After my release from school in the afternoon, I would march into the mediocre mall arcade with an earnest intent to learn. Rather than claiming the Mortal Kombat 3 machine with a coin, I’d drop a thick, stapled stack of A4 pages in the middle of the counter to signal my impending occupation — and preliminary preoccupation with memorized violence.
Starting with Shang Tsung in the top-left corner of the character select screen, I’d read and execute every move and combo for each fighter, line by line, glancing at the pages as I made my way through the arcade mode. If I could pull off every attack sequence for the active character, I’d allow myself to graduate to the fatality list and then cap my progress with a gory reward. This formulaic approach wasn’t really born from any desire to be competitive — rather, I envisioned defeating the game by seeing and knowing every attack, combo and piece of content. Victories against human opponents felt almost incidental.
If you’re the kind of player who enjoys the solitary, methodical act of executing and learning moves, you should know that April’s Mortal Kombat reboot is very happy to show you the ropes, provided you’re eager to strangle someone with them afterward.
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Mortal Kombat preview: Didactic die tactic originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 07 Mar 2011 19:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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