It’s finally here! The Battle of Armageddon! I hope you all enjoy this dive into the final Mortal Kombat game for the Sixth Generation of consoles. My ‘Explained’ series is best watched as a series, and you can catch all previous videos in order here in this playlist, m.th-cam.com/play/PL1OBedn71fCt6nYsng_LzCgCU93-NbOOZ.html The reception of this series has been incredible, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading all your stories and history with these games. It’s a big reason I love making this content. If you want to support the channel further, there is a channel membership where you get a few perks for as little as £1.99 a month. But leaving a comment and hitting subscribe is more than enough, I can’t thank you all enough 🙏
I never thought I'd look back at these games after the reboot. I just thought the new games were so much better. But these videos remind me of how I feel in love with the old games. Thank you!
The part in Armageddon where all the villains are in Shao Kahn's castle all they needed was Shinnok then they could of formed a boy bad. Maybe Shinnok could get his mum Kronika to be their agent then they could go touring. 😂
Underrated MK character. Stryker had the potential to be like TF2 Scout of MK and they did nothing with him. Like, imagine some shittalking dork in a police uniform saying some of the most unhinged shit to literal gods. Stryker players would rival Johnny Cage toxicity, and it would be hilarious. Add a soundclip like "Think fast, chucklenuts." Right before he decks Mileena would've been gold.
That opening of all the dead fighters lying around the pyramid in pieces, being picked at by vultures will always be one of the coolest scenes ever produced. I'd love to see that whole battle and the aftermath done in live action.
One of the things I wish Armageddon could've did with Konquest was allow us to also play as daegon,so we can see his perspective of things,or better yet Konquest be the story for our created fighter
My dream game is a full-blown Mortal Kombat Konquest game where you create your own character and travel the different realms to learn abilities from different characters. Each character you learn from has allies and enemies. For example, training with Bo Rai Cho will align you with Liu Kang and Kung Lao, but it will instantly make Shang Tsung your rival. This would allow every player to have unique characters who aren't OP. Also, NRS could make a DLC for the next MK fighting game where players can put their created character in the game.
On the contrary, im from south america and understood shit about english back then but LOVED the games. It feels lile im discovering a lot of stuff haha
WB could really have a hit on their hands if they treated the new MK films seriously with the lore. Imagine a cross between a superhero film and Game of Thrones with an R-rating. That's what MK deserves to be. They could have spin-off films focused on different groups of characters that lead up to a MK tournament/event film. (For example, MK Mythologies Part 1 focused on Sub-zero vs Scorpion with other business involving Quan-Chi and Shang Tsung. A Shaolin Monks film focusing on Liu Kang, Kung Lao, and Raiden as they prepare for the tournament and face some threat. A Special Forces film in the style of The Raid with the SF taking on the Black Dragons. Then culminating in a MK Tournament film featuring Johnny Cage getting involved). The action and drama would be much more exciting when you know who the characters are going into the event film with deadly stakes.
I will always love the 3D era of MK. I swear if this game had proper fatalities and they took their time to release it the game could’ve been the best MK of all time. However despite the scuffed kreate a fatality and some cut corners I still always enjoy the game especially like Deception I loved having a story driven Konquest mode.
This is by a longshot my favorite MK. They packed so much content into it and still had time to squeeze in a go-kart mode. I feel like NRS's push for graphics and flashy animations are making their games a lot more barren to make up for it
I really disliked the PS2 era MK stiff animations (which improved significantly in MK9 even though not perfect) And I wish Motor Kombat was a fully fleshed game of its own...
@anubisfox5765 I halfway agree if they took the fully fleshed out the tekken style 3d mk could be perfect but as it stands right now it's like it really detracts
MK Armageddon is still my favorite game in the series. I adore Taven's Konquest mode. I like his personality and the fact that he wasn't as dumb as Shujinko in Deception. Motor Kombat is still my favorite mini game in the series. This game also has a huge amount of beautiful arenas, soundtracks and characters of course. Oh and I loved Air Combos! The Kreate-A-Fighter mode was a great idea too
I got into an argument with a friend about the character creation in the game. He said that's what ruined it, that that was more of a Soul Calibur thing... Who gives af? This game had so much content on it. It was definitely worthwhile.
@@ResidentOne I agree. Fans usually under-estimate it. For that time MK Armageddon made wonders except for the fatality thing. So many awesome arenas, stage traps. Each stage had a great, unique soundtrack theme. Also, AIR combos!
Shujinko wasn't dumb...he was Naïve, big difference. Ya gotta remember he started his quest as an actual kid. So a glowing orb telling you that you're the chosen one is easy to fall for as a kid...not to mention aging up the way he did with goin through the time pool and then spending years in a cell due to honor, would prolly mess his head up a bit.
Removing the fatalities was such a huge travesty of MK. That was one of the things that made MK stand out, and expanded upon in MK2 and UMK3 which is why they were so well received.
There still were fatalities, just not unique ones specific to each character. It would've asked a lot. I still had fun back in the day trying to pull off a level 10 fatality.
The fact you couldn't say "beloved Hsu Hao" without a slight chuckle speaks volumes about how everyone feels about the character. Truly a memorable character, but not for the right reasons.
The create a fatality was the most hated thing about MKA, next to the lack of Kombantant bios and crappy individual Arcade “endings”. Outside of those issues, it was a ok fighter.
I enjoyed the kreate a fighter, as well as the alternate costumes, and hell even konquest wasn’t horrid, but I agree the fatality and arcade endings were weak as fuck
@justinnegron4843 back then it was just as noticeably horribly balanced as it is today. The percentage of people that actually liked MKA was very small back then just as it is today. They just happen to be vocal and conveniently gloss over the many flaws of the game. Even Boon has gone on record saying that something that size will never be done again simply because it was a balancing nightmare and despite the amount of characters, ended up feeling extremely shallow. For what could have been the final installment, and it was that for many years, it was a huge mess that was cool for having an MK game with every fighter playable, but it seriously lacked replayability.
I still believe Taven did still kill Blaze. That golden aura from Shao Kahn as he was about to kill Raiden in MK9's intro, I'd say implies that is the extra power Blaze's death had went into him along with everyone else.
@@wingedbluj1674 I still consider that idea as a bad retcon, undermining the entire Konquest mode from Armageddon. I think it as more interesting for the fight at the Pyramid of Argus to keep going after Blazes death with these juiced up warriors, only for Shao Kahn to remain the last man standing after killing Raiden
The only thing I’d like to point out during the MK9 intro is that after you see the carnage of Armageddon and the camera is pans up the stairs, you can hear fighting. Now, I can only infer what happened based on the sounds of fighting, so take this with a grain. Based on what I heard, you can hear Shao Kahn attacking someone and a male character’s death cry. I don’t recognize the voice and only Raiden/Shao Kahn were the last ones left. So I presume this unseen character had to have been Taven, who was just killed off screen by Shao Kahn. Then, you can hear Raiden attack Shao Kahn by surprise but is quickly overwhelmed due to absorbing Blaze’s essence from the now dead Taven (assuming that’s how that even works). My reasoning for assuming Taven was killed and Shao Kahn absorbed his power is that no one else was left standing+only Shao Kahn had Blaze’s aura while he was gloating to Raiden. IF Taven’s ending was consistent with MK9, Raiden should also have the power up from Blaze and it wouldn’t have been such a one sided slaughter. But that wasn’t the case. Shao Kahn was the only one who showed traces of Blaze’s power, so I assume that had to have come from Taven.
@@souloftherisingsun8274 I assumed that because Raiden had no golden aura, that simply even with the powerups to everyone else Shao Kahn was the last man standing after all that and defeated the Raiden who was probably so exhausted from using so much power
When they rebooted mortal combat I think they should have tried to continue the story of taven. Set it up where he could not defeat blaze so blaze used as powers to burn away the realms. The elder gods decide to send taven back in time so he can work alongside the heroes and be better prepared for armageddon.
Although I understand the “rewrite” of the ending to do the MK9 reboot… it doesn’t change the fact Netherrealm pointed a big middle finger to the legacy of the 3D MK era. And to this day they continue to “laugh” by constantly showing Taven and Onaga on the arcade endings… yet their story mode is always classic earthrealm (Liu Kang/Johnny, etc) VS Outworld (Shao and Shang Sung).
Being a kid when this came out. I personally thought the create a fatality was cool. I remember trying to figure out which button combinations did what. It was a long time when I found out some characters can pull out their swords mid fatality. Which opened up even more options some characters who didn’t have swords didn’t have.
Nice to see these videos explaining the MK games from the 2000s that I saw but never played. the 2000s were busy times for me in my 20s, and MK was a different game, that I never had the time to get hold of, or to play back then. TH-cam and content creators have done well in helping some to reminisce and others to fill in those gaps! Nice video!
Despite some of the issues, this game really was a lot of fun. I do like how each Konquest in the series was different and the mini games were so much fun.
YO! This game was amazing back in the day. If only others could easily access and play it today. The pros of having every fighter ever, kreate a fighter, konquest mode, and motor kombat DEFINITELY outweighed the cons.
DUDE! I have watched your whole MK series so far now and I can confidently say, you have mad video quality for such a relatively small TH-cam channel, honestly amazing work keep it up! straight up EARNED my subscription.
Its like another MK Trilogy, only it has more charaters ×2, and more features! Great game, minus the fatalities, and charater endings, but all in all.. Kick ass game! Thanks Don Critic.
I wouldn't say stop entirely I welcome new blood. But rather than introducing three to six new characters a game stick with one or two and give the rest to 3D era characters
What do you mean you could only make one kustom fighter? I distinctly remember my brother and I each having 8 fighters saved to our memory cards at a time and switching out the ones that didn’t work as well from time to time. But I definitely had at least 5 that always made the cut and were basically my mains. Anyway, this was a great video, just like the rest! Armageddon was my favorite MK (I’ve played all mainline games except 4) and I’m really enjoying this opportunity to catch up on the full lore before the release of MK1 this month. Thank you for your hard work, Don!
Yeah you can only have one tied to each profile, I should’ve made it a bit clearer. Thanks so much for watching, I’m glad you still enjoyed the video! Hope you like the rest of the episodes!
These are great recaps btw! I’m a *GIANT* MK nerd. Me and my friend plan on recording a podcast on the 1995 movie soon at Big Dumb Movie. But my co-host, Korey, stopped playing Mortal Kombat after 4. So I’ve been looking for videos to explain the 3D era in terms of lore _and_ game mechanics! I’m sending him your videos on Deadly Alliance, Deception, and this for his homework 😎👌🏻
I know that out of the mainline MK entries Armageddon is underrated and has at times a mixed reception but I still like this game. It’s also got a fun adventure beat em up Konquest mode plus having every character playable is pretty neat and yes I’m aware gameplay wise it’s not as varied and the removal of fatalities sucks I get it but I still think this game is fun. Plus I like this games protagonist Taven he’s a little underdeveloped but I think he’s still a cool Hercules style character.
Plus this game had a tight deadline and budget what with Midway getting close to shutting down permanently. So I personally choose to give this game some slack but I understand If other fans won’t or can’t.
Thank you for doing this game,I miss it and wish we got to see the true story after this many people Don know that Shao Kahn actually dies in intro onaga either snaps neck or eats face you can hear it in intro as he yells,I appreciate you doing this thank you so much
Yeah there’s a lot of inconsistencies with Armageddon and MK9, I’ll go over them in the future video. Thanks so much for watching, I’m glad you enjoyed! 🙏
@@MegaTroySmith you have legit taken words from my mouth everyone I mention that to say I misheard or it never happened I go back to the intro to this day just to imagine what would've came next from midway
I loved MK Armageddon's intro or opening cinematic scene it was just as good as MK Deadly Alliance, and Deception's opening scene if not better. MK Shaolin Monks had a phenomenal opening scene too. MK Armageddon had so much potential, it was basically a newer version of MK Trilogy from the late 90's upgraded into the 2000's decade. What made MK Armageddon a lackluster game was the "create a fatality" feature, no more individual fatalities for each of the characters, everybody has the same exact fatalities. And the endings for each of the MK Armageddon characters was also lame. I remembered when I purchased this game when it was first released in 2006, I was excited, but what ruined my experiences were the create the fatalities and character endings. I did like and enjoyed the game play, but I didn't use air combat very much. I would say that MK Armageddon was slightly below average overall compared to other MK games at the time or from that generation
When I 1st heard about this game man was I've so excited, All the returning Kombatants! Now being able to play as final bosses. Not to mention it actually had Khameleon and Chameleon as playable characters. Then the game came out and after playing it for a couple of hours the excitement kind of dwindled. Seeing what they did Motaro was heartbreaking. Though I cannot lie the game was right here in front of me I would be playing it right now. For all its faults when it comes to Mortal Kombat Armageddon is a classic..
Dude thanks for the AWESOME work on this series ❤ I used t play MK till the MKU3, and played MK9 back in the day, and now im comming back to the series with the 11, and watching everyrhing i can to understand the hole story, amd your videos are one of the best i saw until now. Cant wait for the ones about MK9/X Awesome job !!!
Oh man, I remember this Konquest mode. I watched a family member play parts of it (I've only played a little a few MK games here and there) and I seem to remember some really rough fights.
This is one of those games where the critics thought it was mid, but real ones thought it was pretty fun and having all the characters was cool in 2006.
I write action adventure novels and I use Kreate A Fighter to conceptualize their design and get some sort of visual aid to help me figure out their look. I love this game.
Seen your community post about this, I picked up 2 ps2 controllers and a fresh copy of mk Armageddon can’t wait to play it tonight for the first time in like 9-10 years
@@DonCritic update, after taking my ps2 apart and attempting to clean it twice, i failed to run armageddon and i've came to the conclusion i need a need console.
man, this takes me back in 2006 when this came out my brothers and me was happy and on my birthday I was 17 when my mom and her family got me new 4 games two wrestling games and THAM and MKA best birthday ever thank you mom.
Looking back on this era of Mortal Kombat, I'm actually glad they rebooted the series. It started to feel like they were running out of ideas. Shinnok wasted after one game? Well let's have the two sorcerers join forces. Don't know what to do with that? Well here is a big dragon guy. And after that, let's have every fighter so far in a battle royale. Where are you supposed to go from there? Resetting the timeline was the right choice. The newer titles build on existing foundations much better. Also gameplay is obviously better.
What a fantastic video! Sadly, it is covering one of my least favorite games in the series. I remember renting this and at the character select screen just staring and not remembering half of the characters. With the loss of the fatalities that I had come to love and the krypt being boring this one just didn't stick with me. Motor Kombat was the highlight for me and I agree with DC that this could have been an amazing spin off game from the series. It strikes me as a gag that could have been a pretty awesome game in it's own right.
These videos are brilliant. You have vast knowledge of the games and make it simple to understand. Have you considered doing MK lore videos?? I think they would do well. MK lore is all over the place. Maybe you could discuss the timelines, what’s canon, or even focus on single characters and their back stories. Nobody else that i know of is doing this so it might do well.
Thank you mate! I’m really glad you’ve been enjoying the series. I did make a few MK character lore videos last year, you can find them on the channel. However they got a little repetitive to make. With a fighting game series, a lot of characters aren’t gonna have very deep stories, or many follow similar beats as each other. These game explained videos, are much more fun to make as I get to break down the full story of the game and get to talk about the mechanics and gameplay aswell 🙂
Dude I'm enjoying these MK videos, well all of them but this is my favorite game genre, and it's gonna be sad when you complete the whole library of MK! 😞
Thanks man for coming along for the ride, and like all great things, they eventually come to an end. But I’ll still come back to Mortal Kombat in-between future franchises I plan to cover. Like when MK1 releases and each Kombat Pack update it’ll get 🙂
this is linking my child hood memories with my mkx and current memories. i forgot so much! i thought evil raiden was a new thing and shinnok was a new villain but seeing all of this made me realize i just forgot. to be fair shinnok did look like a clown to me with the only memorable scene be the bone hands.
Lore wise, this is still how it all ends no matter how you shift the sands of time. When the original timeline of midway’s presentation showed the trailer, notice how balanced both sides were in terms of good and evil, even as kronica wanted but once the reboot happened thanks to raidens fancy glitch. Kronica must have had the last straw with the thunder god entirely since she worked herself to absolute madness, despite her lacking as a fighter she purposely gave raiden of the rebooted franchise visions of what was but reflection of the previous. Once the timeline got to the threat of shinnok, it was clear she has had enough, therefore we got eleven.
Armageddon was has cool things going for it. The Konquest mode, Kreate a Fighter, and Motor Kombat are pretty fun. I can live with each fighter having only two fighting styles, but the Kreate a Fatality really doesn’t do it for me. It seriously takes away the individuality away from each fighter. Even just one fatality per fighter would have gone a long way. I appreciate the idea they had for it, but I just don’t think it’s worth taking away traditional fatalities.
I think I realize this every couple of years before I inevitably forget again, but I always thought the ending was meant to be open ended, neither one actually happening with MK9's intro supporting that. Watching this I realized that it wasn't open ended, Taven's win led directly to the end of that timeline, with the power buff leading to Raiden turning back time, leading directly to MK11 literally destroying that universe altogether.
Yeah there’s a few inconsistencies with Armageddon and MK9. I’ll go through them in the MK9 video. But until that game, Taven was the winner. Thanks for watching the video 🙂
Oh fck yeah my favorite mk all time! Liu kang was a zombie I wished he wasn’t lol but oh well yes I love this mk and also this has one of my story modes of all time! That story mode konquest should be ranked one of the greatest story modes in history it was sooo good🔥🔥
This was supposed to be the last MK game since it's the final battle between good & evil, MK Armageddon has pros & cons but I love it cuz it has kreate-a-fighter, motor kombat, konquest mode, etc. But I didn't like kreate the fatality, Motaro 2 legs & so on
It’s finally here! The Battle of Armageddon! I hope you all enjoy this dive into the final Mortal Kombat game for the Sixth Generation of consoles. My ‘Explained’ series is best watched as a series, and you can catch all previous videos in order here in this playlist,
m.th-cam.com/play/PL1OBedn71fCt6nYsng_LzCgCU93-NbOOZ.html
The reception of this series has been incredible, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading all your stories and history with these games. It’s a big reason I love making this content.
If you want to support the channel further, there is a channel membership where you get a few perks for as little as £1.99 a month. But leaving a comment and hitting subscribe is more than enough, I can’t thank you all enough 🙏
I love watching all of your videos, so good to watch!
I never thought I'd look back at these games after the reboot. I just thought the new games were so much better. But these videos remind me of how I feel in love with the old games. Thank you!
Love the video keep up good work
The part in Armageddon where all the villains are in Shao Kahn's castle all they needed was Shinnok then they could of formed a boy bad. Maybe Shinnok could get his mum Kronika to be their agent then they could go touring. 😂
Are yall doing MK9 next
Stryker punching Mileena gotta be the best MK moment
Underrated MK character. Stryker had the potential to be like TF2 Scout of MK and they did nothing with him. Like, imagine some shittalking dork in a police uniform saying some of the most unhinged shit to literal gods. Stryker players would rival Johnny Cage toxicity, and it would be hilarious. Add a soundclip like "Think fast, chucklenuts." Right before he decks Mileena would've been gold.
That opening of all the dead fighters lying around the pyramid in pieces, being picked at by vultures will always be one of the coolest scenes ever produced. I'd love to see that whole battle and the aftermath done in live action.
It is so good that I never skip it when booting the game up haha
@@DonCritic Neither do I, lol.
and then the skull jumpscare after the opening movie
One of the things I wish Armageddon could've did with Konquest was allow us to also play as daegon,so we can see his perspective of things,or better yet Konquest be the story for our created fighter
Both fantastic ideas! I’d love to see that
Ran out of time sadly
That back and forth would have been really interesting.
My dream game is a full-blown Mortal Kombat Konquest game where you create your own character and travel the different realms to learn abilities from different characters.
Each character you learn from has allies and enemies. For example, training with Bo Rai Cho will align you with Liu Kang and Kung Lao, but it will instantly make Shang Tsung your rival. This would allow every player to have unique characters who aren't OP.
Also, NRS could make a DLC for the next MK fighting game where players can put their created character in the game.
I’m probably your dad if they did that It would kind of be like dark souls
I was really into the MK lore as a kid and these videos are helping me remember why
On the contrary, im from south america and understood shit about english back then but LOVED the games. It feels lile im discovering a lot of stuff haha
WB could really have a hit on their hands if they treated the new MK films seriously with the lore. Imagine a cross between a superhero film and Game of Thrones with an R-rating. That's what MK deserves to be. They could have spin-off films focused on different groups of characters that lead up to a MK tournament/event film. (For example, MK Mythologies Part 1 focused on Sub-zero vs Scorpion with other business involving Quan-Chi and Shang Tsung. A Shaolin Monks film focusing on Liu Kang, Kung Lao, and Raiden as they prepare for the tournament and face some threat. A Special Forces film in the style of The Raid with the SF taking on the Black Dragons. Then culminating in a MK Tournament film featuring Johnny Cage getting involved). The action and drama would be much more exciting when you know who the characters are going into the event film with deadly stakes.
Same buddy! These vids have been great
I wish the intro was longer because the main battle was so cool to watch!
The animation is really good, I especially love the sword fight between Quan Chi and Kenshi
I will always love the 3D era of MK. I swear if this game had proper fatalities and they took their time to release it the game could’ve been the best MK of all time. However despite the scuffed kreate a fatality and some cut corners I still always enjoy the game especially like Deception I loved having a story driven Konquest mode.
It’s nice they tried different things and didn’t play it too safe
This is by a longshot my favorite MK. They packed so much content into it and still had time to squeeze in a go-kart mode. I feel like NRS's push for graphics and flashy animations are making their games a lot more barren to make up for it
I really disliked the PS2 era MK stiff animations (which improved significantly in MK9 even though not perfect)
And I wish Motor Kombat was a fully fleshed game of its own...
@@SuperErmacXthem being 2d is a flatout downgrade bro dont praise that terrible decision
@anubisfox5765 I halfway agree if they took the fully fleshed out the tekken style 3d mk could be perfect but as it stands right now it's like it really detracts
“We didn’t have enough time to add actual fatalities!”
*proceeds to create an entire racing game side mode*
It was really small and not as good as you remember.
MK Armageddon is still my favorite game in the series. I adore Taven's Konquest mode. I like his personality and the fact that he wasn't as dumb as Shujinko in Deception. Motor Kombat is still my favorite mini game in the series. This game also has a huge amount of beautiful arenas, soundtracks and characters of course. Oh and I loved Air Combos! The Kreate-A-Fighter mode was a great idea too
Fckn same
I got into an argument with a friend about the character creation in the game.
He said that's what ruined it, that that was more of a Soul Calibur thing...
Who gives af?
This game had so much content on it. It was definitely worthwhile.
@@ResidentOne I agree. Fans usually under-estimate it. For that time MK Armageddon made wonders except for the fatality thing. So many awesome arenas, stage traps. Each stage had a great, unique soundtrack theme. Also, AIR combos!
Shujinko wasn't dumb...he was Naïve, big difference. Ya gotta remember he started his quest as an actual kid. So a glowing orb telling you that you're the chosen one is easy to fall for as a kid...not to mention aging up the way he did with goin through the time pool and then spending years in a cell due to honor, would prolly mess his head up a bit.
Removing the fatalities was such a huge travesty of MK. That was one of the things that made MK stand out, and expanded upon in MK2 and UMK3 which is why they were so well received.
There still were fatalities, just not unique ones specific to each character. It would've asked a lot. I still had fun back in the day trying to pull off a level 10 fatality.
Its not the same but the do your own fatalities could be pretty fun
Don Critic nails it once again! Absolutely loving this series, keep it rolling and keep it up!
Thank you Nick! You’re a legend!
The fact you couldn't say "beloved Hsu Hao" without a slight chuckle speaks volumes about how everyone feels about the character. Truly a memorable character, but not for the right reasons.
Haha true
The create a fatality was the most hated thing about MKA, next to the lack of Kombantant bios and crappy individual Arcade “endings”. Outside of those issues, it was a ok fighter.
OK fighter to today's standards. Back then it was equal to what MKX was to us
I enjoyed the kreate a fighter, as well as the alternate costumes, and hell even konquest wasn’t horrid, but I agree the fatality and arcade endings were weak as fuck
@justinnegron4843 back then it was just as noticeably horribly balanced as it is today. The percentage of people that actually liked MKA was very small back then just as it is today. They just happen to be vocal and conveniently gloss over the many flaws of the game. Even Boon has gone on record saying that something that size will never be done again simply because it was a balancing nightmare and despite the amount of characters, ended up feeling extremely shallow. For what could have been the final installment, and it was that for many years, it was a huge mess that was cool for having an MK game with every fighter playable, but it seriously lacked replayability.
@@smmacktalkSame but the K.A.F mode is very limited, even if you're trying to make a cool custom character
There also is not a lot of variety inbetween the kombatants.
I still believe Taven did still kill Blaze. That golden aura from Shao Kahn as he was about to kill Raiden in MK9's intro, I'd say implies that is the extra power Blaze's death had went into him along with everyone else.
It's likely Shao waited until Taven nearly kills Blaze, then swooped in at the last second to steal the kill.
@@wingedbluj1674 I still consider that idea as a bad retcon, undermining the entire Konquest mode from Armageddon. I think it as more interesting for the fight at the Pyramid of Argus to keep going after Blazes death with these juiced up warriors, only for Shao Kahn to remain the last man standing after killing Raiden
@@PrinceOfMadnessThat's consistent with the ending of that game at least.
The only thing I’d like to point out during the MK9 intro is that after you see the carnage of Armageddon and the camera is pans up the stairs, you can hear fighting. Now, I can only infer what happened based on the sounds of fighting, so take this with a grain.
Based on what I heard, you can hear Shao Kahn attacking someone and a male character’s death cry. I don’t recognize the voice and only Raiden/Shao Kahn were the last ones left. So I presume this unseen character had to have been Taven, who was just killed off screen by Shao Kahn. Then, you can hear Raiden attack Shao Kahn by surprise but is quickly overwhelmed due to absorbing Blaze’s essence from the now dead Taven (assuming that’s how that even works).
My reasoning for assuming Taven was killed and Shao Kahn absorbed his power is that no one else was left standing+only Shao Kahn had Blaze’s aura while he was gloating to Raiden. IF Taven’s ending was consistent with MK9, Raiden should also have the power up from Blaze and it wouldn’t have been such a one sided slaughter. But that wasn’t the case. Shao Kahn was the only one who showed traces of Blaze’s power, so I assume that had to have come from Taven.
@@souloftherisingsun8274 I assumed that because Raiden had no golden aura, that simply even with the powerups to everyone else Shao Kahn was the last man standing after all that and defeated the Raiden who was probably so exhausted from using so much power
Broooo these videos are amazing I've been binging them since I found your channel! Loooove em
Cheers mate!! 😃
When they rebooted mortal combat I think they should have tried to continue the story of taven. Set it up where he could not defeat blaze so blaze used as powers to burn away the realms. The elder gods decide to send taven back in time so he can work alongside the heroes and be better prepared for armageddon.
I like that idea a lot!
and rename Taven to "Bob" and probably try to conceal his identity until the last points of the story
Although I understand the “rewrite” of the ending to do the MK9 reboot… it doesn’t change the fact Netherrealm pointed a big middle finger to the legacy of the 3D MK era.
And to this day they continue to “laugh” by constantly showing Taven and Onaga on the arcade endings… yet their story mode is always classic earthrealm (Liu Kang/Johnny, etc) VS Outworld (Shao and Shang Sung).
Being a kid when this came out. I personally thought the create a fatality was cool. I remember trying to figure out which button combinations did what. It was a long time when I found out some characters can pull out their swords mid fatality. Which opened up even more options some characters who didn’t have swords didn’t have.
These videos just keep getting better and better!!!!!!!!!!😊
Agree
Thank you!!
This game did a lot of good stuff, but you definitely feel where they cut corners.
Exactly
The amount of time I spent on motor Kombat is actually crazy bro brought some memories back ngl
Nice to see these videos explaining the MK games from the 2000s that I saw but never played.
the 2000s were busy times for me in my 20s, and MK was a different game, that I never had the time to get hold of, or to play back then.
TH-cam and content creators have done well in helping some to reminisce and others to fill in those gaps!
Nice video!
You’re very welcome! 😃 I’m so happy you enjoyed the video!
Despite some of the issues, this game really was a lot of fun. I do like how each Konquest in the series was different and the mini games were so much fun.
Yeah this era of Mortal Kombat was really creative
This video is what I’ve been looking for so amazing I love the hard work you put into your vids
YO! This game was amazing back in the day. If only others could easily access and play it today. The pros of having every fighter ever, kreate a fighter, konquest mode, and motor kombat DEFINITELY outweighed the cons.
DUDE! I have watched your whole MK series so far now and I can confidently say, you have mad video quality for such a relatively small TH-cam channel, honestly amazing work keep it up! straight up EARNED my subscription.
Wow that’s so amazing to hear! Thank you Dan! My next Explained episode is almost finished 😃🙌
@@DonCritic epic, will definitely check it out
One of the best Intros in mk history
💯
Armageddon was peak fun for my 12 year old self, creating a tiny goblin-like character and manually dismembering past bosses and sub-bosses was wild
Holy cow I was looking for this video after just finishing the deception video, and it said "uploaded 25 seconds ago"
How's that for some timing?!
Amazing timing! Are you super human?
Lol I just discovered you today. Thank you for the videos, friend!
Its like another MK Trilogy, only it has more charaters ×2, and more features! Great game, minus the fatalities, and charater endings, but all in all.. Kick ass game! Thanks Don Critic.
👀 maybe a little too early i see a new intro dammmm clear as I've ever!!
This was my favorite MK growing up. I need to go back and replay it again
They should stop creating new characters and just rewrite stories for the 3D era ones.
I completely agree with you on this. Outside of Takeda and Kung Jin I don't like any of the other new timeline characters.
I wouldn't say stop entirely I welcome new blood. But rather than introducing three to six new characters a game stick with one or two and give the rest to 3D era characters
No, seriously there are so.many characters that people dislike from the 3d era simply excuse there wasn't a whole lot done with them. It's a shame.
Drahmin pls
Nah. They just need to stop wasting roster spots on dumb movie guest characters like Robocop and Leatherface. I’m playing MK for MK, not Terrordrome.
YAAASS! Love the vids keep them coming!
🙌 thank you!
This series has started becoming one of the best mortal kombat video series on youtube
Wow thank you!!
What do you mean you could only make one kustom fighter? I distinctly remember my brother and I each having 8 fighters saved to our memory cards at a time and switching out the ones that didn’t work as well from time to time. But I definitely had at least 5 that always made the cut and were basically my mains.
Anyway, this was a great video, just like the rest! Armageddon was my favorite MK (I’ve played all mainline games except 4) and I’m really enjoying this opportunity to catch up on the full lore before the release of MK1 this month. Thank you for your hard work, Don!
Yeah you can only have one tied to each profile, I should’ve made it a bit clearer. Thanks so much for watching, I’m glad you still enjoyed the video! Hope you like the rest of the episodes!
These are great recaps btw! I’m a *GIANT* MK nerd. Me and my friend plan on recording a podcast on the 1995 movie soon at Big Dumb Movie.
But my co-host, Korey, stopped playing Mortal Kombat after 4. So I’ve been looking for videos to explain the 3D era in terms of lore _and_ game mechanics! I’m sending him your videos on Deadly Alliance, Deception, and this for his homework 😎👌🏻
Haha thanks so much! Glad they’re informative and entertaining. I really appreciate your support 🙏
I know that out of the mainline MK entries Armageddon is underrated and has at times a mixed reception but I still like this game. It’s also got a fun adventure beat em up Konquest mode plus having every character playable is pretty neat and yes I’m aware gameplay wise it’s not as varied and the removal of fatalities sucks I get it but I still think this game is fun. Plus I like this games protagonist Taven he’s a little underdeveloped but I think he’s still a cool Hercules style character.
Plus this game had a tight deadline and budget what with Midway getting close to shutting down permanently. So I personally choose to give this game some slack but I understand If other fans won’t or can’t.
Agreed!
So many characters. That's why I can't hate Armageddon though Deception was my favorite. There is so much content.
Yeah I agree, it may have cut many corners, but it certainly wasn’t dull
Mortal Kart Kombat was so shockingly fun for us kids who didnt have a Gamecube back then so we couldnt play Mario Kart
Thank you for doing this game,I miss it and wish we got to see the true story after this many people Don know that Shao Kahn actually dies in intro onaga either snaps neck or eats face you can hear it in intro as he yells,I appreciate you doing this thank you so much
Glad someone else also heard.
Thought I might be going insane lol
Yeah there’s a lot of inconsistencies with Armageddon and MK9, I’ll go over them in the future video. Thanks so much for watching, I’m glad you enjoyed! 🙏
@@MegaTroySmith you have legit taken words from my mouth everyone I mention that to say I misheard or it never happened I go back to the intro to this day just to imagine what would've came next from midway
@@DonCritic thank you for uploading them I know it isn't always easy but we value and appreciate your efforts
The opening movie to this game is of the best openings in video game history.
Totally agree! I watch it in full every time I boot the game up 😄
I loved MK Armageddon's intro or opening cinematic scene it was just as good as MK Deadly Alliance, and Deception's opening scene if not better. MK Shaolin Monks had a phenomenal opening scene too. MK Armageddon had so much potential, it was basically a newer version of MK Trilogy from the late 90's upgraded into the 2000's decade. What made MK Armageddon a lackluster game was the "create a fatality" feature, no more individual fatalities for each of the characters, everybody has the same exact fatalities.
And the endings for each of the MK Armageddon characters was also lame. I remembered when I purchased this game when it was first released in 2006, I was excited, but what ruined my experiences were the create the fatalities and character endings. I did like and enjoyed the game play, but I didn't use air combat very much. I would say that MK Armageddon was slightly below average overall compared to other MK games at the time or from that generation
Yeah the intro’s of the 3D Mortal Kombat games were epic!! 😃
For me, MK Trilogy was a better game.
I really enjoyed this game! Especially the Konquest mode!
The mini games were the BEST!!!!! 🤣 mortal kombat kart racing was sick! 🔥
Amazing work!!!!
Thanks so much!
When I 1st heard about this game man was I've so excited, All the returning Kombatants! Now being able to play as final bosses. Not to mention it actually had Khameleon and Chameleon as playable characters. Then the game came out and after playing it for a couple of hours the excitement kind of dwindled. Seeing what they did Motaro was heartbreaking. Though I cannot lie the game was right here in front of me I would be playing it right now. For all its faults when it comes to Mortal Kombat Armageddon is a classic..
I know what you mean, It wears its faults on its sleeve, but it is a guilty pleasure
This made my night man I cooked myself some food and about to watch this video 🤟🏼
Thanks Sergio, hope it was some good food!!
Don! Another amazing video I’m sure, about to give it a watch. Can’t wait to catch up and see the next as well. As always, good work.
Thank you so much!! 😃 next video will be out really soon
Dude thanks for the AWESOME work on this series ❤
I used t play MK till the MKU3, and played MK9 back in the day, and now im comming back to the series with the 11, and watching everyrhing i can to understand the hole story, amd your videos are one of the best i saw until now.
Cant wait for the ones about MK9/X
Awesome job !!!
Wow thank you!! So glad you’ve been enjoying the content
Oh man, I remember this Konquest mode. I watched a family member play parts of it (I've only played a little a few MK games here and there) and I seem to remember some really rough fights.
Great video, thank you! I have never played Armageddon, but I do think the opening cinematic was quite epic!
Thanks Mike! So glad you enjoyed the video 👊
Thank you so much for all these mortal kombat explained videos. Keep up the great work!
Thanks so much for watching! I really appreciate it! 😃
I suck at fighting games but enjoy the mechanics and lore. Thanks for your hard work.
You’re welcome, thanks so much for watching! 😃
Mortal kombat Armageddon konquest mode I thought was amazing in my opinion.
I agree
@@DonCritic indeed
This is one of those games where the critics thought it was mid, but real ones thought it was pretty fun and having all the characters was cool in 2006.
I liked how you put the redesigned Taven from Jiggeh in the thumbnail. that dude has the best takes on MK characters.
It’a honestly the best design 😃
I write action adventure novels and I use Kreate A Fighter to conceptualize their design and get some sort of visual aid to help me figure out their look. I love this game.
That’s a great use of the feature! Keep it up dude!
Seen your community post about this, I picked up 2 ps2 controllers and a fresh copy of mk Armageddon can’t wait to play it tonight for the first time in like 9-10 years
Woah you came from my community post! That’s awesome, thank you so much! Hope you have a great time with playing Armageddon again 🙂
@@DonCritic update, after taking my ps2 apart and attempting to clean it twice, i failed to run armageddon and i've came to the conclusion i need a need console.
Aww that’s a shame 🙁 hopefully you can get one soon 🤞🙏
GRACIAS SOCIO ESTABA ESPERANDO ESTE VIDEO. SOS UN GENIOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!
Muchas gracias por ver!! 😃
Been waiting on this!
Hope it delivers 😃
man, this takes me back in 2006 when this came out my brothers and me was happy and on my birthday I was 17 when my mom and her family got me new 4 games two wrestling games and THAM and MKA best birthday ever thank you mom.
That’s a great memory! 🙂
@@DonCritic yeah now i still play this game to this day.
Looking back on this era of Mortal Kombat, I'm actually glad they rebooted the series. It started to feel like they were running out of ideas. Shinnok wasted after one game? Well let's have the two sorcerers join forces. Don't know what to do with that? Well here is a big dragon guy. And after that, let's have every fighter so far in a battle royale.
Where are you supposed to go from there? Resetting the timeline was the right choice.
The newer titles build on existing foundations much better.
Also gameplay is obviously better.
MK peaked for me at deception. I loved the atmosphere, music and I feel it had the superior konquest mode.
What a fantastic video! Sadly, it is covering one of my least favorite games in the series. I remember renting this and at the character select screen just staring and not remembering half of the characters. With the loss of the fatalities that I had come to love and the krypt being boring this one just didn't stick with me.
Motor Kombat was the highlight for me and I agree with DC that this could have been an amazing spin off game from the series. It strikes me as a gag that could have been a pretty awesome game in it's own right.
Love Armageddon
"My quest did nothing to resolve the instabilty of realms" Taven's last words
gosh i love your videos :D
Thanks so much, I love your profile picture! Very cute!
These videos are brilliant. You have vast knowledge of the games and make it simple to understand. Have you considered doing MK lore videos?? I think they would do well. MK lore is all over the place. Maybe you could discuss the timelines, what’s canon, or even focus on single characters and their back stories. Nobody else that i know of is doing this so it might do well.
Thank you mate! I’m really glad you’ve been enjoying the series. I did make a few MK character lore videos last year, you can find them on the channel. However they got a little repetitive to make. With a fighting game series, a lot of characters aren’t gonna have very deep stories, or many follow similar beats as each other. These game explained videos, are much more fun to make as I get to break down the full story of the game and get to talk about the mechanics and gameplay aswell 🙂
1:46 "every mortal Kombat character" while tremor being forgotten.
Tremor is in the video 👍
Amazing as always can't wait for MK8
Thank you! 🙏
mannn armageddon & that whole trilogy was & is still my favorite set of MK games fr. MKA was my *shit* as a kid man lol
It’s here 💯💯💯 Thank you for this masterpiece ❤️
You’re welcome my friend!
Dude I'm enjoying these MK videos, well all of them but this is my favorite game genre, and it's gonna be sad when you complete the whole library of MK! 😞
Thanks man for coming along for the ride, and like all great things, they eventually come to an end. But I’ll still come back to Mortal Kombat in-between future franchises I plan to cover. Like when MK1 releases and each Kombat Pack update it’ll get 🙂
It’d be nice if they were to bring back Kombat Kart . It was soooo fun to play .
Is that what it was called? I remember it being called motor Kombat.
Waited for this yes!
Hope you enjoy! 🙂
Fatalities shouldve been added. Besides that, greatest mortal kombat, ladt one that has that evil, dark aura.
😢Seeing this brought back many memories. I remember speed running games like this because I had no memory card 😂😂
this is linking my child hood memories with my mkx and current memories. i forgot so much! i thought evil raiden was a new thing and shinnok was a new villain but seeing all of this made me realize i just forgot. to be fair shinnok did look like a clown to me with the only memorable scene be the bone hands.
Lore wise, this is still how it all ends no matter how you shift the sands of time. When the original timeline of midway’s presentation showed the trailer, notice how balanced both sides were in terms of good and evil, even as kronica wanted but once the reboot happened thanks to raidens fancy glitch. Kronica must have had the last straw with the thunder god entirely since she worked herself to absolute madness, despite her lacking as a fighter she purposely gave raiden of the rebooted franchise visions of what was but reflection of the previous. Once the timeline got to the threat of shinnok, it was clear she has had enough, therefore we got eleven.
Super tb was my favorite game for ps2 and the racing mode was epic great memories with my little brother and cousins💯⚡️
Yes!!!!! You did it 🥲 okay it's late but fuck it I'm sticking around for this one!
Thanks for watching despite it being late in the day 🙏
Midway's era should be entitled the Armageddon Saga. Netherrealm's era entitled as the Timeline Saga.
Armageddon was has cool things going for it. The Konquest mode, Kreate a Fighter, and Motor Kombat are pretty fun. I can live with each fighter having only two fighting styles, but the Kreate a Fatality really doesn’t do it for me. It seriously takes away the individuality away from each fighter. Even just one fatality per fighter would have gone a long way. I appreciate the idea they had for it, but I just don’t think it’s worth taking away traditional fatalities.
Agreed, Fatalities are Mortal Kombat
Just when I was getting into this video series! :D I was super sad there's no Armageddon episode haha
Your wish is granted! 😃
I remember when people asked ed boon, where mk8, his reply was, the story will be too dark allegedly that’s why they skip it..
The idea of giving create a character with a create a bio option, is something that needs brought back
I think I realize this every couple of years before I inevitably forget again, but I always thought the ending was meant to be open ended, neither one actually happening with MK9's intro supporting that. Watching this I realized that it wasn't open ended, Taven's win led directly to the end of that timeline, with the power buff leading to Raiden turning back time, leading directly to MK11 literally destroying that universe altogether.
Yeah there’s a few inconsistencies with Armageddon and MK9. I’ll go through them in the MK9 video. But until that game, Taven was the winner. Thanks for watching the video 🙂
YES! YES! YES! YES!
Ugh I'm officially caught up on the MK retrospective and now I need the next part lol!
I wish I could get these out sooner haha, I’m really glad you’ve been enjoying them. Next episode is gonna be a little different
@@DonCritic Looking forward to it, cheers!
Oh fck yeah my favorite mk all time! Liu kang was a zombie I wished he wasn’t lol but oh well yes I love this mk and also this has one of my story modes of all time! That story mode konquest should be ranked one of the greatest story modes in history it was sooo good🔥🔥
Me: What? How do I not remember this game?
YT: ...does not feature traditional fatalities.
Me: Oh yeah!
Great video , take my Like 👍
Thanks so much!
I’m late but I’m here! Let’s go Don
Never too late, hope you enjoy! 🙏🙂
How did I search for this video 40 minutes before you uploaded it. Weird
Super senses! 😄
Motor Kombat was the best. My second fav was the chess kombat from deception, even though I don't know the chess rules, lol.
That’s what was so good about Chess Kombat, you didn’t really need to know how to play Chess 😃
@@DonCritic love your videos buddy. Top notch entertainment for us mk geeks)) 😊
Armageddon still is the best MK game ever made.
This was supposed to be the last MK game since it's the final battle between good & evil, MK Armageddon has pros & cons but I love it cuz it has kreate-a-fighter, motor kombat, konquest mode, etc. But I didn't like kreate the fatality, Motaro 2 legs & so on
I really wanna play the 3D Era Mortal Kombat games
Lol same! Never thought I'd wanna go back to them, but just seeing them makes me want to return!
Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance is the hardest of the three 3D era mainline games, Mortal Kombat Armageddon is by far the easiest!
Hopefully they may remaster these games one day so more people can enjoy them
Great vid
Thank you so much!