Mortal Kombat X

I've always been terrible at fighting games. I know this, all of my friends I play against know this. Why i thought it would be a good idea to buy MKX, I have no idea. It was an impulse buy while I was in Target one night with my fiance' and her cousin. Now that I've had it for just over a week, and have had a chance to sit down and actually play it pretty extensively, I am no longer terrible. Now i'm just bad.

With all of that being said, I have thoroughly enjoyed this game so far. It is deliciously brutal. All of the fatalities I have seen are completely ridiculous and over-the-top. Kicking a guys head off, and then shooting 3 arrows through it before it lands on the ground. What? Spitting acid on ones head so all the skin burns off, and them splitting the skull in two? Completely ridiculous.

What I have loved about this game so far is how easy it has been to learn how to play. Most of the combo's you can do don't require a lot of memorization to make you feel like you're kicking total ass. I can successfully beat the story mode from start to finish on hard mode, and Prior to MKX the last fighting game I played was 15 minutes of Super Smash Bros, a month ago. I haven't owned a fighting game since Mortal Kombat on Sega, so this is all very new to me.

Speaking strictly on the one-player modes that I have participated in (Beating the story, Kombat Towers, and Challenge Towers), I really enjoy playing this game. The different single player modes at least give me enough of a variety that I don't feel like I need to play anything else at the moment. That is a good thing, considering i'd be getting my ass handed to me online by Scorpion (who is apparently a far and away fan favorite).With that being said, Lets move on to the complaints.

I'd like to see more characters added THAT YOU DON'T HAVE TO PAY FOR, but that's the day and age we live in now. The Krypt is annoying as hell. I like that there are a ton of unlockables, but I hate having to waste my time running through a krypt in first person to unlock them. Some of the characters seem pretty bland in comparison to their older counterparts. Jax's Daughter Jacqueline, Sonya and Johnny Cages Daughter, Cassie Cage. Kenshi's Son, Takashi Takeda. all 3 are new characters that are introduced, and all of them were boring for me. I do like Kung-Jin (Descendant of Kung-Lao), though. Maybe its the fact that he uses a bow and arrow as his weapon of choice, or maybe it's that he was the character that I finally became decent with. I dunno, but I liked him. His fatalities are brutal, but they don't seem to be nearly as over the top as some of the others.

All of the staple characters are still there, for the most part. Lui Kang, Kung Lao, Johnny Cage, SOnya Blade, Kano, Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Reptial, Raiden, Kitanna, Melina, and a few others. The random characters from previous games are missing, however. Cyrax being one of my favorites from back in the day, he's gone. Smoke isn't currently available. Rain is IN the story mode, but isn't playable yet either. I imagine they'll be added later as part of Paid DLC. I know for sure Goro can be purchased, as well as Predator (seriously, wtf?), and a few others.

With all of the complaints and praise written above, I feel like I have gotten my money out of it already. I know, however, that I have only explored roughly a fraction of what the game has to offer and that makes me happy with the purchase. I'd rate it a solid 8 out of 10, even with my gripes of the DLC.

Parenting Disclaimer: #1, you CAN play this while taking care of an infant because it has a pause function for fights as well as cut scenes in story mode. #2 this is NOT a video game for children. It is VERY gross at times and will most definitely cause some nightmares if you aren't careful with young ones.