🚀 go-pugleaf

Hey,

I just checked out the group and it's likely that somebody has
already scanned up the June 2002 EGM blurb for Mortal Kombat:
Deadly Alliance, but...

I think there are a few thing in the blurb that bear repeating
anyway, and besides....not all of us can download the thing.  :)

The Good News:

--The Run button is *history*, and has left the building according
to the programmers.

--The tone of the game is supposed to be darker and more serious, like
the first two games...so no Babalities, Friendships, or silly stuff.

--*Somebody* at Midway is trying, apparently, to add some *depth* to
the hand-to-hand action, through the use of *different fighting styles*.
It would seem that each character is *proficient* at one style and able
to switch to some others on the fly during the fight (in mid-combo even).
Of course, the game screens (which are still early) spoon-feed you the
idea by having the character's current style displayed at the bottom
of the screen, but still....the possibility of adding *more* to the 
normal moves list of Mortal Kombat is *good* news.

--Weapons, both hand-to-hand ones (which are treated as separate styles),
and tossables (like skulls and such) will be in the game, as they were
in MK4.

--Some stages will be multi-leveled, as they were in MK3, presumably
with walls, floors and ceilings you can knock opponents through.

--The game is only 50% done and a few of the character renders actually
look *nice*: Kung Lao, and the Blind Kenshi.

The Bad News:

--The initial character count is at 24 characters, which means that a
*lot* of both character cloning (one ninja for evey color of the rainbow,
for instance) and/or style cloning is likely.

--So far it seems that there are no new bosses.  The Deadly Alliance in
the game is between Shang Tsung and Quan Chi.

--Mint-Zero, ermm....a female Sub-Zero character is in the game. ;) 
Which means they *can't* make the male Sub-Zero hit like a *girl* anymore.
Game balance is at risk.  :">

--Some of the character models still look dorky (Jax?  Shang Tsung?).

--Ed Boon and company are promising us full-3-D again.  I don't know
whether I should root for them in terms of having them deliver on that
promise or not....

--And the Biggest Bad News of all:  No indication that MK:DA is going to
hit the arcades, where people can play the thing with a *REAL* controller.
Sony's standard digital Four Chiclets of Death bug the piss out of me...
it's possibly the *worst* single example of a crappy standard issue
controller I've ever seen (a $200 system deserves *better*, I don't care
if it *is* a DVD player).  Which means no MK for me this time out ;_( .
It's a shame too....the only modern fighting game in the arcades where
I live is Tekken or Marvel Vs. Crap.  I am sick to *death* of random
button-mashing bullshit that *looks* pretty and yet is broken with 
regard to either certain characters in two-player or certain new game
features.

I'd rather see VF4 hit the arcades, truth be told, but if the new
Mortal Kombat actually *brings* some gameplay this time like it might,
I'd gladly drop my quarters in one.  But I digress...

The Truly Ugly News:

--Jax's robo-arms.  Why not just put him in a Goro-shaped Mecha and be
**done** with it already?

--Cyrax is back.  'Nuff Said.

--No projectiles in the early screens.  It would be our luck that Boon
and company would try *so hard* this time to get the hand-to-hand done
right, only to have the tossed-in-at-the-last-freakin'-minute projectiles
*ruin* the game.

--Did I already mention that MK:DA isn't headed to the arcades, and that
it's coming out on the one system with a total piece of shit controller...
ooops, I already did, sorry.

Well, that's it for me...my apologies if this is all old news, but it
was new to *me* and it might still be new to some folks who couldn't
download the scanned stuff online.  And the point that somebody at 
*Midway* is sweating the hand-to-hand Kombat this time *bears* repeating.

Thanks for listening,

Brad Poe

P.S. Yep, I *am* better at Virtua Fighter than I am at MK...but I'll
be the *first and ONLY* one to admit that Sega owes Midway big time,
for using a tap-and-chord engine to get VF started.  Whose idea was that?
Boon and Tobias's.  :)

P.P.S.  Yeah, that's a Vamp Savior misquote below....it's an old game,
and I'm *normally* better at 3-D than 2-D, but since Tekken Tag came out,
and the local arcades stopped carrying much else *besides* Tekken and
Versus Crap, I've been *totally* frustrated and pissed off at the random
button-mashing nonsense that gets passed off as gameplay these days.
I've got to get my *gameplay* fix somewhere, even if it means putting
up with *old* sprites.

Quote from Baby Bonnie Hood (aka Bulleta), Big Bad Wolf
Attack Victim and enthusiastic Supporter of the Right to Bear
Arms:  "I'll be nice and happy after I kill everything in
this world."