Short, gory and Toasty! A beat-em-up for the MK Fans.
I've been a mortal kombat fan ever since I was still too young to play it, even though I mostly missed out on the earlier games as the only place I could play them was at my friend's house.
I've spent a lot of time online just reading comics fans have made and collecting bits of info behind the new games and characters. I own the 2 MK movies and have seen every episode of the tv-show "Conquest", and after many years without a MK game of my own I bought the MK games Deception and Armageddon when I had the chance.
Since Shaolin Monks was released I've been frantically looking for it, as I'm more of a beat-em-up fan than fighter fan (why I love MK, I don't know), but the game seemed to disappear the same day it was out. I never saw it in any store, and I didn't bother looking for it over the Internet as I don't shop online. But just a week ago I found a used copy in a bargain bin on my trip to another city. Of course I bought it immediately, and now I'm reviewing it here.
The Review
Gameplay
Unlike the other games from the well-known series, Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks is a beat'em up, which means that the one-on-one fights are replaced with multiple easy opponents and simplified fighting mechanics.
As a hardcore beat'em up fan I have to say that the game is very well executed. It delivers a solid brawling engine, and what's even better is that it stays true to the whole mortal kombat franchise.
The well-known moves from the original MK games are back in Shaolin Monks, but are executed with just one or two buttons so it's fairly easy to use them in battle against the common enemy goons. For example, moves like Liu Kang's fireballs and bicycle kick are executed by pressing R1 and one of the basic attack buttons.
The basic moves are jump, quick attack, uppercut (flings enemy up in air) and heavy attack. With the special button pressed down while executing a move you do more powerful and interesting moves, but this drains your energy.
With R2 you can throw enemies, and combined with R1 you can just grab them and control them around for a period of time (not very useful but occasionally funny).
With L2 you lock on to targets and also block attacks if your energy meter isn't empty.
After you have beaten enough enemies into mash and filled your fatality meter, you get a chance to do a fatality by pressing L1. After succesfully hitting an enemy with a green-glowing punch the background turns black and you need to press 5 buttons to execute a fatality.
If you fill up more fatality gauges, you can do multalities and brutalities, executed like fatalities but with a different combination ending button. Multalities kill more enemies around you, and brutalities just slow time and give more power to your normal attacks.
You can unlock more fatalities and find them in the stat menu, where you can see all your important stats, learned moves and also buy new moves.
You gain experience points when you finish an enemy with your own fists, meaning no exp for throwing the enemy into spikes, and with these points you can buy more combos and special moves, but note that there's still only so many new moves so you'll eventually be doing the same combinations over and over again. The chance to buy them just delays the inevitable.
After you have finished a boss you are granted with special moves like long distance jump, double jump, wallrun and walljump abilities that allow you to reach places you couldn't enter before. These moves make the game a bit more fun, but in the end you wont have much chance to try them without the game telling you to, as the moves are only useful in places where you're supposed to use them to advance anyway.
Note, the game's platforming bits are a pain in the ass most of the time, and no where near interesting.
There are also a couple of tag-team moves, but I didn't play with a friend, so I can't say much about those.
I still need to add that the camera in Shaolin Monks is...interesting to say the least. It confuses me still at times, even though there's 3 view points available. Be careful where you step in this game...
Story
Shaolin Monks follows Liu Kang and Kung Lao in their journey to defeat Shang Tsung. The game starts where the first Mortal Kombat game ended (I think), with Shang Tsung fleeing after being overpowered. His island starts crumbling and the kombatants try to escape, but Kung Lao and Liu Kang accidentally drop into Goro's lair. Here's where you'll start and also learn the controls as Raiden guides you.
After fleeing the island succesfully and being awarded for defending the Earthrealm, a tarkatan horde attacks the Wu Shi academy, which eventually leads to Raiden sending you to Outworld to fight Shang Tsung.
To be honest, you don't really have a story to follow, the whole plot is full of holes and you never know what's happening or what your mission is. Is it Shang Tsung disguised as Raiden that you get orders from, is your goal to find Sonya, kill Reptile, fight Shang Tsung or save Kitana, is Jax going to appear ever again, and how the hell can some of the guys be safe at one moment, be in jail some moments later and then be free again in the ending cutscene? And if Sonya was free in the end, where is she? And what's the bloody point of Kano being anywhere? Where did he go after Shao Kahn was defeated?
My point is, there is no reason to look for a story or even a hint of reasoning behind anyone's actions, because you'd only blow up your mind. There is no story, and the small bits you think are part of a larger story end at the same time the cutscene is over.
It's just a big mess of things so every character could have their moment, as all the characters from the early games are in Shaolin Monks, but many of them don't fit in. For example, you can free Kabal from a cage if you want to, and he just talks in a funny accent for a minute and disappears. Same with Jax, you see him in the end for a VERY short moment, looking for Sonya, but then he's gone forever, he doesn't even appear in the end when Sonya is supposedly freed (though you don't see her either).
Even the characters you fight in boss battles just barely go with the "story."
Speaking about boss battles, they're fun, but not well-balanced. The big bad guys (Goro, Kintaro, Kahn and Shang Tsung) are so ridiculously easy after you get the hang of their few lousy moves, that the feeling of doing something sensational is gone. It goes well with the lack of story.
Also, the fights with Baraka and Reptile in the beginning are frustratingly hard at first.
Only boss fights that are great are the battle against Kitana, Mileena and Jade and the battle against Scorpion. Scorpion especially stands out, even if he's not that hard to beat.
But even though the bosses aren't all great, there's also a nice touch added when fighting them. When you are beaten in a boss battle, the enemy does a special fatality to you, so it's worth dying at least once. After you finish off the boss, you're told to do a fatality to him/her. If you don't execute the fatality succesfully ie. press a wrong button in a hurry or press buttons the too fast for the game to count them, the enemy gains back some of his health and the battle starts again.
After succesfully executing a fatality, you see a cool movie where the boss dies in a very detailed and special way.
From the very beginning to all the way to the end of the game the MK fans will recognize the classic MKII backgrounds. The old levels are now in Shaolin Monks one way or another, and it's awesome. Also, the Shadow Priests guarding the portal are now beatable, and you're actually forced to fight them, or you can't enter whatever portal they're guarding.
Many old MK jokes related to the levels can also be found. Look at the moon when Liu Kang/Kung Lao is in front of it to see weird shadows passing by, think carefully how to kill enemies at the dead pool and advance in the game by throwing enemies at trees in the living forest.
Note that the whole game is VERY short, shortest I've ever played.
First run took me 5 hours 5 minutes, and that's WITH the completely unnecessary backtracking. You get 4 characters (2 at first, 2 after finishing the game with the first 2 guys) but the story is exactly the same every time, and although it's fun to try out Scorpion (oh noes, spoiler!) and Sub-Zero ( well I never guessed) and their unique moves, the game just becomes extremely dull in the end, and at best you'll gain 2-3 more hours per character. The various secrets are not really worth backtracking, and the 2 player VS mode doesn't last forever.
The only way to add replay value is through ko-op, where you can play with a friend through the story.
I was really, REALLY disappointed at the hefty amount of secrets you can only unlock with a friend, because I'm one of the last of an ancient breed of true video gamers: The lifeless beings who play with themselves. I mean, who play alone.
My friends all play only nintendo or PC games, so I can never see what interesting secrets I could've uncovered in Shaolin Monks...
There's also a chance to unlock Mortal Kombat II, but I hear it's gone in the PAL version and I'm a European, so it doesn't help me much. Bummer really, I would've gladly spent many hours unlocking it if necessary, but no point in continuing the game without it. But I am going to check again, incase the rumours are wrong and there's still hope.
Graphics
I have to say, the graphics aren't anything above mediocre in Shaoling Monks. Apart from the nice movies at the beginning, the cutscenes suffer from lack of detail. The common goons are also not that pretty.
I personally don't give a rat's ass about graphics, but anyone who does care about graphics shouldn't hope too much from this game.
Sound
Shaolin Monks stands out well with it's classic sounds taken straight from the old games. Miss the ridiculous yells, Shao Kahn's taunts, the voice saying "fatality" and the famous Forden's "Toasty!"? They're all back.
The voice acting isn't exceptional, but bearable.
Music doesn't stand out too much, which is a good thing as you're not supposed to concentrate on that while fighting people.
Overall, nothing to complain about, much to like about.
Konclusion
So, after this long wall of text I eventually come to the conclusion that MK: Shaolin Monks is a good game for all MK fans, mediocre purchase for beat-em-up fans and rather unnecessary for anybody else.
So, just find out in which group YOU belong to, and go spend your money accordingly.