Repetition is a sore spot nearly completely avoided here, the experience system keeping things fresh. Found fatalities become the series best, occasionally borrowed from Mortal Kombat II, and sometimes parodying them (Kung Lao's "Friendship" has now become one of the best kills in the history of video of video game violence). Gore is wonderfully over-the-top and disgustingly funny.
It's with those fatalities that things become to come loose. For a game so focused on multi-player gameplay (the numerous dual special moves prove that), the game stops cold when one is pulled off. If your partner is in the midst of a record setting combo, this will break it, causing him or her to lose valuable experience. Platform jumping becomes a test in cooperation, and even though it's a lenient system when the other person misses a leap, it still leads to some frustrating moments, especially since both players share a life bar.
While these fatalities will never stop being entertaining, running through the same sections of the game multiple times will. This title offers little information as to where you need to be to complete a current objective, and with multiple paths to take, it becomes a confusing mess, with lots of running into nowhere as you look for the right spot. The slowly unlockable one-on-one fighting mode is a cheap Power Stone knock-off (and it's hardly worth searching in the stages to find extras for it), and there are no Xbox Live features, which would've suited the game.
Those few hiccups barely dig in to kill the enjoyment. From the spectacular, unnerving, and brutal animated intro, to the combo system, to the flawless adaptation of a classic in 3-D, Shaolin Monks is an unexpected surprise. This is one for the long times fans who had, up until this point, never been able to experience the high point of the series in a new way. That's what Shaolin Monks does, and does with the flavor and style the franchise depends on.
Article comments
1 - Bob A. Booey
Here's a site I just came across on a search to find out what this "friendship fatality" Poprocky spoke of was, with two pages full of pictures of every Mortal Kombat fatality for people who are Mortal Kombat nerds or freaks like me who thought the violence of the original arcade game was cool but were never geeky enough to learn all the moves and button combinations to play the game and execute them. This guy clearly has way too much time on his hands, but there are a few funny, if off-color, captions.
Pictures of Every Mortal Kombat Fatality Ever, Dork!
That is all.
2 - Matt Paprocki
I can do one better. How about almost all the MK fatalities animated?
Go to the bottom for the .gif section.
His Eternal Champions section is even better:
Some great moments there too.