Virtua Kombat #3: Long Live Mortal Kombat - Maybe Pull the Plug?

There are ways to prolong an idea's life. It takes a lot of hard thinking and sometimes means you need to evolve with the times. Mortal Kombat tripped and stumbled along the way, but it did have a very long, prestigious life up until the writing of this article. However, as for this book, it did not exactly have the game's creation strictly in the forefront of their thoughts. When we FINALLY get to Mortal Kombat's original creation, we have already been through a ton of chapters and pages going through how the original company was created from a pinball manufacturer. Williams' creation was interesting on some levels, but the point was that I'm here to read about Mortal Kombat's creation.

Once we get right to it, mapping out the human recordings and choosing the original actors, this book thrives. Learning about how Boon and Tobias went through the processes of creating martial arts for the game was fascinating. It really was much more of a gum and duct tape job, because they got all of that from their actors who just so happened to know different martial arts forms. For a good while, this book took on a great story of Mortal Kombat's original development and the hardships they went through. 

Then we get to the game's release. It was fun to read about how the office they worked at began to form lines around the machine they had in the hallway. The original arcades that it was given a beta test made it burst with popularity from just word of mouth alone, and so once the mainstream release went into full effect, Mortal Kombat became a household name and kids were lining up the quarters across the screen's base. Even with all of the controversy, kids were finding ways to play it no matter what, even breaking their parents strict guidelines and getting grounded. 

These elements were wonderful to read, but then the book goes off on yet another tangeant. This time, they just started talking about playing the characters and strategies that they used in order to get the best gameplay for tournaments. This is... excessively boring. Even with a deep and intimate knowledge of Mortal Kombat's combat, I do not care how other players play for great efficiency. Even if that weren't true, reading it in a book is not how I would want to learn. There are literally hundreds of thousands of videos that show off different styles of play. Many of them even give away the controls with which to play in the style. 

The book really should have stuck to it strength and just gone with the game's creation and release. Tobias and Boon's struggles and triumphs were far better to read about than what this book seemed to focus on, which was almost nothing. The foreword was detailing the author, David L Craddock's journey into Mortal Kombat. A simple 1000 word essay would have been acceptable but this guy went into so much description, I finally began to skim because I, once again, did not get this book under the pretense that I would be wasting my time on some other guy's experiences with the game. The fact that Craddock is a dedicated fan was obvious from the first paragraph, we did not need an entire anecdote that was just as long, if not longer, than an actual chapter. 

John Romero kept on subject and only went off on small anecdotes when they related to what was going on in his very long tale of his life. I'm interested in Romero for obvious reasons, but there's no way this author will ever have as much credibility as one of the actual creators of Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake. He had chapters about his entire life, but he did not go too long with this and even had foreshadowing for what was to come later. Long Live Mortal Kombat just couldn't decide what facet of the Mortal Kombat fandom it wanted to cover. Trying to cover all of it made it feel more like a textbook created by a nerd rather than a loveletter to MK. If any of what I have detailed in this review sounds like something you'd be interested in, you are more than welcome to try this book out for yourself. This may have just been a book for a different fighting game fan or someone who wished to become an MK scholar of sorts. This book may be just what you're looking for. It's well written and obviously did its homework. It could either be exactly what you're looking for or it could take your soul. Choose Your Destiny. 

Mortal Kombat II (2026) - Bloody Victory

 I really wanted to like Mortal Kombat from 2022. The problem was that they took too many liberties and left the meat out of the story. They, instead, replaced it with wheat flakes. In this sequel, they fixed nearly everything! This was what we wanted! A coherent story with Mortal Kombat as a tournament, while giving us a bit of pandering. You can see the care and the fandom in mind as you watch. This movie isn't perfect, but is it the greatest MK film to date? VIRTUA KOMBAT TIME SPOILER WARNING!

This film uses and slightly misuses certain elements from the video games. If you hadn't noticed through the more recent games, there is a lot of coming to and from the land of the dead. If a character is killed, it apparently just takes some Netherrealm magic to bring them back and ready to fight. While they do the right thing and resurrect Kano, they also made it very clear that they are going to use and abuse this in a planned Mortal Kombat 3. Will that happen? Well, that's up to the Elder Gods of the failed box office. 

One of this movie's biggest miscasts is Jade. Do I want a constant reminder of Naughty Dog's biggest oncoming garbage? No, not really. It's not in my nature to like people who flip off the audience they are supposed to be entertaining. Then they went and tipped the entire spectrum up-side-down and cast Karl Urban as Johnny Cage... okay, you know what? We'll call it a draw. The fact that Cage is the main focus of the story is a point in this film's favor. In fact, the fact that they brought back Kano, actor and all, is yet another huge strike in this movie's favor. 

Then there are the massive deaths and loose ends. Jax is back, and he gives the same great performance as last time. Then he gets stabbed by the end of Shaokhan's hammer. Going to be honest, that was not expected and I didn't like it a lot. He and Sonya were great as a duo, and I can only imagine he is one of the ones they'll bring back if they get the chance. A death that was broadcasted like a UHF station very early on was Cole Young. Yeah, no one liked him from the first movie and they gave him a proper sendoff. The fact that Khan drops his tonfa into the acid pit with him was a much welcome added bonus.

Kitana was a definite plus to bring back into the Mortal Kombat lore. They played her story nearly flawlessly, other than her bodyguard. Her journey from a scared little girl to a warrior who is dedicated to avenging her family is actually rather heartfelt. In fact, this movie does the heartfelt seens rather well, especially when Liu Kang and an undead Kung Lao fight and he is forced to kill his former brother. All of these story elements don't get in each other's way because it goes with the flow of the tournament and we see how they serve the overall film. Instead of exposition and endless spoken lore, we leap from the first movie. We've seen these two were the best of friends and we feel their loss as it happens in real time. 

Then there are the comedic elements, which are pulled right off without taking away from the main plot's gravity. There are sweet and sour elements that add to the flavor, especially when we see Johnny Cage's movie from the 80's. Then we see that he fell on hard times since then as he sits at a convention and no one is in line to see him. We don't need someone telling him what happened or grind in our faces that he's washed up. We see it and we see his attitude as it is affected. This is filmmaking 101 and it is so refreshing to see. This is especially true when we see him go out for a drink and is served a shot and a beer by Bartender, Ed Boon. 

The two A and B plots collide in the tournament and the serious mixes with the humor right in front of us. Johnny is a loveable idiot but he's not completely inept. He just needs some time to start taking things seriously. Somehow, they even improved on Raiden's part of the story! He was insufferable in the first film and yet here we are actually seeing how he can help when he puts his mind to it. 

This is probably the first time we have ever seen Baraka as an anti-hero. That is one thing I never expected but it is actually nice to see him in a different, more constructive role. He doesn't play a large role, but it was entertaining and quite memorable because his antics with Johnny Cage are gold! They even made the Tarkatans actual tangible characters. The wonders that this movie pulled off is still too many to count. Characters that normally hinder and distract from the plot are suddenly well implimented element into the film that carries it well on. 

One mysterious element that never really concluded was: What happened to Liu Kang? He got stabbed in a fight with Shaokhan, vowed that he would return, and then disappeared into a puff of vapor. Whether he died is kind of up in the air, but it seemed more like... no, honestly I have no idea. That was a strange element. The violence in the film is kicked up a notch, which echoes what happened with the original games. 

For the first time, we see Noob Saibot in live action where he doesn't really suck. This was actually a very well done sequence when both Kano and Cage work together to get an amulet that holds Raiden's immortality and powers within Shaokhan. This runs parallel with Kitana's final battle against her father's pretender. Her fight with Khan is very well put together, along with a gnarly, in every meaning of the word, ending. 

From beginning to end, we finally get a coherent, perfectly violent Mortal Kombat film. The answer is, yes, this is the greatest Mortal Kombat film. It has all of the fights you could ever want. Scorpion vs Noob Saibot, Raiden vs Shang Tsung, and Shaokhan vs Cole Young as we see him get trampled, along with his plot armor. It's wonderfully gory and fast moving, while also knowing when to take a small breather. The pace is even, if not brisk. With just a few nitpicks, this film brings much more to the table than we've ever had with this franchise. Hopefully, it dodged the box office bullet. Only time will tell. Until then, this film exists in Virtua Legend.

Mortal Kombat Special Forces (MK Legacy) - Metal Arms that Bore

 Believe it or not, there was a time where Mortal Kombat was at a very low point. Before the 3D PS2 era, there was a time when Ed Boon and John Tobias parted ways because the franchise was holding on by a thread. This was brought into clear focus when Annihilation hit a box office crater and Mortal Kombat: Subzero met with overall mixed to unfavorable reviews. They tried to bring this title into the new era of 3D by putting Special Forces on an isometric view and added combos via Jax's metal arm attacks and even gave him guns and explosives. Try to hold your surprise when I tell you: It didn't pan out well. 

This game was included in the Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection, thankfully, giving me a chance to play through it. I say "thankfully" because it gives me a chance to review it. What I wasn't so grateful for was the game itself and how it played. This game is beyond boring. The levels are whirly and nonlinear, which isn't always a bad thing, in fact it can be a very good thing when you look at Doom. With the implimentation of keys and elevators, Special Forces pads out its runtime by making you explore every room and look for ways to unlock the way to the next section of the level. 

The combat is one of the worst parts about the game. Trying to avoid damage is nearly impossible in several cases, especially when the opponents have guns. The combinations you receive through leveling up are hardly worth the trouble when you have three or four opponents all at once. You get better results from just using the heavy kick attack and causing them to pause from pain. This grows especially tiresome. The hits lack any sort of impact and the blood is not plentiful enough to make it a rewarding experience. 

This was brought about in the very early era of 3D gaming, so the lack of graphics can be excused. The highly mundane backgrounds and uninteresting levels just add to the woes. When you're stuck in a certain part of the level and are forced to look through every single nook and cranny, you start to think about how awesome another MK title is. This is especially true when this came with titles like the arcade original Mortal Kombat and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. That menu to turn off the game starts to look very attractive, as it can let you escape this horrid title. 

It's obvious that they were wanting to explore different avenues in the series. Like Subzero's N64/PS1 title, this game wanted to give you a different experience and a vehicle to introduce new characters. This is the introduction of both Tremor and Jarek, before Jarek was in Mortal Kombat 4, which is its own can of worms. Even with some influence on the series, it's obvious that several things went wrong in the development. John Tobias did his best with what he had, trying to bring about technology which was still in the experimental stages with a group that had very little experience in 3D game programming. In their duct tape and bubblegum, they tried to paste together a good game and sadly, the good intentions did not create a banger. 

Sadly, this was the title that caused Tobias to leave the franchise entirely. Boon carried it on and brought about the trainwreck they eventually made the series, but there were several titles that came along the way. Some of those titles included Mortal Kombat 9 and X, so it's hard to say that they weren't working. They were obviously doing what they could to make the franchise a success again. The experimentation may have brought about little gems like Shaolin Monks and Deception, but the road can hardly be considered smooth by any meaning of the word. Jax's character suffered for it, but all can be forgiven. Tobias lost out on a grand old time because of a rough patch and it is to lament. Still, at least he didn't have a hand in making Mortal Kombat 1. Virtua Burn!!!

Mortal Kombat Annihilation - Feel the Suckality

Happy Halloween again, dear spooksters! This ends the Virtua Ghost of Virtua SPOOOOOOOOOOKIES!!! and we're taking a look at a very scary movie. You know what I mean if you've seen it. Nothing can prepare you for Annihilation!!! 

If there was ever an argument that proves the Video Game Curse existed, you could just say the phrase "sequel to the Mortal Kombat movie" and there will be some uncomfortable silences. This movie hurt in every single way. You cringe so hard, it hurts. The movie bombed so bad, it hurt MK as a franchise. It hurt. The more you watch every single scene and how much time they waste, the more you start to realize, there really was no plot to begin with. The movie could have ended at the very start and the world could have been better off. They introduce every single mythical object and badly costumed fighter in their arsenal and there is no room for any of them.

To warn SPOILERS ahead, but it's no real spoiler to say that Scorpion is in the movie for, maybe, two minutes. Sub-Zero appears as Kuai Liang and he has one scene with one fight, says some lines and he's gone. Mileena, Ermac, Rain, Shiva, all of them are wasted with either three to no lines at all in the movie. I almost feel bad for saying that Street Fighter the Movie packed too many characters into its lineup, I completely forgot how many characters were in this film!

Seriously, Raiden could have killed Shao Kahn's Generals with the swoop of his arm and he gives it up, causing the death of Johnny Cage. They couldn't get his original actor back for this movie, so off he goes. They couldn't get Sonya Blade either, but she actually sticks around and gets the new actor for Jax. Are you recognizing the pattern here? They got rid of one character, bump off around five or six characters through out its runtime, but they still leave an entire army of people. For obvious reasons, Christopher Lambert also did not return for the sequel. He was horribly recast and this new guy has no presence what so ever.

It's so convoluted, that the worst part of the movie is brought on by Nightwolf, who is another one-scene wonder in the film. He is just there to tell Liu Kang that he, too, can become a terribly animated CGI effect if he really wants to! The Animality was just so painfully brought into the story, because as soon as he turns into the barf looking dragon, Shao Kahn turns into the most laughably random hydra! Seriously! He has multiple heads as a monster because... he's... Shao.... no... uhhhh... Oh who cares! They did not care! You don't even know his father's name but he's apparently the... baddest bad guy. 

Yes, Shao Kahn is a daddy's boy, even when he's supposed to be the most imposing figure in Mortal Kombat at the moment. In this film, he answers to his father, Shinnok. Oh, yes, dear readers, the random older guy in the hood, that's Shinnok. We never learn his name in the movie and he just sits there berating Shao Kahn and driving his character into a weakling to the audience. This is not even bringing up Kitana and Sindel! 

That's right, it only gets worse. Sindel and Kitana are a subplot that this movie never should have had. Not only are they two of the worst actors in the film, the whole thing goes nowhere! It brings about one of the most memed lines, goes into pointless fights that stack upon each other already, and then they attempt to release her from Shao Kahn's control. No, that only happens after Shao Kahn is defeated, so, she accomplished nothing other than making Jade another pointless character. Oh, you heard me right, Jade is randomly in the film and she goes the exact same way, for nothing! 

It's all just a big huge mish mash of fighting. There's useless Elder Gods that make matters worse by taking away Raiden's immortality for LITERALLY no reason. Through out the whole movie, Raiden just keeps saying the Elder Gods will help them, but they don't so there's more fighting. Shao Kahn brings an army of soldiers that disappear by the end of the film, but still has random fighters like Cyrax to come out of nowhere and have yet another fight! Nothing in this movie works story-wise, it's just a vehicle for fight scenes that get tiresome and is occasionally good for a laugh.

This was a real let down. We get plot twists that have no point and are left with an ending that is entirely too happy, bringing dead characters back to life with happy music. The fight between Liu Kang and Shao Kahn was obviously anti-clamactic with a weak premise. The Elder Gods just jump in after 40 or 50 rules have already been broken but at least it was better late than never, right? No, this movie threw away a brilliant premise and destroyed everything that the first movie built up with a decent quality film. The writer obviously had no idea how to use Mortal Kombat characters and only saw the dollar signs that he wanted to make by using the IP. We can only hope that the new Mortal Kombat II is as cool as it looks from the trailer. Virtua Nut Shot!

Top 160+ Favorite Games of all time! (Pt 3)

We continue with the list and WOW has it been a little more difficult than I thought. Writing twenty paragraphs isn't so bad, but trying to remember things about this game to comment on was more challenging than expected. All of these games have gotten tons of play time, but there were some that I haven't played in years. While I was able to replay a good number of them, not all of them are readily available for everyone to re-experience. It's sad, but that's the game industry. Anyway, on with the last of the games before we enter the top 100! Onward!

#119 Virtua Fighter 4

When you want a great fighter on the PS2 and are tired of Mortal Kombat Deception, Virtua Fighter released a fantastic title just for you! You want to fight on a single player ranking system and fight in arcades? Then get ready to revisit one of Sega's most awesome franchises. They're all here, from Jeffry to Pai-chan! Its graphics only got better from title to title, and the controls never faltered. Virtua Fighter stood tall from console to console and PS2 is no different. You still get the fast pace punch, kick and throw action you want and that's how it's always going to be

#118 Mortal Kombat X

While it is not as good as Mortal Kombat 9, this title still delivered on a lot of fronts. The storyline isn't anything to write home about and the idea of death in the series has become something of a joke, but the fatalities and a lot of the new characters added bring a lot to the table. The character designs on the women can be seen as a bit of a downgrade, thanks to some public outcry, but the graphics and the gameplay are still very solid. It's good to see a lot of these returning characters they brought back and a lot of the different gameplay keeps it fresh. A lot of good jokes came from this title and even some of the DLC characters are greatly appreciated, including Leatherface and even the playable Goro!

#117 Doom 64

Doom has gone through several different versions, moderations, and iterations, but none of them are quite as unique as Doom 64. This Doom does focus on killing monsters and demons, but it also has a strange quality to its puzzles and map quirks. The entire game was far different than people thought it would be, thinking it was just another port to another system, but it was different in so many ways. The monsters and tone were so unique, it's basically considered its own separate entity. Some people consider it the true Doom 3, but there are others who wouldn't consider it that, thinking it was far too different. Still, we here at Planet Virtua consider it a strong entry to the Classic Doom franchise. That should be good enough.

#116 Dragon Quest XI

Although the story is a bit taxing to keep up with, Dragon Quest 11 is a lot of fun, and the characters make up for a lot of its shortcomings. The graphics are quite strong and the setting is absolutely beautiful. It has that beautiful character design we know Toriyama for and that is enough to put it on this list as a strong entry. While it is quite linear, it's still a very dynamic and long run from beginning to end. It goes through many different places and you meet many different characters that decide to join you on your journey.

#115 Mega Man X

Perhaps the greatest followup to a thriving series. Mega Man 2 is the greatest of the original series, Mega Man X is unmatched in its own series of games. This game has an introduction that's actually fun, and the gameplay can be so wonderfully challenging. I had a lot of problems getting through some of these levels before I finally got better with the controls, which are easy to learn but hard to master. X is a character design marvel, who joins the Mega Man team as something of an upgrade, and the two of them take on the likes of Dr. Wily and Sigma. If you are a fan of the franchise, this title is obligated to be played. 

#114 Doom 3

This was a divisive title, but it has many charms of its own. Not only does the BFG edition for consoles include Doom and Doom 2, but once you accept this as a survival horror, it's a lot more attractive as a game. This was the first game in the franchise to be fully rendered with all new 3D graphics compliments of John Carmack and what little remained of the original ID team. The look of this game was so advanced that it made PC's of the time cry constantly and the darkness that you explore has some very stylized horror elements that you just can't help but love. As a Doom game, it's lacking a bit. As a stand-alone offshoot of the series, it's more entertaining as a thriller along with being a slower shooter. 

#113 Luigi's Mansion

So few consoles ever have such an amazing initial title. Luigi's Mansion is iconic of the Gamecube. While in the Mario Franchise, Luigi's Mansion is darker with completely different but equally enthralling gameplay. You need to use evolving and complicated techniques to defeat high level ghosts as well as ghost bosses. Seeing all of the different types of ghosts and boos is a lot of fun and Luigi became something of a great character on his own merit thanks to this series of games. Even after three whole games, this little spinoff series still retains its outward charm.

#112 Duke Nukem 3D

Both the Sega Saturn and PC version of this game are more than worthy of being your first ports to play. Even on the N64, this game keeps its great charm of being a "Doom Clone" done correctly. Duke Nukem is trying to save the women of the world from a bunch of different aliens invading the Earth. You can use both rocket and alien technology to take on these pigs and squids, and you steal one-liners while doing it. This is required playing for anyone who wants a good "Boomer Shooter" showing off the game engine's true capabilities. 

#111 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Love the 80's? Love stealing digital cars from NPC's? Can't get enough crime from game crime bosses? Head down to Vice City and play a plethora of minigames and shootouts while you take it over! When it comes to the GTA series, this is one of the great titles. Playstation 2 was graced with this awesome title to great effect. The city is expansive and plays among the greats when it comes to a sandbox game. It's more of a great thing in the series and don't forget to take in those retro vibes of a bygone era. Rad.

#110 Batman: Arkham City

The peak of the Arkham series. Going through this entire cityscape of Gotham is an absolute joy as you ram your fists into the faces of criminals along the way. Two-Face, Catwoman, Clayface, Harley Quinn and an ever deminishing Joker. Thanks to taking too much Titan Venom in the first game, Joker finds himself trying to find a cure and he's going to have Batman help him whether he likes it or not. The twist in the final act is awesome and the gameplay is just Arkham Asylum with a wider scope. You are Batman, now go boot faces!

#109 Hrot

There are few games where I have poured so many hours into nothing but the Endless Mode. Hrot is one of those games because it just has a very addictive style to its gameplay. You're equipped with a lot of DOOM like weapons and amplifying damage/speed powerups to take down some very strange soldiers and creatures. All of the humans have gasmasks because it's a post-nuclear apocalypse. Everything is a shade of brown or dull gray and everything is also powered by PASCAL, which is a very difficult programming language. It still looks so old-school and Quake-like, but it also has such an interesting level design to each episode. If you're up for a great modern Boomer Shooter, this is your game. 

#108 Mortal Kombat 11

This game fixes just as much as it destroys in the MK Lore. Mortal Kombat 11 takes everything from both MK9 and MKX while also adding a very disjointed multiverse/time travel plotline. Though there are some great playable characters, there's also some not-so-great new characters. Either way, the game mechanics are improved with a new way to do x-ray moves plus an awesome array of new backgrounds. The story mechanic of bringing back dead characters, though, is still unfortunately still here. It's a mixed bag, but what edges it onto this list is the great gameplay and controls in its fighting classical towers.  

#107 Hogwarts Legacy

There are a lot of great things about bringing your own created character into the world of Harry Potter and being able to achieve a great deal of power along with all of the unforgiveable curses. This game's story is not great and its characters are more miss than hit, but the way you can explore the country side and take down dark magic users along with dark creatures is just a fantastic time waster. The ending when you achieve the OWLs is underwhelming, but the fact that you can play with dark magic and explosions in the arena mechanic is just beautiful. Creating your own Room of Requirement and customizing your own outfit is a lot of fun. This may be the Harry Potter fan talking here, but I will say this game is not for everyone. There's still a lot to explore and do in this beautiful world the devs created. 

#106 Resident Evil 4

When you want to kill infected people who not only attack you but also put hoods on in order to do so with chainsaws, RE4 is your game! Fighting the different creatures, playing through the story and using your own weapons in order to survive this dangerous world will get you to clench against your seat. You go up against huge monsters and whole barrages of deadly, mindless villagers to the point where it is downright exhausting at times. Save the girl and bring her out of the danger zone, but do not expect to get out unscathed. This is definitely one of the best Resident Evil titles, period.

#105 Saints Row: The Third

Many will argue this point, but I consider this one of my absolute favorite Saints Row titles. This was when they really started to lean into the craziness of the entire franchise, which it was already getting into in the second installment. In here, you fight titans of other gangs as well as some extra powerful arsenals which include, but are not limited to grenade launchers, armored vehicles and high tech guns. While it still has the annoying obligated mini games and some annoying tasks here and there, it's still a fun game overall. The story is crazier and the Saints are hilarious sellouts, but they still come off as bad ass, as they should.

#104 Jet Set Radio

When the gameplay shines brighter than everything else, but everything else is still great, you've got an awesome game. Jet Set Radio (or Jet Grind Radio in the states) was one of the earliest games on the Dreamcast, and it brought the system out in a state of greateness. The mechanics are challenging but also a lot of fun, and the characters are just the 90's coming forth to show you how awesome it truly can be. The graphics are cell shaded and stylized in an anime form that is simple but still really cool. You can customize your own graffiti and you can make a name for your character as you spread the name all across the city. 

#103 Resident Evil

Sometimes, you just need to go with the original. This title is great while also being flawed. The tank controls need a lot of getting used to and the voice acting was hysterically bad. The graphics did not age well, but that has never concerned us here at Planet Virtua. This is still a dark toned, crazy rendition of the survival horror genre, which was nearing infancy at the time. It set the bar high right off the bat. It wiped Alone in the Dark off the map and drilled its own name into the hearts of gamers all over the world. It also brought us zombie tropes and monsters that are still used and referenced heavily to this day. If you're brave enough and are sure you know what you're getting into, this game is highly recommended.

#102 X-men Origins: Wolverine

One of the very few examples of a game that not only was a great movie tie-in game, but even out shined its own film in every way. This game throws its source material out the window, as it should and showed its greatness in its own way. You are Wolverine and you are cutting through the baddies in gloriously gory combat segments while also figuring out your way through forests and rough turrains. The abilities you use make you feel like the killer himself and you do great feats of violence that are nothing less than therapeutic. If you doubted this game because of the movie it's based on, perish the thought. Give this game a try if you're willing and able.

#101 The Orange Box

Half-life 2 has had a very interesting history in its long, fabled release. For some reason, they packaged it along with Team Fortress 2 and Portal, which kind of makes this title a shining example of a compilation. Portal, even when it was basically a throw-away title that they just slapped on as an extra, became a fan favorite and still has a cult following to this day. As a Team Fortress Classic fan, TF2 was a lot of fun to come into contact with, because it was everything you loved about the original game with a new paint job and some very colorful characters on top of that. Half-Life 2 is everything you loved about the first game with a tweaked physics engine and a whole new slew of levels to power through. It all culminated into an amazing collection of titles that is still beloved to this day. 

#100 Sonic Adventure

Sonic is one of the few success stories when it came to his debut in glorious 3D! This awesome title took Sonic and threw him into a completely new adventure with brand new villains. While it is far from perfect, it's just great to see how dynamic your control over the blue hedgehog is. This game is long and a lot of it can be rather challenging, but there is just that nostalgic luster all over the graphics and it can go so far as to make you fall in love with Sega's favorite mascot all over again. This game is just flat out fun and while it's obviously not perfect, the overall experience is more than worth it.

Mortal Kombat (1995) - In the Beginning

When everyone said that video game movies could never be good and they'll never make a good video game in a feature film, Mortal Kombat was the argument. This was a movie that actually did its homework and made a decent Mortal Kombat movie, though it was still stocked with issues. While they did do a good production with a good cast of characters, the film was still almost wholly bloodless and not even remotely as graphic as its video game counterpart. 

Anyone will tell you that this game gets the practical effects down very well, but when it comes to CGI, this movie fell very short. Reptile looks like a pixelated Dreamcast game character, and there were maybe three or four special moves involving a tiny bit of special effects. Goro, on the other hand, was a very well produced effect through costume and animatronics. They make him look like he is in the scene, aside from his final scene. 

Another stark point in this movie's favor is the cast. Robin Shou was in some very low budget action movies before this, and he would turn out to be one of its better actors. Beyond that, many will tell you that this movie features the best Shang Tsung. Apart from that, Raiden is also among his best performances with Christopher Lambert. He brought a silly light hearted bit of character into the scene, while also offering guidance and wisdom. 

The fighting scenes are hit and miss, while thankfully being mostly hits. It's worth it to see Scorpion and Sub-Zero, but it would have been nice to see them fight like their video game lore states rather than being "servants" under Shang Tsung. Scorpion has some of the best scenes, especially in his fight with Johnny Cage. While some of the fight scenes start off well, many of them do not have the most fulfilling ending. Many will cite the Liu Kang fight with Sub-Zero when it comes to disappointing endings. 

This Mortal Kombat movie has several problems, but they can be chocked up to a simple writing problem or lack of budget. This was not given a great amount of money, but they obviously did a lot with what they had. The sets look very good and otherworldly like they should. The costume designs were also convincing on a level you didn't often see because no one took video game movies seriously. Paul W.S. Anderson did a great job with this movie, but it's obvious that he wouldn't have done much better with it, given what he did to the Resident Evil movie series. 

It's hard to say what W.S. Anderson would have done with the sequel movie, but many will tell you that it would probably be better than the movie we got. When this movie came out, Mortal Kombat II was on its way out the door to make way for Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. The first movie's plot focuses on the first Mortal Kombat game, but differs a great deal on a few details. While it does have teasings of going with Mortal Kombat II next, but instead, the sequel skipped onto Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Did it do this well? Well no, but check out Mortal Kombat Annihilation in the next review to see how bad it can get.  

Virtua Kombat #2 - The Lore Breaking Mortal Kombat 11

The Mortal Kombat lore has always been a bit of a mess. Well, that's being too generous. It's been a disaster. At first, it started pretty simple, Scorpion wanted revenge on Sub-Zero, everyone wanted to win the tournament and Raiden wanted to have a party for the gods that destroy the Earth (realm). Okay that last one was retconned for good reason, but you get the idea. One big running theme, though, are the elder gods that enforce the rules unless you're evil. If you're evil, you get a free ride to do whatever you want until it's conveniant for the plot to say otherwise.

(Spoiler Alert for MK9 through MK1)

The story has been hard reset. The Playstation 2 3D games ended with Armageddon and were given a new beginning through Mortal Kombat 9. Now, it's not like they did a great job with the hard reset, because they ended up killing off 80% of the characters throughout the story... again. There was a horrific cut scene of Sindel just walking through, bonking everyone on the head and killing them easily before being killed by Night Wolf sacrificing himself. The death toll was taken to another level through MKX. 

Many characters had an undead evil counterpart called revanents. Through these forms, they can use magical mumbo jumbo to bring them back to life and the entire concept just makes things more grimey to get through. Now we have a way to die and come back to life. This is not a good corner to crawl out of, story-wise and they do not use it well in the slightest. The failure to MKX's story is nothing compared to the can of worms they release in the next title, though. 

We've gone through resurrections, now we're going through multiverses! Call it time travel all you like, but multiverses come in droves and bring about new versions of characters. MK11 decides it wants to get rid of the new slightly more evil Raiden that came about thanks to Shinnok's amulet corrupting him. We spend the entire game of MK9 and MKX following this Raiden, only for him to be literally erased and replaced with the one from MK9. 

So now the entire story is made into a stew. Old characters are meeting new characters and apparently Kotal Kahn hooked up with Jade, so there's a weird shipping decision. Either way, this story has pushed the crazy button already and that's not even considering how D'Vorah killed the new version of Scorpion and had him replaced with Scorpion from MK9. 

Are you realizing a pattern here? It seems that these people at Nether Realm Studios just can't seem to handle death, as ironic as that sounds for this series. Every single time they kill a main character, it seems that they are forced to give into some sort of backlash or realization that the character they just offed is too marketable to truly let go. Now, they need to come up with some way to kill them in some form while having a replacement for them ready on hand. 

The lack of stakes is one of the reasons why this new storyline is wasted in potential. Once they introduce Kronika into the story, she becomes their biggest excuse to bring characters back and/or kill them off without any risk to their sales. Because of this, they start changing literally everything. Not only does it invade this story, but it also screws up the ending by giving Shang Tsung the crown and the ability to change reality to his own liking. Let's go with: I do not consider the DLC even remotely canon. It changes the entire story for the worse and wastes everyone's time because Liu Kang still gets his god powers and restarts reality anyway. 

Yes, Liu Kang was caught up in all of this too. It's still a great thing to put into the series, given that Liu Kang and Raiden do continuously fight throughout MK history. Putting in a timeline where they join powers together in order to defeat the villain is a very good way to do this. The timeline is so screwed up before everything in Shang's DLC story that he was going to do the restart anyway. 

All of this could have been avoided if they just had a better plan from the very beginning. All of this was brought on because they ended up killing so many main characters in MK9 to begin with. Even when they have the way to bring them all back to life, half of them become resurrected while the others remain as revenants. It was pretty obvious that they were planning to bring more new characters in to replace the old one, mimicking what Transformers did, and this series received a similar backlash. Once that didn't work out, it was all about the writers trying hard to keep all of the characters in the game. MKX does this while also slamming more and more new characters, making it feel bloated. 

This article won't even go into how the multiverse plot affected MK1 (2023), but it's pretty obvious they kept pushing the multiverse once again just for the excuse to bring more and more legacy characters and mix them with the other action figures in the toy box. While this multiverse stuff does come out with some interesting interactions between characters, it's an overall hollow experience. When anything and everything can happen in a story, it stops being all that interesting. There needs to be something to reign it n before it trips all over itself. 

Mortal Kombat needs to drop this stupid idea that killing characters and bringing out more and more powerful people can sustain the story in any meaningful way. Much like the Dragon Ball franchise, this just ends up building a garbage story with enormous plotholes you could drive a truck through. No amount of nostalgia or fan pandering can cover up writers who don't know what to do. Trying to offer new DLC content behind a paywall or making your characters only available through real money, is just proving people right when they say your story is just a vehicle for extra pay content. Also, get some real writers and have an actual plan! 

There's always a good bit of entertainment to be had in Mortal Kombat's Lore. Sometimes they don't take full advantage of their position. Sometimes they make characters who do next to nothing and only exist to look cool. It's a fun ride through the story from a gameplay perspective, but when you step back and think for two seconds, immediately finding plot holes and uncharacterized moments, there is something wrong. When your cut scene literally makes people rage quit your game, then it's time to think of another strategy. Now, go get some water before your next fight and don't slip on the blood.