Monk-eying around with Mortal Kombat

You'd be forgiven for wondering just what Midway thinks it's playing at, releasing an adventure-orientated Mortal Kombat spin-off, so soon after Mortal Kombat: Deception finally managed to grapple back some serious, and much-needed, respect from the beat 'em up community. The last time the company tried a similar trick, with really-not-very-good Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero, the franchise almost threatened to implode with embarrassment.

The first thing we saw of Midway's Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, was series regular, Kung Lao, flinging his hat at an unsuspecting lacky, sending its bonce flying ten feet into the air on a geyser of blood. It's hard to stay cynical in the face of comedy dismemberment, which is probably a good thing. You see, against all expectation, Shaolin Monks is actually looking very promising indeed.

DOUBLE TROUBLE
The game sees the razor-hatted Kung Lao join forces with another MK favourite, Liu Kang, in what plays something like Mortal Kombat meets Prince of Persia. Rather than a straight-forward fighting sequel to Deception, Midway's taken two of the franchise's biggest characters and plonked them, along with the game's combat engine, into an splatter-tastic action romp.

Basically, your goal is to travel from room to room, decimating an endless stream of butt-ugly brutes in a bid to reach a slightly bigger, uglier bad-ass boss at the end of the level. Although the game does feature some lightweight puzzle and exploration elements, the emphasis is definitely on administering some brutal beatings and, unsurprisingly, it's the combat element that producer Shaun Himmerick is most keen to show off.

Alongside the two playable characters' complete move sets from the original games, developer Paradox has added a host of new abilities, all seamlessly integrated into Shaolin Monk's multi-directional combat engine: Liu Kang's classic fireball, upper cut, flying kick and bicycle kick moves, and Kung Lau's hat throw, spin and teleport attacks, are now joined by special grapple moves and aerial abilities, all upgradeable using experience points you'll rack up during play.

Grapple moves are generally used to chuck enemies around the environments while aerial combat lets you pull off some fancy tricks like slinging would-be assailants into the sky then leaping up to continue piling on the pummelling before either of you rejoin the ground. Of course, in the finest MK tradition, it's possible to combine your arsenal of abilities and do things like hop onto the shoulders of marauding monsters, then use a well-aimed kick to the face to launch higher still and reach previously inaccessible places.

FIGHTS, STAMINA... ACTION!
In fact, despite the game's adventure elements, including new wall-running, climbing and swing moves, combat plays such a huge role that many of the puzzles can only be solved through judicious use of violence. The idea behind this, according to Himmerick, is to avoid the passive nature of most puzzles in other games and give a real visceral thrill when gamers encounter a solution. We saw a whole host of examples in action: in one part of the game, the only way to progress passed a sea of salivating serpents is to wrench up your opponents and sling them straight into the snakes' gullets, until they're satiated. Another of our favourites was a sequence where the deadly duo launched oncoming combatants over the edge of a platform into huge whirring blades - the goal to shatter the blades under all that bodily butchering and reach the lower levels of the dungeon.

In fact, interactive environments play a huge part in bringing the game world to life, with areas including all sorts of breakable bits alongside spikes to skewer your opponents, man-eating trees and catapults - what's more, from our brief playtime with the game, it's evident that all these extra opportunities for malicious maiming add a significant amount of depth to the already impressive fighting focus.

MORE-TAL KOMBAT
If all that wasn't enough, Himmerick demonstrated even more brand-new additions to the MK series. Of these, our favourite was definitely the introduction of weapons: you'll find all sorts of things lying around areas that can be used to satisfy your bloodlust. Whether you're using rapid-fire items such as Nunchukks or heavier blades, capable of slicing an opponent in two with one swift flick, all weapons are integrated straight into the combat engine. You're still able to pull off all your usual moves while your hands are full, but with the added advantage of having a bloody great blade to sink into oncoming skulls.

Perhaps most impressive of all, the entire single-player game can be played with a friend in tow, through Shaolin Monk's co-op mode. It's obvious that co-op is far more than an after thought too - players can work in tandem, pulling off all manner of fancy combos like tossing opponents into the air, ready to be caught and clobbered by their team mate. You'll even find a ton of secret areas only accessible playing as a duo.

At this stage, the whole package is looking very encouraging, with a surprising amounts of depth promised behind the frantic, claret-drenched arcade action. Our initial run through of the game only left us with a few concerns - namely that visually, the whole looks a bit lacklustre, and more troublingly, the almost constant focus on combat started to feel a little repetitive by the time we'd reached the first boss. However, the demo we played was from an extremely early part of the game - the emphasis was clearly on teaching players the basic of fighting while more complex combos and features were kept firmly out of the picture.

Look out for more on Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks as it's September PS2 and Xbox launch draws nearer. In the meantime, check out the skull-shattering new shots on this page.

Matt Wales