Mortal Kombat: Armageddon

[Natoma]

http://wii.ign.com/articles/777/777421p1.html

Like every other Kombat title, Armageddon is a speedy, arcade-style fighter that embraces both melee and projectile-based brawls. With a traditional controller, you'd perform moves with a combination of the D-Pad or analog stick and button taps. For instance, left, left right and X could send a projectile screaming toward Raiden's face. And that option is still available on Wii since, thankfully, Armageddon not only supports the classic and GameCube controllers, but it does so even when other players are using the Wii remote and nunchuk. So, if you've got three friends over and all of you prefer different control styles, you can play with the Wii remote, your buddy can grab a classic controller, another person can pick up the GameCube pad, and you can all square off against one another anyway.

That being true, Armageddon is fundamentally changed on Wii because of the remote-enhanced control scheme and it is, at the very least, worth exploring. Now that we've had some time with it, we're our skepticism about the product has melted away. A new gesture-based system replaces D-Pad/analog stick and button presses altogether. Maneuvers are now done by holding the B-trigger, quickly making a gesture, and then releasing. Simple. And you know what? It actually works. Midway has kept the gestures easy so that anybody can pick them up - accessibility was a primary goal for the developer, which ultimately wants even novice players to pull off fatalities. So, to throw a fireball, you might merely hold B-trigger, and make a motion from the right to the left and back again. Or, a swiping motion up and then down again. Or an underhanded half-circle. Or an over-handed half-circle. And it's really not much more complicated than that.

We found the system to be surprisingly quick and responsive. Had it been slow or lagging in any way, it wouldn't have sufficed, since you need speed for a fighter like Armageddon. We watched Ed Boon pull off maneuver after maneuver with unrehearsed ease and most of the time we could, too, although we couldn't always duplicate the experience in our limited play time - every so often a gesture would go ignored, which we chock up to the fact that our timing wasn't quite right.

From a technical standpoint, Armageddon looks very much like the other builds, but it does support both 480p and 16:9 widescreen mode on Wii and it never, ever drops from a smooth 60 frames per second. The title also boasts impressive lighting and particle effects, which cover the screen in explosions and blood at any given moment. Fighters animate quickly and fluidly and textures are overall clean. There is a strong sense of polish about the fighter, even during four-player Motor Kombat, which never hiccups.

I watched the gameplay trailer on IGN and I gotta say, it looked like serious fun. The graphics were crisp and clear, and the on screen results tracked with the movements you did with the remote.

The fatality moves looked like total fun I gotta say, and definitely appropriate for what was shown on screen. Definitely looks like a great title is on the way. Surprising considering Mortal Kombat games usually suck.

 

[AlNom]

Whoa... I didn't think they'd even try to adapt the game to such a control system. I would definitely like to see how it's done (instead of just reading about it). ...and because I'm a semi-graphics whore, I'm also curious to see just how they've enhanced it.

Thanks for the heads up.

edit: watching the ign vids now...

 

[Natoma]

IGN has a review up. They seem to like it, though it has its flaws http://wii.ign.com/articles/792/792147p1.html

The last change to the franchise as a whole, and perhaps one of the most intriguing ones, is the remake of the fatality system into the Kreate-A-Fatality system. Instead of inputting a specific button combination and sitting back to watch your character kill his or her opponent, you're now given a specific amount of time to continually input a sequence of gestures (with the Wii remote) or buttons (with the others) to literally dismember your foe. There's a catch to the time sequence though -- as more sequences are recognized, the amount of time that you have to chain together the next move rapidly decreases. If you don't actually perform the killing blow in time, you can actually "fail" the fatality. Just about any player will be able to perform a one hit fatality, but really skilled players will be able to pump out nine or ten hit kills. Some players will probably miss watching these fatalities instead of having to trigger them, but this is a great way of testing your timing and gauging how proficient you are at the game.

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It has arrived late, but the Wii version of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon is still fun and still a very deep fighter. The new gesture based controls seem like a bad idea, and yet in practice they feel responsive and satisfying to perform… most of the time. Very occasionally, your movements won't be recognized, which is troubling. It may just be that our gestures are performed inaccurately, but of course that also means the majority of novice players will undoubtedly encounter the same issue and thus it still remains. Thankfully, you can use either the classic controller or GameCube pad as an alternate at any time, even when playing against someone who prefers the Wii remote and nunchuk. Armageddon is otherwise the same game as its predecessors on PS2 and Xbox plus one new character, Khameleon, and minus an online mode. The additional fighter is welcomed, but she hardly makes up for the lack of online play, which is why Armageddon has received a lower score on Wii than its counterparts. Even with a lower score, this is Wii's best fighter and we can safely recommend it to any franchise fan.

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Graphics
Pretty good for PlayStation 2, but Wii can do much more. Adequately detailed and animated models mingle with an impressie variety of environments. Runs in 480p and 16:9 at 60 frames.