MK2

[Gabriel]

MK2 was finally made available today.

 

Sony finally got off their asses for this one. They only missed their end of March deadline by 2 weeks. Hallelujah!

 

200+ MB? WTF? Oh well, I have a 60G drive. I don't care yet.

[jedijeff]

I'm still waiting for Gauntlet and Rampart myself.

[Gabriel]

And now, the inevitable Gabriel commentary.

 

The game is Mortal Kombat 2, if you're a gamer and have never played it, then WTF is wrong with you? Just about everyone should know what to expect. MK2 is my favorite of the series, and I've spent endless hours playing the Genesis, SNES, 32X, and PS2 versions of the game. I bought the PS3 download because: 1) It was just $5, and I could spend that on a value meal, and 2) I've grown to appreciate the convenience of having games on the hard drive rather than having to get a disc, load it, wait for the company logos to scroll by, select the game from a menu, wait for it to load and maybe more company logos to scroll by, and then finally play the game.

 

I only played about 25 matches last night. My mix of characters is Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Kung Lao, and Millena. I also tossed in a play with Raiden. The game engine seemed on target. I didn't notice anything not working that should have. I'd say the emulation is pretty spot on, like I'd expect.

 

The one difference is that damage seemed higher. This may have been my imagination, though. I haven't played MK2 in a few months because I wasn't wanting to get burned out on it before this download became available. So, if anyone else notices the damage being kicked up about 25% or so, please comment.

 

A complaint I have is regarding the controlls. Control felt stiff. For example, I've done Scorpion's teleport a million times, but there were a few times where it just wouldn't go off in this game. The game honestly doesn't control as smoothly as the version on the Midway Treasures 2 disc. It's something you can adapt to, but it's definitely a minus against the game.

 

The online feature is workable. You can search for games or host one yourself, and it's free (or included in the $5 price of the game, whichever way you prefer to look at it). I only tested this out for 3 fights. There was one instance of lag, but it wasn't anything other than a slight slowdown. There were a couple of instances of unresponsive controls, but it was probably just the stiff control problem I mentioned above.

 

Game options are stripped down. There's Arcade, which doubles as local versus mode. There's Online Mode to play against people through your broadband connection. There's Help. You get the idea. Honestly, it's about the same as most MK presentations over the years.

 

So, it's MK2. Either you like it or you don't. Ultimately, it boils down to convenience. Do you want the convenience of having it on your hard drive rather than hunting down a disk, and is that worth $5 to you? If so, you'll be satisfied. If not, then you'll probably be disappointed.