Mortal Kombat, Yakuza 3, and a broken Xbox.

So yeah. In better news, I finished Yakuza 3. That game is pretty awesome. If you want a more detailed description of what I think, go here, where I wrote my early impressions. They're fairly accurate, except that the Japanese voice acting really grew on me over the 60 hours I spent with the game. If you haven't played it, stop reading this and go buy it. It's about $20 on Amazon, and worth every penny. 

I also got a kopy of Mortal Kombat, beat the story mode, played through 180-something of the challenges, played with a kouple of friends, and got three Toasties (today). To sum up my thoughts quickly, I love the game. But here's something long and probably rambling:

The first thing I noticed about MK is how good the game looks. The kombatants are super detailed (and take damage in real time as fights progress), the environments are very detailed with lots of goofy things in the background (like billboards for Netherrealm Studioes and WB), the framerate is super smooth, and it runs in 1080P. The end result is a game that looks great, especially when kharacters are being ripped into pieces (literally, the fatalities are excellent). 

And the story mode! I'm sure at this point everyone knows MK has a story mode, but as someone who doesn't play games online very much (especially with a broken Xbox and a non-functioning PSN) a great story mode in a fighting game is a god-send. It's not perfect, because you can see the "seems" when it transitions from kutscene to gameplay, but the simple fact that it has full-motion kutscenes komplete with voice acting is astounding. Especially since it's pretty well done. I won't spoil anything, but I'll just say that it's worth playing through, even if you aren't a long time fan of the series (and I wasn't). 

But as one might guess, the most important aspect of any game is the gameplay. And this is where MK delivers the most. It's simple enough that any idiot can pick up a kontroller and beat up dudes, but it's got enough depth that there are videos online of people doing really krazy stuff that boggles my mind. But more importantly than all that, it's fun. There's nothing quite like playing Test Your Luck against a friend, when he loses the ability to use dash, jump, and use special moves, but ends up winning because he got quick uppercuts, and I was playing as a kharacter without a regular projectile attack.

I've also heard that there's some sort of "online" mode in this game, but since I have the PS3 version (because Kratos is a slick kharacter, and the God of War level has THREE stage fatalities), I haven't been able to try that. I hear it's quite fun though.

Also, the game has a ton of other stuff. It's got a regular arcade ladder mode, and the endings are even narrated (which is more than I can say for another recent fighting game). And most of these things give you Koins, which kan be used to unlock kontent in the Krypt. Most of the stuff there is dumb stuff like koncept art, but you can also see the kombos for secret fatalities, or unlock hidden kostumes. Then there's the challenge tower, which has 300 challenges, ranging from lessons on how to do specific kharacter's special moves, to minigames like Test Your Might, to super hard fights against the game's bosses. Speaking of which...

I'm not going to beat around the bush, the boss fights in this game are not very fun. At least not on the default difficulty (Medium and there are five total). They're cheap. They have special moves that do over 50% damage. One attack that kan take off over half your health bar. That doesn't seem too fair to me. And even beyond that, their regular attacks to tons of damage, and half the time they don't even flinch when you hit them (I mean that literally, as in I do an uppercut, but they don't fly up in the air). 

And it's not just the bosses, there are numerous times in the story mode when there's a 1 on 2 match, with the AI having two dudes. And there's one part where you need to beat three kombatants without the healthbar refilling between rounds (and then it happens a second time right after). And these fights feel pretty cheap too, especially since you kan't select who you play as, meaning you may have to play as someone you don't like. 

But despite these shortcomings, the game is still excellent. If you like fighting games, you kan't do much better than this. It's the type of game that appeals to long time fans, and to new guys like me. 

Plus, you kan encourage throws. There's nothing like being komplemented for throwing a foe. 

And you can see Dan Forden in HD. There is a piece of toast on his t-shirt. A Toast Tee, in other words. 

So that's about it. I'll make sure and keep you guys updated on the Xbox situation. Otherwise, I won't be beating Dead Rising, or S-Ranking Deadly Premonition (or re-S-Ranking Mass Effect 2). And if/when the PSN is back up, my PSN name is JusticeMoose. I'll play all komers in MK, and probably lose to most of them. Or maybe smoke them. People who play the game will know what I mean.