Mortal Kombat continues in its series of bloody death matches with Mortal Kombat - Shaolin Monks. However, this game is more adventure a la Gauntlet.

You get the signature blood - one character throws a spinning hat of doom at his enemies which literally chops their heads right off. Your enemies can hit each other by accident and get into a side war. You are jumping, comboing and special-moving your way to your goal.

There are multiple characters to use through the game, each with different abilities and attacks. There's also co-op if you want to play with a friend, and a head to head arena style combat area as well.

The environments are reasonable quality graphics - hanging vines, textured walls. It's a bit of a let-down from their stunning, long intro movie, though. That's got to be one of the better intro movies I've seen on the XBox!

The sound is OK - there's little background noise, and the monsters and characters grunt and groan while the metal sword CLANG sounds. You can always play your favorite iPod mix in the background on your stereo if you want something more interesting.

You even get a full copy of Mortal Kombat 2 in this game, if you want some old school fun!

If you are solely a person who loves the raw fighting of the regular Mortal Kombat series, then you might not like this one. There's walking and platforming involved in here. However, I really suggest you at least rent it and give it a try. It's a lot of fun and I really enjoyed the weapons, monsters, and moves.

Rating: 4.5/5

Buy Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks from Amazon.com