Mortal Kombat 10: 10 Awesome Game Modes That Must Return

9. Test Your... Modes

By the time the original Mortal Kombat hit the world stage in 1992, we had already grown accustomed to the button-bashing excitement of Street Fighter I & II's various bonus stages. Not to be outdone, Tobias and Boon threw in something (very) similar for our first taste of kombat - the classic Test Your Might mini-game. Whack that button until your fingertip is a bloodied stump, getting your warrior pumped up to smash through the wood boards, stone slabs and so on. Pretty standard bonus round stuff. But, as with the simple Fatalities which quickly became Friendships, Babalities, Animalities, Brutalities and so on, soon the vanilla Test Your Might just wasn't good enough anymore. Now it's just one aspect of the growing suite of "Test Your" game modes thrown into the mix. We have the MK version of the classic cup and balls game with Test Your Sight and the violent deaths that come with incorrect cup selection; the far more complex Test Your Luck, where each fight includes randomly selected boosts or handicaps for each player; Test Your Strike took the root Might-test and complicated it somewhat, and then there's the left-field PSP-exclusive Test Your Balance, putting your fighter precariously on a balance beam as you try to keep him upright. Yes, it has all become a little bit odd, but that's how we like it. Mortal Kombat 10 is bound to be riddled with ways to play and things to do, but it would be a shame if at least some of the Test Your modes didn't make the cut. Not because they are particularly astounding slices of interactive entertainment, but just because they are a part of the charm of Mortal Kombat.