Mortal Kombat X - Mobile Edition

[Moral Kombat X (mobile), NetherRealm Studios, Warner Bros. Entertainment, 2015]

The Violentest Game Ever Comes to Your Apple and Android Device

That's right, the title that brought us the E for everyone, E10+, T for teen, and M for mature game rating system has finally come to your mobile device of choice, and not in a throwback nod to the original 1992 version, but in the form of a massive 1.1 Gigabyte, state-of-the-art addition to the wildly popular console title of the same name. Although it requires a hefty bit of free memory to download, it's worth every penny. By that I don't mean to insult the game. That was my witty way of saying, "It's FREE!" That's right, for once a game that isn't made for 6-year-olds that involves colored, avian balls or talking cats. This one is for the Mature gaming audience, down to the inclusion of the ever-controversial Fatalities. If you haven't had the pleasure of witnessing the brutal, match-ending murders that take place in this title, let me be the first to tell you that they maybe the most violent thing I've ever seen in a video game to date including the multitude of Calls of Duty, Auto Theft of the Grandest Kind, and their ultra-violent cousins in the gaming universe. 

First, a Little History

Not only is Mortal Kombat singly responsible for the ratings system we now have on all games, but it was the proud owner of the highest opening weekend sales for a short time following the release of Mortal Kombat II. Not only that, but it signalled a shift in financial paradigms. The debut weekend sales of $50 million marked the first time that a video game surpassed Hollywood movies in opening weekend sales. In the summer of 1994, it topped every last Hollywood blockbuster from that year including Mask, True Lies, Forrest Gump, and Lion King. Considering the acceptably arguable statement that this list includes both Jim Carrie's and Arnold Schwarzenegger's best films as well as the best thing Disney has done in decades, then top it off with a six-time Academy Award winning film that garnered Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Director awards, among others. 

MKII didn't just beat a bunch of humps. That list makes up one of the best ever in combined quality of summer blockbusters. Go ahead, tell me you'd rather see Avengers 2, Furious 7, Jurassic World, and the remake of Poltergeist for the first time instead of getting a second chance at reliving your first viewing of that list from 1994, but be prepared to be called a stinking liar. Fair warning. 

MKII didn't just create a new set of laws about what kids could and couldn't play with it's murderous violence, it was THE pioneer in a change in the way investors look at our top two forms of entertainment. What had been seen as the purvey of sad loners and prepubescents busted onto the scene with blood-dripping savagery, proving that this was an art form that would not be ignored. Yes, I believe games, especially the really good ones, to be a form of art on par with film, television, literature, comics, photography, painting, and any other traditional and/or non-traditional undertakings that require great creativity to produce. The trend that was started in 1994 by the most violent video game created up to that time has continued and the gap in revenues between games and movies has only grown since that time. 

Pop culture they may be, but I challenge you to play Valiant Hearts and not cry at the touching emotion found within, or Contrast and not spend the next several days contemplating the possibilities of the multiverse and all the variations to existence that title implies. My old man might argue with me, but he doesn't believe that Hip Hip is an art form, either. My immediate retort is, if rhyme isn't an artform, then what was Shakespeare doing penning those 34 plays and 154 sonnets that are nearly all about sex, violence, war, and murder? His answer is always Gangsta Rap. My answer is Tribe Called Quest, Digable Planets, and pretty much the entire Ninja Tune catalog. He doesn't know I'm speaking English. The saddest part about that is that we're all inevitably going to turn into our parents. Argh. Oh well, enough losing the plot, let's get back to the game!

 

I Used to Know Every Fatality in the Game

I even knew the Babalities and other alternative endings. However, that was in 1994-96 or so. Along with the free mobile versions of Mortal Kombat X, I also purchased the Xbox One version, but I've spent twice as much time playing the iPad version as I have on the console one. One of the big reasons for that, I suspect, is that I have forgotten the vast majority of special moves and Fatalities. Luckily, that doesn't matter in the mobile version. Anybody can pick up this game and be decent at it. You don't have to spend hours memorizing controller combinations then practicing them in two-player mode against nobody. The control scheme for the mobile title is exactly what all successful mobile title control schemes are: simple. You tap the screen with one finger to attack and hold down two fingers to block. That's pretty much it. There are occasional prompts to swipe the screen for extra moves as seen above 

and successful attacks build your special attack meter, which appears on the bottom left as seen below. 

So It's Easy to Play, What's the Game About?

What is any fighting game about? Kicking arse and leaving the dead in your wake! Like all previous Mortal Kombat Games, they attempt to put some unintelligible plotline together about Elder Gods, invading demons, some evil God, and some sort of tournament for the future of "Earth Realm." It falls as flat on my 2015 ears as it did on my 1994 pair, but it doesn't really matter. If you're playing Mortal Kombat for the plotline, then I'm afraid it's you who have lost the plot, seriously and to an unrecoverable point. 

Force + Form

The gameplay itself takes on a singular form with several small variations. Basically, you pick a team of three fighters and they face off against three others. The fighting character can one of the two remaining ones if they have sustained too much damage or you just want to switch it up. There are three tiers of character: bronze, silver, and gold. Their attack, health, and recovery levels increase significantly with each jump in the corresponding metal's worth. You can also purchase increases in these statistical categories for individual characters using "Koins" (See what they did there? :-) or by earning equipment through battle. The equipment can be moved from character to character, but the statistical category increases can not so choose wisely, unlike this poor Nazi sympathizer. 

There are usually two main types of gameplay with a special offering going on now for a limited time. The first is Battle Mode. Here you move from tower to tower taking on (usually) six groups of opponents that contain three fighters each. There are 33 such towers and you must beat every group in each of them to beat the game. The second is Faction Wars. This takes you online to fight against other real players' teams. While it's not a true online multiplayer in the same sense as Call of Duty or Elder Scrolls Online where you are facing off against other players live in real time, it brings an interesting aspect to the gameplay in that you never really know who you're going to face. Sometimes you get three bronze level characters who belong to a level 4 player. Other times it's two golds and a silver that have been carefully crafted by a level 35 opponent. Although I would prefer live face-offs against real opponents, I'm not sure that mobile platforms are up to that challenge yet, at least with a game of this size and graphic superiority. I'm afraid it would cause lag of unbearable proportions that would make the game mode unplayable.

Whatever the developers' reasoning, they have mostly made up for the lack of true online battles with the addition of factions. You join a particular faction at the beginning of every week. Depending on how many points you get for your faction and how well the team does throughout the week, you will get a certain set of rewards. If your team comes in last, guess what? Sucky rewards. First place, though, and it's rare equipment and statistical increases out the wazoo, not to mention the money. 

Finally, there are the limited time Character Challenge Towers. This week completion of the challenge will land you Raiden, my personal favorite character in the MK series. You have to complete five increasingly difficult towers in order to earn the elusive character types, and keep your eye on that clock, because if you haven't completed every last one before it runs out then you're S.O.L. 

Summ Fun, Huh?

I had initially planned to review the console version of Mortal Kombat X, but while in the Play Store looking for a companion app, I discovered this free game and decided to give it a try, especially considering I haven't discussed a mobile game for some time now and there are considerably more readers with smartphones out there than next-gen consoles. I was afraid I would quickly lose interest and long for the console game, but that hasn't happened. If anything, it's a relief to not be forced into re-learning special moves and Fatalities combinations that I used to know by heart but have long since forgotten. Don't get me wrong, the console version is far and away the best fighting game I've played in years. That said, NetherRealm Studios did a fantastic job in creating this game and not trying to push the control scheme past the abilities of the platform to handle. There's nothing I hate more than trying to play a game on my phone or tablet where the controller is drawn onto the screen. My thumbs continually slip off their appointed areas and it's nearly impossible to control them with any semblance of dexterity. So, if you're looking for a mobile app that is high on action, graphics, and gameplay options, give Mortal Kombat X a try (unless you're too young). Even if you haven't played an MK title since high school, you should be able to pick it up quickly and easily, and you'll have a lot more fun than flinging around a flock of angry pigeons in the process. 

The Math

Baseline Assessment: 8/10

Bonuses: +1 for vastly exceeding my expectations and making a really solid mobile version that could very easily have turned out to be nothing more than a piss-poor carbon copy of the actual game.

Penalties: -1 I almost feel bad for taking a point away for this, but if you're going to call it "Fight Online" then you should supply an online opponent, not a team of Avatars that someone else created. That said, I don't know the logistics of online match play on mobile platforms, especially for a game of this size and memory requirements. I'd like to give them a pass, but I've got to take off for something. 

Nerd Coefficient: 8/10. Well worth your time and attention.

See here for our scoring system. 

Xbox One: First Impressions

The Console

The new generation has finally made it. I picked up my One on Friday and haven't really stopped playing it since. First I'll cover some bells and whistles included in the new machine, then give a few words on the games I picked up. To begin with, let me say that it's quite impressive. I never bought the Kinect for the 360 because most of the games it was made for were created for kids. However, some of the hacks and off-label uses that were generated by have made their way into this iteration of the device. One cool feature is that it recognizes who is playing and will sign you in automatically. All you have to do is be visible in front of the Kinect's camera and it will sign you in, no questions asked. Instead of picking a single gamer profile to use as an automatic sign-in, assuming you have a family of gamers, it will simply recognize who is present and sign them in on its own. 

The box itself is a little bigger than the 360, but I much prefer the disc feeder in this one to the tray used in the 360. It makes discs harder to scratch and also easier to retrieve when ejected. The real place the new system shines, however, is in the voice commands. Simple statements like, "Xbox go home," return you to the Dashboard. Once there, you can start any of your apps or games by stating the name listed in the lower left hand corner. For example, "Forza Motorsport 5" will trigger Forza without touching a single button other than turning on the machine. While I wasn't sold on the Kinect as part of the package since I never used one with my 360, you can definitely mark me down as a convert now that I've seen it in action. 

the games

killer instinct

Killer Instinct comes with the console, although it operates in much the same model as today's MMORPGs and mobile games. You are given one character for free: Jago, shown above at right. The rest must be purchased either singly or in a group. It's a gorgeous fighting game, but I haven't really had the time to get into it with Forza 5 and Call of Duty: Ghosts staring me in the face. Many of Jago's moves are similar to those used by Ken and Ryu in the Street Fighter franchise, so he was a cinch to pick up being the SF aficionado that I am. The fireball is the same. The Sharyuken is the same. The only differences are some kick combos that I was lucky enough to figure out on my own. However, there is a move list provided if you're one to learn moves rather than just button mash until you figure things out like myself. I have yet to decide if I'm going to purchase the character pack for this game, but it's certainly tempting given the quality of the trial. 

Call of Duty: Ghosts

This game was a bit of a disappointment as anyone who has read about it knows it's not an Xbox One exclusive but rather a port with "upscaled" graphics from the 360 and PS3 editions. It looks a little better than Modern Warfare 3 and Black Ops 2, but it isn't a generation ahead. That said, it has a unique story line in which the countries of South America have banded together into Federation against the US. Don't worry gamergeeks, you learn this all in the first 30 seconds of the intro so I'm not spoiling any of the plot you don't figure out immediately. You're part of the resistance against the Federation and help try to restore the United States to its former glory in the campaign. 

There are also several new additions that I can't wait to try. One is called Squad Mode where you build your own squad and use it to take on other squads from around the world. You are able to train your squad members in various specialties to get the most well-rounded group of killing machines this side of Fort Hood. Finally, there's multiplayer. I'm not the biggest fan because I don't really enjoy getting massacred by a bunch of 8-year-olds with mouths like first-year Navy recruits, but I've given it a run, nonetheless. I just tried out Free-For-All because it requires the least amount of dedication (and I don't feel like I'm letting down squadmates with my lack of acumen), but there are twelve different multiplayer modes including Team Deathmatch, Cranked, Blitz, Search and Rescue, Search and Destroy, Infected, Kill Confirmed, Domination, Hunted, Free-For-All, Team Tactical, and Ground War. Don't ask me what all those mean because I haven't tried them all yet, but once my friends get around to picking up the one and Ghosts, I fully intend to explore each in its own right. For now, suffice it to say that this is a pretty good Call of Duty game, but my socks are still on my feet. They weren't blown off by the next round of CoD. 

Forza Motorsport 5

Finally, we've come to the place where this next-gen console REALLY shines. Forza 5 is every bit the newest breed of game. Although you don't have to beat them all to finish the game, there are 596 races in this gorgeous piece of gaming glory. This is clearly worth the $65 it costs, not to mention the jaw-dropping graphics that come inside that cute little green box. Aside from the human characters that appear in the pit, and they're are realistic as anything from Call of Duty, this game appears as photorealistic as anything I've every seen. 

One of the main changes in gameplay between this and the previous versions of Forza is that you only need to place in the top 3 spots in order to earn a gold medal. It is no longer required to win a race in order to consider that level conquered. Another one of the unique additions is the "Drivatar." Once you've completed three races, the game learns your driving style and uses it to enter you into races even if you aren't present to take part. You can win credits and XP from these races. It's the first time short of hiring a driver in Gran Turismo that I'm aware of where you can let your machine sit alone without even being home and improve your standings. One thing that bothered me was the inability to switch cars before loading the next race. I still haven't figured out a way to choose a different car or race without waiting for it to load the next track, which is a considerable amount of time. It's a minor inconvenience, of course, but one that adds up over time to drive you nuts. All in all, loading issues aside, this game completely lives up to my expectations and I can't wait to wake up tomorrow and play some more. I'm hooked. While the other two titles mentioned here are enjoyable, Forza 5 is full-on addictive, so beware. You've been given fair warning. 

the math

Objective Score: 8/10. I suspect this will rise to a 9 over time, but this is just the first round of games. One's a free/pay-to-play addition that comes with the console, one's a port, and one was built from the ground up for this console. As more games are designed for the One, I would imagine they will provide as much jaw-dropping wow power as Forza 5.

Penalties: Not enough original games that make full use of the console's capabilities were available on Day 1, or at least not enough with high enough scores on Metacritic to justify dropping $65 to play them. 

Bonuses: This is clearly a fantastic machine, as showcased in Forza 5. I look forward to seeing what they can come up with when the next Halo and Gears of War games come out. I suspect they will be amazing. 

Nerd Coefficient: 8/10. Again, I expect this grade to rise over time, but for the titles that are currently available, I just can't give it a 9. Come talk to me in six months :-)

PS4 Announcement

finally!!!

It has seemed like decades since the PS2 and original Xbox became surpassed by the current crop of console offerings. In reality, it's only been 7 and 8 years respectively, if you count by Christmases like Sony and Microsoft do! Unless you were living under a rock last week, you heard Sony has debuted the PlayStation 4. Kind of. They unveiled some gameplay and trailers, but they didn't give us a look at the actual machine. The picture above is concept art.

In order to be completely honest, I'll cop to owning an Xbox 360. However, I'm not a raging fanboy. Not being able to play God of War any more is killing me! When people ask me for advice, as a young girl at Best Buy did just last week, I tell them to ignore the Blu Ray player. You can buy an off-brand Blu Ray player for fifty bucks and a Sony for ninety. It's no reason to choose a console considering the fact that you're going to spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars on games over the life of the purchase. There are two main factors to consider when choosing whether to go with Sony or Microsoft. Wii is for families and doesn't compete much in the hardcore gamer market so we'll ignore them for now. The first and most important factor to consider when choosing which system to purchase is what your gaming friends play. You'll want to play online some, even if you aren't a big Call of Duty multiplayer addict. The only way to play with friends is to have the same brand console. The second and less important, but still pronounced differentiation between the PS4 and the new Xbox are the exclusive titles. Most games come out on both so it isn't a huge issue, but you should consider if you're more of a Halo/Gears of War type player or if you like Metal Gear, God of War, and Gran Turismo instead. Other than these two factors, there isn't much that should persuade you one way or the other, in my humble opinion. They are far and away the most important pieces of your console purchasing decision.

ps4 dual shock 4 controller

The only piece of actual hardware that was debuted was the new controller. They have added a touchpad that is clearly visible in the picture above. It boasts a microphone and headphone jack so you can catch every last highly offensive word the 8-year-olds are throwing at you on Call of Duty. There is also a new "share" button that allows you to intrude further into the lives of people you knew 17 years ago on Facebook. Hopefully that "friends" list is limited to those on the PlayStation Network. I really don't want social media news feed updates about how a former high school teammate is doing in Gran Turismo 6. I wouldn't mind updates within the Sony Network, but taking it to social media is a bit of a stretch unless you have a purely gaming identity there, separate from your main profile page.

the firepower

Leaks coming out of CES say that the PS4 is going to use an AMD Jaguar 8-core chip to churn through software like butter. There are also several articles saying the 4 will boast 8 Gig of DDR5 RAM (one article I read said this would actually be 4 Gig of DDR3). What this means to you, if you don't speak fluent nerd, is that Sony hopes to have the ability for their PS4 to be turned off in the middle of a game, then picked up hours later and started within seconds. No more 60 second boot times and returning back to your last save point. It's like having a non-stop autosave feature and a machine you no longer have to turn off...EVER! I mean, technically it's "off", but when it will start up and return to play in under 5 seconds, what's the difference? 

The graphics processing unit is equivalent to an AMD Radeon 8750. I currently have a Radeon 8750 in my home tower, so this isn't a great leap forward. It's the combination of this quality chip with the other components that will allow this unit to make a big improvement in graphic capabilities. Besides, consoles are easier to program for than CPU games. I feel somewhat sorry for PC game programmers because they're writing for a massive array of computer types. They want to make the best game possible while keeping the system requirements low enough that the highest number of systems can handle the game. Think of the original Crysis. There were four total computers in the US that could run that game at the highest graphic settings. It was supposedly the best-looking game ever on a CPU, but nobody could play it because the system requirements were so high. They essentially programmed their way out of profits.

Console programmers, on the other hand, know exactly what processor, RAM capabilities, graphics card, and hard drive limitations for which they're writing. There is no need to write code so that older machines can handle the workload. As with most generations, the early games won't maximize the console's abilities  As programmers get used to what a machine can do, graphics improve for a period of time, then hit a wall and can't really get better beyond that point. Black Ops 2 (2012) was a massive improvement over Medal of Honor: Airborne (2007). Dead Space 1 (2008) and Dead Space 3 (2013) showed similar improvement in graphics. However, anyone that has played Fallout 3 (2008) and New Vegas (2010) didn't see a massive improvement in graphics between the two. Same goes for Borderlands 1(2009) and 2 (2012). It was pretty much the same gameplay and look with a different environment for those sequels.  

the ps4 eye

One of the most obvious additions is the PS4 "Eye". To call this a copy of the Kinect would be a statement of the obvious so pointless I can't believe I'm typing it right now. Eye-ready games will be controllable using body movements and voice commands. It will be able to take video of players and insert them into the game. It will use two 1280 x 800 resolution (essentially 720p), 85% wide angle cameras and be able to differentiate between players in the foreground and background. While none of this is new to Kinect users, it will bring an even playing field to Sony and Microsoft in the ever-growing motion capture game market. This was a no-brainer to those who follow the console market closely.

i'm psyched!!!

Like I said before, it seems like a long time since we got a console generation upgrade. The Xbox 720, or whatever they're going to call it (the current "secret" project name is Durango), is scheduled to be announced on April 26th. Both consoles should be available for Christmas this year. Let the console wars continue! I'll probably stick with Microsoft since 90% of my friends and family own Xboxes, but that is in no way an endorsement. Ask your friends what they have, then review the exclusive titles and make your own decision. And by the way, is there anybody out there that will let me come over and play God of War: Ascension? That game looks sick!

Violence in Games: Part I

The Numbers

8 out of the top 10 best-selling Xbox 360 titles are first- or third-person shooters. Their main goal is killing, be it human, alien horde, or the Covenant. And don't forget Skyrim, which can get pretty dark and violent even though you don't carry guns. The only non-violent video game on the list was Kinect Adventures, and it was #1. Sony PS3 did quite a bit better with only 4 overtly violent video games in their top 10 sellers. Gran Turismo and Little Big Planet helped make up some ground there. That said, 8 of the games from 11-20 were heavily violence-based. Call of Duty: Black Ops sold 16.4 million copies on Xbox and 3.3 million on PS3. At sixty bucks a pop, you're talking about well over a billion dollars in gross revenue. That's an incredible number and it's no wonder violent games continue to prosper despite all the school shootings, mass murders, murder suicides, and assaults we have in society today. This is the first in a three-part series where we at NoaF will examine the various aspects of this timely topic. 

Where do you fall on the spectrum? Is this art imitating life? Life imitating art? Do violent video games have a negative effect on our society as a whole or are they merely harmless entertainment? Let's find out!

The Obvious Target

Everybody's favorite whipping post when it comes to violence in games is Grand Theft Auto, so that seems like a good place to start the conversation. The reason is obvious to those who have played it. This game takes the worst in society and trumpets it. You can stand on top of a building and snipe dozens of police officers at a time. You can take seven hookers to the same spot, perform various sexual acts with them, then kill them and take your money back, leaving the bodies piled up (although they eventually disappear). You can walk into the emergency room and drop a grenade on the floor, killing dozens of patients, nurses, and doctors. These are all things I've done in various Grand Theft Auto games and it makes me a little embarrassed to admit it. I hope my mom isn't reading this. 

Violence in video games has come so far since the days of  Mortal Kombat that it seems almost silly that anyone ever made a fuss over it. More people play the Modern Warfare online series than ever learned how to rip Jax in half. They drop 16 players in a map together and your sole goal is to take the other guys out. I'm reminded of Colonel Troutman from First Blood saying, "In Vietnam his job was to dispose of enemy personnel. To kill! Period! Win by attrition."

I think we're all happy that our government really has people like that. Take the subject of Zero Dark Thirty. Was there any patriotic American that didn't take just a little bit of joy knowing a member of Seal Team Six put a round through Bin Laden's left eye? However, do we really want to program ourselves to think the same way as those highly trained killing machines? Look what it did for Rambo. He ended up bawling and being taken to prison. And what about the kids? 

Somebody think of the children! Oh, won't somebody please think of the children!

This is where the argument gets murky for me. On the one hand, games have a rating system. I'm 35 and I just had a Best Buy employee I.D. me to buy the new Devil May Cry. On the other hand, we all know there are "cool parents" out there, or ones that just don't care, that buy Mature rated 17+ games for their 12-year-olds. Through these "cool parents", 90% of children get to experience these types of games just by spending the night at a friend's. Their minds are still developing. What effect does such ultra-violence have on them at that age? Can they differentiate between reality and fantasy? To what extent? When presented in such a sleek, fun medium, games like Grand Theft Auto manage to make mass murder fun. I simply don't think it's something I would want my kids exposed to at an early age.

That said, I trust the rating system. The problem is that too many clerks and parents ignore it. If they aren't going to enforce it, then why have it at all? The real responsibility, as with most things child-related, lies with the parents. It's up to them to keep Mature games out of their children's hands. 

Freedom of Speech or the Downfall of Society?

I tend to lean toward freedom of speech, personally. We, as Americans, speak loudest with our wallets. We obviously like these types of games more than any other. We do take the risk of being de-sensitized to an extreme degree, but is it worth our freedom? They've tried to blame school shootings on violent video games, but that's just a scapegoat. Those people were mentally unstable to begin with. If it wasn't Modern Warfare that pushed them over the edge, something else would have. 

When it comes to limiting what media we can produce, it's a slippery slope. If you can't have violence in video games, then why is it allowed in movies? Is the extremely realistic torture scene in the aforementioned Zero Dark Thirty too much, as many people seem to think? What about Inglorious Basterds? Is beating in skulls with a bat or burning up a theater full of people crossing the line? Apparently not since it was rewarded with eight Academy Award nominations. This slope can lead us all the way down to classics like Hamlet, which is nothing but murder, suicide, and incest. Where does the censorship end? 

If we start limiting what programmers can do in games, then it follows that other media will suffer the same limitations eventually. It should be left up to personal choice and taste whether or not we, as a society, play these games. Games have been out-grossing Hollywood for years now and, like Hollywood, the majority of their money is made on violence. While the occasional creative game like Portal or Little Big Planet manages to make a splash without violence, the overwhelming majority use it as their main staple of gameplay. Like it or not, violence is a part of society. While most of us won't realistically experience it to the degree we see in games, we are constantly made aware of its presence via the news media. Tipper Gore's attack on Gangsta Rap didn't clean up the ghettos any more than stopping Modern Warfare games from being produced will stop school shootings. 

You are what you eat

All of that "freedom of speech" talk aside, I believe that what you take in, be it food, books, games, television, or movies, will have an effect on you. As you get older you become more able to differentiate between reality and fantasy, but that doesn't mean you can get away with taking in nothing but crap. While I enjoy a violent game as much as the next sicko gamer, I also enjoy a good Pixar flick, Portal 2, and even an occasional trip to church from time to time. The answer, as with most things in life, is moderation. Find a balance. Don't relegate yourself to one type of entertainment, especially the violent kind. While it won't turn you into a mass murderer, it can effect your overall outlook. 

Take care, and look for Part II of our discussion on violence in video games in the days ahead. 

Mortal Marathons

Let's take a walk down memory lane, shall we?

For some of you younger gamers, your marathon playing sessions might have taken place around an XBox and Halo multiplayer. For others, it could have been a PS3 and Modern Warfare. For those in my generation, it was Mortal Kombat. Sure, we played a lot of Street Fighter, Tekken, and Virtua Fighter, but the coup de grace was Mortal Kombat. Just as with Grand Theft Auto, our desire to play Mortal Kombat was inversely proportional to our parents' desire to keep us away from it. This was the first game to add in a bit of the old Ultra-violence to keep kiddies coming back for more. 

The House

I'm sure many of you are already recalling fond memories of the places you spent days upon days of your life playing this bloody and beautiful game with its over-the-top murderous "fatalities" and masterful control scheme. For me and my crew, it was "The House." Five friends rented a house from one of their moms the summer after we graduated from high school. While it was Brandon's mom's house and it had been rented by five different friends, we never referred to it as "Brandon's mom's" or "The place the guys rented." It was simply known as "The House." 

This little two-bedroom, one-bath may look unassuming, but it was the site of thousands upon thousands of battles to save Earthrealm from Outworld and its evil emperor, Shao Khan. For an entire summer, we played MK2 on my Sega Genesis from 9-10 a.m. until somewhere between 2 and 4 a.m. No exaggeration. I wasn't there for every last game, but they were a constant in our little pre-college gathering place nearly every single day. If you weren't there for the beginning, which usually consisted of only the tenants and one or two people who might have passed out, you just found a seat when you got there and entered the rotation. The marathon was simple: Win and you keep your controller, lose and you pass it to the next person. With the plethora of buttons and spectacular graphics in today's games, it's sometimes hard to understand how our attention was held for eighteen hours at a time by something with such basic graphics and such a simple controller, but it happened. 

Three buttons?!!

Yup, three buttons. And we knew every last special move and fatality, even some of the stranger additions like "babalities" where opponents were turned into babies upon defeat. One of the major attractions to MK2, as mentioned before, was the over-the-top violence. Removing someone's entire skull and spine with one carefully timed mash of buttons? Even today that's pretty sweet. 

My love of fighting games started, as I'm sure many of yours did, with Street Fighter. It had state-of-the-art graphics, more buttons than anything we'd ever seen, and a plethora of special moves that were easy to master given a small amount of effort on the player's part. You didn't need to master all the characters, just get Blanka nailed and you stood a chance.

However, there was something missing. Sure this game was violent, but I was in my upper teens. There isn't a less-desensitized group on the planet than 18-year-olds. These people are old enough to be on the cutting edge of everything technology has to offer in the way of weird, and they're too cool to be put off by any of it. If you have an 18-year-old, stay off their computer and be thankful you haven't seen the things they've seen. It's a brutal, disgusting, melange of reasons the human race should no longer exist. Trust me. 

In my later teens, I was the same way. Tarantino couldn't make me cringe and neither could Ryu and Ken. Into that void stepped Mortal Kombat 2. This was everything I wanted in a game. Violence beyond the scope of reality. A tense gaming experience with seemingly endless ability for player improvement. Public outcry from concerned parents. MK2 had it all!

I would guess it was the nearly endless ability to improve your skill by learning new characters' special moves and fatalities that, along with the extreme violence, leant this game to marathon sessions of nearly twenty-four hours. The same could be said of today's best multiplayer games. Modern Warfare allows for nearly endless improvement of your character with its leveling and the ability to "Prestige." Halo has taken it a step further and allowed players to create their own maps, thereby providing endless options for gamers who prefer a long-term commitment over campaign-based games that, once completed, aren't good for much beyond a second playthrough with the exact same story line and outcome. 

Getting old

I've picked up the newer iterations of Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter. While they have definitely done a massive overhaul on the graphics and these games provided a certain level of nostalgic fun, I'm afraid the magic is gone. I, like many non-classic gamers, have moved on. We've come to expect more from our games than simple gore and special moves. We want an immersive experience with a plausible story to boot. We've simply grown up, right along with our video games. 

That said, the only games that come close to MK2 when comparing basic time spent for me are the Elder Scrolls. Other than that, nothing comes close. I had a few marathon days with Oblivion and some 12-hour sessions in Skyrim, but nothing like the good old days at The House playing Mortal Kombat 2. One drawback to online gaming is the inability to whack the controller out of an opponent's hand if you're losing, but enough people still play each other on the same couch that this time-honored strategy gets some use, even today.To you younger gamers out there, enjoy your 16-hour MW3 multiplayer sessions with all your friends. You may not be playing together at The House like we did, instead taking advantage of today's technology and sitting in the comfort of your living rooms.  Still, games will never be as completely life-consuming as they are right now. Enjoy it!

The Math (Adjusted for 1995 scores)

Objective Score: 9/10

Bonuses: +1 for being the most violent game released at that point in time. This was the 2 Live Crew of video games. They were holding hearings in the House and Senate because of this game. The only thing that comes close to the impact MK2 had on gamer society is Grand Theft Auto. This is one of the historic landmarks in gaming history, for better or worse. 

Penalties: -1 for having a plotline that worked okay in a video game setting, but translated to film about as well as Spider-Man is translating to Broadway. 

Nerd Coefficient: 9/10. Very high quality/Standout in it's category.