There
should be an online petition to get both Midway executives and the entire programming team
to apologize for War Gods. This has as much to do with the fact that this is one of the
worst fighting games ever made as it does with the fact that this game is nothing more
than a test. It's a prep for "Mortal Kombat 4" as you can see the bare bones of
that game appear here. We all know how "MK4" turned out, so just imagine how bad
this is. There's very little difference between characters as they all share the same basic move set, again, just like "Mortal Kombat." Their special moves are their only defining characteristics. Even those are pointless as a human player can easily make a move to avoid them and an AI opponent is too stupid to try.
Going beyond the special moves, these characters are seemingly plucked from a trashcan at a failed comic book art school. One of the final bosses is a giant thong-wearing green ogre. That's supposed to be intimidating? Each of the low polygon count models are slapped together with digitized textures that add to the blurriness of the presentation. It's obvious they learned something from this game since "MK4" would all be handled without any of the digitization that carried the series.
The animation gives the game a stiff and immobile feel. There are times when you hardly feel in control, as the dial-a-combo system is entirely broken. The addition of a 3-D movement button is unnecessary and prevents the game from really feeling like it's taking place in three dimensions. This is nothing more than a lazy addition to make it seem like they actually tried to make this different than their real money making franchise.
Usually though, no matter how bad they may be, the "Mortal Kombat" series at least offered some solid blood and gore to make things interesting. There's hardly any exchange of red bodily fluids here and the fatalities are meager. It's more fun just to uppercut the dazed opponent and watch them soar, only to land with a sickening thud.
The music is probably the only thing worth mentioning as a positive. It is rather flat as it sits in the backgrounds, drowned out by weak sounding hits. Still, it sets a dark tone the game is aiming for (even if it fails miserably at it the rest of the way).
It's bad enough that every single character design is questionable. It's even worse to think they're trapped in something like this. You can almost imagine this game being some sort of sick April Fools joke or a hoax on the gaming community, but it was widely released. We should all take a moment of silence to remember those who have suffered either in the arcade or actually paid money to play this one at home. They're brave souls.
