PlayStationOverview
Mortal Kombat: Special Forces is a 3D top-down action-adventure beat-'em-up game developed and published by Midway on July 30, 2000 for the Sony PlayStation.
Part of the Mortal Kombat franchise, Special Forces is a spin-off title to the fighting game series and, like Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero (released three years prior), serves as a prologue to the original Mortal Kombat while focusing on a narrow group of primary characters. While primarily a 3D beat-em-up, the game used many mechanics made commonplace in other game genres at the time, such as the experience point and item system of RPGs and a restrictive first-person shooter mechanic.
The game puts players in the role of U.S. Army Special Forces Major Jackson "Jax" Briggs as he hunts down Kano, the leader of the infamous Black Dragon gang. With help from his base operative (codenamed "Gemini"), Jax encounters other members of the gang freed by Kano from a maximum security prison (including his second-in-command Jarek, pyromaniac No Face, expert swordswoman Tasia, and hulkish ninja Tremor).
The game was infamous for its stagnant development cycle, which was made complicated by the departure of most of the staff (including series co-creator John Tobias). The game's plot underwent several changes, and Sonya Blade was originally slated to appear as a playable character before being cut entirely.
