This Mortal Kombat game did what Super Smash Bros. Ultimate did 12 years before Nintendo even had the idea. Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, released in North America on October 11, 2006, and Midway Games had made 6 other Mortal Kombat games and, in that time, they had also made a ton of characters, 62 to be exact. So the developers decided to put every character created so far at the time in the game. Gone was the question “is this character in the game?” because every character was playable, even the boss characters.
The game played in a very similar manner to Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance and Mortal Kombat: Deception, minus a second fighting style since there were so many characters. Each fighter has one fighting style and a weapon style that they can switch between freely. Basic punches and kicks feel like they carry impact and the amount of screen shake really sells it. The game also has air combos for the first time and in most scenarios, leads to insane amounts of damage from combos. Armageddon also has unique stage fatalities called death traps, which were often disabled in tournaments. So yeah, every character has their own unique moves and looks, but one thing the characters don’t have is unique fatalities, a Mortal Kombat staple. Instead, the game offers “Build-a-Fatality” which gave players the opportunity to make their own fatalities by doing different button inputs. A lot of players really didn’t like this decision so much but I understand why they made that decision because it would be difficult to design different fatalities for 64 characters. Remember, this game came out in 2006 so they didn’t have nearly as many assets, capabilities, and a budget that the developers have now. In addition to making your own finishing moves, Armageddon also lets you create your own characters and customize their looks and move sets to your choosing. You get to pick what fighting style and weapon your customizable character can use. In all honesty, the character creator holds up pretty well to today’s standards and doesn’t really feel dated. Another game mode that this Mortal Kombat title offers is “Motor Kombat.” It’s basically just Mario Kart but with limited characters and items and controls that make me want to pull my eyes out. Ok, maybe it’s not that bad but the controls feel unresponsive a lot of the time and really, Motor Kombat is one of my only gripes with Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. If Motor Kombat isn’t enough for you, however, there is a story mode called “Konquest Mode.” You get to play a hack-and-slash type game with the occasional actual fight sprinkled in. You play as the protagonist of Armageddon, Taven, who has to stop his brother Daegon. These were new characters and were both playable, bumping the playable character total up to 64.
All in all, Mortal Kombat Armageddon is jam-packed full of content and has so much replay value with all the extra game modes and customization. The combat feels snappy and there can be an endless amount of matches to be held. This is definitely one game that you could play for the rest of your life and still find things to do or characters to master. Even though this is an older game, I do believe that it still holds up very well. For Mortal Kombat Armageddon, I give a 9.5/10.