It's very odd going back to Mortal Kombat 9, after three other games in the series (and two Injustices) have refined the modern Netherealm fighter to a razor-sharp point. The core gameplay is there. The wonderful approach to a story mode is there, highlighting several characters across its many chapters. The look is... well, miles off, actually. It's juvenile with so much of our cast's designs, in a way not uncharacteristic for the franchise, but that stands out compared to the other games in this trilogy (quadrilogy? MK1 occupies a weird space that makes this a difficult call). Sonya in particular is a cartoonish pair of fake breasts beneath some sort of generic military sleeveless jacket deal, like if Ash Ketchum fucked.

It's just all not quite there yet. The studio has to grow into a true industry leader position, with a... I won't say maturity, but more maturity than this. The gameplay has to become more fluid and less prone to cheap fucking around (and gets there quick in MKX), and that absurd level of visual polish the series is now known for has to actually happen.

But it is good. The story is good. It's a hoot to play. If I'd ever finished up with it when it came out it would have a higher score. But knowing that it only gets better makes it that much harder to score above a 3. Worth it if you want the whole story, but maybe just breeze through on lower difficulties so you can move on to the sequels.

This was a surprisingly really fun fighting game. I found none of the characters boring to play at all, every fighter feels fun to play as. No character felt low tier, but that might be because pretty much all fighters have some broken thing to them. I guess when everyone is overpowered, no one is. There are still some things that keep it from being a 10 for me. The story was mostly good, but I felt that it fell off in the last three chapters. Some of the voice acting was kind of bad too. Still a super fun fighting game.
Final score: 7/10

It seems like I played a crappy PC port of the best Mortal Kombat game.

- Some combos and special moves deal even less damage than uppercut and they need more time charge.
- AI cheats by reading inputs
- Crashes a lot
- Gameplay feels clunky and unresponsive sometimes (due to bad port)
- Unplayable without controller
- 60fps locked but drops to 25 for a second sometimes which is annoying
- Sound effects are inconsistent

Story Campaign:
- Terrible cutscene graphics and Fighting scenes in the cut scenes are cheesy ( I've seen console game-play and it was actually good. So I guess, it's an issue on PC because of the lazy port)
- 2 vs 1 matches don't seem fair for a tournament
- Shao Kahn is unfair

Btw some positive sides of this game are:
+ The Announcer
+ The Best MK story
+ It has more characters than other MK games
+ Freddy Krueger

Yeah man this game is just phenomenal. I do think that nostalgia has a role to play in this rating, taking this in mind that this game has a VERY limited amount of combos, but i still can't help but love it. Everything from the perfect gameplay speed, the X-Rays, the phenomenal art direction, everything about this is just what I want from a Mortal Kombat game. The fatalities are mostly very simple(sometimes just 3-move ones), but they're just so damn fun to look at. Even stuff like the over-the-top gore and blood effects that make the characters look absolutely fucked up during the fight, the cheesy dialogues, the ridiculous outfits of the characters(mainly the ladies), everything about this SCREAMS "bad taste", but that's literally what Mortal Kombat has always been(imo at least).

I love that this game proudly embraces its weirdness, compared to X and 11(haven't played 11 but I know the whole story) which I feel have been more about the special forces than they've been about the mystical world of this universe(aka boring as fuck)...... and I think 9 has the best story out of the three NRS games(X being the close second). It took the best things about its predecessors and added more to make what I(still) consider to be the best MK game ever made. Onto X now.