Finish Him Part 17: Mortal Kombat X/XL

Mortal Kombat X

The hugely successful follow-up to the surprisingly successful Mortal Kombat 9. Did MKX strike as good a balance with its fatalities as its predecessor did?

Adaptation April 2021: Alien 3 (NES, Sega Genesis, and Super NES)

“The ALIENS are fast, spit acid, and are right behind YOU!”

Alien 3 (NES)| Developer: Probe| Publisher: LJN| Released: March 1993

Talking about some of the games based on what may be the worst Alien movie out of the original quadrilogy? Sure, why not. Despite… most of the recent flicks in the series, I still love the franchise, and these games have some interesting trivia, like which one adapts the film’s tragic ending. It may not be the one that you’d think.

The NES, Sega Master System, Genesis, and Game Gear games based on the flick have the same basic premise: As Ripley, you have to run around the levels and rescue the other prisoners and reach the exit under the time limit. Depending on which version you’re playing, this is easier said than done.

Contrary to the flick’s premise, there are numerous aliens wandering around instead of just one, and Ripley is packing heat to deal with them, but because all of the prisoners are trapped in Xenomorph webbing, none of them are free to help her. The Super NES version of the game is a bit more involved because you acquire multiple objectives per level, and you can do them in any order you wish.

Adaptation April: Aliens vs. Predator (2010) Part Three: Deadliest of the Species

We find Tequila all webbed up in another hive. She said that we arrived just in time to put a bullet in her, but Katya insists that we can save her. This storyline again? Trying to save someone who’s implanted never works.

Tequila is still willing to fight, despite coughing and acting sick sometimes. At one point, she complains that the bug’s really messing with her guts.

When Weyland tries to tell us to just leave, Tequila expresses a wish to be near him when her “bug” emerges.

Unlocked “I Will Never Leave You…” 31%

Extracting the Xeno from Ripley-8 in Alien Resurrection worked, but she was in cold sleep until she reached her accelerated adulthood so that the Xeno wouldn’t emerge prematurely. But she wasn’t totally human, either.

How did they get the cloning process so wrong seven times, but get it right the eighth time?

Ripley’s blood was used as the cloning sample. Maybe the earlier samples were tainted somehow. It probably was for the best that the movie doesn’t try to explain why the earlier clones had such jumbled DNA.

Infected people act very differently across the Alien saga.

Alien: Kane has no visible symptoms before it… happens. Unless his desire to eat a lot after he was facehugged was supposed to hint at his… condition. Perhaps some of that food reached the Xeno, and was a partial cause for his hunger? Ew.

Aliens: The infected colonist that Ripley and the Marines encounter either feels it inside of her or knows what happened to the other colonists and asks to be killed before it emerges.

Alien³: Ripley’s infection is protracted over the course of the film to its bitter end. The first sign is a bloody nose. From there, she develops a sore throat and nausea. At this point, she looks visibly tired and has an occasional cough. She also seems to have difficulty breathing. She finally learns the horrible truth after she gets a scan of her body. Before she dies, she tells Weyland that it’s unlikely that they can extract the Queen in time: “I just felt it move.” Ouch.

AR: The poor shmuck who is the only prominent infected character seems to have a long time before he succumbs. At one point, he has a suspicious coughing fit, but it wasn’t ready yet. Ew.

We reached the lab. Katya tried to start the operation, but Weyland caught on and cut the power. Katya told the Rookie to put Tequila in a stasis pod, so he did.

He finally met Katya face-to-face after Weyland revealed that she was actually a synth. She prefers to be called what she is – “android” instead of “artificial person”.

There was only one possible way off of the planet left: the executive order on Weyland’s datapad.He was in the Pyramid. Katya asked with a certain anticipation that Rookie say goodbye to Weyland for her.

Unlocked “That’s a Promise.” 32%

Weyland said that Katya was part of a faulty product line, but he still kept her around anyway. Apparently, having more morals than some of the human W-Y workers makes the administrator “faulty”.

Rookie rode a cargo elevator to get into the Pyramid.

Some of Weyland’s audio diaries are very revealing. In one, he expresses a desire to dominate the Xenomorph species. In another, he refers to 6 as his daughter. EW EW EW EW

On the way to the elevator, Rookie encountered a Praetorian, but ammo was all over the place. The Praetorian is VERY fast and tough, but you can put it down easily enough after a few tries.

Unlocked I Like to Keep This Handy and One Big Bug. 35%

Weyland said that, while Charles Weyland’s last moments are lost to him, they continued to define his existence. Wow…

Rookie found Weyland, who said that he basically owned the Corps, and, by extension, him. Weyland left him to be killed by tough combat synths, but they weren’t tough enough.

Rookie cornered Weyland and wrestled the datapad out of his hands. He fell into the lava through a hole in the floor.

A pyramid… with lava in it?

Rookie barely escaped the crumbling Pyramid on Weyland’s dropship with Katya and Tequila. As they enjoyed the start of a long stasis, the pilots sent a report and the contents of Weyland’s datapad to someone. They claimed that they had a live specimen as well.

The gravely voice is familiar. Another Weyland says that they’ve found the coordinates to the Xenomorph homeworld.

But what about Tequila?

Unlocked “Get to the Chopper!” and “Game Over, Man!” 41%

The end credits theme is nice.

Final Thoughts

AvP is decent but uneven. My main issue is with the unusual controls. L2 and R2 for alternate and regular fire respectively? Madness! Also, the jumping is pretty much worthless (except for Xenos). I’d much rather be able to crouch. These choices keep me from giving the game a full recommendation, despite some cool moments in the Marine campaign.

The weapons felt pretty good to use.

They wanted to make a sequel to this game, didn’t they? Ouch.

I was perhaps too hard on the game right after beating it. Several years later, I discovered that I have some nostalgia for it, even though it is a stock FPS in several ways. It’s a smooth game with some good set pieces.

Comparing the three campaigns, I think that 6’s stands out the most simply because of her connection to the other Xenos and her growth into the new Queen. The Marine campaign has a decent story and fun gear. This leaves the Predator campaign with probably the weakest story, but it also has cool Predator weapons available. If only each campaign was equally strong, we would have a hell of a good FPS instead of a merely solid one. I’m not surprised that the game is looked upon more fondly now than when it was initially released. It has a warmer reception than A:CM, and probably either Alien: Covenant or The Predator. What happened to our once-proud sci-fi film franchises?

If you want a solid and simple FPS to play through, you could do a lot worse than AvP.

Purposeless Rabbitholes did a pretty entertaining video comparing Rebellion’s AvP games from 1999 and 2010: