so, so, SO close to 5 stars. it had everything going for it. the animation is incredible, the fighting engine is the best its ever been, the writing is horrible (in the best way, most of the time), there's just a lot of small issues that pile up and take it down that one notch from perfection.

firstly, the microtransactions. obviously. not just the idea of them this time, though, because there are a lot of things core to the mortal kombat franchise (from a casual perspective, at least) that it takes away. the thing i hate most of all being the gear. gone are the days of unlockable costumes with either really cool or charming designs, and in come the very slight changes that make a character look completely stupid instead. an absolute charm vacuum that sucks out all the fun of a character's look and replaces it with contrived rarity and greed.

secondly, the krypt. the place you acquire this wonderful treasure. what was once a cute shop where you could get costumes and once upon a time even characters, is now replaced with a grindy, monotonous mess of walking and fucking common gears and skip fight tokens. skip fight tokens. ill say it one more time: skip fight tokens. you can pay for the ability to not play the game. fuck you, WB games.

thirdly, no ermac. should honestly dock the other four stars for that but im feeling generous.

and lastly, the story. i said before the writing is atrocious, which it is, and also that that was a good thing. which it is. for the most part. for the most part, the terrible writing can lead to some pretty good laughs and usually lead to the excellent core gameplay, but other times it's so self-serious that it makes me long for the days of deception's wacky overworlds and bo rai cho's or armageddon's fully fleshed beat-em-up konquest mode that put some action games entirely dedicated to that genre to shame. i understand its a lot to ask for, but so is sixty bucks.

in short, its light on content and on personality. it feels like the days of mortal kombat being "street fighter for normal people" are gone by, and while that gets easier to take as i get more into proper fighting games, it'll always feel like a core part of this franchise is missing. the gameplay improves, and it is an incredible fighting engine, but WB continues ruining everything good with the world along with it.

big ups on giving us a weekend of it for free, though. cant wait to buy it properly when the komplete edition is $20.

also, on top of all of this negativity, i want to say one thing:
the way they handled meters in this is genius imo. in MK9 and X the meter was basically just an X-Ray timer for any player that isnt in it for the style points (which i only started doing recently). and the x-rays themselves started getting a bit worn after a while, so having two different bars for defensive meter burn and stylistic meter burn is perfect, as well as the fatal blow system both only occurring when youre low on health and naturally a bit pressured, but can also only be used once per match. its the perfect compromise and it leads to matches being interesting to play and fun to watch no matter what.

There comes a time in every man's life where at some point, his hope for the future fades. Everyone on this dying planet wilts; turns into a cynic. He fears for his grandchildren in this day and age, remembering how the good times have come and gone and will die with them. It feels like all is lost, until they find something that gives them that same hope. Some find art. Some find culture. I found Family Guy Video Game.

People will always have their opinions on the value of art in the real world, and I feel as if Family Guy Video Game is the definitive proof that not only do games deserve to be art, but they deserve to be heralded as the future. In this modernistic society of blaming our problems on the media poisoning our children, I think we as adults need to step back to look closer and understand the media we consume. I believe Family Guy Video Game to be a perfect starting point.

Down to the opening cutscene. Peter Griffin (voiced by the endlessly talented Seth MacFarlane) is sitting in his garage watching a televised broadcast of the Mr. Belvedere show, specifically the episode where the aforementioned Mr. Belvedere sits on his own nuts. Brian comes in and criticizes Peter's taste in television, only for him to be shushed and ignored. I think this speaks volumes about our society.

It says something about how selective our memories are. How the modern American can sit idly by and laugh at the pain of others on television, but children innocently playing their video games bought by their responsible parents will be unfairly ridiculed and shamed for partaking in something they had no choice in. They only grew up with it, same as Peter with television. It's a repetitive cycle, and one we may never learn from due to our own cynicism.

Also, at one point, Stewie Griffin (voiced by the endlessly talented Seth MacFarlane) steps on people's butts. That was pretty funny