My Top 100: #60 – Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks

 

I make no effort to hide the fact that I love the Mortal Kombat universe.  I find absolutely everything about it riveting, but I consider it a bit of a guilty pleasure.

To begin with, the characters’ storylines all seem plucked from thin air.  “Blank was a member of Blank, before Blank murdered someone close to them\defected to the other side; now they fight for justice\revenge\no reason but for personal gratification.”

In any game that delves deeper into these intertwined storylines, the writing and voice acting are pretty damn horrible.  The first one to do this was Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub Zero, which went all out with live action cutscenes, silly costumes and hilarious acting.  2004’s Deception continued the tradition de fromage with a Conquest adventure mode to help explain Shujinko’s storyline, complete with groan-inducing dialogue and voice acting.  Though it was a pretty simplistic take on the MK universe, it obviously won over many of us fans.

The house of Boon had dollar signs in their eyes, and took a God of War approach for their next game…  and it worked.

 

 

I had a general idea of what God of War was; lots of weapons, lots of acrobatic moves that were simple to pull off, lots of violence.  It definitely looked like a step in the right direction for video games, taking on darker and more adult themes for us longtime gamers.  Still, I never actually bothered trying the game until after Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks came out.

This game is sure to bring back memories to anyone who has ever played an MK game.  The intro brings us back to the end of the first tournament, just as Liu Kang is about to put the smackdown on Shang Tsung.  Before he bites the bullet, he opens a portal through which he and all the game’s “evil” characters jump through.  Like R’as al Ghul setting Arkham Asylum’s freaks loose to wreak havoc on Gotham in Batman Begins, this opens the door for a boatload of random encounters throughout the game.

Liu Kang and Kung Lao are the playable characters from the get-go, with Scorpion and Sub Zero acting as the unlockables.  Aside from plain old kicking and punching, using their signature special attacks can add a bit of strategy to each battle.  3D re-recreations of familiar Mortal Kombat II locales such as the Portal, Dead Pool and Armory, help take you on a trip down memory lane.  You can even interact with some of the environments, since there always happen to be conveniently placed spike beds to throw your opponent into; or, in the Living Forest’s case, hungry trees that need to be fed!

In the end, Shaolin Monks is a solid game that most people might overlook, but any fans of the Mortal Kombat franchise would do well to try out.