Mortal Kombat

***No Spoilers Here***

First things first, I must warn you. The reward for the challenge tower sucks, and I mean it really sucks, considering how much effort it will take you to complete them all, it really isn't worth it. So bare in mind that completing it should just be for fun, not the 'great reward' that we were promised, because it isn't. Also, you don't have to complete them all to get it, if you skip them all (or the ones you can't do) it will give it to you, minus the achievement, but you will get a secret one. (I've managed 297/300, the 300th is insane. And oddly, the four before it are easier than the first challenge (or near enough)

This is MK at its best, its what all of us MK fans, and beat em'up fans have been waiting for.

They have gone back to the games roots, a 2d fgihting plain making every move effective, unlike previous titles.

There are 3 areas to look at

1) Arcade Ladder- This is the basic arcade mode, defeat 10 opponents and you win the tournament and get a video. This mode is the same as it has always been. There is one bonus which MK fans will love, and that is the difficulty settings actually vary hugely. On begginer, Shao Kahn is as harmless as a puppy, on hard... Forget about it.

2) Story mode- This is awesome, the most in depth story ever in a fighting game. The best bit? You only do proper fights, none of this run around with 2 punches and kicks rubbish. It pretty much re-tells the story from MK1-MK3 with very minor changes. It poses some hard tasks such as taking on two boss characters by your self, up to defeating Shao Kahn himself, all of which are amazing.

3) The challenge tower- this is fairly easy up to the 200th challenge mark, where it becomes insane. There are old challenges like test your might/sight aswell as strike and luck. Test your luck is a randomly generated game from a slot machine. For example, it chooses first your opponent, then up to four random abilities, such as armless, headless, dark, rainbow, vampire, boosted strength/ health and many others, sometimes it will benefit you, sometimes it will make it imposible. Not having arms or your head can make it very difficult when you only have kick moves. This will take you roughly 10 hours alone, depending on your skill.

There is only one criticism I have of this game, and that is that some fighters are not very well balanced.
For example, Lui Kang has two easy combos, XXX and AAB, the trouble is, he has an attack for foward X and forward A which means you can't be moving forwards to do them, which can mean your opponent can open up some distance and you will miss, leaving you open. And Johnny Cage's X-Ray move is a Parry, and they have to hit you or it won't work. And some characters X-Rays have to be activated right on your opponent and others go the whole length of the screen. This sucks, but you get used to it.

All in all a very solid game, not just one of the best fighting games this year, but a definite contender for best game of 2011

P.S. from the ending its very clear that there is going to be a follow up

Game is pretty cool. Story mode is entertaining, I'd say about 10h. Finished it in 2 days. Storyline is interesting(MK-wise).
AI's a bit annoying, their method of a sure-win involves using the same move over and over again, especially with Shao Kahn.
Which leads me to my point - if you have a choice, don't buy the game for the Xbox360.
The Xbox360 controller just wasn't made for Fighting Games, and it'll wreck your analogs pretty easily. I've had my slim-controller for a couple of months now and it's always worked nicely. 3 days with MK and the left analog is constantly tilting to the right, ruinning most combos in-game. And I'm not that much of a 'rager'. But the really annoying thing is the d-pad. It's badly built for fighting games and many times you'll find your combo broken by the diagonal keys in the d-pad as you move your thumb across positions.

If you don't believe me just check the other reviews online for the Xbox360 Controller, same thing happened with Street Fighter, which prompted them to release a special controller(for hardcore gamers, but still). Also, I'm not sure this game is worth buying a special controller just for playing it(like one of those £20 madcatz ones).

Still overall it's a fun game to play with friends. But really, if you can, buy it for the PS3.

Not too good at writing reviews so I'll just say that mortal kombat is by far the best beat'em up ever! Sounds a bit exaggerated but it's true. So much fun to be had with all the combos and x-ray style knockout moves. S
It's refreshing to see mortal kombat back to its former glory with added polish and fluidity.