Mortal Kombat Unlimited by maggas/bwwd

[zamuel]

A little surprised not to see any sort of thread for the game but I guess it got hit by the purge.  While I know that weapons, Jax, playable Subzero, and some small fixes were added, I don't know what all was bwwd's original work and what is Maggas's updates so I'll simply state things I see them.  Please point out if I get something gravely wrong.

Mortal Kombat Unlimited

Story: N/A?

Err, there is none.  It could be noted that you don't always need a story but unless done horribly it doesn't hurt.  You fight a ton of people and then you fight Shao Khan, THE END.  Unless I missed something...

Audio: 5.0/5.0
Visuals: 4.5/5.0

Audio is the sound effects and music you expect in MK.  It suits the game overall but key pieces such Shao Khan's quotes elevate the work.

While some enemies are obviously edits, overall it looks like they fit.  The levels are varied and despite a lack of storyline it does feel like you're progressing.  Stage design itself is excellent but I'll detail that later.  The one major problem was just how bad the burn animation looked.  Also, there were missed opportunities with enemy names.  "CNinja" should have had alias settings to display it as "Cyber_Ninja", "OShangTsung" as "Old_Shang_Tsung" and more.  Plus, it a pointless nitpick but seemed odd for an MK game to use "Money" as opposed to "Koin".

Gameplay: 4.0/5.0

As a whole, the old "MK demo" was one of my favorite mods back in the day.  There's something about the way the game plays with the speed making it one of the fastest mods available.  That also brings it's own flaws but I'll get to that.  Guess I need to split gameplay into three parts.

Level design
When I played the original, I felt it had some of the best stage design out of any mod available.  Playing the update, my opinion still hasn't changed despite newer mods being added.  Quite simply, MK Unlimited does more by adding traps, alternate elevations, and 2D sections.  In fact, the original subconsciously affected a fair bit of my own modding.  The one glaring point is that the creativity wanes in the latter half of the game and shifts to simply having "standard" areas.

Characters
In some ways simplicity works but it winds of dating the mod as "old".  Also, it greatly affects character balance.  Subzero probably defaults to being the best character in the game due to his ability to freeze enemies.  Everyone else winds up being a bit even though they do have differences.  A small bit more might have helped overall though it still is quite fun. 

There's a few other that date the game such as the fact that the projectiles aren't actually projectiles.  Also, the game could benefit from two things: single button freespecials and riseattacks.  A simple fireball motion isn't hard in it's own right but it gets interrupted by grabs at close range.  It also prevents you losing your positioning since a fireball motion slowly moves you down the screen if used repeatedly.  Riseattacks would have protected you from the nightmare awaiting you when you get knocked down and perhaps added a standard place for the MK uppercut.

The swords are a fun addition but the fact that they can be dropped and picked up infinite times is problematic since it leads to times where multiple swords are on the screen and your combos get interrupted by item pickup animations.  Lowering the number of drops to three and perhaps gaining the ablilty to throw/drop your sword with the character's freespecial command would have helped clear screen clutter.

Enemies
Half of this is awesome with a fair amount of variance in enemy tactics that can be a little inspired at times.  Half of this is horrible since getting knocked downed means mashing Special and simply praying it works.  In this game, defense tends to get you killed until you figure out a few specific ranges and tactics.  In some ways, playing aggressive is good but it's handled wrong at times.  Mainly in the last levels where it's less about tactics/avoiding traps and more about having 10 enemies on screen and Kintaro stomping on your head.  Or running for your life.  Also, the number of jumping enemies highlights the serious lack of some form of manual uppercut/antiair.  Basically, you wind up needing the number of continues the game gives you.

Overall: 4.0/5.0 (not an average)
I may be partially biased in the end.  I still feel Mortal Kombat unlimited has some of the best level design in OpenBOR and I like the fast pace.  However, enemy strength and numbers can potentially make it an exercise in frustration.  In a way, it's an old school styled mod that makes no illusion about it's age and it simply comes down to if you like the design choices made.