While not a flawless victory, this is the best MK adventure title to date.

After the dreadful MK Mythologies: Sub Zero title, fans of the series were happy that Boon and company went back to developing the Mortal Kombat series in the style they knew and loved. When the announcement of a new adventure style MK game was unleashed on the gaming world, you can almost hear the whimpering of the gaming nation as the after thought of Mythologies still has not left the minds of scarred fans. Well if you have held out this long, I urge you to try Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks. While there are still some sketchy flaws in execution, the game plays quite well and provides an interesting tale of the Mortal Kombat universe not heard or seen before.

Set in the time frame between MK 1 and 2, in the final battle of the first Mortal Kombat Tournament, Liu Kang defeated Shang Tsung and saved Earthrealm from domination. But in the confusion of a mysterious earthquake, Shang Tsung and his fellow conspirators escaped through a portal to Outworld. Kung Lao, who had been posing as a masked guard, helped his fellow Shaolin Monk escape the crumbling island. Liu Kang and his allies narrowly escaped with their lives. When they returned home, Baraka and his Tarkatan horde invaded the Wu Shi Academy in an attempt to defy the rules of Mortal Kombat and take Earthrealm by force. Raiden sensed a deeper conspiracy and urged the Shaolin Monks to defeat Shang Tsung in Outworld. It is your quest to succeed and save the Wu Shi Academy and Earthrealm.

Graphically the game engine is weaker than current MK engines as far as polygon models are concerned. The characters still animate quite well, and perform some fantastic, yet familiarly outrageous moves and combos. The environments are extremely detailed and full of flourishing color. While some levels have you exploring unfamiliar grounds like the Wu Shi Academy, very familiar levels from MK 1 and 2 are opened to you in a full 3D surrounding. Of course, what would a MK game be without fatalities? In MK Shaolin Monks, each of your playable characters has 10 at their disposal throughout their journey. Like any good MK game, they are not spoon-fed to you either, you must unlock these button combinations though the process of trial and error. Not all the visuals in Shaolin Monks are peaches and cream though. The camera is a bit on the wonky side, as it is hard to position your self on a cliff edge, overhang, etc. This is a result of the game pretending to be a side scoller at times, while still keeping 3D in full form. Another problem is the necessity to have to wait for your partner in Co-Op mode. If you need to make a long jump, you do it together, or one of you suffers for it. This also goes for areas above and below you. Thankfully, the punishment is not death and only takes a bit of life bar from you. Otherwise, this is still a solid looking action/adventure title that fans of the series should enjoy immensely.

Audio does an adequate job, but some of the voice acting seems as to be done by the actors from the second MK film. There is too much dialog that is marred from stiff and emotionless acting, while others over do it. I know this is a game, not a film, but my cut scenes still deserve better treatment if I am to follow the story. The rest of the game has excellent sounds, from the authentic MK sound effects of blades, fires, explosion, the ripping of body parts, to the better voice talents that sound straight from the arcade games when Liu Kang and Kung Lao do their moves and taunts. Even the announcer who says "fatality" and "test your might" is spot on. If it were not for the voice-overs in the cut scenes, the sounds would have scored much better.

Gameplay never displays signs of total failure, but there is too much distance in the parts of the game that play brilliantly and others that seemed unfinished. An example of brilliance is the action sequences themselves. When you are in the thick of battle, the game plays fluid, tight, and near perfect. You have a ton of moves, combos, and actions at your disposal, added only by the Co-Op move sets when playing with a friend. The good news is that most of the game focuses on this style of play. Where the gameplay seems to fall flat is during the platforming scenes that just feel rushed. The collision detection of objects, ledges, for example, don't have a polished feel to them as you will miss pick ups and more importantly miss jumps. This is even more evident in the Co-Op mode where you or a friend will have worse timing than Jeff Speakman. Granted this has to do in part with the camera at times, but there are times where you know that if a bit more development time on these areas were spent, some of these issues may have been addressed. Not that MK is a mess, it is far from that, and what's more it is very enjoyable. I just expected since Boon and Company were making such a brave choice in going back to making another adventure game, they would have learned from the same mistakes they made in MK Mythologies. Nevertheless, there is no issue in the game that is fatal, and even the most fickle gamer will still have a blast playing through this one, flaws or no.

MK Shaolin Monks is not a terribly long adventure as you should be able to complete this in less than 10 hours easily. The replay comes in not only finding and unlocking all the moves, but you can also unlock a couple hidden characters and play through the game as their avatars. Granted the game doesn't change a whole bunch, but the novelty is there. Another reason to go back would be to try Co-Op. Even though a good majority of issues happens in this mode, I must mention that communication is also key in Co-Op mode. Some mistakes happen if you and the person you are playing with don't talk to each other and let the other know where you are going. What is cool about Co-Op is that you can do moves and go places that you cannot go while in single player mode, which almost makes it another game in itself.

In the end, MK Shaolin Monks isn't perfect, but it is enjoyable. The story is weak, boss fights are hard, but the action is extremely enjoyable and in a game where the main focus is the action, which is all that counts.