MK 9 Review Round-Up: The Mortal Kombat Series is Reborn With Its Latest Title

The Mortal Kombat reboot may be the best Mortal Kombat ever released, judging from the early reception. Despite its darker, more serious storyline and even gorier combat, the latest Mortal Kombat has met a number of mixed reviews. Most reviewers, however, love it. G4TV called the game “the best all-round game in the franchise,” awarding it a perfect 10, while IGN complained about the game’s lack of balance in its single player mode.

10

g4tv.com review
This is definitely the return of Mortal Kombat and it’s easily the best all-around game in the franchise. It’s got more depth than its predecessors, a ton of things to do and unlock, and a surprising genre-leading story mode. There are definitely a few minor gripes, but it’s nothing to stop you from going out and snagging MK9 if you’re a longtime fan or if you’ve just been looking for an alternative to the other fighting games out today.
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10

giantbomb.com review
The game also returns to the uppercuts and sweeps found in the original trilogy. You can start combos with jump-in punches, juggle them up into the air, and do what you can to keep them there, delivering damage all the while. That's not to say that there's no defensive aspect to Mortal Kombat, as there's definitely value in turtling up, trying to poke, and baiting out someone's X-ray, a bone-crunching move that requires a full super meter to attempt. But at times it feels like the fights are best when two players are simply going for it at all times. It's a thrilling game with a lot of flashy moves and combos, many of which can be sussed out by newer players. The specials are easy to perform, and once you wrap your mind around the logic of getting someone into the air and keeping them there, figuring out the most damaging moves you can is half the fun (at least until someone does the math and tells you which combos, exactly, do the most damage). While it goes out of its way to recall some of the fighting mechanics popularized by MKII and MK3, the game doesn't play like some total throwback, either. Carefully considering when to use the moves that drain parts of your super meter and timing those juggles just right are both pretty key.
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9.4

gametrailers.com review
No Synopsis Available
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9.1

1up.com review
The Training Mode is comprised of a Tutorial for both basic gameplay and Fatalities, and also a standard Practice Mode where you can test combos and other attacks against a dummy. While the Tutorial Mode does a great job of going over the basics, it still leaves a lot to be desired -- such as more advanced combo training. The game will show you how to pop-up the opponent with a launcher (which is the foundation for starting some of the more damaging combos), but there isn't much else beyond that which is fairly disappointing. Overall though, you'll come away with a good understanding of the gameplay mechanics after completing all of the tutorial challenges.
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9.0

cheatcc.com review
Mortal Kombat is one of the few games that plays well no matter whether you are a newbie or an experienced franchise player. The storyline actually starts you off at the end of the Mortal Kombat story, and it looks like perennial bad guy Shao Khan has actually come out on top and Earthrealm is toast. However, Raiden, being the magical guy that he is, is able to send his past self a premonition about all the bad stuff that is about to transpire. And then it's off to alternate universe land. The story is fairly expansive, and covers the events of the first three numerical entries. If you are new to the series, everything will flow fairly cohesively, and you'll get a pretty cool tournament-based story. If you are a big fan, though, you'll be able to spot where the alternate reality deviates from the canon, and some of the changes made are actually quite intelligent. Enough modifications to the original are made that the story will still be interesting, but Mortal Kombat is still Mortal Kombat, and you'll still get the experience you paid for (don't expect anyone to go flying off in a spaceship or anything).
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9.0

oxmonline.com review
Kung Lao lies dead, crushed beneath massive skeletal fingers. Baraka slumps against a tree, bisected by Kung Lao’s hat. Johnny Cage’s sunglasses lay shattered next to his severed head, while a vulture pecks at the top half of what used to be Sonya Blade. And atop a corpse-strewn pyramid, just as gloating warlord Shao Kahn delivers a final blow, dying thunder-god Raiden sends a cryptic message back through time: “He must win.”
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9.0

gamepro.com review
Amazingly, hardcore MK fans have stuck with this fighting series through thick and thin. Even when the games started to lose their impact; even when the movie franchise tanked (thanks, MK: Annihilation); and even when the original MK development team split up, the fanbase was still there, supporting each increasingly ridiculous release. For those fans, this new Mortal Kombat will be a godsend, an oasis in a desert of mediocrity, and a return to form that honestly couldn't have come a moment too soon.
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8.7

3djuegos.com review
No Synopsis Available
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8.0

gamesradar.com review
A successful sequel that both reboots and redeems the wayward series, though it’s not a flawless victory. Character balance, inconsistent detection and a stingy coin reward system drag down an otherwise bloody good time.
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8.0

ign.com review
Mortal Kombat combines the novelty of extreme violence with a great fighting engine. My favorite moments with Mortal Kombat were always playing against a friend (Gamespy’s Ryan Scott is a beast), but I was disgusted by how unbalanced some of the single-player challenges are.
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6.1

nowgamer.com review
Bloody, brazen and as tongue-in-cheek as always, Mortal Kombat preys on your nostalgia perfectly, but, though it feels it’s trying to add finesse to combat through meters and combos, it ultimately feels somewhat slow and disjointed.
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