1. Radiant Historia
2. Halo: Combat Evolved (Master Chief Collection)
3. Halo 2 (Master Chief Collection)
4. Killer Instinct (Season 1 Story Mode)
5. 999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors
6. Ori and the Blind Forest (Xbox One)
7. Rayman Legends (Xbox One)
8. Mortal Kombat X (Xbox One)Since I have completed Mortal Kombat X's Story Mode and played around with the majority of the game's other modes, I'm going to consider it beaten. The Mortal Kombat series has seen some highs and lows but with the release of Mortal Kombat (2011), the series is certainly on the upswing. Most of Mortal Kombat's (2011) cast was comprised of returning characters from MK 1 through MK Trilogy. If memory serves me, the lone exception being Quan Chi who first appeared in MK4.
Quan Chi's appearance provided the segway needed to reintroduce characters from MK4+ into MK X. His master, Shinnok, and the Netherealm play a key role in MK X's story mode. Netherealm Studios has once again crafted a really well done Story Mode. During the course of Story Mode, you are primarily playing as Earthrealm's defense forces but you do have the opportunity to play as some of Outworld's as well. All of the game's playable cast makes an appearance in some form (except for Goro). And there are quite a lot of cameo appearances from characters that didn't return from MK9 and characters hailing from MK4+. For example, you fight against both Baraka and Tanya during the Story Mode at one point. Netherealm Studios has done a great job weaving together so many characters in a manner that makes sense.
My one criticism of Story Mode is a big spoiler so read at your own risk:
Next let's talk some about the game's online features. I only played a handful of games against online opponents but the Xbox One version's netcode seemed hit or miss. About half of the games that I played were really laggy. Not unplayable but certainly laggy enough to mess up some of your timings. It also took me quite a while to get connected with other players. Upon trying to find an online opponent, the game would tell me that it had found an opponent but it would then just sit there at that screen for what seemed like a few minutes. Sometimes I think the other players would get impatient and quit. Then I would have to attempt to connect again starting the whole process over again. Hopefully they will improve the online experience because as of right now, it is not so good.
But the online matchups are not the only online feature. MK X also has what is known as Faction Wars. When you first start up MK X it prompts you to join one of five factions. Most everything you do in MK X will award your faction a certain amount of points. There are also special "fatalities" called Faction Kills that are really easy to pull off and award more faction points than if you were to do one of the game's more flashy finishers. At the end of the Faction War (I'm not sure how long they last. Maybe a month?) all the players in that faction are awarded special prizes. I'm not sure what those prizes are at the moment.
There are Faction Wars specific game modes as well. There is the Invasion Boss where you get 30 seconds to beat on an insanely hard version of an MK X character. The Invasion Boss has a ton of hit points that are eventually whittled down by all the online players that partake in the mode. Whichever faction does the most damage to the Invasion Boss wins. Next there are Faction Towers. MK X has a variety of tower modes but this one obvious has the potential to add more points to you faction versus any of the other towers. Towers are a series of battles or challenges (think Test your Might from MK1) in which you climb for points and Kombat Koins.
As with MK9, the in-game currency is in the form of Kombat Koins. Kombat Koins are spent at the Krypt where you unlock fatalities, brutalities, skins, concept art, etc. The Krypt has seen a bit of an upgrade since its last iteration. Now it is sort of a mini first person RPG. You explore various areas of the Krypt which are gated by items that you find along the way. There are also occasional jump scare enemies that pop up along the way which you defeat with a simple quicktime event. Defeating them earns you a small amount of koins. Completing Story Mode awards you tens of thousands of koins and completing a normal match will get you anywhere from 200 to 1000ish koins depending on how you play and what finisher you use. Personally, I think the rate at which you gain koins is a bit on the low side. Also, playing against online opponents doesn't earn you any koins.
Aesthetically, the MK X is a real treat. All the characters have good animations and the graphics are all well done. The interactable stages are also a nice touch. You can perform some decent mixups jumping of walls and other things in the background. There are also some items that you can pick and throw at your opponent which do a respectable amount of damage. The music is also very well done in my opinion. The music isn't as upbeat as say Killer Instinct but it does a really good job of setting the mood of the stages.
Gameplay wise, I think MK X plays really well. Like any fighting game, it takes a little while to become accustomed to the mechanics and timings. But the game has depth and feels really polished. So far I haven't found anything really broken or extremely overpowered. I'm sure such things will be discovered and patched but as of right now, it seems fairly well balanced. The combo system requires pretty fast inputs compared to other fighting games but it is not an insurmountable challenge. Again, it just takes a little while to become accustomed to it. The super meter is back as it was from MK9. You have three stocks of meter. One stock and be spent of powered up versions of your special moves, two stocks on combo breakers, and three stocks on x-ray moves. There is also an energy meter below you health bar. It allows you to run by double tapping forward and holding block. I believe it also allows you interact with the stages. It refills very quickly and I never had a problem with running out of it. By and large, it just ignore it.
While I am enjoying the heck out of MK X, I have a hard time recommending it right now to anyone but the most hardcore MK fans and fighting game fans. Warner Bros (who owns Netherealm Studios) seems really intent on nickel and diming you for DLC. Goro is a pre-order bonus and there are four other character that are coming in the "Kombat Pack" which is priced at $30. Personally I am going to wait for a sale on the Kombat Pack or wait for the inevitable Komplete Edition to come down to $20 or so.
I took some vacation time to play it and Final Fantasy Type-0. I have a bunch of vacation to use up before July or I lose it.