Neatherrealm Studios has had a fantastic 2011, considering they are relatively new in the developing world. They successfully released the first true tournament-friendly Mortal Kombat game in April, carried excitement through the summer with 4 DLC characters and just recently released Batman: Arkham City Lockdown on iOS. However, things began going downhill when they assigned developer Other Ocean to port Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The set finally released in late August 2011 to mixed reactions from the public. While most generally thought it was a good idea to release an all-inclusive such as this, users were perplexed on how it was possible to royally screw up what had already been ported to PSN (Mortal Kombat II) and XBLA (Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3) in the past.
Instead of “arcade-perfect” like originally promised, gamers were treated to some replaced audio files (literally, different sounds than in the original games), audio hitches/glitches, screen and character discoloration, the lack of a fullscreen option as well as Online play being LITERALLY broken. For a game that requires speed and precision, this was absolutely 100% disgraceful quality of online play for release. I’ve included a clip of what Online play was like if you tried to play it pre-patch. Have you ever seen a cyborg assassin and a queen with awesome 80s hair fight in molasses? Well, if not, this may be something you can check off your list:
So fast forward to just before Christmas, 2011, and the patch is finally out in the United States. Unfortunately, it’s only for Xbox 360 at the time of this writing, but PSN should have it by the end of the week. So, it’s all good now, right? I mean, after six months of delayed release, then nearly four months of waiting must mean SOME good news. To be fair, yes, majority of the issues that gamers had been frustrated about have been fixed, like Online play. You can finally fight your friends across the country in proper lighting with a fullscreen option.
The only thing that wasn’t, and likely will not be fixed due to the sheer amount of work it would take, is the audio issues. Sometimes Scorpion’s signature “Get Over Here” will cut, sometimes the Mortal Kombat II attract mode will hitch, and sometimes noises are replaced altogether like the clapping in the Courtyard…All things that are not part of the original game I first played back in the arcades. So, while I still can’t give a passing grade on this Kollection, for those like me who have spent their money already or for those who just want some old school Mortal Kombat on their systems, this Kollection is not BAD. It just isn’t what they said it would be.
Update: As of December 23rd, the update is available on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles.
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