Mortal Kombat: Armageddon

Mortal Kombat Armageddon is supposed to be the finial installment of the Mortal Kombat series for the Xbox and Playstation 2 consoles. It is supposed to end the franchise with a mighty bang, but ends up being nothing more than a weak whimper.

Since this is supposed to be the swan song for this iteration of the series, they have thrown in nearly every character that has ever been in a Mortal Kombat game which gives you more than sixty characters to play with. On top of that, you can even create custom characters.

The graphics and character models are good for the aging Xbox platform. The stage design is acceptable, but they are not nearly as engaging as those presented the previous games. They are decent, they work, but they are nothing to get excited. Everything seems to be a bit overly dark and gloomy to me, and I can't help but wonder if this has been done to hide limitations in the game engine. The sound is adequate, nothing special, or memorable.

The kombat game play works well though. It hasn't changed much from the previous titles. The biggest difference I noted is that you now have two fighting styles instead of three. I assumed this was done to accommodate the huge roster of playable characters. This game also marks the return of aerial attacks which have not be been present in the series for at least the last two games.

Mortal Kombat: Armageddon has multiple play modes. There is the traditional arcade mode, versus mode, online mode, Konquest adventure mode, and Motor Kombat. In the traditional arcade mode you fight a series of progressively harder opponents until you reach the boss character. The versus mode lets you play against your friends on a stage of your choosing. The online mode lets you compete against other players worldwide. The Motor Kombat is basically a dumbed down version Mario Kart with a dash of Mortal Kombat violence thrown in; it's entertaining, but it's not the real meat of the game.

By far, what I found to be the biggest disappointment of the game is what they did to the Konquest mode. In the previous title, Mortal Kombat Deception, Konquest mode was a full blown adventure game. You could of almost called it 'The Kombat RPG'. It was a vast and fully fleshed out game, though it lacked any real ending, it was very entertaining and enjoyable. I spent a lot of time playing it.

I beat the Konquest mode in Mortal Kombat Armageddon in two sittings. And the only reason it was two sittings instead of one was because I had to get up to use the bathroom once.

The Konquest mode in this title was basically watered down version of Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks, without the in depth character progression, freedom to explore, or story scope. It amounts to little more than a uninteresting imitation of one great games, and an unworthy successor to another.

Mortal Kombat Armageddon is a decent game. It is disappointing when compared to other recent Mortal Kombat games like Mortal Kombat Deception and Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks. It you are a fan of the Mortal Kombat universe, it will undoubtedly tickle to get to play will of the characters presented. If you are not a Mortal Kombat fan, I would at least suggest you rent the game and try it out. It does have it's enjoyable moments.

Knot every kombat game is going to be a killer knock out, but at least here you have a klue as to what is koming and what to expect.

Mortal: Kombat: Armageddon is basically the final Mortal Kombat game to be released on the Playstation 2 and the original Xbox (as well as the only Mortal Kombat game released on the Nintendo Wii), and it is not a good way to end the sixth generation of consoles.

Basically, the game offers almost every character (Khameleon is exclusive to the Wii port as time constraints kept her from the other ports) as they are fighting each other for the opportunity to fight Blaze, whose defeat would infuse the victor with ultimate power. While it is impressive, the sad thing is most of the roster is basically copy-and-pasted from Deadly Alliance and Deception (with characters like Reptile and Kung Lao getting outfits taken from Shaolin Monks, the game before this). The only new characters are Taven and Daegon, who were created for the game's Konquest Mode. The characters who make their playable debut in this are either hit-or-miss (Jarek is a hit because unlike MK4, he is given his own moveset, while Chameleon is a miss due to having one special move taken from the male ninjas). Also, there are going to be characters who will share a certain special move, which takes away something making one character unique.

As the roster is going to have 62 character (63 for the Wii port), there would not be space to give everyone the traditional Fatalities, so instead, we get Kreate-A-Fatality, which requires you to do a series of presses in a limited time, each hit reducing the timer. While it sounds good on paper, it also takes away what made the kombatants unique, as while normal and boss characters get their own Kreate-A-Fatality moves, they share the same moves. Also, for endings, we get the character doing a kata while Argus, the father of the two new characters, speaks of their fate. While this is also understandable, since like Fatalities, space issues would have prevented the endings to have pictures like in Deadly Alliance and Deception, it is not well thought out.

As for the fighting, almost all fighter is reduced to two fighting styles (one hand-to-hand and one weapon). Fighters like Mokap only have two hand-to-hand styles, while some bosses like Blaze has only one fighting style. To add some new depth, the game adds Air Kombat, which allows you to pummel your opponent in mid-air. Many classic stages return alongside a select few stages from Deception, and Death Traps make a return, which are the closest we are ever getting to actual Fatalities in the game.

Other than the main mode, there is Konquest Mode, which is done like Shaolin Monks. Playing as Taven, you go through many area fighting your way. Sadly, unlike Shaolin Monks, the mode is short, and it does not give too much variety. Also, there is a kart racer mini-game called Motor Kombat, which parodied Mario Kart, however, that mode is also lacking in content, as it only offers five tracks and ten racers to play with.

One of the things I like from this game is Kreate-A-Fighter, which allows you to create your own kombatant to use in arcade mode or online. While it does have limited choices, it does have a good selection of clothing that can allow for recreating your favorite anime or comic book character, and you can choose the moves and make the ending. While it only appeared in this game, it would've been good to see this in a future game, especially with improvements.

But when all is said and done, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon is a disappointment, and it showed why making Mortal Kombat games annually was a bad idea. While the idea of bringing all the characters back sounded good on paper, when done in-game, it's a bad Fatality waiting to happen. Coupled with the fact that its two other modes don't fare much better due to how little content they have, and the fact that Kreate-A-Fatality was a horrible idea, Armageddon is one entry that should be skipped unless you are one of those people who want to own all the MK titles.

an amazing game with the characters made with every detail. the biggest and the best fighting game ever. street fighter can't hold a candle to the mortal kombat series. Mortal kombat Armageddon with the 60+ characters has the new konquest mode with the shaolin monks engine, the new motor kombat that is like mario kart and the arcade mode fighting has a whole new range of stuff in it such as aerial kombat, the new parry mode, stage fatalities (not deathtraps like deception) and the new create afatality mode with rumoured signature fatalities for each character. Another mode new to the mortal kombat series is the create a fighter where every inch of the character is made by you from their hair to their fighting style names. This is the last mortal kombat game on the playstation 2 and xbox generation and in the game only the characters that survive the Armageddon will go to the next generation consoles and in the intro which is 5 minutes long some characters die and is maybe an insider into who will go to the next consoles. 10/10

My only problems are: 1) Motaro is not a centaur in the game, he is a satyr with a bit tail 2) Kreate a Fatality system - when you take every signature fatality out of the game, the characters feel raped, as does the player....no more cannibal kiss (Mileena), no more spine rip (Sub-zero), no more Electrocution (Rayden).....nothing but standard violence...Aside from this, the game is all out great. I love the konquest mode and the simplicity of the krypt. This is the only game in the mortal kombat series to not contain bios either. There's not a lot in the game that makes sense (ie Sheeva being alive, etc.) but it still seems to have a story once you play the konquest mode. I highly recommend this game, if you can get past the K-a-F system.

This is the greatest Mortal Kombat Game ever in my opinion, not only does it include all of the Mortal Kombat Characters which you can play, but most of all, you now get to create your very own Characters as well as get to make their own biographies for them which you can't do in other games, This also has the greatest Final Boss ever in Blaze, who is True Neutral which fits perfectly for the Final Boss, Motor Kombat is pretty good in itself as well, Konquest is cool too, The Kreate-A-Fatality is uber awesome and the chance to string together fatalities, to me, this is as close to a perfect game, if not perfect you can get, This will be a game to play even many years/decades down the road still, The Storyline is perfect with Everyone fighting to be the one at the top and the grand champion at the end of it all and it's every fighter for themselves, so to me, this is THE Perfect Game, the greatest Mortal Kombat Gmae ever and my Favorite Mortal Kombat game, so this gets a perfect S, Infinite Stars and Infinity/10!

MORTAL KOMBAT Armageddon WINS!

ULTIMATE FATALITY!