Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks

Shaolin Monks takes the 2d fighting franchise and makes a 3d action adventure spin off. The most suitable comparison being Devil May Cry or God of War, but this title does have a few unique bones in its body.

Unfortunatly, its not a very good game. For starters the story is completly dumb and its hard to take any of this serious. The same could be said about the plot of the fighting games, but in there its excusable as it tends to be brief and complements the silly setting. In here they really take it seriously, the exposition scenes drag on for too long and the campiness is not enjoyable at all.

I could forgive the story if i could get fully behind the gameplay, but its nothing more than mediocre. They tried to implant a simplified combat system of the games into the 3d environments, but it has a lot of problems when it comes to enemy lock on, big enemy health bars and annoying enemies. Its just not half as fun as it should be to play, and part of this is due to the very limited weapons at your disposal. The level design is mostly very linear, with a couple of backtracking sections and light puzzles. These are a bit of drag to get through as the game loads in every single scene transition. I found the boss fights to be the highlights of the game, as these were actually a bit more challenging, but at the same time they could also be annoying because of the lock on system.

It also has a tendency to throw switches at you that require to button mash like crazy, and these are never enjoyable.

There is still some good things about this game. The sound design never failed to entertain me, it has a couple of well placed secrets and the fatalities are also a plus. The combat system can really be enjoyable when it works. That said, its a game that should have been much better than it is.