Game: Street Fighter: The Movie
Console: Sony Playstation
Developer: Incredible Technologies
Release Date: 10th August 1995
In case you haven't seen the "hit movie" of Street Fighter from 1994 which currently holds a 12% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it's not very good. To be fair to the film it was never very likely to be, as most films based on video games struggle to be as gripping as their inspiration. What's interesting is that they made a game based on the movie, which is based on a game (specifically Street Fighter II). With "digitized" graphics of the actors from the film and a departure from the cartoon style of previous Street Fighter games, this Playstation 1 title seems almost doomed to be a disappointment from the start.
There are 4 modes of play to choose from; Movie Battle, Street Battle, Versus Battle and Trial Battle. The first two are the main modes which I'll discuss in more detail, Versus Battle is simply a multiplayer mode, and Trial Battle ranks players on how well they can beat up an AI opponent, and gives them feedback on their aggression and skill.
There are 14 playable characters to choose from in total, provided that you're not playing in Movie Battle mode where Guile is the only available character. In this mode, after a cutscene, you begin by fighting M. Bison, the game's final boss in an impossible-to-win first battle. I'm not sure why this wasn't a cutscene; perhaps the developers wanted players to get an impression of just how tough the final boss is at an early stage.
After the M. Bison fight, players are shown another cutscene and given a choice of locations to go to. These don't really matter as wherever the player goes, they'll have to fight each character in turn before the final boss. There's a 50 minute time limit in Movie Battle mode, and the difficulty doesn't seem to be governed by the selectable difficulty on the options screen. No matter what's chosen, it's incredibly difficult to progress with the AI using cheap tricks and exploits to beat players.
The developers also forgot to program a way of quitting if you're tired of getting whooped. Instead of a continue screen, there's a cutscene which only allows players to go back to the last battle. All things considered, Movie Battle mode isn't that appealing at all.
Street Battle mode is the only redeeming single player feature of the game. It's what would be titled "Arcade Mode" in any other Street Fighter release, and while the difficulty can be a little on the easy side (although it's adjustable) it does play quite nicely. Despite the digitized graphics of the actors from the film, fighting feels as if you're playing Street Fighter II with a few frames of animation missing. Many of the same moves and stances have been carried over and all of the classic characters are available to fight with.
Players have a "Super" meter which fills as they damage the opponent. When it's full they can unleash their character's super move for large amounts of damage. Once a player defeats all of the opponents, a small ending cutscene plays and the game loops back to the start screen. There's no real unlockables or secrets in the game, save for a music video from the film once Movie Battle mode is defeated.
Graphically the game isn't particularly good at all; the character sprites are low detail and resolution, the backgrounds are barely animated and the entire game looks like it could have been pulled off on the SNES. While it was a very early Playstation title (a launch title in the US and UK), there doesn't seem to have been much effort to explore the capabilities of the console. The music which accompanies the game is fitting, if a little forgettable.
Overall Street Fighter: The Movie is mostly as you'd expect. A disappointing movie tie-in which seems to have been rushed through development and based largely on Street Fighter II, save for the graphics. The arcade mode is fairly enjoyable, but the Movie Battle mode borders on unplayable due to the cheap tricks of the AI and pointlessness of the choices, not to mention the movie based plot and cutscenes which don't really make sense.
Rating: 62/100
Grade: C
Game: Mortal Kombat Trilogy
Console: Sony Playstation
Developer: Avalanche Software
Release Date: 6th December 1996
Featuring 36 characters, and levels from all 3 previous Mortal Kombat games fighting in 3 different game modes, Mortal Kombat Trilogy is more like a compilation than a new game. While the inclusion of 3 game modes might seem impressive, there's only one single player mode which is essentially an arcade mode, in addition to a 2 on 2 multiplayer mode, and an 8-fighter 2 player tournament mode. For a game on the Playstation, this is pretty disappointing.
Controlwise the game feels much like the original Mortal Kombat (and its sequels, I assume). The player has the choice of high and low kicks and punches, blocks, and special moves to win the battle. The AI in the game is fairly punishing, even on low difficulties (the final boss is almost unbeatable even on Very Easy) and at times cheap tricks such as constant use of one move are much more effective than proper tactics.
Despite having 36 characters to choose from, I've always felt that the Mortal Kombat series has an unnecessary amount of recolours (see: Scorpion, Sub Zero, Reptile, Smoke, Noob Saibot, Ermac, and Rain) and this installment is no exception with 8 versions of the the ninja characters. Added to the fact that no story is presented in the game for any of the characters, it's quite difficult to acquaint yourself with everyone. Another issue is that aside from their special moves and fatalities, many character's movesets are pretty much the same.
The arcade mode is pretty standard for tournament fighter games; you're faced with a series of opponents before fighting the final boss, however there are some differences. For instance there are endurance stages requiring players to fight more than one opponent in a single battle, and the continue screen takes you back to the main menu, requiring far more load time to get back into the battle than most games.
Graphically the game isn't much better than any of the instalments on Mega Drive or SNES, with the same motion capture look, and simple animated backgrounds. While there might be some slight improvements, the sprites are still low quality and sometimes this can cause difficulty in identifying how far away players need to be to hit an opponent. The music isn't anything particularly special and fades into the background behind the fighting action.
Overall Mortal Kombat Trilogy seems like it should be a better game than it is. It's character line-up is large, but uninteresting, it's moves are apparently updated from the arcade version, but I can't see much difference from even the original game. The graphics should be better considering the upgrade onto a 5th generation console, and the AI should really be better; if the player leaves their character standing still in the middle of battle, the computer player won't even attack them for a good 10 seconds. I've always found the Mortal Kombat games pretty disappointing but I thought this one might be better.
Rating: 54/100
Grade: D
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