God of War. 1UP.com was conflicted with game's difficulty as the A.I. can be too strong but might force the player to use more creative moves. On the other hand, GameZone felt the boss fights to be more enjoyable due to the tactics needed to defeat them. The cooperative mode was distinguished for giving the players access to hidden bonuses but at the same time was criticized for being impossible to continue playing in a single-player mode. It was one of the five games nominated by GameSpot for the title of Most Surprisingly Good Game of 2005. XPlay praised the large amount of combos and finishing moves the player can perform and recommended the audience to use the co-op mode for further enjoyment of the game. TeamXbox agreed as the performance of combos can be further enjoyed when the players are using the two characters. In regards to the narrative and presentation, IGN felt the characters' voice acting was too forced, especially pointing out Liu Kang and Raiden's voice actors. GameZone claimed the worlds were appealing most notably the Pit stage. TeamXbox found that the story of the game was enjoyable despite negative feedback provided to other Mortal Kombat narratives. GameSpot criticized the game's reliance of backtracking and stated, while the story mode starts entertaining, by the time of the climax it becomes "fairly incomprehensible" as an overuse of plot twist focused on betrayals that are not explained properly. WorthPlaying commented the plot of Shaolin Monks relies more the on the nostalgia factor in contrast to their previous game, Deception, as fan-favorite characters like Johhny Cage and Raiden often appear in the game to assist the main characters. Controversy An advertisement for Shaolin Monks titled "Blood on the Carpet", created by the London-based Maverick Media, was condemned by the Advertising Standards Authority as condoning and glorifying violence. The commercial, "features a boardroom scene in which a Mr Linn, the mysterious trouble-shooter at a sales meeting, instructs two men to fight. Punches lead to a pen being stabbed into an arm; then a water jug is smashed over an executive's head – before his heart is ripped from his chest. Mr Linn concludes proceedings by decapitating another executive with his hat." The result of the complaint was, as quoted from the ASA report, "We told Midway not to repeat the approach and told them to consult CAP Copy Advice before producing