In terms of story, the game picks up exactly where Deadly Alliance ended, with the alliance between Shang Tsung and Quan Chi having grown so strong that Raiden challenged the two to a final battle. The duo defeat Raiden but quickly turn upon each other. Quan Chi outpowers Shang Tsung but only moments after this happens, Onaga, the original ruler of Outworld, returns. Quan Chi tries to defeat Onaga, but he is not powerful enough; Shang Tsung and Raiden help out due to necessity, but together they are not powerful enough. Raiden has no choice but to sacrifice himself and everyone else, but the sacrifice doesn't have the desired result; Onaga is undeterred and the universe is in trouble. All clear? The FMV introduction to the game tells this story, but instead of Deception flashing up at the end you'll see Unchained, which feels a little out of place.
Fight!!
There's a total of thirty characters in the game - six more than in the console versions - and Kitana, Jax, Frost, Blaze, Goro and Shao Kahn are all included as bonuses. This makes for a fairly extensive roster, with favourites like Sub Zero and of course, zombie Liu Kang making it into the game too. The game includes an Arcade mode, where you play through rounds and eventually end up facing off against Onaga. There's also a Practice mode and a new PSP exclusive Endurance mode. The Endurance mode is much like a Survival mode - you select a character and then try to defeat as many characters in a row as possible. Initially, it's very easy to win but the difficulty increases with every battle. Endurance mode isn't quite as seamless as you'd expect though, because there's about five seconds of loading in between every battle, which dampens the experience.
However, the main challenge to lone players in the game comes from the Konquest mode. This lets you explore the Mortal Kombat universe, but it's pretty much divided up into separate fetch quests, mixed with training. Indeed, the Konquest mode in Mortal Kombat Armageddon is much better than the one in Unchained, so it feels like a bit of a downgrade. Here it's also plagued with long loading as well, and a camera that gets in the way far too often.
Oh, it's on...
Midway has also thrown in two brief minigames which translate well to the PSP and are ideal for quick bursts of gaming. The first mini game is Puzzle Kombat, which is like Tetris, but with a little bit of a twist. You'll need a Mortal Kombat symbol to come down so you can clear the row, while black blocks also fall down which clear every block of a certain colour. The second mini game is Chess Kombat, which plays like a chess game, only you'll need to fight before taking over a chess piece. Both of the minigames are good, novel fun.
Midway has also included support for ad-hoc multiplayer. Unfortunately, the game doesn't include infrastructure support, which is a major disappointment - Mortal Kombat Deception was one of the first games to go online for the PlayStation 2 and the Xbox when it was released, yet two years later the game has lost that ability. The game lets you play either a normal battle, Chess Kombat or Puzzle Kombat in multiplayer. There are only really basic options for the multiplayer - you can tone the violence down or you can turn the death traps on or off, but that is all.
The graphics are pretty impressive for a PlayStation Portable title and it's only really possible to tell that the game has been toned down graphically when you're walking around in Konquest mode. Otherwise, the game looks very impressive and the environments are decent. In terms of audio, it's a Mortal Kombat title, so expecting incredible voice work is a little bit much. However, the audio is still okay, with the usual eerie sounds playing whilst you're in the Krypt, and the characters making overexaggerated sounds.
Chess Kombat: The ultimate portable game.
In every mode you play, you'll be rewarded with koins. There are six different types of koins to earn. The koins can be used in the Krypt, where each coffin requires a certain amount of koins; get the required number of koins and you can unlock many differnet things. There are 400 krypts in all, so there's plenty to keep you going. The Konquest mode is lengthy if you've got enough patience, and the Arcade mode suits the portable nature of the game. In other words, if you enjoy the game, there's plenty to make sure you stay glued to it.
Mortal Kombat Unchained is an enjoyable game with plenty of content. However, Midway seemed content to just sit on its laurels with this port - only adding a few bonus characters and an Endurance mode just isn't enough. It doesn't seem right for the game to not include infrastructure support, and we would have liked to have seen a reworked Konquest mode. The game is coming out years after Deception and only weeks after Armageddon, so why did we wait so long for what is essentially a port?
Loading...
