I’ll hold him you grab his wallet, dawg!!

This past weekend, on a break from a self-imposed “24″ marathon, my girlfriend and I decided to fire up a game. This left the eternal question, “What to play?”. Do we go back to the old standby of World of Warcraft? Lots of fun for each of us but not really a “together” experience…not while we’re separated by 16 levels, anyways. How about a little Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory co-op? Certainly fun and challenging, but just a little too slow-paced and methodical…not what we were in the mood for. Hmmmmm….Fast-paced action in a co-op title with an easy enough learning curve that we’d be having fun within 5 minutes?

Enter Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks.

For those unfamiliar, the newest game in the longstanding Mortal Kombat series deviates from the tournament-style fighting game format by taking it to the streets. This is not the first time Midway has tried to do something different with the rich characters and backstory they’ve developed, and not even the first time they’ve tried to move it into a Double Dragon street fighting style game. It is, however, the first time they’ve been able to pull it off because this game kicks a whole lot of ass. The story takes place somewhere in the transition between Mortal Kombat I & II, which holds the distinction of being rich in mythology without being as convoluted as later editions became. You can play as either of the two Shaolin monk characters, Liu Kang or Kung Lao, and while they aren’t the most interesting of choices, it does present a good framework for the story and allow the more “unique” characters such as the various ninjas, mutants, and sorcerors to float in and out of the story as NPC’s or boss characters to fight. The environments are all extrapolated from the levels you used to fight on back in MKI & II as well, which further adds to the authenticity and joy.

What begins as a simple button-masher quickly evolves into a game that lets you take advantage of precision combos, extensive juggling, and special moves to maximize your XP, but does not require it. You gain XP when you kill enemies, and your bonus is proportional to how you killed them. Those points can then be used to purchase upgrades to your special moves and new combos. Nothing particularly new or innovative about that, but in all honesty who cares? Within the first half hour of gameplay I’d managed to execute a 152-hit combo! How can you compete with that?!?! Throw in Fatalities, Multalities, Brutalities, cooperative moves that involve a Simon-style mini-game, and environmental hazards such as spikes and catapults for instant kills. Not enough for you? There’s a veritable cornucopia of secrets to find and unlock, such as concept art, additional characters you can use to play through the game again, and extra arenas for a VS. mode that utilizes the new controls in an old-school match.

I honestly can’t wait to spend more time double-teaming this game…perhaps this weekend if we have the time. “The couple that slays together, stays together”, as they always say. I do have one caveat to add to this story. The game is good enough so far to warrant a rating of BUY, however due to the business practices of Midway which have recently come to light, I am going to drop the score to a firm recommendation of BORROW and/or STEAL. Do not pay money for this quality product, because I can’t think of a company that is less-deserving of your hard-earned cash.

Well, except maybe Infinium Labs (fucking clowns).