My first impression of the new Mortal Kombat game was a pretty positive one. What was a stale franchise literally took a step back by changing from a 3D arena back to a 2D arena and also removed more “modern” features of the series. However, the changes resulting from going back to the basics, as well as some new innovations, have re-vitalized the franchise, and I think Mortal Kombat can arguably be one of the best fighting games on the market today.

As can be seen by the name of the game itself (going by simply “Mortal Kombat” rather than “Mortal Kombat IX, which it technically is), Mortal Kombat is a throwback to the founding games in the franchise. The roster encompasses most of the fighters from Mortal Kombat I-III, as well as a few other characters from later games, as well as the PS3-exclusive Kratos (twenty-seven fighters on 360, twenty-eight on PS3.) Also making a return are the stages themselves, as most of the stages are a re-imagining of previous ones, such as Goro’s Lair and The Pit. The return to a side-scrolling 2D fighter is a good change, and playing the game feels as if you’re on your Genesis in the 90s, only with incredible graphics and a lot more blood and gore. Each character can perform two finishers as well as stage finishers (see knocking opponents into The Pit) and babalities. Sadly the friendships and animalities did not make a return, but what does make a comeback is pure win.

There is also plenty of new stuff added to the combat mechanics this time round that really enhances the game. Right off the bat you will notice a bar in the lower corner of the screen which is called the X-Ray Meter. As you dish out damage (and receive it), this bar will increase. The bar is broken into three sections. You can use one section to enhance one of your special moves. For example, a projectile attack may have extra projectiles or fire at a larger radius, and teleportation attacks may add in an additional move. If you have two bars filled up, you can execute a “breaker”, which basically interrupts an opponents combo attack and deals a little damage to them as well. Once you have all three bars filled up you can execute the all-new “x-ray attack”. The problem with an x-ray attack is that it takes awhile to build up three bars, and it can be blocked or avoided. However, if you do land it, it tends to take away 30-35% of your opponents max health away, meaning if you diminished your opponent’s health bar by two-thirds, chances are pulling off an x-ray attack will either finish them off or have them very close to the end.

What this devastating move does is slow-down time and has your character perform a series of bone-crushing and organ-smashing moves on your opponent. Your opponent is shown via an x-ray view, so you can actually see bones break and organs rupture. For example, Kano will shove his knives into an opponents legs, and you see the blades shatter the leg bones, and SubZero will reach in, grab an organ, and freeze it. It’s a really neat feature, and feels right at home in the Mortal Kombat franchise.

As you win matches and decimiate your opponents, you gain “Koins”, which can be spent at the Krypt to unlock tons of things for the game. A lot of it is the basic concept art and alternate attires, but you can also unlock additional finishers for each fighter, as well as special codes which can be entered in versus modes (online and off) to vary the match. Some of the codes make you fight upside down or cancel blocking or jumping actions. There are also two trophies linked to the Krypt, so you will be playing through many matches to collect all those Koins.

Some other new aspects to the game are the game modes themselves. Though I haven’t checked out the online yet due to the PSN outage, there are apparently various online modes, including singles, tag team, and “King of the Hill.” Oh, and yeah, there are now tag team matches in Mortal Kombat. Two online buddies can get together and challenge two other online opponents in tag matches that play similarly to matches in Marvel vs. Capcom. Or in case your more of a couch co-op guy, you and a local buddy can sit down and take on the AI in a tag team arcade ladder tier. Each team can have a max of two fighters, and hitting L1 will allow you to tag your partner in. If your X-Ray meter has one bar filled, you can either execute a special tag-in where your partner will perform a special attack before coming in, or you can simply call your partner to perform one special move and then jump away, both a la Marvel vs. Capcom.

Aside from the traditional arcade ladder and the new tag team ladder, the other big game mode is the Challenge Tower. There are 300 challenges to complete, which range from simple “defeat this opponent” to “perform x amount of x move in x amount of time.” For the combat challenges, most of them have some sort of odd stipulation that makes it a little challenging and different. There is one where you play as SubZero and can only attack by throwing your body parts, another where you can only do special moves, and another where you don’t have your arms, so you can only do kicking attacks.

Also on the Challenge Tower are little breaks with mini games, including “Test Your Might”, “Test Your Strike”, “Test Your Sight”, and “Test Your Luck.”  By completing a round of one of these mini games, you will unlock that mini game from the main menu, so it can be played at any time. Test Your Might is a return of the classic, where you build up your power and then execute a strike once you have surpassed the bar. Test Your Strike is a variant of Test Your Might, where you have to maintain a certain level of strike before you can execute it. Test Your Sight is like three-card monty, where there is a eyeball under a x number of skulls, and you have to keep your eye on the skull with the eye as the skulls all get shifted around. Test Your Luck is a bit different, as a slot machine appears on screen and activating it determines what kind of match you will have. The first column determines your opponent, and the other two slots select which random boosts your opponent will have.

The last mode the game offers is a story mode, which I fell in love with instantly. Without giving too much away, the story mode follows the general story of the MK I-III games, a story which was more clearly represented in the Mortal Kombat movie. There are eighteen chapters, and each one has you control one character and follow his adventure through the tournament and Outworld as they attempt to stop Shao Khan’s attempt to merge Outworld with Earthrealm. The various matches are divided up my top-notch movies with superb graphics AND voice-acting, a combination which is not always easy to find in the video game world. The story mode was the first thing I tackled in the game, and it took several hours to work my way through. It was definitely an enjoyable experience, and really got me excited for the rest of the game.

There are plenty of good things to say about the revamped Mortal Kombat. The last romp, Mortal Kombat vs. DC, was incredibly lame and I felt it really pushed the series back. However, it bounced back with the current game, and it was a blast to play through. The return to a simple 2D fighter that uses blood, gore, and violence as its selling point is refreshing to see, and it really did succeed in resurrecting the series and bringing it back to its former glory. If you were ever a fan of Mortal Kombat at ANY time, then this game is a must-have…it will send you tripping back to the 90s and relieve those glory days of sitting at home or at the arcade and making your opponent bleed and staring in awe at the gruesome and over-the-top violent fatalities.

Yes, it’s true…there is a novel out for God of War, which is based on the first game. Being a huge God of War fan I had it pre-ordered, and I read it during my down time on the honeymoon. I was a bit skeptical at how the author would tackle turning an action game into a good read, but I was pleased with the results.

The book follows the action of the game very closely. All the puzzles that you must battle your way through, the enemies you must dispatch, the events that occur in the game…it’s all in the book. It was a bit tough to read at certain parts, especially the three-page sections devoted to a single trap or puzzle that I already knew about from playing the game. So some parts of the book did drag on in this respect.

However, the additional information in the book goes a long way to really laying out the storyline of the series. For example, there are whole chapters which are dedicated to the gods as they watch over Kratos’ quest. I got a lot out of the book, and it really made the game make more sense to me. For example, it explains in a way why Ares is attacking Athens in the first place, gives you some background mythology on the gods themselves, and also a lot of the backstory to Kratos. I loved the game, but there was only so much that was explained. This book really does a great job in filling in some plot holes and giving the reader additional information that is absent from the game.

The book is clearly a must-read for any fan of the series. But I will warn you: if you didn’t play the first game, or even if you played it and didn’t like it, then avoid the book. While the additional details are great, you will need to wade through the entire game all over again by reading it instead of playing it, and it’s not as fun. Personally, I really enjoyed it, and I hope that the author is working on books for the other games in the series as well, so that the story of Kratos can continue to be fleshed out.

I just have to say that the minute you pop the game in, you are pretty much blown away. The game starts with the credits rolling against animations of the two previous games, bring you up to speed and refreshing your memory of the stuff that went down in the previous installments. Then the fun begins.

The game picks up right where God of War II leaves off…Kratos is riding the titan Gaia as they scale Mt. Olympus to wage war on and kill Zeus and the other gods. The game is full of plenty of cut scenes to really get into the story, and most of the first stage deals with Kratos fending off an attack by Poseidon, who takes on the from of a man/water horse/crab creature. The level design is amazing as Kratos jumps between Gaia and Mt. Olympus as he tries to save the titan from the god. The boss battle with Poseidon is huge…not only is Poseidon’s form large in scale, but it is spread out across the level, meaning you will fight him for a bit, he will retreat, and you will chase him down to his new location. As you run through the level you are reacquainted with Kratos’ move set, and also get to kill some minions.

Like in the other games in the series, once you wear down a boss (or any larger monster), you will be able to grapple it, and then proceed with the mini game in which you have to match the on-screen buttons to give the enemy the final blow. The game took a totally awesome turn when, after defeating Poseidon’s monster, Kratos lunged through him, grabbed his “human” form, and tackled him to Mt. Olympus. What follows is a massive button-matching battle, in which Kratos pretty much punches the crap out of Poseidon, but the player does it from Poseidons point of view, so all you see is fist, rock, and ground meeting the screen. Oh yeah, and plenty of blood! In the end, Kratos pretty much breaks Poseidon’s neck and tosses him off Mt. Olympus. It was pretty sweet.

It’s about this time that Kratos catches up to Zeus. Like the previous game, you begin God of War III maxed out, with max health, magic, and weapon upgrades, which makes the game more realistic (as in he is in the same condition as he was in previous games.) But what’s the fun in playing a game entirely through as a badass immortal? So once again, Zeus goes to town on Kratos, and dumps him into the River Styx. As Kratos floats to shore, the souls of the dead feed off him, draining his power, so by the time you land in Hades, you are basically at level one. I like this a lot, because it goes to show how much thought the developers put into the series’ story. Sure, it’s a blast to enjoy all the eye-candy and monster killing, but one of my favorite aspects of God of War is the basic story rooted in Greek mythology.

So that’s how the game begins. I know I don’t usually go into detail like that, but I couldn’t help it…the game hooked me that much early on. The gameplay is pretty similar to the older games, but there are new abilities and moves that Kratos can perform (such as grappling certain monsters and riding them.) The first hour or so I put into it has been awesome, and I can’t wait to see how the rest of the game pans out. Will Kratos get his revenge and kill Zeus? Damned if I know, but seeing how Poseidon, Ares, and Athena are dead (as far as the game goes), I’m sure that the other gods introduced (Zeus, Apollo, Hephastus, and Hermes) will most likely follow a similar fate. Only time will tell.

Gamestop finally delivered, and I received my copy of God of War III in the mail today. While it only cost be about $4.00 (I had $50 in giftcards, and then $10 free coupon for complaining to them, and then free shipping- only had to pay tax), it was still annoying to have to wait four days for it’s delivery. But now it is here, and I can’t wait to rip Zeus’ head off and toss it off Mt. Olympus!!!

It has finally come…March 16th is just around the corner, meaning that in a few mere days God of War III will be making it’s way to my house (I pre-ordered it from Gamestop.) I really have no idea what to expect. I have been avoiding reading up on the game, ignoring any review or article I see about it in magazines or online. I have also boycotted the demo and have not touched it, since I did not want to go into the game with any misconceptions based on anything that was not the final version of the game. God of War III is definitely one of my most-anticipated sequels, and would only be overshadowed by the release of a Kingdom Hearts 3 on the PS3.

Once I receive the game, you know darn well that all other games will be stepping aside for the time being, and all my gaming time will be solely devoted to the masterpiece which is GoW III.