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Review: Mortal Kombat Unchained [PSP] |
Gosh it’s all go in the MK world at the moment, isn’t it? The final current-generation game of the series, Armageddon has just come out (it’s shit) UMK3’s tearing up the streets of Xbox Live (they’re shit) and here we have MKU on the PSP, and it has to be said that the derogatory-comment forecast is looking mighty promising.
Unchained is a fancy city-folks title for what is basically the console Mortal Kombat: Deception plus extra characters. Just like the original in terms of sheer wealth of content it’s undoubtedly an impressive package, all the more so recreated on a handheld. Offering wireless play (Ad-Hoc only) and featuring thirty selectable characters - the entire MKD cast plus five exclusive ones, as well all the options and play modes of the original, the one area it can’t be faulted on is features.
The Krypt (its myriad hidden treasures moved around for the PSP version) has been included, complete with exclusive content, and even more surprising is the inclusion of the expansive if tedious ‘Konquest’ adventure game mode, the interactive role-playing backstory to the events of MKD. Chess Kombat (far more fun than it has any right to be) and Puzzle Kombat have also made the cut, completing a more-than generous smokescreen to distract attention away from the actual fighting part.
Unchained isn’t a perfect port of course - the visuals have been toned down considerably in terms of detail and resolution; close-ups on characters reveal lumpen masses of pixels instead of faces, simple textures replace polygons, smaller items of clothing have no motion to them, parts of the arenas frequently flicker during scripted sequences and the screen is very susceptible to blurring, especially on the rapid, cross-arena pans.
Konquest mode suffers particularly badly - never visually impressive to begin with, the graphics have been downgraded even further, and coupled with the blurring effect, dismal camera (’yes, thanks, that’s where I was‘), mid-conversation load times and near-unusable analogue nub control method it’s not worth spending any time on, especially as unlike the console versions all the characters are unlocked from the start.
All in all though it doesn’t look too bad, especially by handheld standards, but on the same system where Namco’s Dark Resurrection is rendering lip-synched mouth movements, teeth and tongues on its characters, it’s still far from ground-breaking.
The presentation on the other hand is consistently high-quality; Deception’s moody menus, load screens and character art all return, and the FMVs and endings are all present and correct. All this content comes at a price, though, the load times are frequent and painful. Between fights. Between the character progress ladder. Between menu options and Krypt content (it has to save your profile every time you gain money.) It’s never excessive - 35 seconds between fights compared to the Xbox version’s five - but it happens so damn often, it’s annoying, contrary to the point of a handheld game and it kills the immersive feel that has always been the series’ strong suit.
This lack of humility and common sense displayed in many recent games is really getting on my nerves, why are so few developers willing to step back and say, yes, our publishing house’s FMV title animation is very nice, but it’s playing merry hell with the little PSP’s access time, let’s leave it out? This game has a tonne of video sequences, lovely pictures, complex 3D models and areas, but it’s at the cost of a stable, responsive and immediate game experience. The PSP is powerful, make no mistake but it’s not that powerful and this insistence on filling these games with all the flash and glitz that gamers are used to, regardless of whether it can actually cope or not, well it’s a recipe for frustration, and something that unfortunately seems more and more accepted as time goes by.
Another format-specific issue arises with regards to the controls. PSP fighters are a genre eternally overshadowed by the d-pad issue, put quite simply it is absolutely awful. With that in mind MKU is probably one of the easier to control fighters on the system. The game’s simpler button commands (none of those pesky diagonals) slow speed and even slower response time mean that although play is frequently frustratingly laboured and unresponsive, for once it isn’t Sony’s fault.
Said controls have also been slightly altered to account for the PSP’s comparative button deficit. The face buttons are the four attacks, L is fighting ’style’ change and R is block. Throws are now performed by pressing Triangle + Circle together, an awkward and unreliable combination when using a thumb.
A second look at any MK game is always a dangerous risk, and once again hindsight is extremely cruel to MKU. The baby-step progressions towards being a ‘real’ fighting game once again undone by the continuing basic, fundamental failures in terms of game engine, physics, systems and control methods. It isn’t fun, it isn’t deep, it’s a chore to endure, whether struggling with the controls, memorising randomly-assigned, meaningless button sequences, sitting through endless load screens or battling the latest overpowered shitty boss character, MKU as a fighting game can frankly just fuck off. In fact it’s barely fighting at all, the CPU acting more like a random parry training dummy than any sort of recognisable opponent.
The PSP-specific characters are disappointing, if predictable straight ports of characters from other versions of the games. From the Gamecube version of Deception are Shao Kahn and Goro, both on their third or fourth ’surprise’ revival from certain death now, and from Deadly Alliance come Kitana, Jax, Frost and Blaze (not the MKA one, the ultra-hidden MKDA one.)
These guys aren’t enhanced or added to in any way, moves or otherwise; the DA characters have only a single fatality, and no Hara-Kiri suicide finishers. They’re still appreciated in a way - I lost interest in DA before I unlocked Jax, so it’s nice to have him onboard, despite, or rather because of his ridiculous AWWWWW YEAH machine gun attack. Thass what ah’m talkin’ ’bout!
If you’re really, really desperate, on the run from the police and simply have to play MKD, this is probably your best option. The fact that there’s so little done to account for a much less powerful system counts heavily against it, as does the fact it’s MKD, not only a bad game but a bad, over familiar game. But that said, as an MK apologist of note myself, I know these things won’t be enough to stop everybody, and every now and then when a particularly doom-laden chord rings out, a particular piece of background architecture suggests a demonic aspect, or an uppercut yields an impressive amount of blood I wonder if I’m not being a little harsh on the thing. I’m not, of course, but the series has always had an insidious way of worming itself into your consciousness, lowering your expectations, pretending it’s all good, clean nostalgic fun when it most definitely isn’t.
Be warned!
