8Bit/Digi

Not a Brutality, This is a Fatality!

It’s not often I get to speak about my favorite fighting game franchise and a title some call one of the worst games in history in the same breath. They’re exaggerating, but Mortal Kombat: Special Forces was likely the lowest point for the series, helping to create a moment that brought the brand into question and made fans wonder: how could it have all gone so wrong? We’re scraping the bottom of the barrel in this beloved franchise, and our subject is a tragic story that played out almost entirely behind the scenes.

There was a time when Mortal Kombat was at the top of its own challenge tower, raking in money hand over fist, but that’s also when they started expanding and likely flew too close to the sun. Movies, television shows, lunchboxes, and more – the idea was to diversify, and that was also on the games front. They had conquered the one-on-one fighter, so why not try some platformers or other genres as well, which is how we received Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero, and there were going to be many more under the Mythologies name. That didn’t happen, but supposedly one of these eventually became Shaolin Monks, and even Baraka was supposed to get his own adventure at some point. Here in the future though, we know he never gets any respect. The original working title was Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Special Forces, as seen in some Prima Games concept art for the guide, but people thought that was too wordy. I’m just glad it didn’t drag the Mythologies name through the mud further.

The game is billed as the story of Jax Briggs and Kano’s preexisting relationship, and it takes place at the earliest (playable) point in the Mortal Kombat timeline. In truth, there isn’t a ton of that to be found here, and there are some inconsistencies that are hard to ignore, even past wondering why Jax already has his metal arms at this point. We’re left with a pretty straightforward story about Kano busting his Black Dragon friends out of prison and wanting a magical item known as the Eye of Chitian, for reasons, so Jax has to take care of it and he gets a ‘70s style Blaxsploitation intro, complete with an awesome purple mustang, and a sexy-sounding lady on the comms named Gemini, to offer some info dumps between flirting and one-liners.

It’s All on Hard Mode

Okay, Special Forces isn’t great. We’ve all played way worse, but this is a drastic drop in quality and features some completely frustrating gameplay in the franchise’s first 3D outing. Jax has his massive fists and kicks, which he can make powerful kombos (gained through XP/leveling) out of, if the player remembers the button combinations and they actually connect with the targets. The enemies in this game take a while to go down here and are skilled blockers, making the encounters feel quite tedious if we aren’t using special moves or guns. Save that ammo for the bosses though, because they can be tough to approach, damn cheap, and do a ton of damage to eat through our medipaks. We can access a first-person view with the firearms, but it’s horrible to maneuver, and good luck spotting the enemies before they start attacking, hiding outside of the miserable draw distance. Jax has a lot of tools at his disposal, but it’s easy to forget about them and take on every fight the hard way, especially when the difficulty seems to fluctuate so often.

We can enjoy running around looking for codes, some of which are hidden or backwards, and doing a little pixel-hunting in the overly dark rooms, trying to find hidden areas or sections of the wall that need to be blown up. There are five somewhat barren levels, minus a light smattering of fun details, some of which are references to the other games. There are odd quirks, like how Jax can wander into the showers to see a woman bathing before she attacks us. Exploration is not satisfying at all here, which makes the loads of backtracking more annoying, and there are multiple places where players can fall to their deaths, for shits and giggles. I doubt I even have to mention the collision issues or glitches, because we all know they’re there, but I do need to complain about this camera. Not only does this thing make it easier to miss important objects and pathways, but the field of view is on the bad guys’ side, allowing them to remain unseen if their health bar doesn’t pop up, and get the jump on us way before we can do anything about it. Nothing says love like being shot from off-screen.

I know this all sounds bad, and it is. I’m typing this portion as Jax is currently stuck in a wall, but once we figure out what the game expects from players, and discover how to cheese it a bit (or just use that cheat menu, I won’t tell), it isn’t too much more annoying than several other games I’ve played, and it works for the most part. What honestly makes this one hurt a bit more is being shown what it could have been.

Gotcha!

Saying Special Forces had a troubled development is probably being far too kind. Mortal Kombat’s co-creator Ed Boon didn’t work on the game, but has said that he could “write a book” on the numerous and varied problems the project faced. Midway’s developers were already split into smaller teams, working on multiple projects, and the transition to 3D gameplay wasn’t easy, as employees struggled to learn new tools and bring their worlds to life. This game was also built for the original PlayStation, a system that was months away from being considered old hardware. The PlayStation 2 was about to launch in North America, meaning Special Forces wouldn’t be able to take advantage of the new technology, and their game would likely be overlooked on store shelves.

A bigger disaster was the other franchise co-creator, John Tobias, choosing to leave the company along with several important team members while the game was still deep into development. Special Forces isn’t what caused Tobias to leave, just a small part of his frustration among thoughts of a fresh start. He only played the finished product for around five minutes, seemingly not interested in finding out how his vision was changed. His absence, however, helped fuel rumors of the title being canceled, but Midway didn’t acknowledge this, and the revamped team pressed on. With deadlines and so many important people abandoning the game, everything changed.

Footage from the original prototype of Special Forces was shown at E3 in 1999, and it makes the game look much better, more involved with a robust narrative, and genuinely interesting. It played like an action-focused, brutal version of Tomb Raider, with platform mechanics instead of the awkward climbing we were left with, and the ability to journey through the stories of both Jax and Sonya Blade. The original screenshots of Sonya kicking Black Dragon butt created some hype, and to be realistic, it probably wouldn’t have been amazing, but I find it hard to think Tobias’ original idea wouldn’t have been better than what we ended up with.

You Ain’t Bad!

Midway supposedly told the team to just finish the game, with claims that the project came close to being abandoned at the eleventh hour, so even after an overhaul of mechanics, discarded levels and enemies, as well as a cut playable fan-favorite character, more had to be trimmed away to course correct and meet the deadline. Many of these changes, like switching to the overhead camera, came within the last few months of development. There were supposed to be ports made for the Nintendo 64 and possibly the Dreamcast later on, but I imagine everyone was aware that was no longer a reality by the time the cuts started. It’s believed that Midway knew they had a stinker on their hands and purposefully didn’t put much effort into marketing the game the closer it came to its release, as the team was told that all other potential projects were paused to increase focus on the next main entry, Deadly Alliance. The game was priced at $19.99 in hopes of selling more units, tricking a few extra people into buying it with the MK name, and getting rid of their shame faster. Still, some would say they overcharged.

Needless to say, the game was not received well. Panned by critics and fans alike, most agreed that even if it wasn’t horrible, Special Forces committed the ultimate sin of being tedious and unrewarding. A lot of people love laying into this game, even raising its infamy, claiming the title to be one of the worst games of all time. That might be going a little far, but I get it. Some say it’s a cash grab, and there are certainly arguments for that, but more importantly, I think this game will always be the redheaded stepchild of the series because, in many eyes, without our advantage of existing here in the future, Special Forces looked like the death of the once great Mortal Kombat.

There aren’t many good parts to point out, maybe a couple of the boss tracks, but some people have managed to see where Special Forces kind of worked and almost succeeded. The Tomb Raider aspects had to be abandoned, but Tobias’ love for the Metal Gear series is still somewhat present, and a good stealth system with a few combat tweaks and better controls could have gone a long way here. That’s wishful thinking, because even if the game isn’t ‘horrible,’ it’s nowhere near good, and for some, it isn’t playable. Time will never be favorable to Special Forces, even in its own series. This game will remain at the bottom of that pile, and no amount of people revisiting it will change the public opinion. It’s an intriguing failure, one that tried to step outside of the series norm and ended up feeling cheap and nothing like the rest of the brand, in the worst way possible.

Did you play Mortal Kombat: Special Forces? If so, which versions and which one was your favorite? Share your thoughts in the comment section.

8Bit/Digi is an independent news outlet that provides insight into the video game and fandom community of the San Francisco Bay Area.