Mortal Kombat X
For: PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC
From: Warner Bros
Four stars (out of five)
Mortal Kombat is, for gamers of a certain age, just one of those touchstones of our gaming lives.
It has always been there, on consoles and in arcades (remember those?), fighting for its share of the one-on-one brawler market along with Street Fighter.
There have been numerous Mortal Kombat follow-ups on all sorts of platforms over the years.
Some have been great, some a little flat.
MK X, pleasingly, is firmly in the former camp.
It is a big, bold remake of the series that manages to zone in on what makes the game great - sheer, visceral, exciting gameplay - and simultaneously expand its horizons.
The first question any MK fan will have relates to which characters are available.
The answer is: lots, times three.
There are 24 playable characters on the initial roster.
There are old favourites like Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Johnny Cage, Sonya Blade, Jax and Liu Kang; newcomers including Cassie Cage, daughter of Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade, and Jacqui Briggs, daughter of Jax; and downloadable guest characters including Predator (from the eponymous movie) and Jason (from the Friday the 13th movies).
A neat addition is that each character possesses three distinct fighting styles, adding depth to the roster options.
Fighting feels both smooth and intense.
It can still slip into button-mashing territory, but the smarter fighters will use patience and timing to hold off the more frenzied attacks.
Unlike most MK games, you can interact with the environment, which adds some nice variety to the stoushes.
The big selling point of MK X is the sheer depth of the game.
It is no longer just about repetitive one-on-one fighting, though obviously that remains the core focus.
A wide-ranging story mode offers plenty of interest, there are multiple online options, the old challenge tower is reborn as Living Towers, a challenge mode that changes every hour, and a new mode is Faction Wars, in which gamers align themselves with one of five factions and earn bonuses through online cross-platform competition.
For those who have been in a cave, Mortal Kombat means extremely graphic violence.
And that should be Graphic with a capital G, or GRAPHIC in block caps.
It is fantasy-type stuff and over the top, but be prepared for lots of gore and extremely nasty scenes of excruciating execution.
The good thing is the series also has a nice element of humour, and do not let the violence put you off.
This is a spectacular addition to a series that has plenty of life yet.
