Game:

Mortal Kombat 9 (2011)

Duration: 1:35:17

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Well, this game's going to take a while. Mortal Kombat. The original. The big big competitor to Street Fighter II. Sure, there were plenty of other fighting games that came out, SNK's offerings, the rise of 3D fighters thanks to, of all companies, Sega, but Mortal Kombat was the biggest one that stood out in arcades. With more 'realistic' graphics, thanks to using photographs of actors in costumes, and a more violent tone with the blood and fatalities, this game carved its own niche in the market.

And, honestly? The first one isn't very good. But that's hardly a surprise. A lot of the characters feel the same, thanks to the basic moves being virtually the same through all the characters. The only real difference is in the special moves. However, this game does a lot of things right, things that do make it more challenging. The endurance fights, while being entirely unfair to the player, do feel more like a challenge than cheapness. Two opponents, one health bar. You need to improve to pass them.

The cheapness comes later, with Goro and Shang Tsung. Goro has longer reach, command grabs, doesn't get staggered by some attacks so will counter you even if you connect. Of course, I managed to find a way to completely cheese him. Shang Tsung, on the other hand, has a mechanic that I love the idea of, just not the execution. I think it's far superior in Mortal Kombat II, where you can even play as him and use it. The fact that he can change into any of the other fighters adds a great element to the fight. But here there's no build up to the transform. He can just instantly be someone else and use their special, with zero frames of animation before it. That's a cheapness factor.

Still, I manage to beat it with Johnny Cage. I can't really compare the character yet, as most of the fighting styles are the same other than the specials. But I will say that Cage has a unique weakness in this game in that one of his moves specifically does not work against one of the characters. His split punch won't punch against Sonya. Making him, I believe, the only character in this game with that straight up weakness. -- Watch live at https://www.twitch.tv/the_nametag

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