| Mortal Kombat: Special Forces | |
|---|---|
 North American box art | |
| Developer | Midway |
| Publisher | Midway |
| Director | John Walsh |
| Producer | Michael Gottlieb |
| Programmers | John Walsh Jonathan Murfey Daniel Markham |
| Artists | Richard Ho Carlos Pesina Herman Sanchez |
| Composer | Dan Forden |
| Series | Mortal Kombat |
| Platform | PlayStation |
| Release | |
| Genre | Action-adventure |
| Mode | Single-player |
Mortal Kombat: Special Forces is a 2000action-adventure game developed and published byMidway for thePlayStation. A spin-off of theMortal Kombat franchise, it is the second installment not to be afighting game and the first 3D spin-off. Set before thefirst game in the series, it followsJax as he pursues criminal leaderKano and his gang.
Special Forces endured a difficult development due to series co-creatorJohn Tobias and other staff members leaving Midway before the game was completed. The departure of Tobias led to a significant trimming of content, including the removal ofSonya Blade as aplayable character. Upon release, the game was panned by critics for its poor level design and tedious gameplay, and is consideredone of the worst video games of all time. The game was re-released in 2025 as part of theMortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection compilation.[2]
Mortal Kombat: Special Forces is a third-person viewaction-adventure game. The protagonist isJax, who uses not only hand-to-hand combat techniques but also firearms and explosives. There are five levels set on Earth in Netherrealm, with aboss battle at the end of each of them. Exploring the locations in the search for keys, the players solve puzzles, find the codes to unlock the doors, and blast hidden passages in walls. Jax can ascend to higher-level platforms even as he cannot jump, but he can push large blocks.
The player can restore Jax's health meter using first-aid kits. The player also has a limited energy reserve: whenever Jax performs one of his special techniques, he spends energy that can be replenished by performing certaincombos. Jax can attack with his hands and feet, as well as block counter strikes. Although there are noFatality systems, the combo system allows finishing off the opponent with the final blow in case the enemy's health line is exhausted by this moment. The experience points that a player gains by defeating enemies allow one to get new combos. An in-game menu displays the presence of items in the player's inventory, and also contains information on the purpose of the current mission. After completing the game, the player can activate the cheat menu to start a new game with additional bonuses.
Mortal Kombat: Special Forces is chronologically the first game in theMortal Kombat storyline, as its events take place 4 weeks beforeMortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero. The story of the game involvesKano freeing his gang, the Black Dragon from a maximum security prison.US ArmyMajorJax Briggs, seeking revenge for the slaughter of his Special Forces comrades at the hands of the Black Dragon, undertakes a mission to stop them from retrieving an artifact of great power, the Eye of Chitian. The true power of the artifact is shown in the ending that it can open portals to other realms when Jax uses the artifact to teleport himself and Kano back to Earthrealm after defeating him.
Besides Jax, Kano, and Kano's Black Dragon subordinatesTremor andJarek, the game features three characters exclusive to this entry in the series:
This was the secondMortal Kombat game developed by Midway that was not a fighting game, after having tested the waters withMortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero in 1997. Series co-creatorJohn Tobias intended to work on a series of platform games to expand theMortal Kombat universe, including titles centering onBaraka andLiu Kang; only the latter was actually released by Midway (2005'sMortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks) despite having sat on the drawing board for many years.
AlthoughSpecial Forces was only released on the PlayStation, it was also supposed to be released both on theNintendo 64 andDreamcast.[4] Many of theMidway Games staff, including Tobias, left the company in 1999 for various reasons while the game was still in production. The plot ofSpecial Forces (which originally includedSonya Blade[5]) was greatly revised following Tobias's departure and the game was rushed to completion.[citation needed]
Tobias said about the final version: "You know I really never played it, I saw it atE3 and I maybe played it for like five minutes and never really played it after that. So I'm not really familiar with how it ended up."[6]Ed Boon later recalled: "I didn't work onSpecial Forces. The game and project were riddled with all kinds of problems. I could write a book on that."[7]
| Aggregator | Score |
|---|---|
| Metacritic | 28/100[8] |
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| AllGame | 1.5/5[9] |
| CNET Gamecenter | 4/10[10] |
| Electronic Gaming Monthly | 1.5/10[11] |
| EP Daily | 7/10[12] |
| Game Informer | 1.75/10[13] |
| GamePro | 2/5[14] |
| GameSpot | 2.1/10[15] |
| IGN | 3/10[16] |
| Next Generation | 1/5[17] |
| Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine | 1.5/5[18] |
The game received "unfavorable" reviews according to thereview aggregation websiteMetacritic.[8] Blake Fischer ofNextGen said of the game, "Don't let the cheap price fool you. This isn't even worth a trip to the store."[17]
Of all theMortal Kombat games,Special Forces is considered by some to be the worst.[19] Its sales were so low thatMidway placed the series on hold in preparation forMortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance (2002).Ed Boon himself stated: "The game had a pretty bumpy development ride and the game didn't turn out very good at all."[20] In 2011,GamesRadar+ ranked it as the second most absurdMortal Kombat offshoot (behind onlyMortal Kombat: Live Tour).[21] In 2013, the website also ranked it as the 41st worst game ever made.[22]
Conversely, some of the reviews have been more positive.Video Games: The Ultimate Guide gave the game 7 out of 10,[23]GameVortex gave it 79%,[24] andThe Electric Playground gave it 7 out of 10.[12]
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