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Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks

We could all sit here and point out the flaws of the previous entries into the Mortal Kombat universe that weren’t straight fighters such as Mythologies and Special Forces all day long. What we can’t do though is lump in Shaolin Monks with them. Shaolin Monks draws heavily from multiple sources, creating a flat out fun title – one even moreso enjoyed if you’ve been through and loved all the previous official Mortal Kombat titles.

Taking place during the time between the first and second Kombats, the story revolves around main man Liu Kang and his plucky sidekick Kung Lao. Shang Tsung, having fallen to the high-pitched assault of fist, feet, and yelp from shirtless Liu Kang, makes a last-ditch effort to escape by opening a portal and starting a self-destruct mechanism on the island where Mortal Kombat is taking place. In an attempt to flee with Sonya and Johnny Cage, Kung Lao and Liu Kang don’t quite make it, falling into a fresh gorge that leaves them in the lair of Goro. From here, the initial training of the game takes place as you make an attempt to get off the island before there is no island to speak of.

MK fans will be pleased as soon as they leave Goro’s lair, finding themselves in the bottom of the Pit, one of the most famous levels in Mortal Kombat. This is one of the aspects of this game that is just truly a great thing done by the designers. The entire game is filled with little inside jokes and nods to the previous Mortal Kombats, from the interactive arenas (feeding enemies to the Living Forrest) to the enemies (Shadow Priests no longer sit by idle as you rumble, they come right after you), Midway does a good job of keeping the “Aw, heck yeah!” factor high.

The gameplay itself isn’t bad in the least and comparatively excellent to the past attempts of Mythologies and Special Forces. The fighting engine at its core is very competent, allowing you to easily dispatch foes from every angle. The biggest complaint though is that it could be a lot deeper. The game employs a Devil May Cry type of exp system, with every dead enemy’s soul being deposited into player’s savings account for future use on new throws, projectile attacks, or combos. The game needed more unlockables though, as the patient brawler could very well spend an hour in one area killing over and over again, gaining enough money to unlock just about every move.

New abilites can also be gained by finding medallions scattered throughout each of the levels. These are either hidden from view or given after a boss fight. Abilites include things like wall climbing or swinging, allowing you to gain access to areas you were unable to navigate before. While this sounds like your standard unlockable progression, in execution it isn’t painted in black and white. The areas you need to go once you unlock a certain ability aren’t exactly laid out for you, leaving you to hunt them down yourself. Sure, it doesn’t sound so bad, but given that in each different ‘world’ you travel to from the main portal hub contains a plethora of loading areas (which really aren’t exactly short loading times) you’ll soon become frustrated (even more so if you chose the wrong area to go to, leaving you both frustrated for having to go back through all the same loading areas again and also leaving you clueless as to where you’re supposed to go). This aspect of the game is just poor planning on the developer’s part. Besides, youwould think that these highly skilled martial arts type folks would know how to perform some of these things from the outset.

Fatalities and Brutalities (from MK3) are also here in Shaolin Monks, along with new Multalities, each unlocked by finding one of the previously mentioned different medallions littered throughout the game. Fatalities and Brutalities are performed, once unlocked, by filling a small orb with blood in the top left of the screen by performing big-time combos and sending enemies to the great beyond. Once done, hitting the L1 button and then an enemy with a charged move bring up the Finish Him screen. Once here, a 5-button combination will perform one of the ‘alities.’ Fatalities kill one enemy and give an experince bonus, Brutalities kind of turn on the bullet-time allowing the fighters to go berserk on the slowed enemies destroying them in flashy combos, and the Multalities clear several enemies at once.

Earning those medallions is pretty sweet, as you’ll end up fighting one or several Mortal Kombat characters to earn them. Tiptoeing past a giant snake to get to Reptile, and battling Mileena and Jade together are just some of the examples of some really cool scenarios players will get into during their adventures in Shaolin Monks. Sadly though, the amount of time the single-player game takes to complete is a bit short. The game was definitely designed to be enjoyed cooperatively, as there are several secrets areas that require both Liu and Kung.

Not only in the game, but through the cutscenes as well.

Each of the cutscenes always show Kung and Liu togethere, as if upon choosing to play alone the other character just puts on an invisible cloak and says ‘Have at it.’ The cutscenes themselves are just pure camp; cheesey dialogue and over-acted voicework abound. The character models up close look fairly odd as well, with Raiden’s face looking like it spent the last million years in a vice as he watched over Earth realm. In motion though, the game looks good, and the environment’s are just fantastically done.

Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks does a lot of things right. It builds on the Mortal Kombat universe and takes place during its most popular period, with fan service left and right. The amount of times you hear ‘toasty’ and the first time you see the witch go across the moon on the Pit, you’ll know that they really tried hard to bring a smile to MK fans’ face. Regardless, the game is also accessible to newcomers through solid action. If the game had less pointless back-tracking and a bit more length to its single-player campaign, it’d be close to perfect.

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Posted by David Hinkle on Oct 14th, 2005 and is filed under PS2 Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.

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