IGN's Douglass C. Perry is quite the character. If you have ever had the pleasure of meeting him in person, you would quickly get the impression that he is old and stiff enough to be that guy who tries to sell you the undercarriage rust protection on the used '97 Chevy Cavalier you can barely afford on your measly barrista's salary.

Anyway, C-Piddy got his hands on a final reviewable build of Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks (Xbox, PS2), and posted a "gem" of a preview, laced with intelligent analysis such as, "some of the best yeeeee-haaaas and waaaaa-haaaas!!" and "A second player is a must for ULTIMATE KOMBAT PHUN!". I kid you not.

But Douglass C. Perry does not use these euphemisms to sound hip and cool, he is mocking the entire MK community as he has been for the past 7 years I have seen him write at IGN. Reading his preview clearly shows how painful it is for him to actually say that Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks is actually going to be an amazing game. It's too bad that Doug couldn't find anyone to play ko-op with him. I wonder why...

Watch Doug play Shaolin Monks all by himself in the latest 6 videos posted on IGN's media page.

+10 TRMKarma: DeathcoreRyknow

The review is great and the videos are awesome. What really makes me eager to get this game is the mentioning of the 3 different skill trees you can follow. Kinda like with different RPG where you can put points into different parts of the three trees. This will really define your fighter. Man this game will rock. 7 days to go!

HATES MK?!?!? BLASPHEMER! Since he has said it's good maybe a few of my friends might like it........They were SF fanatics who hated MK because "it's uncool"

There is no way Street Fighter is popular than MK. At Least MK has followed through with numbers on their titles like MK1,2,3,4 etc as opposed to SF add-ons like SF, SFT,SFTCE,SFHCE,etc. The story isn't even all that and look where SF is now. It's just all mixed up with fighting games like Marvel vs Capcom and what not. I did like that game but the series of SF in it self just didn't last like MK has.

Originally Posted by : Hydro
There is no way Street Fighter is popular than MK. At Least MK has followed through with numbers on their titles like MK1,2,3,4 etc as opposed to SF add-ons like SF, SFT,SFTCE,SFHCE,etc. The story isn't even all that and look where SF is now. It's just all mixed up with fighting games like Marvel vs Capcom and what not. I did like that game but the series of SF in it self just didn't last like MK has.

Are you sure? The SF fan base is huge. I loved MK & MK2 and practically hated the rest that came out, even MKDA and MKD, nice some cool things but their was something lacking and kept me wanting for more, and like him I really hope that MKSM will bring this feel of liking MK back.

The original SFII was cool, but MK is better.. I can't stand all the other crap they've pushed out as a Street Fighter game. Just think if Midway kept putting out MK3 over 10 years but put a different label to the end of it. MK3 Alpha MK3 Beta MK3 Omega MK3 Hyper MK3 Hyper Turbo MK3 Hyper Turbo Championship Edition MK3 This is getting ridiculous Still, I know that SF has a bigger fan base, simply because of all of the Japanese marks that like their own product versus an American made one. It's not because it's a better game, it's racial prejudice.

MK3 Why do you bother? MK3 Why cant we call it MK4 Or MK3 you've played it once and it doesnt feel differnt at all. The reason SF is bigger in Japan is that MK never really was a big hit over there......Japanese people didnt really like bloody games

Originally Posted by : Masta-Dante
MK never really was a big hit over there......Japanese people didnt really like bloody games

That's not true, at that time there weren't many violent games but their anime were always more violent and bloodier than the american ones, I don't remember any cartoons that showed blood btw. If I remember well, MK and MK2 were a big hit in Japan.

Well what I am saying is when was the last time you picked up the last SF title. What the SF 3rd strike game? When did this game come out again? and no I am not talking about the Street Fighter Anniversary collection either. We can safely say that we just played MKD last year and here we are about to play another one in 5 DAYS. That is the thing. Capcom is better off doing more Resident Evil series than the Street Fighter series. There isn't much of a huge story to it either.

these updates are always just text in firefox, once I see you have an update i just head over to mk5.org to see if it was an update worth making the news (oh burn! :P )

wow its like being back in 1995 SF & MK are like Sega and Nintendo, people cant seem to like both. Anyone who says the new MKs are deeper than SF3 needs their head examined. Look how long it took MK to develop a proper combo system, and look how many flaws and infinites exist in Deception. I discovered an infinite within an hour of playing. Hell Deadly Alliance had ONE fatality. When was the last time an MK game did that? MK1? Talk about progression. The various updates of SF fixed problems in past editions eg balance issues, added moves, characters. New MK games seem to have a real lack of indepth playtesting from an experienced fighter. and cussing the SF storyline is hilarious. Both MK and SF have awful storylines which dont really make much sense, but then people arent primarily concerned with that.

One of the things I like best about MK was the storyline. You seriously can't compare MK's storyline to SF's non existant one.

SF's is pretty dire admittedly. But even MK only really started fleshing it out in later games, and even then its filled with contradictions and inconsistencies to suit later games. Although I think the game has gone downhill since the MK2, the atmosphere of the second game is superb, and this is due to the graphics and the feel of the whole thing. But even then the story seemed to make very little sense. but, Id rather a game had a shit for brains storyline than a broken engine, which is something that MK has suffered from since MK4. It simply isnt regarded as a serious fighting game by a lot of fans of the genre.

Meh, you can't really say "Serious Fighting Game Fans".. it's all a matter of personal taste. I love the "fighting" of Mortal Kombat. I personally can't stand the fighting engine of SF and it's many clones. Chocolate Ice Cream compared to Vanilla Ice Cream... Chocolate is the best for my tastes.

I think you can say that. Taste is obviously subjective, but quality isnt. You cant say that Backstreet Boys are better than Elton John cos you like their music more. There's nothing wrong with liking 'x' more than 'y' but liking something doesnt make it better than it actually is. The engine of MK is flawed to put it lightly. MK is still an arcade game at heart, but unlike SF, Guilty Gear and KOF, there is no depth after you pass that n00b stage. As I said they didnt even really develop a proper system til 3, and even then it was way behind other games out at the time. I loved the style of MK2, but it had very little depth, and even after playing DA and Deception, Id stand by that comment. The combos have no real versatility or variation to them. Im not 'hating' on MK as some people will no doubt think. MK2 was a possible SF beater for me. I loved the damn thing on my Megadrive. But it pains me to see how little the series has progressed.