G-pinions

I've been a pretty big Mortal Kombat fan since the beginning. I admittedly never owned one of them until Mortal Kombat Trilogy on the Playstation (which was cool, but buggy as a termite nest), but I spent a ridiculous amount of time playing them at arcades and friends houses in my youth. The series has always had a totally different appeal than Street Fighter for me. Fatalities and fireballs aside, even the basic fighting is a whole different deal. It's always been a lot more rigid and precise then SF, which is odd considering it's motion captured (more or less) and SF is animated. But I don't look at that rigidity as a bad thing, it's just one of the more subtle ways that the series differ. I'd definitely rather be stuck with Street Fighter on a desert island because of it's impeccably balanced design and deceptively deep move sets, but I'm talking about MK at the moment. Anyhow, the fatalities, ninjas vs. cyborgs fights, and four-armed women always rubbed me the right way, even if it was a bit over the top some of the time (or always over the top all of the time, whatever). MK:Deadly Alliance on the PS2 continued the series in fine fashion, with intensely gratifying weapons-based combat and multiple fighting styles. Er, kombat. Busting out some broadswords with Scorpion or tearing someone's shit up with axes as Kano was every bit as spine-shatteringly visceral as I had hoped for. I rarely buy fighting games though (Tekken 3, SF:Alpha3 and MK:Trilogy being the exceptions), and although MK:DA was awesome I had gotten my fill renting it a couple of times.

Well, that's the brief backstory on today's column. I want to tell you about the upcoming Mortal Kombat: Deception. You see, it's looking like this game is going to kick more ass than even I would have imagined, and I think that it might even have the honor of being the fourth fighting game that I've ever bought. Oh, one last side note first: Although I've been a PSM subscriber from issue one, their writing has gotten somewhat weaker over the last year or so, probably because of the multiple staff changes they've had. But christ, this is getting rediculous; in their intro paragraph for their MD:Deception preview, they have the following text - "(Ed) Boon's team, determined not to simply rest on the last game's success, has cooked up wild new ideas that even the most hardcore MK fans won't expect: multi-tiered battle arenas...death traps and background weapons...an overhauled Konquest mode...more Fatalities...new and returning characters..." etc. etc. (the etc.'s are actually part of what I wanted to talk about so I won't mention them). Now, I dunno about all you other hardcore MK fans, but I think they're selling us a little short. Because, you know, we never would have thought of multi-tiered battle arenas (ala DOA or older MK games) or more fatalities. And a fighting game sequel with old AND returning characters? What kind of witchcraft is this? No fucking way I would have thought of that in my absolute WILDEST imagination. PSM are gonna set the whole gaming industry in a tizzy with such ludicrous revelations. WILD I tell you, WILD. Anyways, PSM needs to get some better writers and fire these cocksores*. Enough of their douchebaggery, and on to my preview. As I was saying, MK:Deception is looking great. The stages look moodier than ever, including a prison boat of sorts where inmates grab at you from their cells and bodies swing from the rafters, hanging from nooses (which you can smack into your opponent, no less). The character design is badass, including sweet redesigns of such sorely missed fellows as Baraka, Ermac and Noob Saibot. The 'death traps' (blades that cut you up your opponent, things to impale them on, etc.) aren't a new idea is the series, but being able to hit your opponent into them during the round is certainly novel. The 'background weapons' are certain very powerful weapons contained within each level that are specific to that level, and each have their own specific move set that comes with them. It can be a race and/or a risk to pick them up though, especially seeing as some are placed right to the death traps. I can just imagine the gratification of booting my opponent through some spinning blades that sheer him in twane seconds after he grabbed an axe the size of my torso. Drool. Another insanely cool addition is a hari kari move for each character. Meaning that when 'finishing' time comes around, it's a race for who can creatively gut you first. Your opponent...or you.

These things are all layers of icing on already sweet cake though. The bulk of it, the body, the coolest thing of all, is the revamped Konquest mode. Konquest was a mode in MK:DA where you'd move your character along a path on an overhead map (along a line, with one button press), stopping at various dojos and gazebos along the way to learn your moves and weapon sets one by one, and unlock hundred of new costumes and characters and levels and artwork and doodads from the Krypt while you were at it. It was a great mode, and a fucking quality way to learn how to play. In MK:Deception, you start as a generic character roaming the streets, stopping to talk to people along the way, or punch them for no reason, GTA-style. Many people you talk to will have a new technique to show you, or a new thingy to unlock. A bit deeper, down alleyways and through dojos, lies every single MK character ever, there to give you a few lessons and help you build and shape your character with new styles and new moves. Some are only available at certain times, but you can always 'meditate' (just chill and watch the civilians and sun whip by you at hyper speed) to make events come up a little sooner. Your character will age by days and weeks and years, so by the time you're ready to duke it out onlien, your character will look quite unique. That's right, I said online. The first online PS2 fighter, mind you. Possibly the first online 3D fighter ever if DOA:Online keeps getting delayed. So, yeah, that should rule. Oh, damn, I almost forget, there's more. For kicks (no pun intended), the developers even added at least two fairly substantial minigames, all playable online. One is a next-gen successor to the NES classic Archon (kinda of like battle chess with MK charcaters for pieces, but you control it when the pieces duke it out in a regular match when you try to take a piece). How cool of a way is that to make you proficient with all of the characters? Quite cool, says I. And lastly (although I'm sure more will be revealed), a SF:Puzzle Fighter Turbo knock-off puzzle game, complete with cute little hyper-deformed MK characters. So, point is, this game is fucking packed with stuff to do, and if it turns out to suck, I'll eat my hat. And Tom's hat. And Dan's really expensive hat, feather and all.

Oh, and Tom and I had the time of our lives tonight playing Taboo until three in the morning. Talk about a fucking game, that's a real man's game right there.

* Tom Mc Shea, last Thursday.