Mortal Kombat - Xbox 360

I have just finished the story mode and have spent about 10 hours with the game, it is fantastic so far! More to come soon... I mainly wanted to get this up quickly because of the one star reviews popping up so early complaining about the xbox 360 version. NOTHING is wrong or off about the xbox 360 version, it is fast, graphics are great, and no hiccups. I am completely satisfied with this purchase thus far.***Official Review***(04/25/11)Mortal Kombat, what can I say, it's a great fighting game. I've never been much of a fighting game type of gamer but I have had my xbox 360 for about 4 years now and don't have a fighting game in my inventory, so it was about time I got one.I have childhood memories of watching a MK game go down at the local movie theater arcade, Cyrax shooting out his green net making his opponent an easy target, then I saw, "Finish Him" and a fatality took place, it blew my mind. Naturally, I was a bit intrigued when I first heard they were taking MK back to its roots with a 2D set up focusing on MK1-MK3. More and more videos came out and the moves, characters, backgrounds, extras all looked fantastic so I stop reading up on the game because I knew I was going to buy it, and here we are.I did get suckered into thinking Ed Boon had a treat for xbox 360 players from his interview with GiantBomb.com (fantastic gaming site by the way) with a new character and/or background, which he hasn't delivered on, but alas, the game is amazing, so good in fact that chances are you won't miss an additional character.The single player is huge in this game. The story mode alone took me about 10 hours from start to finish (2 nice unlocks upon completion). It's done in such a way that creates a seamless fighting experience. You're watching an in-game cinematic and when the fight is about to start the camera zooms back and viola, the fight begins, once that fight is over, the camera angle changes and the story continues, seamlessly. Once you're done with the story mode you can play the traditional arcade format where you move up the ladder of fighters until you fight the boss, or you can practice different fatalities, or just practice against a dummy opponent in practice mode. There is Test your Might, Test your Sight, and Test your Luck. If that wasn't enough, there is also tower to climb consisting of 300 stages! (apparently it's worth it to beat stage 300, something "special" happens) I'm on stage 62 and the difficulty seems to be a bit sporadic. For example, stage 44 is harder then stage 57. And yes, some of the stage's are downright annoying and not fun, like fighting an over powered scorpion that can dish out damage to you whenever he wants, but you only do damage to him while he's under a spot light that rotates around the map!!! Or like fighting Liu Kang who has normal stats but every time you hit him your hit damage decreases by 5%, etc. Completing all of the single player events will help you earn special koins which you can use to unlock things from the Krypt, most valuable things being additional fatalities and alternate costumes. Every character seems to get two fatalities and two different costumes.I have only tried online play a couple of times. The `King of the Hill' mode seems to be the most popular amongst players. It's a pretty cool set up. You enter a lobby and it's set up movie theater style where everyone waiting to fight watches the current two fighters duke it out. Once the fight is over you can give the winner of the fight a rating from 1-10. I know these ratings add up to an overall score for the fighter, but I'm not sure if there are unlocks associated with it or not, or if it's just bragging rights.Anyways, you get the idea, it's a good fighting game, pick this bad boy up!***(05/04/11)A Heads Up Regarding the Challenge Tower***I have beat the 300 level challenge tower by actually playing the various stages and paying (via Kombat Koins) my way through others. It was an awesome idea to allow the player to actually pay their way through if they wanted because it does get tedious and not that fun quickly, so that was a great design decision. What was not a great design decision was what you get when you complete the 300th stage, very very lame. It was mouth dropping in lameness. I'm not gonna spoil it for you, but believe me, it is not worth going through the 300 stages. If you are attempting the 300 stages because you're enjoying the variety each one offers then by all means have fun, but if your'e grinding through just to get the surprise at the end, don't bother, it sucks.

Like many other gamers I spent alot of time in my younger years begging my mom and grandma for quarters, so I could sneak off into the dark smokey arcade for some Mortal Kombat! This game was one of the few I remember having long lines making that trip to the mall very intense, just hoping to get a chance at a game or two!Fast forward almost 20 years and you have this gem! Ive been playing the demo on PS3 for about 2 weeks, just enjoying the two levels and 4 characters, since Xbox never got a demo it was my only choice.Finally today I got the 360 version and so far its amazing! First let me start by saying the graphics are insane and beautiful, the colors just explode on the screen! I saw a few reviews talking about bad graphics, and its a shame, cause on my 60" Sony LED, its just incredible.So far this morning I played a bit of training, which is a great addition to the game, whether your a veteran MK player or just picking it up the first time. The training includes a tutorial that covers basic moves and skills, Fatality Tutorial which as you'd guess helps you with performing fatalities...everything from the button combo and distance/location is covered here. Finally a practice and tag team practice mode are included, both allow just that practice without getting into the actual challenges and/or tier fights.Challenge tower is quite impressive everything from the presentation the the actual 300 challenge tower is awesome. It starts off with a pre selected character and fighter for you along with a challenge to complete...it starts off easy, tutorial style really...then well lets just say hopefully you were one of the kids in the arcade who kept his place at the controls. Over all this mode seems like its gonna be a blast, and well quite challenging.I only messed around with the story mode for a few minutes, but it seems intriguing with lots of fighters this mode could take alot of your time! The opening scene is really great!So far I'm very impressed, everything from sound, visuals, and gameplay are amazing! If your a fan of the older, original games (MK-MKIII) you're in for a real treat. The 2D plane is one thing I never realized how much I missed until playing this game for the first time (demo). The stages also need to be mentioned, the backgrounds alone distract you enough to make you lose the round, I don't wanna ruin anything but there are a few creatures lurking that really catch the eye!Overall this game is a a must have for any MK fan, its a great game so far, and includes tons of features and game types to keep you going. If you have a PS3 or an Xbox pic this game up you wont be sorry!