Mortal Kombat Review, Part 2: The Ugly

Welcome to the second (and last) part of my review of Mortal Kombat. This is my second time writing an "Ugly" part of any review. Basically what The Ugly is is my attempt at transparency. Sometimes I feel that I have a very unique reaction to certain pieces of media, and that an explanation is necessary for the reaction that I have. I don't really write this for anyone else's sake but my own, since it allows me to explore my own twisted little psyche and come to grips with myself. Not all of The Ugly reviews will be unpleasant, but most of them are related to unpleasant things in my own life, so most of them will be rather intense.

Without further ado...

Most of my reasons for playing Mortal Kombat stem from my short time as an amateur Thai boxer, which are recorded in the previous The Ugly. Muay Thai is a very brutal sport, as I put up in the other review. But at the same time it's a very intimate sport. You learn a lot about someone by hitting them as hard you can and having the favor reciprocated. You learn how much someone wants to win something in the face of adversity, you learn how much they want to defend themselves, whether they're go-getters or not, things that you wouldn't know in quite the same way.

Anyway, the events that I had discussed from the last post had put me in a situation, where I didn't get to see people very often. I took the opportunity to hide from the world and brood. Since I was homeschooled it wasn't very difficult to do that. Without Muay Thai I started to feel lonely and wanted to hit people. When I was around people I became a bit...overzealous in my rough housing. As I approached 16, however, I noticed a funny thing: when I rough-housed with people I hurt them! I wasn't out to actually hurt these new people, so I stopped touching people as much as I could, unsure of what to do. At about this point my dad enrolled me in a college. He did this for a few reasons: he worked there (free tuition), he couldn't teach me writing (I didn't like his teaching methods), and he couldn't teach me art. Well, to college I went! And, deep in the student's lounge, I found this:

I'd played Mortal Kombat when I was a kid, so I was intrigued. I remember being scared of Raiden and finding that the only character I was truly good with was Sub-Zero, because it could stop other people in their tracks and hurt them. So I started playing. I'm not going to say that it was a good game (Mortal Kombat 4 is most definitely not), or that it was actually enlightening to play, but I couldn't stop. It was bloody, the sound effects were just ridiculous to remind me of reality, and  the hits looked like they hurt.

In essence, it reminded me of Muay Thai, in all its messy glory.

Basically all I did those days was go to school, draw, and play Mortal Kombat. I didn't really see that many people during that time, which allowed for the brooding to worsen. I started screaming and fighting in my sleep, pounding the walls and waking my parents up several times a week. I withdrew further from people, forgetting the good times I had as a child and remembering all the awful things that had been done to and by me.  My drawings grew darker, and my parents grew more and more worried. But I kept playing. And one day I couldn't stand not moving anymore.

I left the Student Lounge one day, and stood behind the college, staring at the trees behind the dorms. Despite doing everything that I could remember as good I felt more alone than ever, and I'd had enough. I started practicing my katas in the back alley. I'm not sure why I did, but it felt good. But I found it felt better when I screamed at each hit. I moved and whirled about, screaming my confusion and loneliness out through my fists, feet, knees, and elbow. Tears started to stream from my eyes, and as I was about to start over on my katas, someone tapped me on the shoulder. Startled, I turned around. There was a security guard.

"Hey man, what are you doing out here this time of night? I've got some noise complaints, people thinking a fight's going on out here. Everything OK?"

I realized I was still behind the dorms. I blushed and quickly explained that I just needed to blow off some steam, and that no one was fighting me. The security guard asked me to show me some moves, and I performed a few katas for him (with significantly less volume). He critiqued me, told me I had serious potential, and we talked  for awhile about the type of training he'd undergone to become a security guard. Apparently this guy was quite the accomplished martial artist, but hadn't gone to a dojo in a while. After about ten minutes of talking the guard told me he had to keep going on patrol. We walked inside the student lounge and parted ways again. But before he left the security guard clapped me on the shoulder.

"Good meeting you, Nate. You're a good guy. Hope to see you again, OK?" I nodded, reciprocated, and hoped I would. I walked back to the machine that drove my days and nights, smiled, and hit the start button again. So what if Mortal Kombat wasn't the intimacy I was looking for? It was a hell of a lot of fun to play.

Shortly thereafter my parents removed me from college and put me into highschool in an attempt to get me to acclimate to "normal" kids, who weren't necessarily going to attack me on sight. After a bit of balking, I entered. I didn't play Mortal Kombat for several years after that, and I never saw the security guard again. But I still think about that guy. I wonder who he was, where he'd come from, and where he went after talking to me. And I still play Mortal Kombat, if only to partially remember who I was and still am, and to remember someone giving me five minutes of kindness when I really needed it.

Mortal Kombat Review

God, that looks painful.

Alright, let's get this out of the way, out of our system:

Now we can proceed.

Mortal Kombat is the reason we have a video game ratings system, since it was the first popular game to break the bounds of decency. For whatever reason parents decided to give up a little more responsibility and demanded the the government decide what was decent. While the rant on the stupidity of some parents is something that may come down the road I should probably stay on topic. We're here to talk about Mortal Kombat, not socialism. Anyway, Mortal Kombat is known for (and is thus rated by) three things: Violence, Gameplay, and Story.

Violence
Let's be honest with ourselves, this is the reason why Mortal Kombat is so well-loved: the ridiculous, over-the-top violence. If anyone says that they're playing the game strictly for the gameplay I'd reply that people look at porn for the articles and stories.

The violence in this game is extremely satisfying and not only fun to watch but hear. Honestly, this is some of the best sound production for a game I've heard in a long time. All the sounds are so well-designed that I could probably play the game on sound alone. Which is not to say that the visuals are bad. The figures are well-animated and the amount of blood is absurdly awesome. And the fatalities... well....

Gruesome enough for you?

Gameplay

While the Mortal Kombat franchise is known for it's blood, its gameplay is something commonly derided by the fighting community for being, well... not very good. And to a certain extent that's understandable. With the emphasis on presentation, not gameplay, you would think a game like this wouldn't have a good fighting mechanic. I can honestly say that most of Mortal Kombat's 3D excursions were too slow and bulky to really be fun. 

That's not the case here. The fighting engine is extremely good, with combos that can be cannibalized and put into your own ideas and imaginings. The game rewards creative thought in a way that reminds me very much of Smash Bros (the best fighting game ever made, in my humble opinion). However, if you're a beginner and don't want to spend a lot of time putting together your own custom combos the game has presets that work very well. That being said, Mortal Kombat is at its best when you're doing creative thinking about how the regular and special moves work together. When a game rewards ingenuity I think it's more than worth the time to play. 

That being said, the boss fights in this game are truly absurd, filled with bosses that truly break game physics and common sense, as well as many TV sets. Seriously, how are you supposed to fight these guys beyond medium difficulty? I still haven't found a way, and while I acknowledge I'm not the best player in the world I'm pretty decent in my own right, and I STILL play the game's story mode on beginner. The ending boss fight in the story mode is ridiculous even for the game, and after 30 tries I gave up in sheer frustration and downgraded the difficulty to beginner. It took an additional five tries before I got it. That's a total of 35 times, people, with cheating. That's wrong.  Most of this can be circumvented by playing as much multiplayer as possible, which is the point of the game anyway.

Story

This might come as a shock to most people, but almost all Mortal Kombat players I've met are in love with the plot of the games. The game's known for an intricate and dark storyline where the good guys barely win, and that's assuming nothing goes wrong. The story of this game is essentially a reboot back to the original Mortal Kombats 1-3. To be honest, I don't like the story all that much. It feels unnecessarily dark and dismal, to the point where I ask "why even bother?" Also, the matching up of the fights make little to no sense, particularly if you know the game's history. While it's true that people don't play fighting games for the plot the ruining of this element of Mortal Kombat is a travesty.

Conclusion

Amazing presentation and overall great gameplay trump a crappy story and ridiculous boss fights. If you're into fighting games I definitely recommend picking this game up!

On the Value of Nerd-dom

There's this baffling trend I've noticed amongst not only my immediate circle of friends and family, but of Americans in general: to think of nerd-dom as a phase (at best) or something to be warned against (meh) or to be condescended to (at worst). I say baffled because I've found a large amount of good in things like role-playing games, anime, and video games.

Role-Playing Games: Cooperative Creativity and Fun
I have always been blessed with an overactive imagination. I like thinking about different worlds, story lines, and people. What would happen if magic was real and a part of us, but not natural? What if magic could only be granted by other-worldly beings? What if there's no ground? How would they live? I like to think of stories for places like these. Role-playing games are a past-time where I can make these sorts of  stories with my friends and see what will happen. The sheer enjoyment of making a story without knowing where it's going, to interact with a world that's just between you and those friends, and to make moments that no one in that group is going to forget is more than worth the hefty price of the books to me. I don't play role-playing games to hide, I play because I enjoy them! And since genuine pleasure is one of the most painful things to the Devil I take great pride in doing something that's genuinely fun and enjoyable. There's also the psychological benefits of role-playing, but I'll get into that in the video game section of this post. It's sufficient to say this: role-playing can have positive effects on your psyche. But more on that later.


Anime: Actual Plot! Yay!
Most American TV is rather cliche, to be honest. Most of the programs that Americans think are entertaining I find formulaic. Two and a Half Men? Sex and the City? Most things with a laugh track (Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother excepted?) Meh. It keeps following the same bloody formula. Shows like NCIS, which could be good because of their chances for a real plot, are instead just an exercise in "who's the new sicko this week" formula. And even when they do have good premises there's such a need to explain everything that  I wonder if I'm in school during my nighttime hours, except now the info's openly worthless (Persons of Interest, I'm looking at you. What a disappointment you've been so far). And while the Japanese can be just as senseless (Bleach, Narutar- I mean, Naruto, BoBoBo-Bo-BoBoBo or whatever the hell that piece of trash is called), at least they get the chance to show real stories on TV.

The thing I look for is plot and character, and anime has that in abundance. Even when I don't like what they do with the plot and the characters (like Evangelion), I have to admit that I'd watch anything in Japan over America because they at least try to have a story more than half the time, even if I don't like the story! Evangelion was far more rewarding than most American shows I've seen in the last few years, and I disliked the anime! But this isn't because I like the culture of Japan: anime is a means to an end for me. If there's a good story that's American (Firefly, Lost, Walking Dead) of course I'll watch it. I've just come to accept that my culture really doesn't support art, and I've gone to look for it in other places. The fact that it's predominantly in Japan at the moment is of little concern to me: art is art.

Video Games, Reality, and the Power of the Mind
This is one of the most volatile questions of the day: what value, if any, do video games have? Given that some of the most memorable stories, moments, and friendships in my life have been based off of video games I'd say quite a lot. And by friendships I mean real-life ones, deeply impacting my life. My years of playing Smash Bros. with the Warriors of Light was some of the most fun I've ever had, and I still talk to those people and pray for them. My friendship with "Marty", a guy who helped save me from depression, was almost entirely based off of video games and anime, and when we talk occasionally we still discuss those things. There's a lot of value in these past times, because genuine pleasure can be involved. And considering how little genuine pleasure exists in this world I'm more than ready to accept it from whatever quarter it may appear. But enough about that. What's so cool about video games?

Let's start with the stories. Video games have a completely different take on story: You are not watching the main character, you are the main character. Instead of saying "He did the wrong thing", as you can in a movie or a novel you must defend your own actions. The fact that the actions are not real is irrelevant, because if a video game truly sucks you in then your actions are real to you, and that's what matters in this world. Don't believe me?

Psychologists have discovered that 75% of people don't really notice the world around them. They proved that with the following study. They would bring people in for a fake experiment, and give them a form to fill out (liability reasons, something like that). While they filled out the form the proctor was switched out right in front of them with someone who not only had a differently colored shirt, but a different build, and even a different voice! 3 out of 4 people who this trick was played on never noticed. I don't remember the technical name for this trick that can be played on our incredibly lazy brains, but I think it's called situational blindness. Now that's with something as simple as someone that we see in normal life. Now let's take the rest of reality: angels,demons, the constant creation of the world, the things we don't see, supernatural stuff that we still can't confirm, ghosts, Purgatory, the list can just go on and on and on and on.... all these things that we can't even comprehend, and that's before we start contemplating God Himself. So much of what we live and accept is as unreal, if not moreso, than a video game, because we think we see the complete picture! A lot of us have this silly little belief that what see is what's really going on, which is even worse than playing a video game, where you know what you're looking at can't even be real.

And you think reality's important? Ha! I pity you. Even the notion that everything has to be real is hilarious because, as just proven, you're not really experiencing reality anyway. You only think you are, which is horrifically delusional. Besides, if reality was such an important concept to salvation why didn't Christ talk about it? All He asked is that you love others  as yourself. And that's where things get sticky.

We can now delve into the problems of psychology and spirituality with this delusion of the necessity of reality. Most spiritual directors and works that I've consulted have said that the power of visualizing your victory over a vice is very important, even if you're not actually doing that action at that particular moment.  The reality of the situation is not important, but the thoughts and intentions that are being used. Heck, it's been more or less proved that our mental health is the primary basis of our physical health. What we think about determines how healthy we are, no matter how unreal it may be.

Still a bit on the fence? Fine. There's a famous case in family therapy called The February Man. A therapist was treating a woman who was suffering from horrid depression. When the therapist got her to talk about her childhood, he found that she didn't have a single good memory of her childhood. Not even a little one that made her smile, not even that. It just wasn't there. The therapist grew desperate as he treated this woman, and realized that unless he could get her to have a positive memory this woman wasn't going to make it.

So he made one up.

He hypnotized the woman into "recovering" a memory about someone she dubbed The February Man. This man was a friend of her father's, who showed up every February. Whenever he did he brought small candies and treats. He never said anything directly to her, but his small acts of kindness were enough. The woman got significantly better, and pulled herself out of depression to lead a fulfilling life.

Was that real? Hell no. Was that immoral? I honestly don't know. The woman got better and led a wonderful life afterward, which is the entire point of therapy, so it worked. But the man intentionally lied to her and abused the sanctity of her mind to do it. And yet this can be considered a valid form of therapy, and (as far as I know) he didn't lose his license for such an act.

Video games can have a very similar effect, which I've got personal proof of. I still feel the effects of playing Mass Effect and being the good guy. Part of my conception of how to be a good man comes from playing that game and doing the best I can. The fact that I didn't actually give an alien race called the rachni a chance to thrive again because they wanted a second chance is irrelevant. I forgave, and that'll figure into my psyche much later.That seems to be pretty positive to me.


So let me be very clear: having the interests of a nerd is not a phase, it's not something to grow out of when I'm ready to have a family, and it's not potentially damning to my soul. Even insinuating these things suggest a radical ignorance of the subject matter at hand, and (even more disturbing) a tendency to just write off something because it's different. So what if I sit around with people and roll dice, watch cartoons from another country, and most of my shooting experience comes from playing Mass Effect and Halo? It's different, sure. It's also new (1970's at the earliest), but so what? Not very long ago so were plays, High Renaissance art, and a funny religion called Christianity. You should hear the things said about them. I mean, haven't you heard? Christians drown their babies, eat their God, and are a dangerous cult against the state.  Sound familiar?

Friggin' baby-drowners. What right have they to judge anybody?