#229 Marvel vs. Street Fighter Hidden Characters (3/6): Armored Spiderman gameplay. AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2015-12-23 | Gameplay of the secret character Armored Spiderman in Yumeji's boss hack of Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street FighterArmored Spiderman's moves:http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Marvel_Super_Heroes_vs._Street_Fighter/Moves#Armor_Spider-ManOne of the decidedly cooler characters, Armored Spiderman is a Peter Parker from an alternate dimension where he's basically Tony Stark, if I recall correctly. Design-wise he's great, and I always appreciate fan-nods like that in a video game, particularly a fighting game. However, he isn't much different to regular Spiderman. He has super armor, but only on the ground, and only against certain attacks, which means he won't be interrupted by certain attacks and can continue attacking as he wishes, but only in certain situations. A decent character but mostly just a curiosity, as with the other hidden characters in MvSF.
#1187 Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Boss Hack (ARC) Bosses (2/2): Motaro playthrough AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2021-06-01 | A playthrough of the final boss Shao Kahn in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Cup Edition.Motaro’s Moves:• F, f+HP = Grab Throw• F, D, B+HP = Fireball• D, U = TeleportOh, boy Motaro. I’ve never quite been entirely sure what to think of Motaro, but I’ve finally come to the conclusion that he’s pretty awful. He’s too big, ridiculous cheap, has ridiculously long range, abuses his moves like its nothing (especially that teleport attack of his), and like other MK bosses can kill his opponents in 4-hits. And, of course, like the other bosses he can bypass invincibility frames to infinite a character to death. Truly well balanced.However, there are other problems with Motaro. He takes a ridiculously reduced amount of damage, and he’s also not affected by projectiles. They just bounce off and hit the other character instead, even including Shao Kahn. You know, something like Jade not being affected by projectiles was kind of cool in the sense that it meant you had to change up your playstyle and rely less on free hits/chip damage from projectiles. Jade was also, you know, hidden and completely optional, justifying that aspect a bit more as a result. Motaro on the other hand is completely mandatory, and so he is absolutely miserable to fight as a result. He’s really pretty basic, only having a couple of special moves, and yet he’s so innately powerful and frustrating that he’s a goddamn chore to fight regardless. He blocks with ease, can decimate you very quickly if he feels like it, and in general is just a goddamn nuisance. The only saving grace is that he does have a couple of exploits, albeit it only with certain characters. Robot Smoke, for instance, can use a teleport uppercut attack, then use a three or four hit combo against Motaro to knock him back. He will nearly always block this, but it’s consistent enough, at least, to work. I like that they tried to go for a difficult design with Motaro, going for a centaur instead of yet another Shokan, but despite appearing in three/four MK titles (this, MK3, MKT, and even Armageddon if you want to include that), he seems to be yet another character that the MK design team wants to forget. I mean, hell, even Kintaro got included in MK9, and Shinnok in MKX. It’s most probably because, as we saw in MKA, they would have to butcher his design to make him functional in the modern games, and so it wouldn’t really be him. Whether he even really should come back is a different argument all together, although at this point in time I don’t see it, and it appears that Netherrealm has given up on true sub-bosses for the time being anyway.Motaro is cheap as hell here. His regular range is a little lacking, but that hardly matters as he can trip the opponent with his tail (b+LK), which gives him the time to then get in range and pummel them to death. Add to that a good projectile and of course that cheap teleport attack, and you have a boss which is less complex than Goro or Kintaro, and yet is somehow a hell of a lot of dangerous. There really is something strikingly brash about early MK game design; SNK pulled some shit during this era, but it took a while before they did anything quite on MK’s level. His tail sweep is pretty much the crutch of his moveset; without it he would be significantly more vulnerable, given his slow attack and the fact that his projectile attack can’t hit at close range. I particularly liked how after sending an opponent flying you could follow up with a Fireball and it would nearly always hit; it’s more or less the closest thing he has to a combo.Motaro feels underwhelming compared to the other MK bosses, but given this game’s absurd game design it definitely felt good to go to town with him. Sometimes bosses just provide a bit of stress-relief, particularly in a difficult game like this, and if there’s some fun to be had with that then I’d both bosses hold a little bit of worth in that regard, if only the novelty of decimating an otherwise frustrating game. Still, it’s another triumph to finally play as two more previously unusable bosses, and that’s another white whale down for this fandom, adding one more piece to a puzzle that by this point seems to be nearly finally complete. Motaro isn’t great per se, especially compared to Goro and Kintaro, but any experience with an overpowered boss is going to be a fun one, particularly in a game which is otherwise punishingly difficult.Next up, we'll see.
#1186 Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Boss Hack (ARC) Bosses (1/2): Shao Kahn playthrough AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2021-05-24 | A playthrough of the final boss Shao Kahn in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Cup Edition.Shao Kahn’s Moves:• D, f+LP = Shoulder Charge• D, f+HP = Rising Shoulder Charge• B, f, f+LP = Projectile attack• B, f+HP = Hammer Swing• D, d+HK = Laugh• D, d+LK = RidiculeNow here’s a damn special hack. Another tournament style hack, this one adds Classic Smoke as a regular hidden character, entirely adds Rain into the game, and even makes Shao Kahn and Motaro fully playable! It even adds classic stages from MK1 and 2 as well, and numerous other things. It’s just amazing. As with the MK2 boss hack, this was one which I discovered by way of my friend Torentsu, and I’d recommend giving his channel follow if you’re into the sort of videos that I do (and Tekken-related shitposts): youtube.com/user/TorentsuUMK3 is one of those games which is technically very good, but I just honestly never really tend to play it. It’s just a bit brutal, really, and the bosses are no exception to that. I also just can’t stand the design compared to the gorgeous dark fantasy of MK2, and even the general designs don’t really do a lot of me. It was certainly much improved over MK3, but not to the point I think it saves the game, personally. Like, this is obviously a good game, but there are just so many other titles I prefer over it. The difficulty of the game is definitely one of those compounding factors. Endurance matches return and they’re more insufferable than ever, as they tend to contain the hidden characters whose AI is amped up even more than others, as it was in previous titles. It’s just kind of bullshit really and I’ve never understood why Midway had such a hardon for it, even including it in Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game.Then, however, you get to the bosses, Motaro and Shao Kahn. Good fucking lord. Bosses in previous titles were difficult, certainly, but I felt like you got used to them after a while. Shang Tsung you just have to keep your distance from, MK2 Shao Kahn had a few exploits and would occasionally give you a free hit, and Goro and Kintaro weren’t so bad as you blocked correctly and got the timing down to punish their stomp attacks.Motaro and MK3 Shao Kahn on the other hand? Jesus Christ. I’ll get into Motaro next time, so let’s just focus on Shao Kahn for now. I’ve said this before about the MK games and I’ll say it to death; the difficulty ultimately comes from the AI. Shao Kahn is innately powerful, sure, but what really makes him dangerous is just how perfect his goddamn playing is. He can and will counter and block all your moves with ease, will give you no room for counter-attack, and pretty much just exists to torment you. Get stuck in a corner blocking? He will unleash a flurry of special moves until you are dead. That’s it. He will occasionally taunt, but apart from that the only thing you can do is try to bait a Rising Shoulder Charge attack from him which you then dodge and counter, but that’s not consistent in the slightest. In MK3, I would take somewhere around 10 minutes to get to Shao Kahn, and then an hour to 2 hours to actually beat him, he is that awful and inconsistent. In MK2, there was a consistent strat for beating him which required blocking in a corner, taking a hit and then uppercutting him. Here, however, I’ve never worked out a proper strategy; I just win from luck, if at all.Move-wise, the only real difference Kahn has to his MK2 form is his projectile, which has changed from an energy spear to an orb projectile, which to me always seemed like a step-down design-wise. It almost seems weird that this was the only change, but it’s probably best not to overthink MK3’s design.Kahn is pretty good here, but the issue with both bosses is that they are really, really slow. You have to time their hits on regular characters really, otherwise they will just be cancelled out by the opponent’s moves. This often meant liberal use of Kahn’s Rising Shoulder Charge, as it has great range, knocks the opponent over and will ignore projectiles, making it my move of choices in clinch situations and against the bosses themselves. You even have the ability to taunt at will should you wish to use this, though this will usually lead to you getting hit (as is the point, I suppose). It’s also quite difficult to get an infinite off against opponent as it only really works in the corner, and the timing for it is a little more difficult than previous bosses in the MK series, I found. His Sledgehammer attack is great for punishing enemies who try to close in on you, particularly as it stuns them afterwards and leaves them vulnerable to a follow-up attack (the combo usually dealing around 47% damage in the process!). [Continued in a pinned comment]
#1185 Mortal Kombat 1 Boss Hack (SNES) Bosses (2/2): Goro playthrough AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2021-05-17 | A playthrough of the sub-boss Goro in Snark-4918’s boss hack/Champion Edition hack for the SNES version of Mortal Kombat 1.[To select Goro in this hack, highlight Johnny Cage, hold select, and then press any button][Goro’s moves are all pretty straightforward; the only things of note are that his stomp attack is just done by jumping, his regular throw is done by pressing [f+LP] and his pummel throw is done by pressing [f+HP] when close to an opponent]Ah man, I’ve been waiting to do this one for a hell of a long time. There’s something really weird about a project like this where it’s possible to cover a good 99% of the important, iconic bosses of fighting game history, and yet it hasn’t been possible to cover one of the most important of them all. It’s been nearly 30 years since MK1 came out, and yet it’s taken until this point to be able to play as MK1 Goro. 3 decades. Three. That’s insane. It’s this big, jarring gap for fans of boss hacking which exists in very few other franchises, and it’s weird in a hobby which is all about making the “impossible” happen that there was a roadblock as big as this one.All things shall come to pass though, and as of this time of writing there are boss hacks for the arcade versions of MK2 and UMK3, a few console boss hacks for MK1, and there will no doubt be a boss hack for Arcade MK1 in the future. Couple that with Konami titles like Battle Tryst and Fighting Bujutsu becoming semi-playable in Mame over the past couple of years, and it probably won’t much longer until every fighting game boss is “catalogued” in some way. Weird to be nearly at the end of a journey as long as this.Getting to play as MK1 Goro has been a dream for myself and many others for goodness knows how many years now. It’s difficult explain to someone who isn’t a fan of fighting games, particularly the bosses sub-fandom, but Goro has had a huge impact in a way that not many other bosses have. You could argue that the likes of M. Bison, Geese Howard and Rugal have certainly been strong influences, and there are numerous other infamous bosses out there, but Goro really is the quintessential boss in many regards. As I’ve argued to people before, the fact that he and the other MK bosses weren’t playable for so long probably contributed to much of this mystique, as they were this sort of fascinating unknown which we had, at the time anyway, no way of utilising ourselves. The years went on and on, more games got emulated and hacked, more bosses became playable and documented in some way, but the early MK lot remained a kind of exciting unknown, which is a powerful thing in a hobby which is all about documenting what we were never meant to experience.I have a tendency to gush over Goro, I admit (as Palacutt in particular has noticed), but that’s only because it’s entirely justified. He is, simply put, not only one of the most well-designed bosses in existence, but one of the most well-designed video game characters of all time. Everything about him is just brilliant. I never really talk about the sound design in games that much, but with Goro I kind of have to. From the stage music, to his voice clips, to the sound effects of his attacks, it’s all there to intimidate you and make you recognise that he means business. It’s an honestly genius way of hiding what is essentially a rather innately limited boss, and goes to show just how creativity was in games during this era. The fact that the game is already difficult certainly adds to this; having an already difficult game have an overpowered boss just adds to that even more, and gives Goro this kind of infamous, insurmountable air to him which we wouldn’t see again until the likes of Dark Souls bosses.[Continued in a pinned comment]
#1184 Mortal Kombat 1 Boss Hack (SNES) Bosses (1/2): Shang Tsung playthrough AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2021-05-10 | A playthrough of the boss Shang Tsung in Snark-4918’s boss hack/Champion Edition hack for the SNES version of Mortal Kombat 1.(To select yer boy Shang Tsung in this here mod, highlight Li Kang, hold select, and then press any button)Shang Tsung’s moves:Fireball – All directions except for ForwardMorphs• [HP] – Kano • [Select + HP] – Sub-Zero• [LP] – Liu Kang• [Select + LP] – Goro• [LK] – Raiden• [Select + LK] – Sonya • [HK] – Johnny Cage• [Select + HK] – Scorpion • [Block] - [Cancel Morph]Yeah, not quite an arcade hack yet, but it wouldn’t surprise me if that happened relatively soon.This hack was brought to my attention by a user called Mr. Nelman, who’s been following the channel for a while. I’d seen a few videos about boss hacks for the ports of MK1, but I hadn’t really paid it much mind, especially considering one of the videos was from a guy who not only used to chat shit to me, because also demanded $100 for the hack. Yeesh, some people, man.Snark has done an absolutely brilliant job with this hack and, as of this time of writing, plans to improve it even further. Shang Tsung, Goro and Reptile are all playable, however I already covered MK1 Reptile in the arcade version so I’ll just being doing vids on the two main bosses for the time being.MK1 Shang Tsung is one of those anomalies which has always fascinated me. His sprite is practically incomplete, has little in the way of animation (looking choppy as anything in the process), and I don’t believe it even appears again in the 2D MK series, even in MKTrilogy. As early fighting game bosses go he’s really fascinating, and obviously quite influential on later bosses like Dural and Salamander. See, the idea is that Shang Tsung steals souls of the opponents he has defeated. Through these souls, he is then able to transform into the person and use all their powers. I think retcon this a bit in later games, but this was how it originally worked, hence, the souls of all the fighters leaving Shang Tsung’s body upon his defeat.What this means is that Shang Tsung has access to every single moveset in the game, including Goro’s no less, and unlike later variants he can use these as long as he wants to. He’ll morph into the game and be able to use all their moves, and can cancel the morph at any time. Not only this, but his only regular attacks in his main form are his single fireball and triple fireball attacks, the latter of which can take off over 50% of the opponent’s health if they fail to block them all.I’ve said this before about MK bosses, but they’re definitely made to be spectacle fights rather than as characters who should legitimately be played as. The SF2 bosses or Fatal Fury 2 bosses were all pretty damn powerful, but they all played like legitimate characters, just with various boosts and changes over the regular playable characters. The MK games have nearly always just thrown this out of the window however, creating bosses who are ridiculously powerful and cheap innately, and so overpowered to the point that playing as them is satisfying at first, but quickly loses its appeal as the game becomes a bit too much “Press X to win” for my liking, and this is coming from the guy who had fun playing as The General. I think its main appeal comes from getting your own back against the AI, and it’s almost surreal how the bosses for the original trilogy turn otherwise difficult games into cakewalks. They’re much gimmickier and more basic than most other bosses you have to hack, and it would take until MKX for all games for them to create a boss who was powerful, but still felt like something on par with a legitimate character.MK1 Shang Tsung is so fascinating however because he just never appears again. Even in Shaolin Monks, his model was only a cutscene model and you never got to fight him. Even if you hacked him, he had no moves, and you had to hack the game further if you wanted to be able to do something with him. He’s this weird, tiny blip of an anomaly in an expansive, consistent series, and it’s so weird because the MK Team loves to reuse beloved characters or ideas over and over again, and yet this version of Shang Tsung was put on the back-burner so soon. Oh sure, he does have a boss variant in MK9 which is reminiscent of this, with a unique costume and the ability to morph into any character, but that’s still essentially just a costume boss a la Siegfried in SoulCalibur V. Otherwise, this variant was very much put by the wayside.[Continued in a pinned comment]
When Hacking Goes Wrong: Stretchy Kabal AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2021-05-05 | People seemed to enjoy his appearance in the recent MK film (indeed, it was one of the only things which was actually enjoyable), but for my money this is still the most accurate version of Kabal out there. Indeed, Kabal as he was always meant to be; a man who could defy logic and good reason on a whim, and bent the very laws of physics to his will if he wished it.#StretchyKabalforMKII
When Hacking Goes Wrong: Dragon Hat Liu Kang AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2021-04-27 | As any real Mortal Kombat fan will tell you, the original design for Liu Kang had him with a dragon balanced on the top of his head. It was actually this dragon which was originally going to fire his fireball projectiles, amongst other powers. Originally created by John Tobias, Ed Boon eventually intervened and scrapped it, calling it "a really fucking dumb idea", and then proceeded to powerbomb Tobias through a table. And the rest, as they say, is history.Intriguingly, data still exists within the game which makes reference towards this original design. According to Boon in a recent documentary:"We'd hired a guy, seemed really talented, name of Jan Tobiasz. Everything was going pretty smoothly in terms of development, but for some reason in one team meeting he was absolutely insistent on having Liu Kang have a dragon on his head. It was that particular moment when I realised that he was actually just Tobias wearing a fake moustache and putting on a Polish accent. Sussed out, his eyes widened and he screamed "It's coming right at us!", before he dove out of a window. Anyway, that's the last I've seen of him since."To this day, no one's entirely sure why Tobias was so insistent on this particular design. Maybe he knew something we didn't? Maybe the series would have been all the better for it? Who knows. Regardless, it's just nice that a game which made reference to most of the old rumours and secret bothered to include this, if only in dummied out data. Shame we never got a proper Hornbuckle, but I guess they just didn't have time to implement everything and had to settle eventually.Next up, another vid like this.
#1183 Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks (PS2) Hidden Characters (6/6): Sub-Zero gameplay AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2021-04-20 | Gameplay of the hidden character Sub-Zero in Midway/Netherrealm’s Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks.And, finally, we come to Player Sub-Zero. He rocks. His Freeze is brilliant, his Slide is brilliant, his combos are brilliant. Hell, he’s just brilliant in general. Sub-Zero’s design in this game ranks up there as one of my favourite designs of all time, I just adore it. And that’s saying something in a game where I already adore about 95% of the designs. I can’t think of many games as aesthetically pleasing as Shaolin Monks, everything here just looks so…right. I remembered thinking that Sub-Zero looked ridiculously badass when I first played this game, and wished you’d be able to play as him. Well, that wish was of course granted as both he and Scorpion are unlockable for the main game. The only real issue I have with him is that his upgrades aren’t very good, which means 1. That he feels a little stagnant towards the middle of the game, and 2. Only reinforces my point that they could have easily worked the other playable characters into the main game with little effort.Also, goddamn, I accidentally gave myself a nostalgia rush when I finished the video on Reptile’s bridge. Shaolin Monks was a game I followed from the start, including the original alpha screen shots of Liu Kang and Sub-Zero fighting on Reptile’s bridge. It’s one of those images which I’ve just never forgotten because it was simply that iconic to me, and it was amazing to essentially return to the very moment that first let us know of the game’s existence, and to think of how far both the game itself would come, as well of its fanbase, the hacking/modding fanbase for the game, and the MK series on the whole. A great way to end it, certainly.And, well, that’s it for Shaolin Monks. An incredibly fascinating, truly brilliant game, and one which I adored being able to show off all the cool little unusable aspects to. I didn’t show off every unplayable in the game; there are about 40 more generic enemies or so. I wouldn’t mind covering them too, but if I do so I’ll probably make those videos for my Requests channel instead.Next up, a couple "When hacking goes wrong" videos as bonuses, a couple more games to cover, and then, well, that'll pretty much be it .
#1182 Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks (PS2) Hidden Characters (5/6): Scorpion gameplay AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2021-04-12 | Gameplay of the hidden character Scorpion in Midway/Netherrealm’s Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks.Not much to say, really. Player Scorpion loses the firebreathing abilities, but he’s a combo powerhouse so it’s not as if that really matters. He actually has his spear this time, something which I believe the boss version has, but it isn’t regularly useable and probably requires use of the boss fix code. I don’t have much to say about Scorpion because he’s regularly unlockable, so of course he’s viable to playthrough with. I find Sub-Zero’s moves a bit better (and always have done, really) but a combination of the spear, uppercut and teleport punch moves as his specials is still really good, and makes playing as Scorpion a pretty unique playthrough on the whole. His specials might not be the best compared to the other characters, but his combos more than make up for that.Next up, things take a chilling turn.
#1181 Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks (PS2) Hidden Characters (4/6): Reptile gameplay AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2021-03-29 | Gameplay of the hidden character Reptile in Midway/Netherrealm’s Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks.Player Reptile is, like Baraka, a bit of an erratic character. He has a similar weird combo which just suddenly tops, and while he does have some juggles with his launching projectile and his slide move, they can be a bit difficult to pull off consistently without a decent amount of practice. Luckily, this is a beat-em-up, where you’d be using the same combos ad nauseum anyhow, but it does mean he has a bit of a learning curve compared to some of the other characters. Player Reptile is much better than his boss counterpart though, as you’d probably imagine by this point particularly as a result of that launching projectile which not only leaves opponent vulnerable to follow-up attacks, but deals a pretty respectable amount of damage in the process. That can then be followed-up with his slide attacks, or other combos, for some pretty decent damage. His aerial attacks a little odd; a short combo, an aerial attack which actually knock the opponent away instead of up, and also a ground pound. He of course also has his acid spit attack, though I didn’t personally find it too useful.On the whole, Reptile’s pretty decent still; wholly playable of course, and one I’d like to try a playthrough with, though I suspect he’d be a bit more on the difficult side compared to the others. He lacks the invincibility and aerial projectile moves which his boss form had, but these are pretty useless in human hands so that hardly matters. A pretty cool inclusion on the whole, and it’s only a shame he isn’t normally playable in the main game.Next up, the first of the two legitimately unlockable ninjas.
#1180 Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks (PS2) Hidden Characters (3/6): Baraka gameplay AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2021-03-22 | Gameplay of the hidden character Baraka in Midway/Netherrealm’s Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks.Player Baraka is better than his boss counterpart, but he’s still a bit on the erratic side. That makes sense considering who he is I suppose, but he still feels a bit weird compared to other regular characters. His combo ends really abruptly, although this from what I could tell was so you could then combo it into his scissor blade moves. His Air Launchers can actually knock the opponent out of range if you’re not careful, and his Square air attack is a sort of bizarre dive attack. His entire moveset seems based around leading into the Scissor Blades attack from what I could tell, which makes sense as it deals a ton of damage, but only works if you’re really close to the opponent. His projectile attack actually combines both the single and spreadshot versions which the boss had, as pressing it once will do a single shot, whereas doing it twice in succession will cause Baraka to jump into the air and fire a spreadshot at the ground.Baraka here is a pretty good, though a bit more limited compared to Kitana and Johnny Cage I found. There’s definitely something to him, but it just does feel a little bit more erratic and off-putting than the other two; it would really take some getting used to during a playthrough. That said, I suspect a playthrough with him is still possible, if a bit more difficult than the others.Next up, the original hidden ninja in a slightly more playable variant.
#1179 Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks (PS2) Hidden Characters (2/6): Kitana gameplay AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2021-03-17 | Gameplay of the hidden character Kitana in Midway/Netherrealm’s Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks.My girl’s back for the final time, and luckily, she rocks. She’s not quite combo-happy as Johnny, but she can really still hold her own. Her Fan Lift now acts as it should, with you being able to follow it up with the Square Wave Dash, or with any other move you wish. She also has her Fan Throw, though I didn’t find this overly useful. Her combos are a sight to behold though, considering her opponent to spin in the air and making them susceptible to air launchers. She has a dive kick attack for her Square air move, which she can use over and over again, and with timing and decent luck you can even then knock a grounded enemy make into the air for a potential infinite. Hell, if you’re up against a wall then she can use a Triangle Air attack to knock the enemy higher again, allowing you to get in get another wave of dive kicks.Basically, Best Girl here is brilliant and it’s kinda crazy you can’t play as her regularly considering how damn powerful she actually is. Missed opportunity, that’s all I’m saying. Kitana is a huge upgrade on her paltry boss version, and it’s great that she got moveset so viable in the main game.Up next, another character significantly improved by their playable counterpart.Also, holy shit, her neck in the cutscenes, ahahahahha. The Bigger Luke Theory™ strikes again.
#1178 Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks (PS2) Hidden Characters (1/6): Johnny Cage gameplay AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2021-03-08 | Gameplay of the hidden character Johnny Cage in Midway/Netherrealm’s Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks.It might seem odd in hindsight, but the unlockable characters in Shaolin Monks were mind-blowing to me back in the day. Six additional characters, two of which you could even do playthroughs with, complete with their own movesets, abilities, and everything. It was just incredible to me. Yeah, you can probably imagine just how shocked I was to learn years later about being able to hack as play as anyone in the main game. Like, goddamn, I already thought we had it pretty good, but it turns out it was better than I could have ever imagined.And indeed, that’s what we’ll be looking at for the next six videos. In the course of a regular playthrough of Shaolin Monks, you can find six hidden coins which will allow you to unlock and play as some of the game’s other characters for use in multiplayer mode. Two of these characters, Sub-Zero and Scorpion, can even be unlocked for the main game. Curiously enough as well, all six movesets for their characters are entirely unique; the boss versions have their own movesets stored in an entirely separate number in the character address, meaning each of these characters had a boss form and playable form, each with their own unique moves. How cool!Johnny Cage is probably the best example, apart from maybe Sub-Zero, to show off the differences between boss and playable forms. Bosses have stiff, pre-determined attacks and combos, while playable variants have access to their own combos, launchers and power attacks, along with their own unique special moves. As you’d expect, Johnny loses that insta-kill attack here (no surprise, I’m sure), but he’s also a much more innately playable character. He keeps his projectile, shadow kick and rising shadow knee attack for his special moves, but also has a really great combo, being able to able to counter opponents on all sides with ridiculous ease.I have to say, I can’t help but be a bit annoyed that the other four characters weren’t made playable in any form, considering how entirely viable they are. I’m sure it’s down to fatalities and the upgradable move mechanics of the game, but there was surely a workaround for that. Star Wars Jedi Power Battles, for instance, featured a levelling up system where regular characters would acquire new combos, health/force power-ups and even gain certain new force powers along the way. The bonus, unlockable characters however would just simply have all their combos/powers from the start, with the trade-off being that they couldn’t gain any maximum health/force upgrades. It was a really great mechanic, allowing you to access five more unique characters with a few compromises. Shaolin Monks could have had a similar thing, having some kind of bonus mode with characters who could not upgrade their moves/combos nor use fatalities. Given that some regular special moves don’t even have upgrades for the main four characters, and that some unlockable combos are a bit rubbish, it would have meant that they were all still perfectly viable. But, for whatever reason, the MK team just wasn’t prepared to make that sacrifice. It’s bizarre too, particularly in Johnny’s case because, holy shit, he really didn’t need any upgrades. His special moves tear through opponents, he executes all of his combos with amazing ease, can air juggle for days and in general is a total beast.Regardless, in a world with emulation and hacking it’s entirely possible to do full playthroughs as any of these characters now. The game will save any character you’re playing as in the save file, including an unplayable one, allowing you to freely play as them from that point onwards. So, if you want to do a Cage playthrough, a Reptile playthrough, or a Kitana playthrough, they’re all entirely viable! Hell, more than viable; perhaps they didn’t make them playable because of just how good they are. How the MK team went from having some of the worst coding to some of the best I’m honestly not sure, but it’s inspirational to say the least.Speaking of Kitana, she’s up next as I get to cover Best Girl for the final time.
#1177 Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks (PS2) Unplayables (7/7): Noob Saibot gameplay AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2021-03-01 | Gameplay of the unplayable character/NPC Noob Saibot in Midway/Netherrealm’s Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks.[Noob Saibot has no useable moves, so I just gave his Player Scorpion’s moves]Noob Saibot only appears in cutscenes, from what I recall. Mortal Kombat as a series is quite amazing; Noob Saibot, a character who clearly started out as a joke character (being a pitch-black palette swap, and just Boon and Tobias backwards) ended up a fan favourite and ridiculously beloved character. This game confirms that he is actually the demonic spirit of the first Sub-Zero, which, given that he is the series’ most popular character, only made the character more intriguing as a result.I gave him Scorpion’s moveset too, of course, because that’s the one he had in MK2. And, like Smoke, he has an absolutely brilliant design that I totally adore, which unfortunately is underutilised. However, if both players play as Sub-Zero in the main game or in versus mode, player 2’s costume will make them look like Noob Saibot. How cool! I just adore the attention to detail in this game; it’s one you can really, really fall in love with, especially if you’re a big fan of the series. Shaolin Monks is, in a nutshell, how you do fanservice correctly.And, well, that’s it for the NPCs. A really intriguing lot, and it’s only a shame that they’re more difficult to access than the rest. But, of course, we’re still not done yet with this game.Next up, it’s the hidden characters.
#1176 Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks (PS2) Unplayables (6/7): Smoke gameplay AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2021-02-22 | Gameplay of the unplayable character/NPC Smoke in Midway/Netherrealm’s Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks.[Smoke has no useable moves, so I just gave his Player Scorpion’s moves]Smoke appears in the game as a hidden NPC, where he assigns five special tasks to the player to complete. On completion of this, the player will unlock the arcade version of MK2. Well, in the US version at least; we didn’t get that in the UK. Goddamn, Midway really didn’t give a shit about Europe during this period.I gave Smoke the moves of Player Scorpion, because they seemed the most appropriate. I absolutely adore Smoke’s design in this game; it’s ridiculously cool, and a bit too good to simply be an NPC, but the same could be said of all the NPCs I gave. Goddamn, this really is a game which begs to be hacked and modified; so much stuff here just more or less goes to waste! The spear messes up a bit with Smoke, as does the air juggles, but that doesn’t really matter in the long-run. If you wanted a hard-mode version of Scorpion, doing it as Smoke could be pretty fun, I suspect.Last up, the final unplayable, and of course it’s another hidden ninja from MK2.
#1175 Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks (PS2) Unplayables (5/7): Kabal gameplay AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2021-02-15 | #1175 Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks (PS2) Unplayables (5/7): Kabal gameplayGameplay of the unplayable character/NPC Kabal in Midway/Netherrealm’s Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks.[Kabal has no useable moves, so I gave him the moves of the Masked Guard]I used the moves of the Masked Guard here because I thought it would be fun to show off an NPC moveset, even if it is glitchy. Kabal does, apparently, have useable moves, as this video shows: youtube.com/watch?v=f1poYgXaMN4 I couldn’t personally find out how to access them though. Any information on that would be appreciated.Kabal is another really hidden element of Shaolin Monks, as if it didn’t have enough great fanservice already. If you’ve ever seen his scene in Shaolin Monks, which is one of the Smoke missions, you might remember that he has a southern accent for some reason. Hell, he sounds like Elvis, and even has sideburns to boot. Why they chose this I’m not wholly sure, but in a way I’m glad they did. Kabal’s never exactly been my favourite character, but he is definitely one of the more fascinating members of MK’s cast. So funny to have to program in a full name and model for simply one cutscene, although as the above video implies he might have originally been meant to be an NPC character in the same vein as Jax, but they ran out of time. Indeed, I suspect that’s highly probable, given other things which were essentially left out of the game such as the notorious survival mode. God, I love when hacking just adds another mystery to an already interesting title.Up next, it’s time to move onto those hidden ninjas.
#1174 Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks (PS2) Unplayables (4/7): Shang Tsung (MK1) gameplay AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2021-02-08 | Gameplay of the unplayable character/NPC MK1 Shang Tsung in Midway/Netherrealm’s Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks.[Shang Tsung has no useable moves, so I just gave him MK2 Shang Tsung’s moves.]MK1 Shang Tsung has no moves of his own, but curiously enough has no issues when using MK2 Shang Tsung’s moveset. As a result, this is the most legit way to play as MK1 Shang Tsung as of this time of writing, when you think about it.MK1 Shang Tsung has always been a huge curiosity to me, and I’m glad they bothered to actually show in this game how he regressed into his younger self. Mind you, this game is more or less “Mortal Kombat: Filling in the gaps: the Game”. MK1 Shang Tsung was always such a curiosity, given his ability to effortlessly change into other characters on a whim (even jumping into mid-air), having special moves of his own, and having barely anything in the way of sprite animation, being in a way hilariously barebones, and yet so enjoyable to fight in MK1 because of how he never really appeared again in that form, bar MK9 of course.MK1 Shang Tsung is probably viable in the same way that MK2 Shang Tsung is. Also, you have to love Raiden badmouthing Shang Tsung in the intro while both Shang Tsungs watch. Apparently Raiden needs to go to Specsavers. Actually, an MK1 and MK2 Shang Tsung Ko-Op playthrough would be surprisingly badass. Ah, the joys of boss-hacking.Next up, we move onto the cameos, starting with the weirdest of them.
#1173 Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks (PS2) Unplayables (3/7): Raiden gameplay AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2021-02-01 | Gameplay of the unplayable character/NPC Raiden in Midway/Netherrealm’s Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks.[Raiden has no useable moves, so I gave him Kung Lao’s moveset]Raiden mostly just appears in cutscenes in the game, although on some occasions it’s actually Shang Tsung in disguise. He doesn’t have his own moveset, as you’d imagine, so Kung Lao’s made the most sense. They both have big hats, right? Nothing to really say about Raiden; if you wanted to play through with his model it’s possible, but for some reason the game really struggles with the unplayables using projectiles. As you can see here, it even leads to Raiden’s death on a couple of occasions. I’ve seen other videos where it wasn’t the case, so I’m not really sure what the issue is.Up next, another look at a rather frail Shang Tsung.
#1172 Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks (PS2) Unplayables (2/7): Sonya gameplay AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2021-01-25 | Gameplay of the unplayable character/NPC Sonya in Midway/Netherrealm’s Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks.[Sonya has no useable moves, so I just gave her Kitana’s in this video.]Well, now we get to the really unplayables. How unplayable? Well, the following six characters neither have movesets of their own, nor can they easily be given a moveset.Now, you can give these guys movesets, but for some reason it has something to do with Player 2’s slot. I don’t know why, but if you don’t modify player 2’s character and model values to be the moveset you want for the unplayable character, then it won’t work; it will simply glitch out. So, you need to find the character address and moveset address for both player 1 and player 2, then make the character address for player 1 the unplayable character you want, then put in the moveset you want for player 1, and the moveset value should be used for the moveset value for player 2’s addresses as well. Do this, and you can use movesets with the NPC characters. It’s pretty convoluted but, hey, at least it does work. It’s also why Kitana appears in the cutscene, so you’re aware. Although, both Best Girls taking down Shao Kahn together would be pretty badass.I decided to use Kitana’s moveset for Sonya here, as it seemed fitting. Sonya was essentially shoved in the background for Kitana in MK2, shame as that was, and this game isn’t really much different in that regard. Weirdly though, it messes up a bit; she can’t do multiple dive kicks, and the projectile attack sees her throwing herself for some reason. How weird! I’m glad they even bothered to include Sonya’s model, because it barely shows up in the game. I couldn’t imagine Cynthia Rothrock getting captured in any of her films, just saying, especially with that goddamn roundhouse kick of hers. That said, you could probably try to do a playthrough as Sonya with someone else’s moveset but there wouldn’t be much point; it’s too much of an anomaly.Up next, everyone’s favourite Elder God.
#1171 Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks (PS2) Unplayables (1/7): Jax gameplay. AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2021-01-18 | Gameplay of the unplayable character/NPC Jax in Midway/Netherrealm’s Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks.Jax’s moves:• Square: Ground Pound [Infinite!]• Triangle: Projectile• Circle: Grab Attack• R1+Square: [Same as Square]• R1+Triangle: [Same as Triangle]• R1+Circle: [Same as Circle]• Square+Triangle: [None]• Triangle+Circle: [None]• Circle+Square: [None]Jax is probably the best known NPC of Shaolin Monks. He helps you out in a couple of scenarios, using his three best known specials (his ground punch, projectile, and grab-and-punch throw) to aid you. As you’d probably expect from an assist character who doesn’t even appear as a boss, that literally is all he has; just those three moves. And yet, weirdly, Jax is surprisingly good. The main reason for this is his ground pound attack, as it not only deals a pretty great amount of damage, but it’s yet another infinite, and so long as you get can get the timing right you can just knock an enemy back into a corner and then use it ad nauseum until the opponent is dead. Add to this the fact that it’s an AOE move, acting also as a crowd-control attack in the process, and Jax ends up surprisingly broken simply by virtue of this one move. His projectile attack is quite fast too, with such little recovery that he can even combo opponents with it, and his grab, although a little finicky to land, grants him invulnerable when it lands and deals a decent enough amount of damage.This leads to Jax, hilariously, probably being more viable than many of the bosses, simply because his moves have such broken properties. Maybe it’s a good thing he wasn’t a boss! Given the fact that he’s overpowered despite only having a number of attacks, and isn’t really meant to be playable in any form, I’d say he’s this game’s Wild Card. The legend lives on after all.I’m relatively tempted to try a playthrough as Jax; I swear it’s probably doable, too. One to test out in the future, certainly, as I have this sneaking suspicion that it’s possible.On the whole, Jax is weirdly good. The same can’t be said for the other NPCs, however. Up next, it’s Jax’s partner in crime-stopping, Sonya.
#1170 Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks (PS2) Bosses (15/15): Ermac gameplay AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2021-01-11 | Gameplay of the boss Ermac in Midway/Netherrealm’s Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks.Ermac’s moves:• Square: Auto-combo• Triangle: Uppercut (Infinite!)• Circle: Knock-Back attack• R1+Square: [Same as Square]• R1+Triangle: [Same as Triangle]• R1+Circle: [Same as Circle]• Square+Triangle: Telekinetic Slam• Triangle+Circle: Teleport Punch• Circle+Square: Projectile• R2: Force Pull• L1: Glitched Teleport PunchGoddamn. The best secret of the entire game, the MK team, mad lads that they are, actually decided to go ahead and implement a hidden Ermac battle. And even it takes place in the statues stage from MK1, and incorporates the statues as enemies! It’s ridiculously badass, and it impresses me as much now as it did back then. If you thought Shaolin Monks was already an overload of fanservice, this part was certainly the tipping point.Unlike many of the bosses, Ermac absolutely rocks in human hands. It helps that his moves are really good, but they also seem to link into one another better than most. His uppercut is an infinite, and can be used on down enemies, meaning that it’s a great follow-up to his telekinetic slam or force pull attacks. His telekinetic slam not only deals a ton of damage to opponent, but can affect multiple enemies at once. Likewise, his force pull attack hits the opponent twice, hits multiple opponents, and knocks them down pulling drawing in them close so you can then follow-up with an uppercut or two, making it a crowd-control move and a set-up for an infinite at the same time! His projectile is pretty good, his teleport punch attacks come in handy in tighter situations, and even his combo is pretty decent for just getting a few extra hits. The only problem with most of his attacks is that, if they miss, they’ll leave him wide open for punishment. As a result, his telekinetic slam is a bit of a risk/reward move, as it deals the most damage if it hits but also leaves him relatively vulnerable, making it often safer to use the force pull attack as the delay is shorter, seems to affect a group of opponents more consistently, and often allows you to uppercut them all at once. Speaking of, his uppercut is one of my favourites as he actually moves forward while he doesn’t, closing the distance to the opponent every time in the process, and making for a ridiculous easy infinite as a result.On the whole, this just makes Ermac absolutely brilliant. A playthrough with him, quite frankly, is probably entirely doable, and I’m actually quite tempted to do one myself. He was a great inclusion here by Netherrealm, and a testament to that is how well he plays even controlled by a human. On the whole, a great way to end the coverage of the bosses.Not done yet, however, as we still need to look at both the unplayable characters, and the regular hidden characters. The NPCs will be up next, starting with everyone’s favourite patriotic cyborg.Here’s an interesting tidbit. There are actually two values for Ermac in the game’s data; one for his boss form, and another one which completely lacks a move set. This value just so happens to be in the range of the game’s unlockable characters. Could it be that, at one point, the MK team was actually planning to make Ermac an unlockable character of some kind? This certainly suggests that.That’s it for them bosses. Up next, the unplayables.
#1169 Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks (PS2) Bosses (14/15): Kano gameplay AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2021-01-04 | Gameplay of the boss Kano in Midway/Netherrealm’s Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks.Obligatory video:youtube.com/watch?v=717GaTaYXG0Kano’s moves:• Square: Auto-Combo• Triangle: Shoulder Charge [Infinite]• Circle: Throw and Pounce• R1+Square: Taunt• R1+Triangle: Headbutt [Has some kind of spread effect to it]• R1+Circle: [I don’t quite know what the fuck it is, but I love it. It’s the move where he slides along the floor while putting his hands in the air]• Square+Triangle: Butterfly Knife Uppercut [Infinite]• Triangle+Circle: Butterfly Knife Combo• Circle+Square: [Nothing]There’s a codebreaker code for Shaolin Monks known as the “Boss Fix Code”, which is known for fixing glitches certain bosses and giving moves back to bosses who lack them when they’re manually hacked. I tried to get it working for Kano here but, unfortunately, no dice. The game would just crash for me personally if I tried to use the codes, unfortunately.Kano is slightly neutered if you just manually hack to play as him. Many of the bosses are, technically, but it’s significantly more noticeable with Kano, who doesn’t even innately have his projectile attack or his trademark cannonball move. What you get left with is…well, a really bland character honestly. An auto-combo, two infinites, a throw attack, a taunt (for some reason), a relatively useless headbutt, and another combo attack which doesn’t do a whole lot. Kano isn’t really that amazing, even if he did have his other moves, but then again he’s an optional, secret boss in the game, so that is to some extent probably to be expected. The fact that they bothered to include him at all as a secret boss is honestly awesome, and even though like Mileena he feels a bit limited, it’s not really something that ends up impacting upon the boss fight. I mean, he’s not supposed to be played as, so I can’t be too harsh on his moveset, though he’s certainly not a character I’d want to try to playthrough with.Next up, one of the more shocking inclusions of Shaolin monks as we look at the last hidden boss.
#1168 Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks (PS2) Bosses (13/15): Mileena gameplay AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2020-12-11 | Gameplay of the boss/hidden boss Mileena in Midway/Netherrealm’s Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks.Mileena’s moves:• Square: Sai Auto-combo• Triangle: Sai Launch and Teleport Kick• Circle: Knock-Back Attack• R1+Square: [Same as Square]• R1+Triangle: [Same as Triangle]• R1+Circle: [Same as Circle]• Square+Triangle: Sai Projectile• Triangle+Circle: Rolling Attack• Circle+Square: Teleport KickWell, we’re finally onto the hidden bosses. Because you can’t have an MK game without hidden bosses, I suppose. Funny too, because this time Mileena is the hidden female ninja instead of Jade. Like so many things in this game, go figure.Mileena is fought initially in a triple boss fight with Jade and Kitana, but there is also a hidden boss fight with her that you can do later in the game. I still have a faint memory of discovering it back in 2005 and it was definitely a little mind-blowing. As is probably to be expected, Shaolin Monks has some ridiculous cryptic (kryptic?) secrets, including the infamous hidden survival mode, as well as the other two hidden bosses we’ll see next. This game is pretty much fanservice incarnate, but it may well be the single best piece of fanservice I’ve ever seen.Mileena here is…well, honestly not very good. The damage she deals is ridiculously low, her auto-combo only hits twice, and the rest of her attacks are either too delayed, or are really difficult to land consistently. She’s a boss who’s meant to frustrate the player rather than really challenge them as such, and like many MK bosses she works when the CPU is using her, but in human hands you lose the context of the encounter and she comes across as a bit rubbish. It doesn’t help that her attacks after seem to land her in danger after they’re used, or put her in a position where it’s difficult to follow-up with any other attacks. For instance, her rolling attack is probably the only really consistent one she has, but as it usually places her behind the enemy it makes it difficult to then follow it up with another one, despite the fact that the move can innately combo.Mileena is just too limited to be viable here, but that’s more or less the point really. She’s one third of a trio, and so of course she’s going to feel incomplete when she’s not paired with the other two components that make up her boss fight. She still feeling really authentic here, with her classic moves, design, and everything, but I can’t say I’d really recommend playing as her.Up next, it’s Cyborg Crocodile Dundee.
#1167 Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks (PS2) Bosses (12/15): Jade gameplay AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2020-12-07 | Gameplay of the boss Jade in Midway/Netherrealm’s Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks.Jade’s moves:• Square: Auto-combo• Triangle: Staff Uppercut and Ground Smash• Circle: Knock-Back Attack• R1+Square: [Same as Square]• R1+Triangle: [Same as Triangle]• R1+Circle: [Same as Circle]• Square+Triangle: Projectile attack• Triangle+Circle: (Nothing)• Circle+Square: Shadow KickLike Kitana, Jade is pretty basic on the whole, though much more viable. She has a four-hit auto-combo which deals okay damage, though it can be difficult to land the entire combo sometimes. Her knock-back attack is fine, like most others, and she also has access to a projectile attack, and a shadow-kick reminiscent of Johnny’s. I think she’s invincible during the shadow-kick, but I couldn’t say that for certain, but it’s one of her safer attacks so it’s not too bad on the whole. Her best attack is easily that crowd-control ground smash attack of hers, which can not only launch an opponent into the air and hit enemies around her, but can even be comboed. Indeed, Jade’s pretty decent at landing hits and avoiding them, but she doesn’t have any overly powerful attacks and so takes a ridiculous amount of time to kill even a few enemies. I always felt the enemies in Shaolin Monks had far too much health, and I can’t help but say that I feel these videos have proved my point, when even certain bosses struggle to take them down. Given that she’s fought in a triple boss fight however, it’s understandable as to why they made a little underpowered compared to some of the other bosses, especially she, err, doesn’t exactly last too long in the story. Shame too; I really love her design, and I’d even go so far as to call it my favourite, like so many of the designs in this game.You could probably do a playthrough with Jade, but it would be extremely repetitive and time-consuming. Not one I’d recommend, certainly.Up next, Kitana’s butterface sister.
#1166 Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks (PS2) Bosses (11/15): Boss Kitana gameplay AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2020-12-04 | Gameplay of the boss Boss Kitana in Midway/Netherrealm’s Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks.Boss Kitana’s moves:• Square: Spiral Kick• Triangle: Fan Twirl• Circle: Knock-Back Attack• R1+Square: [Same as Square]• R1+Triangle: [Same as Triangle]• R1+Circle: [Same as Circle]• Square+Triangle: Fan Throw• Triangle+Circle: Fan Lift• Circle+Square: Square DashMy girl’s back, and this time she’s ready to save the world. Or not, because unfortunately her boss form sucks. She has six attacks, and they all feel very botched when playing as her. The reason for this, presumably, is because her boss fight in the game is a triple boss-fight along with Jade and Mileena, and they had to make it so that she wasn’t too overpowered so as to not make the fight unfair. This makes perfect sense of course, but it leaves Boss Kitana feeling surprisingly bad to play as. His spiral kick auto-combo is not only weak but often blocked by enemies, her knock-back attack is too delayed, and his special moves are pretty useless; the fan throw deals minimal damage, the square dash is useless because the enemies don’t jump, and the fan lift is beyond useless because by the time it’s over, there’s not enough time for Kitana to follow up with another attack! It’s really just there so Mileena or Jade can get a free hit on the player, which makes sense in the context of the boss fight, but it feels really weird otherwise.Boss Kitana is incredibly weak, and really no fun to play as. Even defeating three enemies with her was awful, as the only viable attack of hers is her Fan Twirl as it attacks in an Area of Effect and can be followed-up infinitely if you’re skilled enough. However, given the low amount of damage it deals, and the difficulty of actually comboing with it, trying this soon becomes a test of patience more than anything else. You could try a playthrough with her, but I can say upfront that it would probably be really miserable. The only saving graces are that her design is brilliant, and her playable variant more than makes up for this one.Next up, the other hidden green ninja.
#1165 Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks (PS2) Bosses (10/15): Boss Reptile gameplay AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2020-11-30 | Gameplay of the boss Boss Reptile in Midway/Netherrealm’s Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks.Boss Reptile’s moves:• Square: [Nothing. He just glitches a little]• Triangle: Anti-Air Orb• Circle: Thrust Kick• R1+Square: [Same as Square]• R1+Triangle: [Same as Triangle]• R1+Circle: [Same as Circle]• Square+Triangle: Acid Spit• Triangle+Circle: Levitating Orb• Circle+Square: Acid Slide• R2: Turn InvisibleOh boy. Reptile here is pretty awful. He has no regular combos nor strong attacks, and doesn’t even have a square attack for some reason. He does at least have his classic moves; his acid spit, levitating orb and acid slide abilities, and like Johnny he has an R2 move, and also like Johnny it’s to turn invisible. Go Figure. Otherwise, he has his anti-air orb attack, which is pretty useless and very difficult to land, and thrust kick attack which is so delayed that it’s not really worthwhile. Add to this the fact that, once turned invisible he can’t become change back to the normal by regular enemy attacks, and you have a boss who really isn’t very enjoyable to use in player hands. A shame really, but luckily Reptile does have a playable variant who we’ll be seeing in the future anyway. Reptile is one of the game’s earlier bosses so I suppose it’s to be expected that he wouldn’t be overly powerful, but Boss Reptile might well be the most underwhelming boss in the game to play as, which just doesn’t feel right for the original hidden character of all people. Still, as I always say in these situations, c’est la vie.Up next, Best Girl gets a boss variant.
#1164 Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks (PS2) Bosses (9/15): Boss Johnny Cage gameplay AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2020-11-27 | Gameplay of the boss Boss Johnny Cage in Midway/Netherrealm’s Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks.Boss Johnny Cage’s moves:• Square: Jeet Kune Do smash• Triangle: Axe Kick [Infinite]• Circle: Projectile• R1+Square: [Same as Square]• R1+Triangle: [Same as Triangle]• R1+Circle: [Same as Circle]• Square+Triangle: Rising Shadow Uppercut• Triangle+Circle: Shadow Kick• Circle+Square: Push and Uppercut [Instant Kill!]• R2: Turn invisibleJohnny here is a weird one. For a start, he has an R2 attack where he turns invisible. Very few of the bosses have R2 moves from what I’ve seen, but I’ll note down any that do. Secondly, his R1 attacks are the exact same as his regular ones. These include a relatively useless Jeet Kune Do esque smash attack, a brilliant axe kick attack which can be used to infinite, and his trademark projectile attack which is pretty difficult to use. He also has access to his shadow uppercut and shadow kick attacks, which both look awesome and come out incredibly quickly, and the uppercut variant can even be comboed into from the axe kick.I have to address the elephant in the room however and acknowledge that Johnny, like Boss Sub-Zero, also has an instant-kill attack. It has much worse range, but the animation is much quicker, and so Johnny can easily decimate a group of opponents within mere seconds. Stunning opponents with a projectile can be a good means of set up to pull off this move, so Johnny’s other attacks are certainly useful.On the whole, despite being more limited than the other bosses Johnny is still brilliant, and I’d be intrigued to see if a playthrough is possible with him as well.Up next, another video on the original hidden character.
#1163 Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks (PS2) Bosses (8/15): Boss Sub-Zero gameplay AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2020-11-23 | Gameplay of the boss Boss Sub-Zero in Midway/Netherrealm’s Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks.Boss Sub-Zero’s moves:• Square: Auto-combo• Triangle: Triple Uppercut• Circle: Knock-Back Ice Smash• R1+Square: Freeze• R1+Triangle: Slide• R1+Circle: Ground Freeze• Square+Triangle: Spine Rip [Instant kill!]• Triangle+Circle: Ice Uppercut• Circle+Square: Overhead KickBoss Sub-Zero is insane. He has all three of regular Sub-Zero special moves, as well as a few other moves. He has a decent enough auto-combo, as well as a delayed knock-back smash attack, an overhead kick attack and a slightly delayed overhead kick. His best regular damaging attack is his triple uppercut, which is so powerful it can take off half the opponent’s health in one combo! It leaves him open to counter-attack if he misses, but it’s so good when successful that it’s still worth using.However, something one ups it. For some reason, for some ridiculous reason, they decided to give Sub-Zero his spine rip fatality. As a regular special move. Presumably, this is during the parts where the player teams up with him, so it was never meant for regular use. And it’s easy to see why, because the thing, as you might suspect, is a goddamn insta-kill move. An instant kill move. In a beat-em-up. I mean, in a fighting game, or an action-adventure game, that’s bad enough. In a beat-em-up, a genre all about being outnumbered and surrounded, it’s absolutely hilarious. As with all boss throws Sub-Zero is invincible during it, meaning he can destroy most enemies at well, and all the other opponents can do is watch in shock and horror as a brightly-coloured ninja rips their heads off one by one. Truly, this is the Godfrey Ho film that never was. The only thing about this attack is that it doesn’t allow you to recover health after it’s performed, but given how good Boss Sub-Zero’s other moves are this hardly matters.I may try to do a playthrough as Boss Sub-Zero at some point, to see if that Spine-Rip attack really is as impervious as it seems. I doubt it works on things like the flying enemies and bosses, but it would certainly be interesting to find out.Next up, a video on the boss variant of our favorite Van Damme rip-off.
#1162 Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks (PS2) Bosses (7/15): Boss Scorpion gameplay AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2020-11-20 | Gameplay of the boss Boss Scorpion in Midway/Netherrealm’s Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks.[Boss Scorpion’s moves are the exact same as Inferno Scorpion]Err, yeah. Boss Scorpion’s moves are the exact same as Inferno Scorpion’s. He can use those flame breath attacks at will, though interesting his mask will reappear after his does so, implying that Inferno Scorpion was only created as a separate value to be able to have his model and name appear differently during the boss fight, something which the Goro boss fight didn’t have to deal with. As a result, Boss Scorpion is as viable as his inferno counterpart, which is to say a fair bit, but there isn’t much point playing as him when you could play as his orange, Mr Skeltal variant instead.Up next, we’re gonna get the cold shoulder.
#1161 Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks (PS2) Bosses (6/15): Inferno Scorpion gameplay AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2020-11-16 | Gameplay of the boss Inferno Scorpion in Midway/Netherrealm’s Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks.Inferno Scorpion’s moves:• Square: Triple swipe• Triangle: Haymaker and knock back• Circle: Kick combo• R1+Square: Ground fireball (also removes his mask)• R1+Triangle: Lava breath (also removes his mask)• R1+Circle: Teleport punch• Square+Triangle: Uppercut• Triangle+Circle: Running divekick• Circle+Square: Leg sweepInferno Scorpion is pretty damn badass. His regular moves, like his swipe combo and his knock-back attacks, are great at keeping the enemy at bay, and he also has access to Scorpion’s regular special moves like his uppercut, teleport and leg-sweep attacks, meaning that he’s great at keeping his distance from and countering enemies. His uppercut is so quick it can even be used to infinite regular opponents, which is incredibly helpful in a one-on-one scenario.The major difference he has from his other forms is his flame breath attacks. The first one is a single ground fireball, reminiscent of the one Kintaro has in MK9, but not only attacks but leaves an environmental hazard which damages the enemy. His lava breath attack is much the same, although it covers more ground, lasts longer, and doesn’t deal any damage initially, which almost made me think it was glitched at first. It keeps opponents away from him, which was great, but if used when the opponent is against a wall it will even combo them! It’s difficult to get this set up, but if you can do then the opponent will take tons of damage, and can even be stunlocked to death with it. Which, of course, is ridiculously satisfying. His fire-breath attacks are more or less essentially therefore for crowd-control, although they have to be used sparingly as they have a long wind-up to them, and even easy for Scorpion to be countered during them. Use them correctly though, and you’ll have barbecued Oni in no time.Inferno Scorpion is, therefore, seemingly quite viable as a character for a playthrough, given that he has access to infinites, AOE attacks and evasion attacks like his teleport attacks, with a couple of combo attacks thrown in too. He’s pretty damn good on the whole and I quite enjoyed playing as him here. Nearly all of his moves stun the opponent in some way, or allow you to gain distance against them, being him much easier to use than most of the bosses. I remember him being a really intimidating boss to fight the first time I played through Shaolin Monks, so it’s nice that he’s actually quite viable as a playable character too.Up next, the non-fiery variant.
#1160 Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks (PS2) Bosses (5/15): Boss Baraka gameplay AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2020-11-13 | Gameplay of the boss Boss Baraka in Midway/Netherrealm’s Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks.Boss Baraka’s moves:• Square: Projectile• Triangle: Spread projectile• Circle: Scissor Swipes• R1+Square: Triple slash combo• R1+Triangle: Somersault grab• R1+Circle: Sweep slash• Square+Triangle: Backhand• Triangle+Circle: Air slash• Circle+Square: Sweep and impale grabBaraka is definitely a mixed bag. He has a lot of his iconic moves, but in regular gameplay they’re a bit lacking. He has two projectiles, a single one and a spread-shot one, but the timing on the spread-shot one makes it a bit impractical. His regular sweeps just don’t really do enough damage, and even his scissor swipes attack is surprisingly useless. The two real upsides he has are his running air slash attack, which is relatively safe, as well as his two grab attacks. Not only are these incredibly easily to perform, with the somersault one being really safe, but they deal good damage and he’s invincible while using them. He has a small bit of combo potential, being able to chain his air slash into his triple swipe and even then his single projectile, but it can be difficult to execute these consistently. On the whole, a skilled player could definitely do a playthrough with Boss Baraka, but it would certainly be an uphill battle. Still, definitely some potential on the whole. Unfortunately, Baraka takes chip damage from blocking, which means the game doesn’t count it as a real block for some reason, and so you’d need to play as him beyond the tutorial parts of the game, like most of the unplayables. I’m not even sure why it wouldn’t work for him; most of the unplayables manage it just fine, even if they take block damage, but it just glitched with Baraka for some reason. Not a huge loss however, given how gimped his moves are it probably wouldn’t make for the most fun of playthroughs.Up next, the fiery variant of everyone’s favourite yellow ninja.
#1159 Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks (PS2) Bosses (4/15): Goro gameplay AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2020-11-09 | Gameplay of the boss Goro in Midway/Netherrealm’s Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks.Goro’s moves:• Square: Uppercut• Triangle: Pillar Sweep • Circle: Air Stomp• R1+Square: Uppercut (same as Square)• R1+Triangle: Pillar Ground Smash• R1+Circle: Taunt• Square+Triangle: Air Grab• Triangle+Circle: Pillar Twirl• Circle+Square: Quadruple fireballOnce more, hacking allows us to do yet another Goro video. Thank God, as I always relish the chance I get to play as one of my favorite bosses.Goro has two forms in this game; his initial version, and his version where he fights with a pillar, halfway through the fight or so. Interestingly it appears that they’re one in the same, and he just only uses his pillar moves during his second phase. Go figure! Goro has wind-up to a lot of his attacks, making him unfortunately quite vulnerable a lot of the time. His air stomp and pillar sweep attacks are absolutely essential for crowd control, as he otherwise just gets overwhelmed when surrounded. He can also do an infinite with his uppercut, which is extremely useful when only facing one opponent, but can potentially lead to him getting surrounded. It’s also possible to use a crowd control move, then focus on one enemy with uppercuts, then use another crowd control move when the other enemies start to close in on him again, although I found this relatively risky. He can block, thank God, so a playthrough with Goro is probably entirely possible, though probably more difficult than some others. Probably his most notable move is that quadruple fireball attack of his, which is innately awesome but can also really help to keep a single opponent or so at bay. Unfortunately, like most of his other attacks it has a lot of wind-up to it, so it has to be used sparingly. On the whole, he’s pretty much what you’d expect from Goro. His crowd-control attacks are pretty good, but the rest leave a bit to be desired, at least when playing as him. As a boss to fight against he’s brilliant of course, but probably not the most viable for a regular playthrough.Up next, the boss version of Baraka Obama.
#1158 Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks (PS2) Bosses (3/15): Shang Tsung (MK2) gameplay AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2020-10-30 | Gameplay of the boss MK2 Shang Tsung in Midway/Netherrealm’s Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks.Shang Tsung’s moves:• Square: Auto-combo• Triangle: Double-kick• Circle: Drain-grab• R1+Square: Fireball • R1+Triangle: Triple Fireball• R1+Circle: Air Fireball• Square+Triangle: Air Punch and Divekick• Triangle+Circle: Fire Taunt (deals no damage)• Circle+Square: Fire Launcher (hard to use. Can also potentially cause Shang to fall through the floor)MK2 Shang Tsung is surprisingly good on the whole! The sub-sub-boss of the game, fought in a three-form boss fight with Kintaro and Shao Kahn as well, MK2 Shang Tsung always felt a little less intimidating to me than his MK1 version did, but that was probably due to him being knocked down a couple of pegs in the boss hierarchy. Still, he is surprisingly good here. His Auto-combo is really good, as is the triple fireball. His fire launcher would be useful were it not so inconsistent. It can, I’m not kidding, also cause him to fall through the floor at random times. He just slinks through the stage and then falls to his death below; it’s like something out of a Road-Runner cartoon. His best technique, unsurprisingly, is that drain-grab attack of his. It’s bloody brilliant though, allowing him to steal life from his opponents at will, making a playthrough with him really viable. And, of course, he’s also invincible during it, meaning he could just steal health over and over again to win if need be. Which, let’s face it, sounds exactly like something Shang Tsung would do.On the whole, very impressed with Shang Tsung here. It would probably be slow process trying to do a playthrough as him, but I reckon it’s entirely doable.Up next, MK1’s sub-boss gets another video.
#1157 Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks (PS2) Bosses (2/15): Kintaro gameplay AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2020-10-26 | Gameplay of the boss Kintaro in Midway/Netherrealm’s Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks.Kintaro’s moves:• Square: Punch• Triangle: Air Grab• Circle: [Nothing]• R1+Square: Fireball• R1+Triangle: Uppercut• R1+Circle: Stomp Attack• Square+Triangle: [Nothing]• Triangle+Circle: [Nothing]• Circle+Square: Throw attackKintaro really isn’t great here. Shock and horror, I know. He’s very basic, a bit slow, and honestly just kind of rubbish. His moves are way too slow to be effective. His best move is his throw, which hits three times and is executed really quickly. His fireball isn’t too shabby either, and his punch attack is good for crowd control, but a little on the slow side. In general, however, he’s considerably more basic than the majority of the characters and a little awkward to use on the whole. Which, ironically, was the same complaint I made about him in MK9. At least Netherrealm is consistent with this stuff!Next up, the sub-sub-boss.
#1156 Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks (PS2) Bosses (1/15): Shao Kahn gameplay AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2020-10-19 | Gameplay of the final boss Shao Kahn in Midway/Netherrealm’s Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks.Shao Kahn’s moves:• Square: Punch Combo• Triangle: Shoulder Charge• Circle: Projectile• R1+Square: Hammer Smash• R1+Triangle: Launching Hammer Attack• R1+Circle: Rising Shoulder Charge• Square+Triangle: Taunt• Triangle+Circle: Knock-away punch• Circle+Square: Throw attackWell, the vote was more one-sided than a North Korean election, so here it is. It’s time to cover the fantastic Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks, in one of the only times I’ll cover a beat-em-up on this channel.For the record, I love beat-em-ups; I would actually go so far as to say that I like them more than fighting games. In fact, the next project I plan to work on once this project is completed, or goes on hiatus, is going to be a retrospective on arcade beat-em-ups, which will probably consist of arcade titles and then inevitably end up looking at most of the console beat-em-ups anyway. Basically, this won’t be the last time I’ll be looking at Shaolin Monks.Shaolin Monks was released in 2005, a year after Deception, and it was just astoundingly good. I don’t think it quite has the impact nowadays that it had then, but it’s still a fantastic game. To try and contextualise it from my own, subjective perspective, it felt like the MK series was in a bit of lull by the release of Deception. Deception is in its own right a fantastic game, but despite probably playing better than the original trilogy (in its own way, anyhow) I couldn’t help but think it a little bit lesser, especially compared to a game like MK2 which still captured my imagination in a way the others’ just never really did. Indeed, if the original trilogy was the Golden Age, then the 3D sub-series was the Silver Age; still good in its own right, though not quite as powerful as it once was. The release of something like Shaolin Monks absolutely blew me out of the water in 2005 therefore; it just felt so unexpected at the time. After so long, you had an MK game that was not only harkening back to the most beloved game in the series, but expanding upon it and fleshing it out too. The redesigns were great, the gameplay was fantastic, the graphics were (for the time) really damn good, and above all else it was just filled with a ridiculous amount of fanservice. Sure, even if you didn’t know the series you probably would have enjoyed it, but those who knew it inside and out would end up enjoying every second of it, from the boss battles, to the iconic stages recreated from MK2, to the beat-em-ups/metroidvania hybrid gameplay, to hidden characters for the 2-player mode and even the ability to unlock and play as Scorpion and Sub-Zero in the main story. And then there were the cameos from characters like Smoke, the hidden boss battles (including one against Ermac!), the occasional sections where you’d team up with other characters, and so much more where the MK team had developed things we’d only really seen in passing before.The game not only has a ton of unlockables, but you can even unlock the original arcade version of MK2 to play! Well, in North America anyway, we didn’t get it in Europe for some reason. Even then that was inconsistent; I had a German friend years back who was a fan of the MK series, and on the topic of this game he mentioned that pretty much all the fatalities were censored in the German version! Like, Jesus, that’s just butchering the game by that point, but the less said about Germany’s ridiculous censorship laws the better. We also missed out on the Gamecube version of MKDeception in Europe too, I should add, so this was still very much the era when it felt like Europe was being shafted when it came to most things.[description continued in a pinned comment]
#1155 Mortal Kombat X (Steam) Horror DLC Characters (4/4): Leatherface gameplay. AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2020-10-12 | Gameplay of the DLC character Jason Vorhees in the Steam/PC Port of Netherrealm Studio’s Mortal Kombat X.Oh joy. Leatherface.Leatherface was actually one of the original slasher villains, starting all the way back in the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre film in 1974. Although I find the likes of Jason and Freddy more iconic, they wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for pioneering films such as this and, later, John Carpenter’s Halloween in 1978.While I love psychological horror films, slashers have just never done much for me, barring the original Nightmare on Elm’s Street. Part of their appeal is their lo-fi nature, really, a trend which has continued right up to the modern era with films like Paranormal Activity. I can enjoy a good lo-fi effort from time to time, be that a good independent film like Clerks or Christopher Nolan’s The Following, or even a cheesy Godfrey Ho film. Horror at the right time of year (i.e., during Spooktober, which we’re currently in) can also make it pretty good, getting into the mood for it. As for nowadays though…I just don’t really get the point of horror films when True Crime is not only a million times more interesting, but also true as well. Horror films worked better in an age where information was last wide-spread, so they had a kind of mystique and edge to them as these “video nasties”, that were going to corrupt the youth and steer them towards satanism, or whatever. The fact that you usually had to go to one of those sleazy B-movie cinemas only added to that, to be sure. In the era of VHS trading and collecting, things like the slasher films or infamous exploitative stuff like Faces of Death just made a lot more sense, as there was a sense of macabre discovery when you watched them. Nowadays though, why do I need to watch a fake slasher villain when I can read up on real serial killers like Ted Bundy and the Original Nightstalker? There’s tons of sites for gore, most of all Liveleak of course. The brutality of the Hong Kong triads and the Yakuza are infinitely worse than your average film director can conjure up in their films, so if the idea is to be scared by them, then it’s not overly effective, to me anyway.Then there’s the fact that it’s just difficult to care about the protagonists in horror films, as they’re barely established, usually assholes, and are killed off pretty quickly, and sometimes in hilarious ways. I’m sure this wasn’t intentional, but there are a couple of times in Texas Chainsaw Massacre where Leatherhead kills one of the teens by just bonking him on the head with a mallet and it sent me into hysterics each time. The development of modern television has allowed for much more intricate stories in any genre you could wish, and though there are still great films being made to this day (1917 and Parasite being the two masterpieces of this year, and good examples of films which can and should only really be seen in a cinema), television simply has the potential to create stories in a way that film never will do, and can explore certain genres and things which can only be half-developed in a film. If I had to talk about horror done right in a tv series, Series 3 of Stranger Things is probably one of the best examples I can think of, especially the scenes in the hospital. Series 1 was brilliant too, mainly the way it felt very much based in the reality of disappearances which were all too common in the 80s in the American Mid-West (seriously, look it up; still tons of unsolved cases from there to this day), but by Series 3 we really care about these characters, and we know them well, so putting them in a true horror scenario gives so much more weight and impact than it would in a film, especially at a point where it’s been established that even beloved characters can die. I know people had other issues with that series (most legit, truth be told), but that was one of those moments where I really saw the potential of television as a medium for horror.[Continued in a pinned comment]
#1154 Mortal Kombat X (Steam) Horror DLC Characters (3/4): Alien gameplay. AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2020-10-05 | Gameplay of the DLC character Alien in the Steam/PC Port of Netherrealm Studio’s Mortal Kombat X.Alien and Aliens are two of the most perfect films in existence. Very few franchises could change a director and turn out a different but equally fantastic film, and somehow make it work, but James Cameron is just talented like that. They then had a bunch of superfluous sequels which weren’t even worth bothering with; very similar actually to the first two Terminator films, which likewise are very different from one another but both still outstandingly good films, and both directed by James Cameron.It’s kinda strange that the Alien here is just called Alien, considering they’re called Xenomorphs in the franchise, but whatever. I guess it’s just a more recognisable name. When Predator was announced, people knew that Alien would just be around the corner, and indeed it was. Alien and Predator have been paired up as franchises since the early 90s, leading to video games (including that great Capcom beat-em-up), comics, as well as two rather disappointing films. Then there were the other alien films, and Prometheus and, yeah, we don’t need to go into all of that; just like Terminator, stick to the first two films and a few of the games and you’ll be golden.It's great too as the xenomorph here is fantastic. He has some absolutely fantastic special moves, the best part of which being that they combo into each other with relative ease, and there’s tons of little mix-ups at your disposal. There’s just something very…logical, I suppose, about his moveset; there’s something of a flow to it where you seem to naturally figure out and execute combos over other characters, and it was a real joy to experience on the whole. Definitely my kind of character, that’s for sure. Last up, it’s a character from a horror film where I spent most of it laughing my arse off.
#1153 Mortal Kombat X (Steam) Horror DLC Characters (2/4): Predator gameplay. AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2020-09-28 | Gameplay of the DLC character Predator in the Steam/PC Port of Netherrealm Studio’s Mortal Kombat X.“GET TOO DA CHOPPA”Predator is the titular character of the 1987 action film, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Carl Weathers. The origin of Predator as a film is pretty funny; it originally started as a goofy, hypothetical film about Rocky Balboa taking on an alien opponent, as he had no one left to fight on earth. It instead ended up as a kind of mix between the Rambo films and the Alien films, and saw a group of mercenaries haunted down in a South American forest by the predator himself. It’s not nearly as scary as Alien, as but it definitely has its moments, and it’s a pretty good film on the whole given that it’s a weird mix between action and horror, reminiscent in that way of James Cameron’s Aliens. There were also a few sequels, but we don’t talk about them. I’ll talk more about the Alien and Predator connection next time, as I think it’ll be more appropriate there.As for the predator himself, eh, not too impressed with him personally. He has some decent combos, but I really didn’t care for his special moves, and personally I couldn’t really suss out his playstyle, if that makes sense. They also seemed to go for the weird big-headed predators from the Alien vs. Predator film franchise here for some reason, which I never really thought was a good look; they always looked slenderer in other adaptions, notably Capcom’s excellent beat-em-up of the same name.Also of note, Jax even got a Carl Weathers costume here, and of course Arnie himself eventually ended up in MK11, which made me ridiculously happy. The “YOU SON OF A BITCH” line from Predator always makes me crack up now due to how many Arnie prank calls I’ve listened to over the years. Which, uh, by this point is too many to count. Lastly, Jean Claude Van Damme was originally going to play the Predator in the original film! There are a few on-set pictures of this floating around the internet, too. He left after only a couple of days however, and would instead sign-on to a little film called Bloodsport, and the rest is history. Follow your heart, as they say.Next up, let’s give that xenomorph a look.
#1152 Mortal Kombat X (Steam) Horror DLC Characters (1/4): Jason Vorhees gameplay. AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2020-09-21 | Gameplay of the DLC character Jason Vorhees in the Steam/PC Port of Netherrealm Studio’s Mortal Kombat X.Jason is the antagonist of the Friday the 13th film franchise. He’s been in a ridiculous number of films, including going into space one time, and even going up against Freddy at one point.After Freddy was revealed in MK9, I remember people saying something along the lines of “well, Jason can’t be far behind then.” And then we ended up having to wait four years to see him in an MK game.That said, it was a genius move of Netherrealm to announce him as the first guest character for the game. The only problem with that being…well, they really went a bit too all in with the guest characters in this game. I mean, one or two is fine, but four out of the main eight DLC characters are guest characters from horror films. A Jason or a Freddy is fine, but when you’re getting characters like Leatherface included over Rain or Baraka, it just seems a bit much. By that point, you might as well just make a slasher fighting game instead; you’d satisfy two demographics and potentially make even more money in the process.I guess Netherrealm went with the horror guest characters for a bit of shock value, presumably because slasher villains tend to be quite gorey and brutal like the MK characters, but thematically-speaking it’s actually a bit weird. The first Mortal Kombat game is actually based on martial arts and actions films as opposed to Horror films, which is typified by the fact that it was originally going to be a Jean Claude Van Damme fighting game. In fact, all the original characters were inspired by action films/stars in some way:- Liu Kang is of course based on the legend himself, Bruce Lee.- Johnny Cage is based on Jean Claude Van Damme, mostly notably his performances in Kickboxer and Bloodsport.- Sonya Blade is based on Cynthia Rothrock, an 80s/90s action star who appeared in some of Godfrey Ho’s films like Honor and Glory, and Undefeatable.- Raiden, Goro and Shang Tsung are all based off of characters from John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China.- Scorpion and Sub-Zero are probably based on the brightly-coloured ninjas of Godfrey Ho films.- Kano, I suspect anyway, is probably based off of Australian actor Stuart Smith, who played numerous villains in the films of Godfrey Ho/Joseph Lai.MK2 and onward definitely looked more towards the brutal and horror-filmed side of things, but it’s weird that a series which started with martial arts inspirations has embraced its horror side the most, even though it stills retains tons of the tropes and clichés of your average martial arts film. That said, I liked Jason’s inclusion here; his specials are great, and his combos have a lot of weight and power to them. He’s really quite good on the whole, and I had a good amount of fun with him.I definitely like the idea of Jason more than I do the execution; he’s become iconic simply by virtue of how extensively long the Friday the 13th Franchise is. Hell, his most iconic form, with the hockey mask, didn’t even happen until the 3rd film, which is pretty weird when you think about it. Other franchises have only really begun with the second film (Mad Max and Rambo being good examples), but very well with the 3rd film, barring maybe Goldfinger for the James Bond series, and even then Dr. No and From Russia with Love are fantastic films in their own right, even if they’re a little less “classic Bond” than some of the other films.Overall though, very happy with Jason’s inclusion, and a good choice for a guest character.
#1151 Mortal Kombat X (Steam) DLC Characters (7/7): Tri-Borg (Cyber Sub-Zero) gameplay AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2020-09-16 | Gameplay of the DLC character Cyber Sub-Zero in the Steam/PC Port of Netherrealm Studio’s Mortal Kombat X.He’s not too changed from MK9, really. I know he’s definitely lost a few moves in the process, but I actually found him easier and more fun to use here. The combo system to this game seems to have a slightly more logical flow to it than it did in MK9, at least in my opinion. Cyber Sub Zero here retain retains his freezing attacks, including the grenade variety, as well as his slide ability. That finishes it up for the MK DLC characters. Next up, onto them guest characters.
#1150 Mortal Kombat X (Steam) DLC Characters (6/7): Tri-Borg (Smoke) gameplay AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2020-09-07 | Gameplay of the DLC character Smoke in the Steam/PC Port of Netherrealm Studio’s Mortal Kombat X.Smoke's been given a little bit of a mix-up on his classic variant. He has his spear, as well as a teleport drop attack, but he also has smoke bombs will teleport the opponent and then allow them to be air-comboed, which is pretty neat. Probably my favourite variant on the whole, just because teleport and stun attacks are not only some of the most grounded, lenient specials in the game, but also because there's a usually a way to link them into every combo you can find, which makes playing as Smoke very flexible on the whole.Last up, the hidden variant.
#1149 Mortal Kombat X (Steam) DLC Characters (5/7): Tri-Borg (Cyrax) gameplay AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2020-08-31 | Gameplay of the DLC character Cyrax in the Steam/PC Port of Netherrealm Studio’s Mortal Kombat X.All three forms of Triborg are pretty similar (as you'd expect). Cyrax here has his trademark bombs, as you'd expect, as well as his buzzsaw, and of course his net attack. He was alright to play as on the whole. The robo-ninjas have never done much for me, so that's really about as much as I can say here; I was honestly getting kinda bored of MKX by this point.Up next, another look at Smoke
#1148 Mortal Kombat X (Steam) DLC Characters (4/7): Tri-Borg (Sektor) gameplay AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2020-08-24 | Gameplay of the DLC character Sektor in the Steam/PC Port of Netherrealm Studio’s Mortal Kombat X.The most genius idea since Mai in DOA5, Netherrealm decided to use the three-style system to implement all three robot ninjas back into the game at once. Well, that’s strictly true; they actually implemented Cyber Sub-Zero as well, but more on that when I get to that video.So, I’ve covered all the robot ninjas before by this point; Sektor in MK Gold, Cyrax in MK Deadly Alliance, Robot Smoke in MK3 and Cyber Sub-Zero in MK9, making each of the next four videos a reunion video in some way. Which, understandably, tend to be the more fun ones to do, given that the MK team are really consistent about keeping all movesets and working them into the modern games, as we previously saw with NPC Tanya actually being based on her MK Deception self.All the ninjas share a lot of the same combos, but they all have unique special moves. For instance, Sektor retains his homing missiles, regular missiles, teleport punch and flamethrower moves from MK Gold. How cool! His teleport punch works really well in combos, which certainly helps. In general, had a lot of fun with Sektor here.Up next, it’s mustard.
#1147 Mortal Kombat X (Steam) MK DLC Characters (3/7): Tremor gameplay. AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2020-08-17 | Gameplay of the DLC character Tremor in the Steam/PC Port of Netherrealm Studio’s Mortal Kombat X.And we're back. And recently passed 4.3K subscribers! Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Not too fond of this one.Tremor’s the brown ninja who made his playable debut in the PSVita version of MK9, but he made his first appearance in the extremely maligned Mortal Kombat Special Forces as one of the major bosses there, where from what I’ve read he was considered one of the highlights of the game. Not that that was a huge bar for Special Forces. Due to this game’s extensive redesigns, he barely even looks like a typical MK Ninja, but I guess that’s more or less the idea. Almost looks more like a rejected Star Wars villain to me, though. Actually, reminds me a bit of Darth Sion from KOTOR 2.To me, Tremor is the epitome of boring. I can’t stand stone magic in stuff; to me it’s easily the least interesting of the elemental types. Ice, fire and lightning are all pretty badass. Wind can be decent. Earth/stone, however, just ends up pretty dull to me; I didn’t like Mukai in KOF 2003 either, for that matter. On the whole he’s just a mediocre character to me in general; his specials are typical stone-based moves such as earthquakes and rock projectiles, and his combos are slow, heavy-hitting and decent but without being anything too special. I really don’t have very much to say about him that couldn’t be said better by someone else; it’s the problem with covering DLC characters, where they’re so irrelevant to structure of a series such as this that it really does take a competitive player to better highlight the detriments and the positives of the character. Indeed, the very purpose of this archive is more or less becoming redundant within the modern era, as I suspected it eventually would do. Like, I don’t know; I have no interest in nor fond memories of Tremor, nor is he particularly interesting beyond being another character in the series who ended up being legitimised over time, like Ermac, Rain and Skarlet were. He has some decent launchers and some okay combos, particularly as they have a tendency to knock back the opponent quite a distance and potentially into the corner, but unlike many characters he was exactly what I expected him to be and little more. Next up, we revisit all of the cyborg ninjas, which have, in some way shape or form, been covered before. That’s something a little more interesting, at least.
#1146 Mortal Kombat X (Steam) MK DLC Characters (2/7): Bo Rai Cho gameplay. AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2020-07-28 | Gameplay of the DLC character Bo Rai Cho in the Steam/PC Port of Netherrealm Studio’s Mortal Kombat X.“He’s a fat fuck and I hate him” – MrGStar on Bo Rai Cho.Bo Rai Cho is a polarising character. You like him, or you hate him. I'm definitely not fond of him. His name is a pun on the Spanish word “borracho”, which means drunk, and as you can see here he even has a Drunken Master fighting style. It’s a pretty stereotypical fighting style in games of course; popularised in the West by the 1974 Jackie Chan film Drunken Master, we’ve seen lots of characters use it, including Shun Di in the Virtua Fighter series, and even Jackie Chan himself in his own 90s fighting game, which I did videos on a few years back. Indeed, Bo Rai Cho’s usage of it here is yet another martial arts film reference (of which there are tons throughout the MK series), and as fighting styles go it is pretty good.What’s not good is Bo Rai Cho’s aesthetic, which is godawfully childish. Some of his attacks include throwing up on and farting on the opponent; fighting techniques we haven’t seen since Primal Rage 2, of all games. MKX has a lot of this ridiculously meta humour, where it’s purposefully so cringy that you’re supposed to enjoy it. I can see why that would have its fans, but it doesn’t do much for me I must say. The worst part about Bo Rai Cho is that he fucking rocks, from what I’ve played of him anyway. Really logical combos with easy to understand executions, and him becomes even more of a brute when he corners the opponent. He has an insanely easy launch combo (bp, fp) which can even be comboed into over and over again, for around 29% damage or so if you can get the timing. He has a couple of auto-combo specials which basically act like a grab, and can even be hit into from a launch attack, which is pretty cool. His fart attack, for how ridiculous it is, is at least a stun attack, and it means I actually found him quite enjoyable to see, which definitely makes this one of the more cognitively dissonant videos I’ve done, where I both like and dislike the character simultaneously. Overall, a godawful character with a great moveset. Not something we see all too often.
#1145 Mortal Kombat X (Steam) MK DLC Characters (1/7): Tanya gameplay. AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2020-07-20 | Gameplay of the DLC character Tanya in the Steam/PC Port of Netherrealm Studio’s Mortal Kombat X.I’ve warmed more to Tanya since her MK4 and Deception appearances, but I still find her a really undefined character. Even here she seems to be included because she’s a fan favourite, but even then I suspect she’s a fan favourite more because of who she is rather than what she is, which is to say that people like the idea of her rather than what is actually is. Tanya’s different from her NPC version, but more in terms of movesets than overall design. I don’t have much to say about her, other than the fact that I still don’t really care for her as a character. Most MK characters have something about them that stands out; some trademark part of them which they can be defined by. Tanya however really doesn’t, with even her move styles being pretty general; one being an expansion on her generic fireballs, and the others being where she uses tonfas and a naginata respectively. I just…don’t get this character. I can see why they didn’t even want to put her in at first, and just wanted to leave her as a fanservice in the story mode.Tanya here isn’t bad by any means though. As before, she mainly relies on kick techniques, still having Nitara’s splits move from MK Deception (not that she’d ever need it again, I suppose), and a spiral kick move which looks suspiciously like the one Cammy uses in Street Fighter. Not subtle to any extent I suppose, but it works well and suits her playstyle. She also has a couple of interesting teleportation moves, but I forgot to use them here for some reason, and she also has aerial versions of her spiral kick and splits kick moves. And, indeed, she can output some quite competent damage once you’re able to link her combos into her specials, as I found the timing for them a touch awkward, but I think on the whole I still did consistently less damage with her than with her NPC counterpart, which is kind of hilarious.I do love her design though, I won’t deny, but I also get the impression that she gets away with being a mediocre character through her design alone. You don’t get a lot of dark(er)-skinned female characters in fighting games in general, and her design is quite reminiscent of the stereotypical depiction Cleopatra often receives, who Tanya definitely reminds me of at times here.On the whole, I don’t really care for Tanya. Don’t have much else to say than that. That said, if they didn’t make her into a full character, I probably would be bitching about that, so I’ll just be thankful they tried to do something with her, even if it’s still not my cup of tea.And, at the very least, I like her more than the next character.
#1144 Mortal Kombat X (Steam) Bosses (7/7): NPC Tanya gameplay. AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2020-07-15 | Gameplay of the unplayable character/NPC/Boss Tanya in the Steam/PC Port of Netherrealm Studio’s Mortal Kombat X.If you’re wondering how different NPC Tanya is from DLC Tanya, the answer is “a lot”. She is really, REALLY basic here; only a few combo strings, and only a few special moves too. The other three NPCs were toned down versions of their MK9 counterparts, while Tanya here is a returning character who of course initially debuted in MK4. Yeah, one of the only well-liked characters from MK4, and she didn’t even make the initial roster. Yeesh. I covered her back in Deception and was pretty harsh on her there, mainly because she was just so goddamn generic. That may have been why Tanya was assigned as an NPC here; a character they wanted to give some lip-service too without actually having to do much with her. Her moveset speaks to that effect as well, with a generic fireball and a couple of decently powerful flipping kick attacks, as well as a few very basic combos. Also, aerial fireballs, cause she had those before as well I guess. She can still deal some quite nice damage when you get the timings down, you can tell she really was just meant to be a throwaway appearance here. That changed, however, as she was later made a proper DLC character, which we’ll be seeing next time. From NPC to legit character her design doesn’t change much, but she does go from having normal eyes here to having cloudy eyes in her DLC version, reminiscent of Storm from the X-Men series.Tanya’s basic here therefore, and not really worth playing as unless you really like trying out beta movesets. Which, of course, I do. She’s so basic here that it’s an intriguing contrast to how her DLC form turned out, which is to say more fledged out but still a bit generic. We’ll see more of the differences between this Tanya and her DLC-self next time, as I move onto the game’s rather extensive number of DLC characters.
#1143 Mortal Kombat X (Steam) Bosses (6/7): Rain gameplay AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2020-07-06 | Gameplay of the unplayable character/NPC/Boss Rain in the Steam/PC Port of Netherrealm Studio’s Mortal Kombat X.[Rain’s moves are more or less the same as MK9. The only thing he seems to lose is that silly water spout attack of his.]Rain’s actually pretty good. For one, I absolutely love his design here; it was good in MK9, but the more regal look he has here is fantastic, and it’s ridiculous that they didn’t make him into a DLC character at some point.His moves work a little differently than in MK9 and, quite frankly, I actually preferred them. His Lightning attack doesn’t have as much floatiness to it, while his Water Ball attack acts as a regular stun move and allows for an immediate follow-up, unlike the weird properties it had in MK9. He’s pretty light in terms of combos, at least innately, but I actually found him pretty damn fun to play as here. One of the characters who really should have been given an official release, but I guess Netherrealm just weren’t too sure what to do with him. Pity. Still quite a basic, effectively unfinished character, but also one of the more interesting anomalies of this game. On the whole, actually quite competent, and I’ve seen some combo vids make pretty good use of him so there’s something to Rain here, despite his innate limitations otherwise. Most of his basic combos can combo into his water ball attack, and given that that’s much more useful here he goes from being the opaque character that he was in MK9 into one I found a lot more comprehensible by comparison.Lastly, Raspberry Beret is objectively the best Prince song.Next up, the only character to eventually get an official release, but one which is much different than her NPC version.
#1142 Mortal Kombat X (Steam) Bosses (5/7): Baraka gameplay. AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2020-06-29 | Gameplay of the unplayable character/NPC/Boss Baraka in the Steam/PC Port of Netherrealm Studio’s Mortal Kombat X.[Baraka has no X-Ray nor fatalities, but he can used enhanced moves]Baraka’s Moves:Qcf + FP: Blade ProjectileQcb + FP: Flurry StabsQcf + BP: Spinning BladesQcf + FK: Two Arm LungeQcb + BK: Blade TwirlBaraka retains most of his specials from MK9, along with a decent number of combos, but he’s definitely nerfed to be an NPC here. Many of his combos don’t connect in the way they did in MK9, and maybe of his moves also have different properties than they did in MK9 (such as many of his crouching attacks being mid-hits, for some reason). Baraka being an NPC never seemed to settle well with people and it’s pretty understandable; he’s effectively the Voldo of this series with his weird personality and use of extended blades. Given that Tarkatans are their own race, you could sure drum up three variations for Baraka here. But nope; instead Tarkatan representation in this game is consigned entirely to one playstyle for the Xenomorph instead. Because we needed a meta Alien vs. Predator reference in the MK universe. Still, Baraka isn’t terrible here but definitely is a bit lacking, as you might expect. He still retains many of his combos from MK9, and most of his special moves as well. Some of these can be pretty difficult to combo into, but particularly when the opponent is up against a wall Baraka can potentially unleash some quite fierce damage against them. Not quite as fleshed out as he could be (or rather, should have been), but I still had some enjoyable playing as him. If you own the PC version of MKX you really owe it to yourself to try out these guys anyway.Also, I nearly kept calling him “Barack” time and time again when writing this, for some reason. I distinctly remember there being a bunch of “Baraka Obama” jokes during the 2008 US Presidential Election but don’t quote me on that.Next up, it’s a bad day for rain. Well, actually it’s a good day, but still.
#1141 Mortal Kombat X (Steam) Bosses (4/7): Sindel gameplay. AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2020-06-22 | Gameplay of the unplayable character/NPC/Boss Sindel in the Steam/PC Port of Netherrealm Studio’s Mortal Kombat X.[Sindel has no X-Ray nor fatalities, but she can used enhanced moves]Sindel’s moves:Qcf + FP: High Fireball (also has an aerial version)Qcf + BP: Banshee ScreamQcf + FK: Low Fireball (also has an aerial version)Qcf + BK: Somersault KicksTOO BAD, YOU. WILL DIE.Sindel is basic as hell here. Indeed, all four NPC characters are, not even having X-ray attacks, fatalities or brutalities, but luckily they are able to use enhanced attacks. The ones returning from MK9 are even missing special moves.Sindel has a few combos here, but they’re pretty basic. What she does have is…well, not unplayable to any extent, but it is basic. A high and low fireball, which can also be used in the air; a scream stun attack, and a rolling kick combo, which can be worked into what few combos she does have. It’s a pretty basic set-up on the whole, and playing as her more or less devolves into extending rather forced juggles as best you can, as her offensive moves are usually combo-enders and her scream attack is pretty useless, being quite delayed and having very little in the way of actual range. She doesn’t feel very finished here, and I have to wonder whether she was intended to be an NPC/boss from the start, or whether they just gave up working on her half way through and just decided to make her an NPC instead. Regardless, I still enjoyed playing as her, because in a game as extensive as this getting to play as otherwise never playable characters from the MK series is a bit of a blast, I can’t deny. Such iconic characters reduced to these weird half-finished states; it’s jarring, but intriguing at the same time. Although she’s important to the story, I still find Sindel a bit on the underrated side, and I’m glad she got to make an appearance even if it was in this state.Lastly, holy fuck, those facial corruptions during the win screen. Not quite as hilarious as Kid Kazuya in Tekken 7, but it’s definitely up there. Next up, Baraka
#1140 Mortal Kombat X (Steam) Bosses (3/7): Goro playthrough. AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters 2020-06-15 | A playthrough of the sub-sub-boss Goro in the Steam/PC Port of Netherrealm Studio’s Mortal Kombat X.Goro returns one final time, as the sub-sub-boss of the game, effectively reprising the role he had in MK4. Unsurprisingly, he’s been considerably toned down both from that game as well as MK9, and plays more or less like a regular character. A very powerful regular character, but still one nonetheless.Goro has three different styles like all the playable characters, although his are innately more interesting; one sees him gaining Kintaro’s flame moves from MK9, one sees him keeping his ground-stomp technique from MK4, and the last one, which I use here, sees him gaining his gaining his Shokan Blades from MKDeception, along with the return of his spinning attack from MK9 and a unique command throw reminiscent of his classic throw, which can even be comboed into on an aerial opponent.At first it seemed like Goro didn’t have a ton of combos, but truth be told I think he does more than fine. His base specials include his trademark fireball, Kintaro’s aerial stomp, as well as a new running punch move which replaces his spinning attack by default, although doesn’t do as much damage as that one. A lot of his combos have forward momentum to them, which helps as it allows him to more easily combo into his special moves, and in general has can deal how a shocking amount of damage with relative ease. Case in point his b+BP move, which launches the opponent, and can then be comboed into his special throw, dealing 21% damage when you can get the timing down. His ground combos can also quite easily be comboed into his spinning attack, while a combo with good forward momentum (f+BP, FP, BK) can be comboed into his projectile attack once you get the timing down. All of these deal a fantastic amount of damage, with the enhanced versions of his specials not only dealing more damage but also launching the opponent into the air for potentially even more punishment. With some decent timing, he can still tear through enemies despite being toned down from MK9. Indeed, he can now jump, and no longer has armour for most of his attacks, but all characters in this game play with the standardised playstyle so I suppose that’s to be expected here.On the whole, I had a ton of fun with Goro here. So glad they brought him back, and despite worrying about how they’d change him here I can safely say that his Shokan Blades style is familiar enough to make him feel like a well done, balanced take on classic Goro. I’m somewhat glad they went the fully-playable route here instead of leaving him as an NPC, as Goro is one of my favourite characters and him being allowed more story-development definitely made me enjoy him more here; certainly over him just being a boss plot device in the previous game, even though he was fun to play as there.My only real problem with Goro was…well, that he had to be paid for. I mean, paying to play as bosses? That’s just ridiculous. Extra, superfluous characters like Eliza in Tekken 7 I can just about understand, or indeed the characters they chose as DLC ones here, but refusing to make a core, already finished character playable from the start simply to scrounge a bit more money out of your fanbase is a scummy thing to do. It’s something people in the future won’t care too much about, when the Komplete Edition of this becomes the standard in the same way that MK9 was, but a scummy practice is a scummy practice and should be remembered as such, especially when they apply it to as beloved and long-lasting a character as Goro.Despite that faux-pas though, yeah, Goro is a great boss and a great character in general here. To say any more would just be gushing by this point. Well, you know, more than usual.Next up, time to move onto the NPC bosses of this game, three of which I’ve already covered before. God I love continuity; nothing quite like covering a series where you get to see the evolution of characters over time as they grow throughout the series.
