EDITOR'S NOTE: There is no European release planned for the Xbox version of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon - the PS2 version is the only one you can get in Europe without importing.

I'm still chuckling to myself. I just launched Goro from a catapult into a wall and watched his mutilated corpse slide slowly down, like some demented episode of Tom and Jerry. It's Mortal Kombat, we all know it's Mortal Kombat and we know that there will be violence, gore and ridiculous ways to die. This is another in a long line of outings for MK. I don't know how many makes now and I don't think even the guys at Midway do - I reckon they just keep making games because people are buying every single one. It's a brilliant concept, it must be to have stood for this long - but how do they keep it fresh with each new game? I've no idea, but I'm more than happy to go through the new Kontent they've crammed into Mortal Kombat: Armageddon.

So what's the premise this time? There's no alliance between evil warlords or a new winged demon threatening the Realms or similar such dramatic twist. This time, the Elder Gods are a bit concerned that there are just too many warriors engaging in Mortal Kombat these days and that the fighting threatens the very fabric of the universe. So what they've decided to do is erect a massive pyramid, atop of which they've placed a big, fiery giant, and the first one to beat the giant gets to be a full-blown god and generally rule everything. This makes for some very interesting interplay between some of the characters and the intro movie says it all, with dozens of fighters from across the various incarnations of the game running at full speed toward each other.

Kintaro yells and waves his arms in the air as the two sides clash. We see old faces Scorpion and Sub Zero having a bit of a scrap, then across to Raiden and a guy called Shinnok who I've never heard of before, using some godly magic, Baraka and Kung Lao fight in mid air, then old robot arms himself, Jax, starts a fight with Quan Chi, who summons a couple of skeletons that Jax sees to without much trouble. Shao Khan starts swinging his hammer about all Sauron style (I think he has an inferiority complex), then the pyramid erupts from the ground. They all begin racing to the top, Bo Rai Cho proves he can do little more than vomit as Sheeva (Goro's female counterpart) pelts him with a double fisted punch, but she gets taken out by Kenshi, the blind samurai. Quan Chi stabs Kenshi, then Shang Tsung lands on Quan Chi, then Shao Khan tries to have another go but is carried off by the winged Onaga. It's absolute bedlam. The highlight of the whole intro happens at this point of the proceedings, when Shang Tsung is about to reach the top and the narrator talks about old hatreds being re-ignited - out of the shadows limps Liu Kang, but he's a zombie! He re-breaks his neck back into line and, with chains wrapped around his hands, he starts fighting. Brilliant stuff. The whole thing is essentially a build up to say "right, we've got pretty much anyone and everyone that's ever been in a Mortal Kombat game here, so this one, rather than any of its predecessors, is the definitive game."

They mean it as well. There are a total of 64 playable characters to choose from, including the classic Scorpion, Sub Zero, Johhny Cage, Sonya Blade, then there are the ones that came from the sequels, like Cyrax, Nightwolf, Stryker and Baraka, the new generation characters from Deadly Alliance, like Bo Rai Cho, Kenshi and Quan Chi, and the super newbies like Onaga, Taven and Blaze. There are some that I've never even heard of - characters I'm sure were either afterthoughts, the subject of one of Shang Tsung's maniacal dreams or guests of one of Johnny Cage's Christmas parties. Ever heard of Dairou, Jarek, Ashrah or Ermac? Me either. It's a really good mix though and quite nostalgic playing as characters like Baraka again. One downside I've noticed, however, is that they've cut a fighting style per character. In Deadly Alliance you had two martial arts styles per character and a weapon style on top, which has been reduced to one and a weapon, making the gameplay just a little bit less deep. Saying that, Mortal Kombat never was Tekken for depth and complexity of fighting style; it's more about timing your uppercut than remembering ridiculous strings of button sequences.

Mortal Kombat always was unique in this way; it has its own strongly defined battle system that has evolved over more than a decade, and people clearly like it because Midway have barely changed a thing about it since the early days, save for making it 3D of course. There have been minor tweaks, sure, and this time around being able to fight in mid air and the extensive use of the environments to kill/maim your enemies seem to be the major developments. Having been playing Soul Calibur an awful lot recently I must admit it took me a little while to get back into the MK way of doing things. When I say a while, I mean about an hour. Soul Calibur seems to be about knowing a range of moves and if I'm honest it's a lot more responsive than MK's latest outing. I found it really difficult to block attacks in MK because my fighter just didn't seem to react quickly enough. There is a new breaker feature, which allows you to interrupt the traditional three or four hit combos and interject with an attack of your own, but I never seemed to master the timing of it. My opponents did though - so if you're looking to really master the new Kombat system then this is something you'll have to get to grips with.

I also found myself relying on two or three special moves coupled with some basic punches, kicks and weapon slashes to get me by, whereas playing Soul Calibur I use a much more varied and widespread move set. Bearing this in mind, it didn't mean I enjoyed playing MK any less for it; MK has a certain style, a certain soul that once you get into and engage with is really addictive. There are fewer moves per character, sure, but when you look at the number of fighting styles covered by the game as a whole, it's simply mind boggling. It has everything from Muay Thai to classic boxing, from Mantis to Tai Chi, even Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do is represented. They are all immaculately motion captured and animated, so the fighting looks superb.

One of the main reasons MK has been so successful is the blood. Angry teenagers, dark minded thirty-somethings and primary school teachers alike all just seem to love beating the blood out of their enemy in this game. Armageddon excels in this capacity; Midway have really gone to town on the number of ways you can end your enemy's life. The fighting arenas play a more important role than ever, as you can smash your opponent through the ceiling or through a wall, you can throw them through big meat grinders or stone crushers, you can uppercut them through a ceiling fan and you can even mount them onto a catapult and launch them hundreds of metres into a distant wall. Brilliant. Each death animation is suitably blood soaked and gory, and more often than not body parts will lunge out of the screen toward you in a shower of crimson claret. No Mortal Kombat title would be complete without Fatalities, so they're in there of course. Some of the attacks are brilliantly thought out, most notable of which is a new unlockable character called Meat, who doesn't appear to have any skin and his left eye is hanging out. He cuts his own head off with his meat cleaver and throws it at his enemy. Now if that's not innovation I don't know what is.

The ever-popular Fatality has been overhauled a little for Armageddon. The apparent 'Kreate-a-fatality' mentioned on the back of the case shouldn't be mistaken for a Tony Hawk's style create-a-trick, where in a menu system you attach animations until you have a finished combo, then insert it into the game. Instead, what happens is, when you beat your opponent in a match and the familiar Fatality text appears on screen, you must input a correct sequence of buttons in order to essentially disembowel them. It's quite strange, because you have to time combos and unleash them, but for every combo you input, the time gauge decreases, so the real aim is to link all combos into one and perform the biggest possible fatality. It's complex and if I'm truly honest I didn't fully get my head around it, but what I did pull off looked fairly impressive as you pummel into your enemy's body and remove vital organs.

The new fashion amongst fighting games appears to be to add a Double Dragon style platform mode. Tekken started the trend with their Tekken Force mode and Mortal Kombat even released a whole spin off dedicated solely to it, in the form of Shaolin Monks. Armageddon has incorporated quite a substantial Konquest mode, where you take on the role of Taven and go on a bit of a quest. The story goes like this - Taven's father is a god, or a demi-god, I never worked that out, and his mother is a human sorceress. They encased Taven and his brother Daegon in stone, each guarded by a dragon, to be awakened at a certain time according to a prophecy their mother wrote. The idea is that when Blaze (the fiery giant atop the pyramid) appears and all the warriors of Mortal Kombat make their way to it, Taven and Daegon will be revived. They will then race each other to fight with Blaze and whoever wins the race will decide the fate of the realms. And so it is that you start this little jaunt into the countryside as Taven. There is no option to play as Daegon, as he's integral to the script, but it's all pretty standard stuff. What it does do is pit you against the various characters in some kind of context. For example, Taven visits his mother's temple but it seems to have been taken over by a clan of ninjas, cunningly led by Sub Zero. You fight your way through the ninjas and the 'end of level boss' is Sub Zero in a standard one-on-one match.

When you're fighting in platform mode, combat is simplified to four basic attacks (quick punch, uppercut, throw and roundhouse kick). It seems quite bland but it's more about how you combine these simple attacks with lots of foes around you. There are also four super-moves, which are unlocked as you progress through the game. These are much more powerful and include a 'jump into the air and smash your fist down hard in a ball of flame sending any nearby enemies flying' move, a fireball move that blows anyone in its path to bits, an evade move that I didn't use once and a stop time move, which was mildly amusing for about ten minutes. This uses some kind of mana or magic energy that can be replaced by collecting blue crystals, usually dropped by your enemies. You can do fatalities as well if you beat someone to within an inch of their life. They stand still, dazed and if you walk close and press one of the four buttons you pull off a respective fatality, including the classic 'uppercut their head off' or 'punch through their heart'. There's lots of fun to be had doing this, as you can batter several henchmen and then in succession run around knocking their heads off.

It's not all about running into a room, beating up thirty guys and running into the next room though - there's also a fair bit of puzzle solving to be done. I say puzzle solving, but I mean dodging sharp things, or things that will crush you flat, but at least they tried to mix things up. It may just be me, but I get the feeling Midway's designers had recently played God of War, as some of the challenges in Konquest mode are very similar to some of those that Kratos had to face. Even Liu Kang's chains resemble Kratos' blades and the 'You are Dead' screen in Konquest mode. Just little things like that make me see similarities. I wouldn't get excited though, as I'm afraid MK's new game mode isn't a patch on God of War, but then again, no game is. It is fun, however, and there's loads of stuff to collect along the way, like alternative costumes for your characters, Koins to be spent in the Krypt (which I'll talk about later) and character items such as Scorpion's spear or Sub Zero's Mask. I've no idea why these items are scattered around, but every time you collect ten of them you unlock something new, like a character or a new arena.

The whole thing took me a couple of days to play through but that was in stops and starts. I reckon a keen and dedicated gamer could easily clock it in a day. There's not much repeatability in it either - once you've played through there's very little to encourage you to do it again, other than the fact that it's actually quite fun running around and battering lots of people with Mortal Kombat moves. The best bits are when you get given swords and you get to chop dozens of henchmen into lots of little pieces - food for the little monster that lives inside us all. Again the environments play a huge role and the game even encourages you to use the environment to help you get through certain sections. For instance, whilst escaping Sektor's ship, you are told to uppercut enemies into a waiting ceiling fan, where they are chopped into tiny little pieces.

The graphics are fairly tasty; the character design is detailed and doesn't affect the fluidity of the animation. As ever, the animations themselves are top notch and the fighting styles are captured immaculately. The backgrounds are rich in detail and there's plenty going on to please the eye, while the environments are hugely interactive, giving you many ways to kill people. The music's pretty good and there's loads of it, so it doesn't ever get repetitive. You can also unlock new tunes as you progress through Konquest mode.

The Krypt is intact, as an arena where you can unlock Kontent by spending Koins. There's a fair bit to unlock, including alternative costumes, music, production videos and concept art. A lot of it won't be hugely interesting to people, but diehard fans will be appeased as ever. One of the best videos I found on there was of the production crew being summoned to the sound recording studio to record the game's screams. Its brilliant watching these nerdy guys and gals screaming their little faces off in different ways and had me laughing for a while.

Other notable features that come with the game are the all new Kreate-a-fighter mode, where you can - yep, create your own fighter. Much like the route Soul Calibur 3 took, you can now put together your own warrior using preset elements from a menu like hats, gloves, shoes and so forth. I made a kind of cowboy dressed in a full-length trench coat and wearing a blindfold, and once I'd tinkered with his move set, he's actually a stronger character than I could have hoped for. It's a nice addition and the number of options is fairly extensive, so you can make quite a variety of characters. Another extra is, wait for it, Motor Kombat. This is a mini game that's very similar to (though not as addictive as) Mario Kart. You can race as a number of characters, including Baraka and Raiden, and along the track you can pick up weapons like landmines and missiles. It amused me for all of ten minutes and it's a bit gimmicky, but as an extra it's quite enjoyable.

Finally is the online content. You can play Motor Kombat online, although it's a little glitchy and loses any kind of appeal after about ten minutes. The standard Kombat mode is fun and you get extra mileage for allowing created characters to join in the fray - I've been impressed by some of the characters that other players have created. I'm not hugely impressed by the skill matching though - and often found myself playing 'God with a PS2 controller,' which was quite frustrating. It's great that the online functionality is there, but it's by no means an overriding reason to buy the game and no necessarily something you'll stick with for very long.

Mortal Kombat: Armageddon is without doubt the most comprehensive Mortal Kombat game ever. With the list of playable characters being so extensive, it will give the diehard fans a reason to go out and buy this, and the Konquest mode will amuse them for a while as well. For those who haven't yet experienced a Mortal Kombat game, I'd definitely suggest jumping on the bandwagon and having a play, and if you do this would be the best iteration to pick up. Like I mentioned earlier though, the Konquest mode won't last experienced gamers much more than a day and if you're not too fussed about having all the characters in one place then this will be more of a weekend rental. Overall it's a great package and well presented with stacks of extra content - plus it has more blood and gore than ever before, so if you're a bit of a demon and you want a game with blood, gore and violence, then you really won't find another game that'll scratch your itch like this one.

Reviewed by Jim Powell for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).