R.E.L.
Mortal
So last night I picked up a copy of the standard Prima Mortal Kombat Strategy Guide (not the Kollector's Edition). After reading through it, I thought I would let everyone here know about what to expect and not to expect from the guide:
1. The guide uses screenshots to show all Basic moves, combos, tag assists, and special moves. While it looks nice, I didn't feel that these visuals really showed me anything important to learning how to do a combo (nothing will beat video after all).
2. Frame data? Damage data? NOT included. Why? Because of patching, they wanted a complete guide so they did not include this. I think overall that's a great idea, but still couldn't help feel a little disappointed.
3. Conveying of input data: They use the standard MK 1/2/3/4 when referring to FP/BP/FK/BK.
4. Fatality list: Right at the beginning of the guide there are "cut-out" quick reference pages for every MK character's fatalities (stage included). However, NO babalities were found in this guide. This = HUGE disappointment for me.
5. EX Special moves: The guide goes through every character's EX special moves and their differences, but they leave out a very important aspect of some EX moves: Super Armor. Not ONCE does the guide tell you that you are invulnerable to attacks while using this EX move (except Jade's Shadow Glow because that's all it is). How am I supposed to know that using Scorpion's EX spear makes me immune to an attack while executing it? I thought Prima failed here pretty hard. At most it tells you they "do more damage".
6. Combo information: My thoughts on combos? Good combos for beginner players. They break combos down into "Chain Combos", Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert Combos. Chain combos are the target combos on the move list. The rest of the combos are great starter combos for people new to MK, but veterans will be able to find much better combos that deal more damage and have more viable use in tournament play.
7. Damage location: The guide does have a page where it mentions what low, medium, and high attacks are and their differences, but it does not mention it anywhere else in the guide. This was a big let-down, because it would have been easy to put into the guide and would have been very informative.
8. Krypt info: The guide tells you what every item in the krypt is, including the cost of each item and where the hidden koin chests are in each location.
9. Challenge Tower: The guide tells you what each challenge is in the challenger tower and offers limited advice on select challenges to help you clear them.
10. Story mode: They just list the chapters and the names. Nothing special here.
11. Tier Listing: The guide has "versus" ratings for every character vs another character and tells you the odds of winning against them are. Time will tell how accurate this is.
12. Character matchups: The character guide does briefly mention who each character's best and worst match-up character is and why. I thought this was interesting to read. I wish they detailed EVERY matchup though.
13. Wake-up attacks: The guide also shows every character's wake up attacks.
My thoughts:
To summarize this guide, I thought it was a good guide for people new to fighting games. If you are a competitive player though, this guide is a waste of $20. The guides here on TYM are much better than the Prima guides for that. I feel the people who wrote this guide at Prima were not giving enough information that would have been easier to put in. I was hoping after Brady Games made their MVC3 guide that other fighting game guides would follow in its footsteps. This guide is not the case.
In other words: If you're a newbie, it's worth getting. If not, save your money and go online for guides and strategy info.
Oh, and expect a video review for this in a week when I get my cam back from Wonder_chef.
1. The guide uses screenshots to show all Basic moves, combos, tag assists, and special moves. While it looks nice, I didn't feel that these visuals really showed me anything important to learning how to do a combo (nothing will beat video after all).
2. Frame data? Damage data? NOT included. Why? Because of patching, they wanted a complete guide so they did not include this. I think overall that's a great idea, but still couldn't help feel a little disappointed.
3. Conveying of input data: They use the standard MK 1/2/3/4 when referring to FP/BP/FK/BK.
4. Fatality list: Right at the beginning of the guide there are "cut-out" quick reference pages for every MK character's fatalities (stage included). However, NO babalities were found in this guide. This = HUGE disappointment for me.
5. EX Special moves: The guide goes through every character's EX special moves and their differences, but they leave out a very important aspect of some EX moves: Super Armor. Not ONCE does the guide tell you that you are invulnerable to attacks while using this EX move (except Jade's Shadow Glow because that's all it is). How am I supposed to know that using Scorpion's EX spear makes me immune to an attack while executing it? I thought Prima failed here pretty hard. At most it tells you they "do more damage".
6. Combo information: My thoughts on combos? Good combos for beginner players. They break combos down into "Chain Combos", Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert Combos. Chain combos are the target combos on the move list. The rest of the combos are great starter combos for people new to MK, but veterans will be able to find much better combos that deal more damage and have more viable use in tournament play.
7. Damage location: The guide does have a page where it mentions what low, medium, and high attacks are and their differences, but it does not mention it anywhere else in the guide. This was a big let-down, because it would have been easy to put into the guide and would have been very informative.
8. Krypt info: The guide tells you what every item in the krypt is, including the cost of each item and where the hidden koin chests are in each location.
9. Challenge Tower: The guide tells you what each challenge is in the challenger tower and offers limited advice on select challenges to help you clear them.
10. Story mode: They just list the chapters and the names. Nothing special here.
11. Tier Listing: The guide has "versus" ratings for every character vs another character and tells you the odds of winning against them are. Time will tell how accurate this is.
12. Character matchups: The character guide does briefly mention who each character's best and worst match-up character is and why. I thought this was interesting to read. I wish they detailed EVERY matchup though.
13. Wake-up attacks: The guide also shows every character's wake up attacks.
My thoughts:
To summarize this guide, I thought it was a good guide for people new to fighting games. If you are a competitive player though, this guide is a waste of $20. The guides here on TYM are much better than the Prima guides for that. I feel the people who wrote this guide at Prima were not giving enough information that would have been easier to put in. I was hoping after Brady Games made their MVC3 guide that other fighting game guides would follow in its footsteps. This guide is not the case.
In other words: If you're a newbie, it's worth getting. If not, save your money and go online for guides and strategy info.
Oh, and expect a video review for this in a week when I get my cam back from Wonder_chef.
