At one time, Mortal Kombat was almost a household name – one despised by mothers of all kinds – all thanks to its at-the-time outrageously over-the-top blood, violence and gore. Before Grand Theft Auto came along, ripping a guy’s spine out of his still-standing body was considered violent – hell, it still is if you think about it. But, somehow, the world began to see past the cheap thrills Mortal Kombat offered and moved on.

Here we are, over a decade after the original’s release, and it seems the world just doesn’t care anymore. The game’s publisher, Midway, didn’t impress with its rinse-and-repeat overabundance of less-than-stellar Mortal Kombats in the last 10 years. Still, it tries and tries again to capture the attention of gamers.

Mortal Kombat: Armageddon for Wii is not a built-from-the-ground-up game for Nintendo’s hotly popular home console. Rather, it’s a Wii-make (or enhanced port) of the Xbox and PlayStation 2 title by the same name, which released just last Christmas. If you played the game on either platform, move along: there’s not a whole lot to see here – unless, of course, you’re a diehard Mortal Kombat fan that spells every word imaginable with a “K.”

If you’re still reading: good. Mortal Kombat: Armageddon on paper sounds like a disappointment, but in reality, it’s a surprisingly well-done 3D fighter that delivers nostalgic, gory fun with re-designed controls that take advantage of the Wii’s motion sensing. Controls are far from perfect here, but Midway has nonetheless concocted an adequate control configuration. Unfortunately, the game is right out of the gate wounded by an inherent flaw with the Wii-mote: a lack of buttons, thus punches and kicks are mapped to the less-satisfying D-pad. We can’t offer ideas of a better control scheme, but we can honestly report that the use of the D-pad is not ideal. Button presses feel better when it comes to Mortal Kombat – bottom line; it’s not debatable.

The special part about Armageddon’s controls lies in special moves. While past games assigned these powers – shooting ice with Sub-Zero, teleporting with Sektor – to easily forgotten button combinations, Midway’s new approach utilizes the Wii-mote’s motion controls, requiring you to draw in the air different shapes to trigger these powers. For example, to shoot ice with Sub Zero, you draw in the air left to right the bottom half of a circle. Usually, the setup works exceptionally, but there are instances where the remote fails to recognize your motions, resulting in pure frustration.

Thankfully, you can plug in the Classic Controller or GameCube controller and enjoy the traditional game pad configuration, which reverts to button presses. More often than not, you won’t feel annoyed enough to want to do this, but there are still moments where the ten-year-old control scheme sounds like a better idea.

Armageddon is impressively flooded with over 60 Mortal Kombat characters. Some characters, such as Scorpio, have retained their original look, however, others have newly designed outfits, costumes and appearances. Sadly, a lot of these changes aren’t for the better, as the new look for some returning characters is a big step backwards; their new apparel is forgettable and less likable, overall. Other than motion controls, the only other exclusive content in the Wii version of the game is an extra character named Khameleon, but she’s nothing to write home about.


Although there’s an army of characters to choose from, few are particularly exciting to actually play as. Punches and kicks don’t feel as fluid or as fast as we like. Instead, they feel almost sluggish and stiff at times – disappointing.

You can always create your own fighter with the new Kreate a Fighter mode, in which you do exactly what it sounds like: customize a character from the ground-up, specifying his or her fighting style, look, gender, special moves, even his or her biography and much, much more. The mode offers a satisfying amount of options that Mortal Kombat geeks will love getting lost in.