One such experiment was Mortal Kombat – Special Forces, a spin-off prequel that tried to convert this fighting game into a full-blown action-adventure shooter. Mortal Kombat – Special Forces was released on the PlayStation in 2000, and remains one of the worst received games in this long-running franchise. To that end, we ask the question, what the hell actually happened to Mortal Kombat – Special Forces?

Before Mortal Kombat – Special Forces, series developer Midway had tried to shift from the standard fighting formula into newer territories with Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero. This Double Dragon-Esque brawler didn’t have the most positive of critical reception, but many fans welcomed the change which by extension, meant promising sales. This ultimately prompted Midway to try its hand at a spin-off once again and that’s roughly how Mortal Kombat – Special Forces was born.

During the earlier stages of development, Mortal Kombat – Special Forces was envisioned as a game that would marry the best aspects of action-adventure contemporaries with Mortal Kombat’s fighting and characters, except that the action elements would have more depth. Furthermore, players would also be able to swap out the characters between Jax and Sonya Blade – allowing for different styles of gameplay. Midway also had plans to release the game on multiple platforms – like the Sega Dreamcast alongside the aforementioned PlayStation.

But many of these plans would soon go to waste in the face of Mortal Kombat – Special Forces’ turbulent development cycle. You see, Midway had mostly stuck with 2D gameplay for the better part of the decade with its Mortal Kombat and it obviously struggled to transition its development tools and technologies to incorporate for another dimension. These problems would be compounded by the fact that Mortal Kombat – Special Forces would have to be built for aging hardware like the PlayStation. This became all the more heart-wrenching considering that new consoles and new possibilities were right over the horizon with the upcoming release of the GameCube and PlayStation 2.

Regardless, Midway’s Special Forces team trudged through the depths of development as they tried to create a better action-adventure game. But when there seemed to be no end to this dark and dreary tunnel, many developers left the company in search of greener pastures – including but not limited to series co-creator John Tobias who ultimately left the game in a state of distraught. While rumors of the game being canceled were making the rounds (which were fueled by high-profile departures), Midway never commented anything on the matter.

Behind closed doors at Midway, the remainder of the team who stayed tried to make something out of what was left, but with very little manpower available for the game – the team had to resort to scrapping many ideas and reducing the game’s scope into something that could be completed in due time. As a result, the character switching mechanic was removed from the final build and entire levels were removed from the game – leaving the final release with just a handful of levels. The game was originally planned to have an over-the-shoulder camera perspective, but it was changed to the overhead perspective during the final months of development. To incorporate these changes in the gameplay, the story also had to be altered accordingly – resulting in an experience that was compromised on all fronts.

Then, Mortal Kombat: Special Forces was finally released in 2000 for the PlayStation. As you could probably imagine from the state of development, the game was almost surely a disaster that was waiting to happen, and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces was bombarded with a plethora of negative reviews and a laundry list of criticisms upon launch. The levels felt barren and empty with nothing to explore, the combat one-tone and repetitive, and the enemy encounters were unbalanced at some times and overtly frustrating during others. Even something as basic as the story didn’t have any sense of continuity to it, and the game was filled with narrative contrivances and plot holes which made trudging through the tedious gameplay all the more frustrating. Long story short, there was a complete lack of polish with the title – which isn’t all that surprising considering the turbulent development cycle that we outlined previously.

Midway knew this of course, and purposefully under-marketed the game to prevent fans from knowing too much about this horrendous title. Hell, the game even launched at a discounted price tag of $19.99 in an effort to lure gamers into trying out this title, but even that didn’t amount to much in saving the fates of Mortal Kombat: Special Forces.

Mortal Kombat: Special Forces feels like a prototype for a game that’s some ways from completion. By all accounts, this game shouldn’t have been released in the state that it did. There is a lot of evidence that suggests that this project was an abandoned project that was rushed out without rhyme or reason. Series co-creators John Tabias and Ed Boon have also shared similar sentiments in interviews following the game’s launch. Boon said that the project had all sorts of issues, while Tabias – who was involved with the project before his departure – hadn’t played more than 5 minutes of the game.

And that’s a shame, really. Because beneath the thick veneer of Mortal Kombat: Special Forces’ notable flaws, there lies a glimmer of hope for the game. While the game would often crumble under the weight of its nonsensical design decisions and mundane environments, but when the stars align during specific sections – Special Forces can be pretty fun at times. The game featured an in-depth close-quarters combat system with special moves and combos, which when combined with the ability to gun down enemies could have created a fun and dynamic combat loop. Similarly, while Jax isn’t the most recognizable Mortal Kombat character when compared to someone like Scorpion or Shao Kahn – this spin-off would have been the perfect opportunity to shed the needed light on this character.

But that’s all wishful thinking, and what we actually got was an unfinished product that shouldn’t have been released in the first place. Mortal Kombat: Special Forces stands at a minuscule rating of 23 on Metacritic which makes it one of the worst-rated games of all time, and the negative reception was so overwhelming to handle that Midway halted development for all Mortal Kombat spin-offs and focused its resources into creating Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Head Inflate (Kabal) – Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3

In a way, this movie is kind of embarrassing for the opponent. Who likes to be filled with air until their head balloons up and they float away, only to explode in the sky? However, when you think about it, the Fatality itself is absurd. It’s almost too over-the-top and comedic, from the set-up to the underwhelming pay-off.

I remember the first time I saw Pac-Man on a home console at my neighbor’s house. You couldn’t fool me, it looked horrible. You clearly got a better deal with the dedicated upright cabinet in the game room, and nothing was going to change that. But then the home consoles did get better, and the dedicated uprights weren’t holding our interest anymore. By the ’90’s we were clearly getting a better gaming experience on our couch at home, instead of a musty game room with outdated machines that broken often and took too many quarters.

With all these HD remakes now being brought to our current generation consoles, it’s nice to see Midway jump on the band wagon. I don’t see the point in some of these games that came out 2 years ago, and now they’re getting and HD remake. Did your game age that much? But for Midway, they were the kings of a era, and it’s been far too long since they’re ruled. Midway Arcade Origins is a nice package of over 30 games that once graced the game rooms and sucked up our quarters, and know that I played almost every one of them back in the day.

Although it’s a pretty simple feature, by far my favorite aspect is the menu. Not only does it display the game title, but also the year it was created, AND what the upright arcade cabinet looked like. For me, it’s been such a long time since I’ve played, I remembered the cabinet more than the game’s name, and so I was happy to reconnect with games like Xenophobe and Robotron 2004. You try explaining to your friends a game about robots playing football in the future, or a game split into 3 side-scrollers for 3 people to play at the same time. You’ll get the same looks I got, but it’s in here, and it’s nice to know I wasn’t crazy.

With some games, it doesn’t matter how much you try to uprezz them, they won’t look good, but some games like Tapper, who just happened to be featured in Wreck-it-Ralph, look so good, you have a hard time believing the game is nearly 30 years old. All games come with multiplayer options, if the original version was built that way. In games like Gauntlet, when you have multiple people playing, your second select screen asks where you want to stand at the arcade, since the original cabinet had enough controls. Rampage was the biggest hit in my house and as simple as the game was, it still holds up to some of these over the top, in your face games that clearly suck, but no one wants to admit.

Not being able to bring my son to a game room for the same experience I had, this is actually the next best thing, outside of the pumping quarters until you’re out of your vacation money, and having to spend the rest of time sitting at the pool, watching your siblings have fun in the arcade without you. It was a good lesson of not blowing all your money at once and also making sure to know when to stop and save your money for the ice cream floats everyone else bought, as you continued to sit by the stupid pool. By son, now the same age I was when I first entered the game room, has much more experience playing games from the home consoles. He absolutely loved Rampage, but found most of the other games, like Spy Hunter and 720 too hard. When he played Gauntlet II he couldn’t understand why the characters weren’t leveling up, or why they didn’t get better axes or arrows. It blew his mind that none of that sort of stuff existed back then.

Now, I have to admit Spy Hunter is really the only game I found to have a hard time with controls. Most games translated over the control pad, and games like Smash TV works nice with both analog sticks, much the same way the original cabinet was. The port to the NES sucked, and you had to use both player 1 and 2 controls if you wanted to get close to using two sticks. But with Spy Hunter the trick to the game was getting into high gear and then only putting your foot on the pedal half way. When you got into a sticky situation, you stomped your foot all the way down on the pedal and you were gone. Even though I could replicate that on the controller, it would have been nice to have an option to turn down the sensitivity. My son couldn’t perform the maneuver and crashed into everything and was done after about 5 minutes. Spy Hunter II, was easier for him, but man I hated that game in the arcades and I don’t know why. It just seemed like a bad sequel, but my son and I actually had a good time.

I’m not saying I’m as old as dirt, but I certainly remember the golden age of the arcade room, and I think Midway has done a great job of preserving that in this capsule. Of course some of these games are showing their age, but with the HD, some look better than their original upright counterparts. With Wreck-it-Ralph coming out, there’s a collective remembrance of what it was like in the game room, and I miss those days. I wish my son could have seen the rows and rows of uprights, but I’m glad I don’t have a pocket full of quarters anymore. This is great blast from the past, done well. Hats off to Midway.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 3.

Ever hear of a game call ‘Awakened’?  No?  Well it doesn’t surprise me as the game has no publisher currently and is a super hero game that is in serious need of a publisher as well as some promotion.  This game was also originally called ‘Hero’ while under the wing of Midway, but things have now changed including the title.  The trailer below features tons of gameplay and the game quite frankly looks fucking awesome from what you can see.  ‘Awakened’ is being developed by Phosphor Games, but was originally a Midway project and has customization, plenty of abilities so hype this bad boy up as I would hate to see an amazing piece of work go down the tube.  Check out the trailer and enjoy as you won’t find much info on this title.  The first trailer featuring the music from Sigur Ros includes more gameplay and can be viewed here.

You can view a 15 Minute Walk-through of the game when it was called hero and before Midway when bankrupt on this title here.

mortal_kombat_1

“Mortal Kombat is known for and associated with violence, and we’re definitely going back to that, The developers are actually modelling the insides of each character, from brains to bowels”.

“When you cut somebody in half, rip their arms off, or otherwise dismember them you will see their realistically rendered insides as they come spilling out of their body. Eyes are giuged from their sockets, faces are disfigured, and limbs are torn asunder.”

Note: The listing is totally random and is not based on any kind of ranking. Also let us know your thoughts in the comment section below the post.

Mortal Kombat Theme Music

I still remember the good old days when I was in the 7^th grade and whenever this movie used to come on Star Movies, I would leave my homework and sit to watch this amazing movie based on Mortal Kombat. But when the credits rolled out, my friend and I used to stand facing each other and just literally taunt each other to have a fight. This music created vengeance in my blood as is if Mortal Kombat existed for real. The theme still feels fresh after all these years. Have a listen.

Liu Kang and his bicycle kick

One of the best fight scenes that Robin Shou (the actor who plays Liu Kang) had in the two Mortal Kombat films he acted in. In this video we see some intense fighting and for the first time we see Liu Kang perform the famous bicycle kick. One question that seems to bug me is- where the hell is Johnny Cage when Kang is fighting with Reptile? Obviously he should have helped Liu. But oh well…it is Hollywood you know!

Welcome to the Scorpion’s Lair

Another crazy fight sequence from the first movie and this time it is between Johnny Cage and Scorpion. The most amazing thing about this video is that later on the fight takes place in the Scorpion’s Lair and the director of the film got the theme of the place spot on. We also get to see Scorpion firing the spear through his palm and removing his mask. Too bad, Scorpion gets fried by Cage in the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku_i0XiKmlg

Finish Him!!!

The words that are so common in the Mortal Kombat Universe , “Finish Him” sounded pretty scary for its time. After the announcer said those golden words, the player had the option to perform a fatality, animality, annihilate them or just leave them. It’s one of the phrases in video games that I am not going to forget till the day I die! Now … FINISH HIM!!! MUHAHAHA!!!

Fatality

One of the major reasons that Mortal Kombat became such a huge commercial hit was the variety in the gameplay. Fatality was one of the major features that actually sets Mortal Kombat apart from other fighting games. Beheading your opponent, slicing them into pieces or throwing them into spikes became the norm for future Mortal Kombat games as well. Even though they were very violent, it did manage to get our adrenaline levels high.

“Those were 500 dollar sunglasses you a*******”

This one has to be the craziest moment in Mortal Kombat. First of all, Goro destroys Cage’s sun glasses. Johnny Cage than humiliates Goro with a punch in the…you know what. After that- Cage’s words are embedded in to history forever. Have a look.

Sub Zero unmasked

A lot of questions were raised on how Sub-Zero looked in the game, but without a mask. Midway finally heard the fan’s request and hence unveiled an unmasked and badass Sub-zero in Mortal Kombat 3. Not only that, new armor was also given which showed that Sub-Zero was pretty much ripped. Better yet, the red mark on one of eyes was the icing on the cake.

Animality

One of the coolest features that came along with Fatality was the ability to transform the warriors in to animals. For example Liu Kang will transform into a Dragon or Shang Tsung into a snake. See the video below to see some of the animalities:

Get Over Here!!!

Voiced by Ed Boon himself, “Get Over here!” is a phrase that is used by Scorpion when he released his spear from the palm of his hand. Scorpion would not have been Scorpion without those famous words.

Mortal Kombat Conquest: Scorpion versus Sub Zero

We all know the intense rivalry between Scorpion and Sub Zero. Sub Zero always alleged that Scorpion killed his sister and hence wanted revenge. This is the final battle between the two in Mortal Kombat: Conquest. Have a look, its badass!