Sometime around the big Mortal Monday console releases for Mortal Kombat, the heavily anticipated Mortal Kombat II would be released to massive acclaim, as it delivered on what the fans wanted. More characters, more blood, more fatalities, and better gameplay over the original.
And with Mortal Kombat becoming a hit in almost every household, it didn't take long to port the games once again to almost every conceivable console. In fact, it was almost a year to the day of Mortal Monday, September 9th, 1994. Once again, the most important ports were the Genesis and Super Nintendo. But after getting egg on their face the previous year, Nintendo changed their policies on violent video games, allowing for the port of MK II to retain its violence and gore from the original arcade. And what followed was a port that almost came close to that of the arcade, with amazing graphics, sound, control, and gameplay.
So, how does the Genesis port fare? Well, Nintendo got Scupltured Software for the job, which led to a game that tried to be as close to the original as possible without cutting many corners. Unfortunately for Genesis fans, they got Probe Software, whose track record of ports is usually shoddy and half assed, and as I said before lucked out on the fact that the Genesis port supported the addition of blood.
On the side of story, it continues from where Mortal Kombat 1 left off. Liu Kang defeated Shang Tsung to protect Earthrealm from the invading Outworld. However, it turns out that Shang Tsung's boss, Shao Kahn, ruler of Outworld is none too pleased. He gives Shang Tsung one more shot, restoring him of his youth, and with the aid of Goro's father Kintaro, they manage to kidnap both Sonya Blade and Kano. This leads the kombatants of before into the evil Outworld, where a new tournament is underway and new enemies arise.
Once again you take control of a fighter, and work your way against all the kombatants until you make it to the final bosses. The roster is now boosted from seven to twelve, and despite the lack of Sonya and Kano, the newcomers are some of the best and most beloved in the franchise. Returning for round two are Liu Kang, Johnny Cage, Rayden, Sub-Zero, and Scorpion, while for the first time non-playable characters like Shang Tsung and the hidden ninja Reptile join in the fight. As for newcomers, Sonya's partner Jax, Kung Lao, princess Kitana, her twin Mileena, and the fierce Baraka all make for iconic characters, each with new gameplay styles and abilities.
Control wise the game is about the same as last time, but everything feels a lot more balanced. At times in the original MK the controls never felt as tight as they could have been. That doesn't feel the case here as everything does feel much more fluid offering for some of the best fighting on the Genesis. Which is good since the game offers tons more moves to pull off, as well as the returning fatalities. Each character gets two finishers, and they're now upped in the gore quality. From Kung Lao slicing his foe in half, Sub Zero freezing his foe to throw an ice grenade, and Liu Kang morphing into a dragon to chomp down on his opponent, Mortal Kombat has some of the best and most iconic fatalities.
But that's not all, as added to the game are friendships and babalities, which are done if the player literally "pulls their punches" in the finishing round. Babalities turn the foe into a baby, as you'd expect, while Friendships have you do wacky things like disco dance with Liu Kang, or sign an autograph for your biggest fan if you're Johnny Cage. There's also more pit levels. The acid filled dead pool, the spike ceiling tomb, and the classic pit where the opponent falls to a rather brutal death.
On the gameplay side, the AI in this game can be borderline brutal, even on the easiest setting (which is also the default setting oddly enough). By the time you're facing Shang Tsung, it becomes a test of not only your skill, but the ability to exploit an AI that can seemingly pinpoint your moves to pull a counter for almost everything. You do get plenty of continues, up to a possible 30, but you'll need them to survive a most challenging fight. So on the gameplay side, everything is pretty decent. It plays like Mortal Kombat II should with some exception to a cheaper difficulty...
It's everywhere else though that this game drops the ball.
I mentioned earlier on that I feel Probe is a lackluster company when it comes to their Genesis ports, and this is no exception. The graphics here take a massive step backwards with washed out colors, everything feeling like it's just a mix of grey and yellow, levels missing plenty of detail, and sprites lacking plenty of frames, making them feel a lot less fluid in animation. When you look at the gameplay for this, and then compare to the SNES, there's no denying that this was a massive drop of the ball. There's even things that bug me like the win text looking like the most generic simple yellow text ever.
It just looks generic. Thrown into the game at almost the last second instead of trying to make it look cooler and cleaner.
In the audio department, the game suffers majorly. Once again a lot of audio is missing. From characters missing sound effects to missing audio like "Finish Him/Her", it again feels like Probe rushed this game out in an unfinished state, or at least didn't use the Genesis to its full capabilities. On the soundtrack side, it's all original music for the most part. And while it's not the same as the soundtrack in the arcade and other ports, it still is pretty good to be honest. Though maybe my love for these tracks comes from growing up with them over the years. I especially prefer the tomb and forest levels.
Overall, Mortal Kombat II for the Genesis is an inferior port in graphics, sound, and overall presentation. It's unclear if it's just a real case of the capabilities of the Genesis at the time, or the fact that Probe provided an otherwise lackluster attempt. Despite that though, Mortal Kombat II would destroy expectations, and be one of the best selling games on the Genesis, with 1.78 million copies sold, making it the 5th best selling game in the console's lifespan.
The following year would see another port of Mortal Kombat II on the ill-fated Sega 32X add-on. And despite keeping the same music from the previous port, it does improve on almost everything else, leading to what is actually one of the better games on the forgettable device. So, if you absolutely must have your MK II on Sega, but really need decent graphics, hunt that one out. If you're just looking for a fun, yet flawed game, I'd say give the Genesis port a play. It may lack where it counts in the graphics and sound, but it's still a fun play.
RATING: B-