Mortal Kombat: Armageddon
Mortal Kombat: Armageddon is the seventh canonical installment in the Mortal Kombat franchise. It was released for Playstation2 and X Box in 2006, and for Nintendo Wii in 2007. This game marks the last Mortal Kombat releases for those consoles, since the games after this have been released only for Xbox360 and Playstation3.
Warriors from all realms are becoming stronger and stronger -- something which was not supposed to happen. As a result, all realms are in danger. These warriors are foretold to eventually clash in a crater found in Edenia in a Battle Royale of such proportions, it will bring about The End of the World As We Know It. As the combatants fight, a pyramid rises from the ground without warning, and the tip bursts into flames, attracting the warriors' curiosity to see what's at the top. The combatants fight one another to get to the top, while Blaze -- the firespawn was created by the Elder Gods to destroy as many fighters as possible in order to save the realms from the prophecised Armageddon -- reveals himself. The final Mortal Kombat has begun; which warrior will stand upon the rest as the mightiest warrior of all?
Armageddon brought back the entire cast from the previous six installments in the Fighting Game franchise -- from Mortal Kombat all the way up to Mortal Kombat Deception -- and also added Sareena from Mortal Kombat Mythologies Sub Zero. It includes a total cast of 63 playable named combatants, including the Trilogy exclusive characters Chameleon (for all consoles) and Khameleon (exclusively for Wii), Meat from 4 as a Secret Character, and Blaze (a Secret Character from Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance who was turned into a Fire Golem in order to be the game's Final Boss). To cap off the roster, all previously unplayable bosses and sub-bosses -- Goro, Kintaro, Shao Kahn, Moloch, and Onaga -- were turned into playable characters without any need for unlocking them. There was even room for two new characters (Daegon and Taven, the main characters of this game). At first, Armageddon appeared to be a dream come true: every potential Mortal Kombat dream match was now possible.
The game delivered in roster depth, stages (bringing back almost every past stage, with their own Death Traps), and customization (the 64th option on the character select allows players to create their own character) -- but it lacked a solid story (characters thought to be Killed Off for Real, such as Hsu Hao, came Back From the Dead for no apparent reason), and the franchise's defining feature (the Fatalities) now required players to execute a button sequence for each part of the Fatality sequence. These two glaring flaws were the most criticized aspects of Armageddon.
This is the only 3D game of the series that saw no handheld port, mainly due to the size of the roster.
Armageddon is followed in the franchise itself by Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, but it is followed canonically by 2011's Mortal Kombat (a retelling of the first three games of the series where the story is directly affected by this game's events).
- Back From the Dead: Everyone--or, at least, those who we were told got killed (such as Mavado, who was killed by Kabal in Deception, and Hsu Hao, who was killed by Jax in Deadly Alliance).
- The Chessmaster: Shinnok is The Man Behind the Man to Daegon and is trusted by Taven (who is unaware that he had fallen), and pits the two against each other. He seems to have a greater awareness of what is going on than most other heroes and villans, and he chooses to use an avatar for the final battle rather than show up in person. It is implied in Mortal Kombat 9 that the entirety of that game is a result of his machinations in this one. Quite impressive, though he's as much of an Anticlimax Boss as a fighter as he ever was (even if, granted, he's not technically a boss).
- Combo Breaker: It could be used three times in a match, however.
- Copy Protection: An infamous case.
- Dream Match Game: A rare canonical example, given that everyone that was previously offed is Back From the Dead. The entire cast from every fighting installment returns.
- Endless Corridor: One of the arenas allows you to knock the opponent down a flight of stairs to an exact replica of the area... and then do it again... and again...
- Enemy Mine: The Forces of Darkness. As opposed to the Forces of Light, who are mostly comprised of friends and family (and even the newcomers are on good standing with the more senior members), there is nothing but bad blood between the villains (and the occasional neutral character). Darrius hired Dairou to kill Hotaru, while Hotaru and Havik don't hold each other in high regard. Several of the members would probably be better suited to fight for the Forces of the Light if it weren't for their personal vendettas. Take Nitara for instance. She's most likely the closest thing the group has to a Token Good Teammate (Word of God confirms that she's morally Neutral/Good), but is there to defeat Ashrah because Ashrah's Kriss is a Knight Templar towards the Vampire race, which it sees as Always Chaotic Evil. Scorpion, an anti-hero, is another good example. He's only aligned with them because he hates Quan Chi intensely (seeing as the man was responsible for killing his family, it's pretty damn justified), but he ultimately engages in battle with his former nemesis Sub-Zero (as seen in the intro).
- Kill Em All: Canonically, every single fighter dies in this game with the exception of Shao Kahn, who kills Raiden and achieves ultimate power, Taven, who ascends to protector god status and attempts to stave off Armageddon as best he can, and Shinnok, who only sent an avatar. Raiden utilized a time-travel gambit to change history, though he may have actually made things worse and Shinnok, being at a safe distance, might have beaten him to the punch...
- Fighting a Shadow: Shinnok is not actually a playable character in this game per say; instead, he was Genre Savvy enough to use an avatar. In the next game, Raiden cheats Shao Kahn of victory by altering time... but it is implied that Shinnok, since he never actually lost due to not actually being present, might have altered time first, taking advantage of this trope.
- Finishing Move: Which you can input by using, among other stuff:
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: Depending on your weapon.
- Clean Cut
- Diagonal Cut
- Good Old Fisticuffs
- Grievous Harm With a Body
- Groin Attack
- Neck Snap
- One Hit Kill
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: Jarek's weapon style has him fighting with an axe. It's referred to as "Kick Axe" by the game. Now, say that out loud.
- How Much More Can He Take
- Lazy Artist: The game has received many flak for recycling Deadly Alliance and Deception character models. Several of the new characters also have recycled animations from previous games, even when they don't fit. Then there's the absolute lack of unique fatalities. Whilst an argument could be made that trying to give every character on the roster a fatality would have been time consuming & likely seen some characters using similar fatalities, the fact remains that there were only 17 characters in the game who didn't appear in the two previous games, which is less than the rosters of Deception and Deadly Alliance, and the characters returning from those games could have reused those fatalities if need be.
- Loin Cloth: Aside from the obvious examples, the custom character can wear one.
- Mini Game: "Motor Kombat"
- Mordor: The Netherrealm.
- Nice Job Breaking It Hero: Taven's ending plays this horribly straight.
- Nostalgia Level: Many of the arenas.
- Popularity Power: The main reason of the appearance of Trilogy's Khameleon in the Wii version of the game.
- Scunthorpe Problem: When making a custom character, the game won't let you use swears in any text field. While this might have at least kept people from having to fight a million bored twelve-year-olds who named their characters after obscenities in online play, one of the words it doesn't allow is "Hell". Which is the name of a stage in the game.
- Shout Out: Check the page.
- Shows Damage
- Smashing Hallway Traps of Doom: Featured in several stages.
- The Bad Guy Wins: The canonical winner of Armageddon? Shao Kahn.
- Torch the Franchise And Run: The Battle of Armageddon was intended to do this so that the next game could throw away everything from past games and have a practically new cast. Aside from killing off nearly everyone, the proposed plan didn't really take off.
For tropes related with individual characters, go to the MKA character sheet.
- Beat Em Up
- Corridor Cubbyhole Run
- Enemy Mine: Lampshaded; Quan Chi rallies Shao Kahn, Shang Tsung, Shinnok, and Onaga to join forces, even if briefly, so that they can defeat the heroes, knowing that afterwards, backstabbing will ensue.
- Genre Shift: Whenever you find a member of the playable cast, a fighting match will ensue.
- Impaled With Extreme Prejudice: Some stages feature spikes; you can uppercut the mooks to impale them there.
- Its a Wonderful Failure: YOU ARE DEAD
- Literally Shattered Lives: Thanks to the Ice Scepter, a weapon you find in the Lin Kuei temple, which can freeze and shatter your enemies.
- Mooks: Tons of them, everywhere. Red/Black Dragon thugs, Lin Kuei/Tengu ninjas, Shadow mooks...
- Puzzle Boss: Shao Kahn's Colossus.
- Rewarding Vandalism: Breaking stuff grants you both health and mana recovery.
- Smashing Hallway Traps of Doom
- Timed Mission:
- The escape of the Tekunin ship.
- One of the training missions in Delia's pillar.