Like many of you in the Earthrealm, I’ve been looking forward to Mortal Kombat and the one thing I was gravely concerned about was whether or not it would live up to the hype. After finally getting my hands on the demo I can proudly confirm, yes, Ed Boon and the crew delivered and it’s everything we had dreamed it would be!

For starters, the demo allows test drives of Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Mileena, and Johnny Cage. We not only get to play around with the movesets and combos but we’re given the chance to try out the goods, including enhanced attacks, one fatality per character, one stage fatality, and of course, the new bad-ass X-ray Moves. Unfortunately, we don’t get a taste of the new modes, other than a 4 stage one player mode and versus. But, what Netherrealm has offered is more than generous.

As Boon had announced before, the control schematics are inspired by Tekken, whereas the top two buttons, square and triangle, are your punch buttons, cross and circle control your footwork. R2 acts as the block button, R1 for throw, and L2 for side switching… which is rather odd as it doesn’t seem to have much prominence in the game, and it’s not like any of the characters are known for being south paws. But perhaps the importance of this function will be further revealed in the full version.

The gameplay was definitely not anything like Deadly Alliance, Deception, or Armageddon. We can finally wave goodbye to early Soul Calibur-ish gameplay of mashing buttons and unintentionally pulling off grandiose combos. The game definitely brings us back to the good old days of UMK3 where, if anyone remembers, there were special close range combos that were performed by pressing a specific sequence of buttons. The controls are definitely fluid, responsive, and best of all, simple. The game obviously exhibits empathy towards pad users and for those who want to take a break from doing 360s and half-circle motions, this one’s for you.

If I wasn’t excited for this game before, this demo definitely has me bursting at the seams with gleeful anticipation. Mortal Kombat is back ladies and gentlemen! Despite its short one player mode and limited selection of warriors, this demo carries a hefty amount of replay value as four characters are more than enough to entice gamers to explore, practice and master high-level combos. Therefore, it is without question that this is the best demo I’ve played yet this year. Even if you’ve beaten the single player with all four characters, it is recommended to continue familiarizing yourself with every nook and crannie, regardless of whether or not any tweaks will be made. Once the full version comes out, you’ll definitely stand out amongst the lamers. Let Mortal Kombat begin!