So, apparently they just released Ultimate Mortal Kombat III on Live Arcade…a very odd Saturday release. Full version is 800 points ($10).
Any Mortal Kombat fans try it out yet? I’m not a big enough fan to know if they got the feel right or anything. $10 is a decent price if they did a good job and the online multiplayer works well. Otherwise, I’ll pass.
I wouldn’t try it if it was free. Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 is the ass of the franchise.
Yeah, it was pretty much straight downhill after MK2, unfortunately.
It actually feels easier to pull off the moves than in Street Fighter. I tried the online multiplayer for a while and it was pretty good fun. But obviously, if you don’t like MK, you’re likely to get cross fast. Motoro especially can kiss my ass. One of the shittiest bosses I’ve ever hated in a beat-em-up.
Or a fighting game, even.
I’ll skip this one. I consider the franchise to have peaked at MK1, but I think everyone can agree that MK3 and its permutations were massive steps down from the first two games.
MK1 was a horrible fighting game. It was great because it had so much gore, but otherwise, it was a clunky mess and pretty much sucked. MK2, however, was excellent and I didn’t think 3 was bad at all. It wasn’t great, but I still enjoyed it. I’d download this on Live, but I don’t really care enough to get good at it again.
I don’t like MK3’s character design and the retarded comedy-value fatalities.
Then, in UMK3, they added Jade, who is one of if not the most broken characters in the history of the franchise. If you throw a projectile at CPU Jade, she gets a free 45% combo. On top of that, there are something like two dozen infinites, and Stryker has his Uzi lockdown… it’s a mess.
I always hated the MK AI. If player does move A, then 60% of the time, do humanly impossible thing B in order to counter it (like the Jade combo). 40% of the time, do something inhumanly stupid in order to take it like a chump (like walking slowly into a Sub-Zero ice duplicate from half a screen away). And then the only way to win becomes to either get lucky with it acting like a chump, or to find some crappy little bug or exploit.
Yeah. The secret to winning against the MK AI on any setting other than the lowest one was largely to find holes in the system, or to come up with these insane juggle combos. Half the cast have special moves that will simply never work against an AI opponent, like a teleport. I defy you to use a teleport move in either MK2 or MK3 that the CPU will not sweep you out of on reaction.
I always thought the 3D MKs, at least the later ones, were much, much better than any of the 2D games. Still not great, but a fun way to kill an afternoon with a friend.
I think I’m going to pass on this one as well. I tried the demo, and it quickly became apparent that I haven’t MK2 is the only game in the series I put any real time in on. It seemed like a very faithful translation, and the gameplay was well represented, but it’s just not the MK game for me. No idea of online multiplayer works well.
I might be reading too much into it, but it’s good news for Live Arcade overall, right? I mean, if they’re releasing on a Saturday, then they must have a pretty full roster of Wednesdays for the rest of the year, and then some.
I read that it was briefly available on Friday night, then pulled, so I figured they just let it slip by mistake but went ahead and released it since some people had already downloaded it before it was pulled on Friday.
Well they did promise 50 XBLA games total by Christmas, which means they have to release something like 17 more in the next 9 weeks…
Microsoft seems to be backing off the 50-by-the-end-of-the-year figure.
GameSpot: A few months ago Microsoft said we would get 50 Xbox Live Arcade games by the end of the year. Even with a new game every Wednesday from now until the end of the year, we’d still wind up well short of that. Will you fall short of 50? If so, by how much and why?
XBL Group Marketing Manager Aaron Greenberg: Our focus is really putting out the best possible games for our community, and we have a commitment to bringing as many quality titles to Xbox Live Arcade as we can by the end of the calendar year. We have 33 titles on the service today with many more great games to come. I don’t have the final projection for how many Arcade titles will be available by December 30, but I know each and every one will offer a great gaming experience for all kinds of gamers.
They were spinning that “quality” line to explain the shortages 6 months ago, and that was before they released shit like Frogger.
I kinda liked MK3, mostly for the addition of the run button. That, and the fact that combos were actually added that weren’t jugglers. I might pick it up… I’m guessing no widescreen?
It was fun to play for a while, but i’ve never been a player of 2d style fighting games. I love watching them, but never enjoy playing.
I’m hoping we get some of the none “classic arcade game” titles come soon. After buying Doom, the rest of the points left (1200) are waiting for Castle Crashers and the like.