Mortal Kombat 9 or Street Fighter 4? Both amazing games but..which is better?
These two franchises were big time rivals at the time of the Super Nintendo and Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. Mortal Kombat represented the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and Street Fighter 2 represented the Super Nintendo. Both games were originally released for the arcades prior to there release on the aforementioned home consoles and both games were absolutely amazing.
Street Fighter IV
Street Fighter IV arrived for the PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2008, developed by Dimps and Capcom. Street Fighter IV had beautiful 3D modeled characters, with visual effects accented in calligraphic strokes, ink sprays and ink smudges during the fight. What Street Fighter IV did brilliant was, with these beautiful graphics it kept it’s classic 2D fighting which felt smooth and fast. I would just like to add, I love games that have art styles especially like this game has.
The game was easier to get into compared to the previous games in the Street Fighter franchise, but was also very in-depth. Street Fighter IV introduced a new mechanic called “Focus Attack”, Focus Attack is a move that allows the player to absorb an attack and launch a counterattack, and it is performed by pressing the medium punch and medium kick buttons simultaneously. These Focus attacks could be used in combos to extend them. Street Fighter IV also added “EX Moves” which were more powerful versions of normal special attacks for each character. Advanced players could cancel special moves into focus attacks, and in turn cancel focus attacks into the forward dash, resulting in new combo possibilities. (Still can’t do it!) Players could execute Super combos and more powerful Ultra Combos which were unique to each character.
Modes
The game also had a handful of game modes, Survival mode and Time Trial were brilliant modes which became more challenging as the player advanced. Then there was Trial mode, as good of a mode it was I found it too hard but a good way to learn the advanced combos. Story Mode was done quite well, a nice rival fight and an ending. Street Fighter IV had now introduced online mode, fighting players from across the globe via Playstation Network or Xbox Live which included Ranked matches which gave you points as you won and Player matches. All this in a brilliant package, Street Fighter IV was on top of the fighting game world in my opinion.
DLC
The support given to Street Fighter IV in my opinion was quite poor, what DLC did we get…costumes..seriously? Other versions were released in the form of Super Street Fighter IV and the recently released Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition. In Super Street Fighter IV Capcom added new modes such as “Endless Battle” (a online mode), the bonus stages returned from the old games which involved you breaking the car before the timer runs out. New characters were added such as Guy, Cody, Juri and many more but they also removed some modes such as Survival and Team Attack mode, new stages were added too but why was this released as a disc . I would have preferred the new added features as individual DLC instead of having to buy another game. Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition added a bunch of new character such as Evil Ryu (Love him!), Oni Akuma and more. Capcom continued to add costumes in between all three versions, which I felt was quite lazy and not really important.
Mortal Kombat (also known as Mortal Kombat 9)
Ed Boon (Developer of Mortal Kombat) had stated that he was going back to basics, giving fans what they want such as gore and fatalities again after the average Mortal Kombat VS DC Universe which was a good game but had no gore. Mortal Kombat is not Mortal Kombat without gore. I was skeptical at first as the Mortal Kombat 3D fighter’s were good but nowhere near as good as the 2D games, I was still excited but also afraid they would screw it up again. Then came the first trailer for Mortal Kombat which showed of Mortal Kombat with beautifully detailed 3D models but fighting in 2D. Finally i was so glad that Mortal Kombat had finally taken this route, just the way Street Fighter IV did previously. No 2D Mortal Kombat fighting game sucked so I was confident.
Mortal Kombat arrived April 21st 2011 for the PS3 and Xbox 360, developed by NetherRealm Studios. The game introduced most of the characters from the first three Mortal Kombat games, none of the stupid 3D characters (except a odd few). All characters felt very different but also easy to play with, basic combos were easy to pull of but putting together longer combos was more tricky. The game added a meter at the bottom of the screen, as this filled up you can perform “Enhanced Attacks”, “Breakers” returned and a new unique move known as “X-Ray”, in which a character would attack the opponent and the bone could actually be seen cracking, which was a very gory move. Stage Fatalities also made a return but I feel they could have added a lot more.
Mortal Kombat used a juggling system very similar to the later Tekken games. The characters were so well done, I actually enjoyed playing as characters other than Scorpion. (I fell in love with Scorpion, just like Akuma in SFIV). The game had some beautiful backgrounds and artworks. Check out below a render of one of the stages in Mortal Kombat.
Modes
Mortal Kombat was no slouch when it came to the amount of modes it offered. One of them was a long story mode in which you had to play as certain characters, in game cutscenes kept it interesting and the story resolves around the first three Mortal Kombat games but added a few changes and twists. Completing the story mode would unlock new characters. A mode called “Challenge Tower” which included up to 300 challenges. packed with some difficult and humorous challenges. Ladder mode was introduced, it was like the classic Arcade modes in the UMK3 where as you won you would go up the ladder and ultimately face Shao Kahn. Classic modes like Test your Might, Test your Sight and new modes called Test your Strike and Test your Luck was added. The Krypt returned from the 3D games, allowing players to unlock costumes, second fatalities, artwork and more. Mortal Kombat introduced for the first time in the series Tag Team which was similar to the Marvel V.S Capcom games in which the player can switch between two characters, pulling of combos together. This Tag was associated with Ladder mode and even online mode (1 player tag and even 2 player tag online!!). Mortal Kombat added a handy tutorial mode, as well as a Fatality Tutorial, in which you could perform 2 Fatalities for each character. Classic Babalities also made a return. (Yeah I had an absolute blast with this game!). An online feature called King of the Hill was added along with Ranked and Player matches. King of the Hill is a spectator view, in it observers are given the ability to interact directly with those currently engaged in battle. For the local multiplayer, their was even three player and four players modes which were one against three or a tag team match against each other.
DLC
Mortal Kombat started off by adding “Klassic costumes” of certain characters, which as cool as it was, again was only costumes. Shortly after a new character was announced as DLC called “Skarlet” (which was based on a glitch found in Mortal Kombat II) which was a brilliant addition to the game. A few weeks later the character “Kenshi” was released, Kenshi was from the 3D games, one of the only few characters which was awesome and it was the first time he was playable in 2D, another great addition. Another DLC character called “Rain” from UKM3 was released as DLC. Al three characters were brilliantly made, looked amazing, great combos. I was glad to not have bought another version of Mortal Kombat, I was more than happy to receive brilliant character additions as DLC. With every character addition they gave you two free costumes which were free to you regardless if you purchased the character or not.
My Verdict
Both games were absolutely brilliant, easy to get into but hard to master. In terms if modes they’re both very equal but Mortal Kombat takes the win. When it comes to DLC Mortal Kombat definitely did better, instead of adding tons of pointless costumes they added unique characters, instead of making there customers buy a new game. Although Arcade Edition was DLC which added some brilliant characters. Even thought Mortal Kombat had better DLC and a bit better in terms of modes, it’s still hard to decide which is better but I think I would have go with Mortal Kombat in the end.
Both games are so great, why don’t Netherrealm Studios and Capcom make the game that I and other gamers have been dreaming about since the days of Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat. You know where im going right? “Mortal Kombat V.S Street Fighter!!!”. Come on, you can make Street Fighter X Tekken (which looks awesome by the way) but Street Fighter VS Mortal Kombat would be out of this world. Akuma and Scorpion, imagine tag combos which them two characters. Ed Boon has stated he is a fan of Street Fighter and he would be down for the dream crossover. There is fan art all over the internet, videos, images etc. Check out this awesome image!
Check out this image below, imagine this was an X-Ray. Ooooh!!
Check out this video of an amazing fight between Ryu and Scorpion, After watching this I can just imagine Street Fighter V.S Mortal Kombat. (Fight starts at 4.24)
[embed:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWYCUi8M9c0&feature=player_embedded ]
So what do you people out there prefer Mortal Kombat 9 or Street Fighter IV?. Would you be totally psyched for a Mortal Kombat V.S Street Fighter crossover just like me? Leave comments!