Mortal Kombat – Shaolin Monks (PS2)

A few days back I’ve just finished playing Atelier Iris 2 whereas my younger bro Ariff completed Kingdom Hearts 2. Our long awaited games such as Disgaea 2, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy XII have not arrived yet in Malaysia.

Browsing through our CD folder, we decided to play a game that my other younger bro Man couldn’t finish and it was Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks (MK:SM) by Midway. Liu Kang was my chosen character and the quest begins in the era or storyline of Mortal Kombat 2 (MK2).

For those who used to play MK2, the available characters can also be seen in MK:SM. The environment and 3D characters design looks good but the only sad part I can say is about Rayden the Thunder God.

For MK fans, Rayden is a serious yet cool character with godly powers yet unable to help Earth Realm warriors at a full level. In this game, his character attitude/behaviour remains true however his 3D face looks awfully funny. He has a ‘kerek’ and ‘cacat’ face that a psycho would truly love…….hahahah.

Currently at a stage battling with Barakka, I’m still not sure whether could go any further from this game point. One thing about me is that I’m not a fan of ‘button-mashing’ games but sometimes I do play them for the sake of enjoyment. Before I do battle with Barakka, there are places that require me to press the x-button plenty of times just to achieve an objective before I could move on. I don’t mind at first till I met with Barakka and the only way to defeat him is to press the x-button vigorously.

In MK:SM, this button-mashing sequence happens when you hear the sound “TEST YOUR MIGHT!”. A meter comes out on your left screen showing the peak level that you need to reach before the time expires (if only I have a screenshot of it). If you stop, the rising bar will go down and you have to start all over again. As the game progresses, the peak level goes higher and the time given to reach when I fought with Barakka was ten seconds. I have tried three times to defeat him and my fingers gets tired of it.

Oh well there are things to do besides PS2 right …………………….