365//365: Day 055 – Mortal Kombat: Special Forces (PSX)

“If at first you don’t succeed, try try again.”

Some of us take this to heart, and try again at something they didn’t get the first time. It’s an age old saying that helps bring us out from the dumps, put our best foot forward, and try once again to succeed where we otherwise failed previously. Midway apparently felt this way. With Mortal Kombat Mythologies becoming one of the worst games of its era, Midway’s lack of success empowered them to try again. Mortal Kombat: Special Forces was their second attempt to build a spin off of its fighting game series. Unfortunately, there’s a totally different saying when it comes to those that looked forward to MK: Special Forces….

“A fool and his money are soon parted.”

What happens when a bad game goes on a bad acid trip?

MK: Special Forces has enough differences to differentiate its self from Mythologies. Sub Zero is not your character of choice here, but rather Jax. Also gone are the 2D digitized characters and paper thin surroundings. All have been replaced with a 3D world, with no need for a turn button. You still gain experience points but you learn new “kombos” with them. The audio sounds like they were actually developed for the game, rather than coming off as stock. With all of these differences, how could anyone not like MK: Special Forces?

In regards to probably the most obvious change, MK: Special Forces is now a 3D beat em up, as opposed to….whatever Mythologies was trying to be. That doesn’t change the fact that Special Forces comes off as extremely rough looking. Characters hold a decent amount of detail, with the world holding a fair share as well, but the execution comes off as bland overall. The look is overly dark, and eve with enough color used throughout the stages, the overall visual presentation lacks.

When you couple uninspiring visuals with a poor camera, you get a lot of headaches. For the most part, you see things at a slight angle overhead view, or a completely overhead view. The lack of camera control means there’s going to be a lot of times where you’re so far to one direction that the camera doesn’t follow you, making the view ahead of you obstructed by a functionless camera. Half of the time, you’ll get hit by enemies before you can reach them, because the camera won’t follow properly enough to let you get a view ahead of time. This game screams for analog capabilities as well, as the controls feel rough, with more or less eight ways you can move, with little in the way of seamless 360 movement.

I know it's hard to tell, but that's Jax on the right, punching an enemy that likes to block. Solution? Shoot him in the face of course!

The music sounds like something from a Mortal Kombat fighting game, but repeated over and over a little too often. Not terrible as a whole, but nothing different. Boss themes have a good feeling to them, and at least help pump the mood up. The other sounds though, do have a unique enough presence to not feel like I’ve heard this a thousand times before. Explosions and gunfire have a punch and power behind them, while the grunts and groans from you and your adversaries isn’t anything new.

The biggest problem I have is that everything is so mediocre, that it comes off as a sub par experience. There’s no point where you develop any type of attachment to the game, no point where you’re wowed, blown away or even entertained by it. There’s no personality to it. Also, if this is chronologically the first game in the Mortal Kombat story, why does Jax have metal arms? Didn’t Jax first appear in Mortal Kombat 2 with normal arms, only to have bionic implants placed in for Mortal Kombat 3 and later? As confusing as some aspects are, it’s still so bland all around. If I were to poke a hole in a piece of white bread with my tongue, I’d have basically the same type of experience I had with MK: Special Forces – plain and leaving me starving for something with more substance.

While it’s not the laughable embarrassment like Mythologies was, Mortal Kombat: Special Forces is so plain and so generic, you really don’t care to acknowledge its existence. There’s no one noteworthy aspect, yet aside from the camera, there’s no real painful aspect about the game. Mortal Kombat: Special Forces is remarkably unremarkable. You can do a lot worse (read: MK Mythologies).

Even if MK: Special Forces was priced at $19.99, it was nothing more than a bomb that blew up in our faces.

Rating: 3.7