.

If you played Armageddon the first time it was released around 6 months ago, you're familiar with all the Content this game has to offer. The 60+ characters, Konquest mode, Kart racing, and all the unlockable content from the crypt return in this Wii-make with the addition of Chameleon as a playable character being the only new addition. The original release was and still is an enjoyable fighting game, but it's extremely disappointing to see virtually nothing added to the package despite the ample time given to developers to come up with something new.

Kombat Devolved

Equally disappointing are the Wii-specific controls. These are used only to control special moves such as Scorpion's spear and Sub-Zero's various freezing attacks, and the motions involved are relatively simple. You hold down the B-trigger while performing either a half circle, back and forth, or up and down movement. It's fun to play around for a while, and you'll probably have a good time exchanging special moves with a friend and watching the blood, gore, and fireworks fly.

Ultimately this feature becomes stale quickly as the motions aren't exactly immersive; wiggling the controller back and forth hardly evokes a mental image of throwing a spear into opponent's neck. They're not hard to pull off, but if executed sloppily, they won't work when you need them to, resulting in about the same failure rate as a standard controller. There is the option to play with a Wii classic or a Gamecube controller, which is what most hardcore MK players will likely end up doing as it does a better job of providing fluid and precise control. Executing special moves with the Wii-mote and then trying to unleash standard combos and throws feels very much like switching from playing one game to another.

It's early to call fighting games on the Wii a failed experiment, especially with a certain first party brawler on the way. Mortal Kombat Armageddon, however, has hit all the typical Wii-make pitfalls: it's a months old title with next to no new content, the Wii specific controls are gimmicky, and it comes with a 100 dollar price tag. If you own this title on another console you can skip this re-release, and for 100 bucks you can choose from a beefy list of better titles on the Wii.

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