Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection - Review - Xbox 360

Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection – Review – Xbox 360

By Travis Gardner (Editor - Co-Founder) on 06 September 2011 in Reviews, Xbox 360 with 74 Comments

FINISH HIM! Those words are in just about evey childhood videogame memory I have, so to say I was pretty pumped for this collection is an understatement. Everyone knows at least something about the Mortal Kombat franchise. Since the early 90′s this fighting game giant has been around, it’s even part of the reason why we have the ESRB ratings now (along with Doom, Night Trap, and Lethal Enforcers). Now in our digital age we can spend a measly $10 bucks and get 3 games in which most of us spent a ton of weekly allowances on.

Story: MK is the first fighting game I can recall with such a deep story, hell it even helped spawn video game movies in general. Here is a quick rundown on all three storylines (minor spoilers ahead):

Mortal Kombat – Taking place in the fictional Earthrealm on Shang Tsung’s Island a tournament is held with 7 participants. The Elder Gods created the tournament as sort of a alternative to war, seeing as one realm could only conquer another after winnig 10 tournaments in a row. Through playing the game and seeing each characters ending you learn that the tournament is being held to save Earthrealm from being taken over by the realm Outworld who have won the past 9. Liu Kang eventually defeats the sorcerer Shang Tsung and saves Earthrealm becoming the champion of Mortal Kombat.

Mortal Kombat II – After being defeated in the first MK Shang Tsung convinces his master Shao Khan to spare his life with the promise of another Mortal Kombat tournament (cause you apparently can’t decline an invite to the tournament), this time being held in Outworld. Shao Khan likes this idea and make Shang Tsung look young again. Earthrelam and Liu Kang achieve victory again, making Shao Khan furious.

Mortal Kombat III – This is where the story gets insanely hard to keep up with. Shao Khan make a plan to ressurect his dead wife and queen Sindel, but in Earthrealm not in Outworld, cause this would allow him to travel to Earthrealm to retrive her. When Khan goes to retrive her he merges Earthrealm and Outworld killing billions of people. Raiden wants to stop Khan but has no power in Outworld, but he was able to protect the Earthrealm souls so when Khan is defeated by Liu Kang again all goes back to normal in both Earthrealm and Outworld.

Gameplay: MK:AK boasts perfect arcade ports of MK,MKII, and Ultimate MKIII. While these are perfect ports the difficulty also came with them. If your first foray into Mortal Kombat is this years MK9 or the few years old MK v DC Universe, prepare to be frustrated on a Demon’s Souls level. Part of me loved this return to when video games posed a challenge but part of me felt like a wussy because I have become pampered by the low difficulty levels these days. The biggest new feature is the additon of online play for these 3 titles. I loved going online in MKII and spamming Mileena teleport kicks on people who had no idea all you had to do is block and then uppercut. No more will I have to place a quater on an arcade cabinet and wait for “Winner” I can just jump onto Xbox Live and smash some heads.

Graphics/Audio: The first thing you should do upon downloading the game is go into the options menu and change the filters to Arcade and Cabinet. Instantly you are transported back to your local arcade or pizza shop. Everything is perfect here from the sound effects to the great music, even the progressive scan lines run through the screen. Ed Boon really knew what the fans wanted here and this collection delivers pure nostalgia in the look and sound department.

Overall: Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection transported me back to my hometown right into Femis Pizza, and made me feel like I was ten again. This is not so much for new MK fans as it is for the old fans with an aching for a break from the new easy fighters. Nostalgia glasses were on the whole time I played and it felt really good, but will I still be playing a week from now I’m not sure.