Still like Armageddon better but this comes a close freakin' second.
Gameplay: The newest feature for the fighting mechanics in this MK series is called X-Ray. The best way to describe it: Have you seen the movie Romeo Must Die? It's like that only the bone crushing, muscle breaking, gut-churning, eye-gouging mayhem is a billion times more vicious in which elevates the brutality for the game. You can unleash this ability when you gauge bar is at three and each character has one and they are all unique.
The fighting system is little similar like the other MK installments (Deception, Deadly Alliance) but the button response in more fluent and accurate. Plus it's faster. And every character has their own unique style of fighting which helps with variety.
The fatalities…. OH BABY!!!!!! Excuse me while I whip this out. Oh man, every time I throw up acid in a person's mouth and rip his stomach out or tear some morons limbs from his body, I get aroused. I don't know why but it's just sooooooo appealing!!! Every character has at least 2 fatalities (3 depending on the character), a babality and a pit fatality and they are easier to execute this time so have a ball.
One more addition is tag team mode in which you can play as two characters throughout whatever. It somewhat has the same aspect as Marvel Vs. Capcom 1 2 3 so you should know what to expect from this feature.
Features: The game has its usual arcade ladder mode in which you fight around 10 characters and blah blah blah. You can choose up to 6 different modes Test Your Might, Strike, Focus, Luck, single character mode or tag mode.
It also has story mode which is one of the crowning achievement in fight game history. The story is actually quite coherent and well told which is very lacking in most fighting games. In most fighting games these idiots just run around and cry to each other for no apparent reason. But the story mode is really good. You'll go through different chapters and play with different characters assigned to you (you don't get too choose) throughout the story mode and fight a bunch of crap. It's actually quite good but you'll only play as the good guys and it sucks because they normally look sissier than hell. I WANT NOOB MF!!!
Then there is Challenge Mode in which you go through around 300 different obstacles again not of your choosing for characters and do all these different things like Test Your Might, fight an enemy without special moves and all sorts of crap. That is fun too and there is loads of variety in this.
Training mode is there and you know what that's all about. If not then too bad for you sucka.
The Krypts make its epic return to the series. You'll collect coins and get to unlock a ton of crap like alternate costumes, artwork, designs, fatalities, cheat codes etc.
Graphics: Simply beautifully macabre! A little nerdy too! I mean it has dragons and crap. WTF? Am I playing Mortal Kombat or effing D&D. I'm not a dork. F U!
Sound: It's icky. OOOOOOhohohooooo! And the soundtrack kills!
Flaws: This game is missing 2 things. One is the lack (DEVOID) of new characters. YES! No new characters here except Cyborg Sub-Zero. :P But the character designs rule ass so it's forgivable. The other is no create-a-fighter. It does upset me because I prefer to play with my own creations rather than with someone else's. I mean screw you and your lack of creativity. My character can beat the crap your character at any time, STUPID!!!
Conclusion: This is probably the most complete fighting game ever made. Highly recommended to MK elitists and fighting game kung fu gore hounds.