A great return to one of the legends of gaming. Finish Him!
Taking place after MK 1, the game opens with the final battle after the original tournament, involving no fewer than 12 of MK's finest in a massive brawl, which ends with the destruction of Shang Tsung's Island. Though, shortly afterwards, Earthrealm's warriors return home to a mass invasion by Outworld forces (namely, by the Tarkata, Baraka's race). Since Shang Tsung has effectivly burned the rule book, the Thunder God Raiden has commanded his greatest warriors, Liu Kang and Kung Lao, to take the fight into Outworld itself, and defaet the sorceror once and for all.
The name of the game is to run about a number of locations, battling numerous foes. Combat is based around a simple to pick up system based around light, heavy and launching attacks assigned to the face buttons, and these can be directed in a 360 radius to attack many foes at once. You also have a throw button, a block button, and a 'modifier' to perform your character's signature moves. They're all there, including Liu Kang's fireballs and bicycle kicks, to Kung Lao's razor sharp hat and teleportation. These moves and new combos can be unlocked by using experience gained from killing foes, so the ass-kicking potentials constantly rack up. This system is brilliantly implemented, as you can rack up immense combos and stylish sequeces, as you fluidly switch from ground to air combat and back again. Added pain comes from the use of environmental hazards, including sheer drops, roof spikes (quick uppercut=death), and the dreaded pit and acid pools also appear.
You can play through the main game alone or with a partner in Ko-op, with both characters fighting together. This creates some great potential for double-teaming moves, as you gang up on single foes and toss them back and forth like a rag doll for extra exp boosts. Though, there's no drop in and out feature, you have to play Ko-op from the beginning.
This being MK of course, there are plenty of boss battles with old characters of the series. EVERY character from MK II appear as either an ally or an enemy, from Jonny Cage and his shadow kick, to Jax's sheer brute force, and Baraka's arm blades to Scorpion and his harpoon(Get over here!), to Goro, Kano, Reptile, Sub-Zero and more. Though the main boss highlight is the three-on-one you have with Kitana, Mileena and Jade early on. All these bosses have their trademark moves and abilities, and each one goes through specific phases you need to recognise.
There are also fatalities. Oh yes, you can instantly kill an enemy with a number of pre-determined lethal moves, 10 for each main character. They include old favourites like Kang's Dragon and Flipping Uppercut moves, to Kung Lao's Body Slice and Hat Toss. The other characters get in on the act too, with Sub-Zero's Spine Rip, Reptile's Head Eat and Scorpion's Flame. You can learn new moves by finding secret koins hidden around the environment, and there are plenty of new fatalities to find. For instance, Liu Kang can perform the Bone breaker, where he breaks his enemy's arms and legs, then finishes with a neck snap, whereas Lao has the very painful Buzzsaw and Many Chops moves. I'll leave you to find them all.
The game's other qualities aren't so brilliant though. Graphics are pretty solid, but get extra points for re-visiting classic arenas, including the Living Forest, The Pit, The Dead Pool, Goro's Lair, the Evil Monastary and much more, all complete with clasic execution methods (Angry trees a notable example). Voice work is pretty poor, but Midway have managed to find many of the original voice actors and samples for the characters (so we get Liu Kang's Bruce-Lee voice effects and Scorpions 'Get over here!'), and plenty of gruesome kill effects. Another thing- although you gain special platform abilities like double-jump, long jump and wall running for defaeting bosses, platforming isn't exactly easy in this game. the dodgy camera, which always follows a set route, makes it hard to size up jumps and climbing opportunities, and you'll often find yourself plummeting to the ground time after time.
Despite these, MK: Shaolin Monks is a pretty decent game which deserves a look, MK fan or not. FINISH HIM! (Splat, squelch, etc.) FATALITY!