Shaolin Monks

Lore & Background

The story spans the events of Mortal Kombat II, starting with the aftermath of the first Mortal Kombat. The battle rages furiously on Shang Tsung's island fortress in the Lost Sea, as the sorcerer watches the fighters battle his soldiers to protect Earthrealm. The Earthrealm's Shaolin monk Liu Kang defeats Shang Tsung's forces, but the sorcerer escapes through a portal to Outworld before the final confrontation. Thunder god Raiden appears afterwards and warns the remaining fighters to get off the island palace because it is collapsing into the sea.

Everyone, except Liu Kang and Kung Lao, evacuates and escape back to the Wu Shi Academy. Liu Kang and Kung Lao, however, have to fight their way to another portal to get to Wu Shi Academy. Upon arrival, Raiden awards his warriors for saving Earthrealm. However, Baraka and the Tarkatan attack the Wu Shi Academy.

Although the Tarkatans are defeated, Baraka captures Sonya Blade during the assault. Raiden confirms that Shang Tsung is trying to lure Liu Kang and his allies to Outworld where he can order his henchmen to attack them and bide his time for power. If successful, Shang Tsung will conquer Earth without winning a Mortal Kombat tournament, which is cheating.

Reader's Guide

The primary protagonists of Shaolin Monks are Liu Kang and Kung Lao. Featured as allies of the protagonists are Raiden, Johnny Cage, Kitana, Sub-Zero, and Jax. Most of the allies make appearances to assist the protagonists during segments of the game. Depicted as enemies of the protagonists are Shao Kahn, Shang Tsung, Mileena, Jade, Reptile, Baraka, Goro, Scorpion, and Kintaro.

These characters serve as bosses for the game's levels. Ermac and Kano can also be fought as optional bosses. Further characters featured are Sonya Blade, Kabal, Noob Saibot, and Quan Chi, who mostly only appear in cinematics. Smoke, in reference to his Mortal Kombat II depiction, is found in the Living Forest where he assigns the player optional missions required to unlock Mortal Kombat II.

Also in reference to the second game, Blaze appears fighting his unnamed opponent in the background of the Pit II. Upon completing the game, Sub-Zero and Scorpion become unlocked as playable characters in the story mode, although the story is unchanged. The versus mode features Liu Kang, Kung Lao, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Johnny Cage, Kitana, Reptile, and Baraka as the playable characters; all but Liu Kang and Kung Lao are unlocked through collecting tokens found in the story.

Development History and Strategic Shift

A spin-off game starring Liu Kang was originally supposed to be developed shortly after Mortal Kombat: Special Forces, the previous action-adventure title in the series in 2000. However, this did not happen because of the departure of John Tobias and the very negative reception of Special Forces. In October 2004, the president of Midway Games, David F. Zucker, called the release of Shaolin Monks the 'first step toward delivering something that Mortal Kombat fans have been calling for: a new game set in the Mortal Kombat universe every year.'

Producer Shaun Himmerick stated that the team wanted to make a Mortal Kombat with a 'deeper story.' The team was fans of adventure games and decided to follow that direction. Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon served as the creative director for Shaolin Monks and worked with the team's programmers to build the fighting engine. The team found a challenge in combining action elements with their multi-directional fighting engine, in an effort to avoid turning the game into a 'button smasher'.

Their idea was to give the player more freedom to execute multiple moves simultaneously than in any other adventure game. They would be able to attack in any direction they wanted. The team added multiple Mortal Kombat elements to make the game more appealing. Since Mortal Kombat II was Ed Boon's favorite game in the series, the story of this spin-off was based on it.

There was also a desire to include both Liu Kang and Kung Lao as protagonists, with the latter having been introduced in Mortal Kombat II. The game's versus mode originated from a bug that allowed testers to face each other. Unlike most Mortal Kombat games, the versus mode was made to include adventure game elements. The engine is different from the one from Mortal Kombat Deception and was made to rival other adventure games.

The co-op mode was designed so that players could work together to perform new moves and discover content that a single player could not. Originally, it was planned to allow more than two players in the co-op mode. While Dan Forden was the audio director, Jamie Christopherson worked as the composer.

Gameplay Mechanics and Combat Systems

Shaolin Monks features a multi-directional combat system, which gives players the ability to attack any of the enemies that surround them fluidly. The engine allows the player to maintain combo attacks across multiple enemies, and even continue their combos after launching an enemy into the air through a powerful attack or a throw. The main characters also have many of their signature moves from the series. Combos and special moves are upgradeable through the earning of experience points.

These are mainly gained through defeating opponents, with the combo system multiplying the value. The environment plays a vital role in the game, as there are several hazards that will instantly kill an enemy, such as pits in the floor or rotating wheels of spikes. Using some of the environment in this manner, as well as attacking or destroying certain objects, serve as a puzzle-solving element to unlock secrets in the game. The game also includes Fatalities, a common feature of the Mortal Kombat series.

Performing combos on enemies increases the Fatality meter. Once that meter has reached a certain level, a Fatality may be performed, regardless of an opponent's level of health. The main characters have the ability to perform several different Fatality moves, some of which are 3D updated versions of Fatalities from the first and second Mortal Kombat games. The player can also unlock the ability to do Multalities, which are Fatalities performed on multiple enemies at once.

The concept of Brutalities from Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3/Mortal Kombat Trilogy has also been brought back, though with a different function. Once the move has been performed, the player is able to give more devastating attacks for a limited time.

Game Modes and Franchise Integration

The game features three main modes of play. Aside from a single-player mode, the game has a co-operative mode, where two players can work together through the game, with access to some areas and items that are inaccessible in single-player mode. There is also a versus mode, where two players can fight against each other in some of the arenas featured in the game. In addition, players can play a shortened, censored demo version of The Suffering: Ties That Bind as well as an emulated arcade perfect version of Mortal Kombat II (which is taken from Midway Arcade Treasures 2; developed by Digital Eclipse).