A playthrough of the final boss Shao Kahn in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Cup Edition.
Motaro’s Moves:
• F, f+HP = Grab Throw
• F, D, B+HP = Fireball
• D, U = Teleport
Oh, boy Motaro. I’ve never quite been entirely sure what to think of Motaro, but I’ve finally come to the conclusion that he’s pretty awful. He’s too big, ridiculous cheap, has ridiculously long range, abuses his moves like its nothing (especially that teleport attack of his), and like other MK bosses can kill his opponents in 4-hits. And, of course, like the other bosses he can bypass invincibility frames to infinite a character to death. Truly well balanced.
However, there are other problems with Motaro. He takes a ridiculously reduced amount of damage, and he’s also not affected by projectiles. They just bounce off and hit the other character instead, even including Shao Kahn. You know, something like Jade not being affected by projectiles was kind of cool in the sense that it meant you had to change up your playstyle and rely less on free hits/chip damage from projectiles. Jade was also, you know, hidden and completely optional, justifying that aspect a bit more as a result. Motaro on the other hand is completely mandatory, and so he is absolutely miserable to fight as a result. He’s really pretty basic, only having a couple of special moves, and yet he’s so innately powerful and frustrating that he’s a goddamn chore to fight regardless. He blocks with ease, can decimate you very quickly if he feels like it, and in general is just a goddamn nuisance. The only saving grace is that he does have a couple of exploits, albeit it only with certain characters. Robot Smoke, for instance, can use a teleport uppercut attack, then use a three or four hit combo against Motaro to knock him back. He will nearly always block this, but it’s consistent enough, at least, to work.
I like that they tried to go for a difficult design with Motaro, going for a centaur instead of yet another Shokan, but despite appearing in three/four MK titles (this, MK3, MKT, and even Armageddon if you want to include that), he seems to be yet another character that the MK design team wants to forget. I mean, hell, even Kintaro got included in MK9, and Shinnok in MKX. It’s most probably because, as we saw in MKA, they would have to butcher his design to make him functional in the modern games, and so it wouldn’t really be him. Whether he even really should come back is a different argument all together, although at this point in time I don’t see it, and it appears that Netherrealm has given up on true sub-bosses for the time being anyway.
Motaro is cheap as hell here. His regular range is a little lacking, but that hardly matters as he can trip the opponent with his tail (b+LK), which gives him the time to then get in range and pummel them to death. Add to that a good projectile and of course that cheap teleport attack, and you have a boss which is less complex than Goro or Kintaro, and yet is somehow a hell of a lot of dangerous. There really is something strikingly brash about early MK game design; SNK pulled some shit during this era, but it took a while before they did anything quite on MK’s level. His tail sweep is pretty much the crutch of his moveset; without it he would be significantly more vulnerable, given his slow attack and the fact that his projectile attack can’t hit at close range. I particularly liked how after sending an opponent flying you could follow up with a Fireball and it would nearly always hit; it’s more or less the closest thing he has to a combo.
Motaro feels underwhelming compared to the other MK bosses, but given this game’s absurd game design it definitely felt good to go to town with him. Sometimes bosses just provide a bit of stress-relief, particularly in a difficult game like this, and if there’s some fun to be had with that then I’d both bosses hold a little bit of worth in that regard, if only the novelty of decimating an otherwise frustrating game. Still, it’s another triumph to finally play as two more previously unusable bosses, and that’s another white whale down for this fandom, adding one more piece to a puzzle that by this point seems to be nearly finally complete. Motaro isn’t great per se, especially compared to Goro and Kintaro, but any experience with an overpowered boss is going to be a fun one, particularly in a game which is otherwise punishingly difficult.
Next up, we'll see.