But otherwise there’s not a lot to do here. Story mode, arcade mode, some weird kombo challenge mode and that’s it aside from multiplayer. I don’t miss Motor Kombat or Puzzle Kombat or even the Krypt necessarily, but SOMEthing else would’ve been nice

Anyway can’t wait for Peacemaker in MK1 :O

Though rage as a gameplay mechanic is frustrating, and Klose Kombat and Free-fall Kombat are neat ideas on paper but quickly become a krapshoot of button mashing and awkward animations. I would’ve just preferred regular grabs tbh

In the PS2 games I felt inputs were a little sticky and unresponsive. I NEVER had that issue here

I also appreciate that kharacters have more than three special moves, and that style switching was ditched, since I always found that a little kumbersome in konjunction with kombos

It’s still better than Deception and Armageddon’s weird-ass Konquest modes, since gameplay between kutscenes is normal fighting and not some weird knock-off beat ‘em up thing. And in that department, I enjoyed the game a whole lot more

The rage stuff is boring. “Ooh I need to be inflicted with rage so I can go apeshit on people” bruh everyone in the MK universe is already angry as fuck why do they need their eyes filled with piss to start throwing punches lmao

It’s interesting to play because it’s basically the progenitor of modern fighting games, particularly regarding single player story modes. The issue here is the story absolutely fucking sucks

It’s just an excuse to make everybody fight. There’s no real development, narrative- or kharacter-wise

I wish I’d stopped playing much earlier. I was intrigued by the setting and it seemed like some of my decisions regarding different factions might affect the outcome, but it ends with the wettest of farts - three choices, each a slideshow backed by narration.

Some of the music’s neat.

The final nail in the coffin for me was the pitiful final chapter, with a final boss that could be any other game’s first boss. Meanwhile the game crashed twice during the epilogue so I didn’t even get to see the full ending lmao

The setting is what kept me going. I quite enjoyed the locations and I wanted to see what they’d do with them but unfortunately they’re just there to hold repetitive side quests and WAY too much backtracking, an issue that only gets worse as the game goes on

The writing could have saved it, but conversations are presented in boring, static ways that made it hard to keep interest and retain information. There aren’t a lot of particularly enjoyable characters either, and your companions are pretty much forced on you in a single heap

Enemies always pop up in the same place and there’s no way to get around some of them since they don’t let you go through doors while enemies are nearby. There’s a stealth mechanic that could’ve helped with this but it barely works

The combta’s the worst part and there’s SO much of it. Imagine any action game released after Arkham Asylum and you’re 90% of the way there - now imagine you get some electric attacks that do shit all and you’ve got it

There are some fun minigames that hint at the potential of vocally commanding Pikachu but they only scratch the surface of its true potential. Very cool concept, but I dunno why the hell they decided to try it in 1998 of all years

Thanks to emulation, voice recognition is barely an issue outside of me having to occasionally slap on an American accent (close enough, welcome back SingStar and Rock Band)

The real issue is Pikachu is just an annoying little shit with the attention span of a Goldeen

As for completion, I’ve done everything except Formula GT. That’ll take 15+ hours on its own even in its shortened state of 12 races instead of 15, so I’ll come back and do that bit-by-bit over the next few months

Either way, sick ass mod, but I’m also really excited to see what’s new for GT4 mods

But the prize and track randomizers, the refreshed dealerships, new events, and even just the ability to paint your gosh dang car will be things I miss if I ever replay the original. There’s so much love put into this and in a lot of ways it simply makes GT4 better

It is a bit easier, prize cars aren’t as interesting in some cases (a ‘91 Celica for Clubman Cup??? Sure man) and the overuse of Opera Paris got on my nerves, especially while High Speed Ring went underused nearly completely