Customer Reviews

Mortal Kombat II

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When Midway released the first Mortal Kombat to the arcades back in 1992, they probably never thought of doing a sequel. But the game was very well received. For the first time digitized actors replaced hand-drawn fighters, the action looked very realistic and most of all, it took violence in a video game to a standard that had never been reached before. It all lead to the inevitable release of Mortal Kombat II, which is widely considered the best and most original of the series.

The SNES version is probably the best home conversion available. Everything from the arcade version is included, from blood and gore to fatalities and hidden characters. The story behind the game is fresh. At the end of the first tournament, Liu Kang has managed to defeat Shang Tsung and banish him to the "Outworld".
Tsung's master, Shao Kahn, has restored Tsung's youth in exchange for a plan to lure the earth warriors to a tournament held in the Outworld itself. This tournament is none other than Mortal Kombat II.

MK2 introduces a host of new kombatants including Kung Lao, Jax, Kitana, Mileena, Baraka and the now playable Reptile and Shang Tsung. The original fighters return, minus Sonya and Kano. Each fighter has at least two fatalities, plus a friendship and a babality! The old guys have been polished up a bit and given some new moves to match them with the new ones. There are two brand new bosses. The first is Kintaro, who is of the same clan of creatures as Goro from the original, but is far more powerful. The second is Shao Kahn, who's insults are his own downfall.

What the MK series is really known for is the finishing moves, and MK2 manages to satisfy any lust you would have for blood! These make MK1 look tame! Especially violent are Johnny Cage's torso rip, Jax's arm rip and face smash and Baraka's blade lift. New to the series are Friendships (in which the winner shows his friendship towards the loser) and babalities (in which the loser is turned into an infant). Three new stage fatalities are present as well! Two brand new secret characters are present and will appear during the game giving various clues. They are of course, Smoke and Jade. Unfortunately you can't play as them, but only fight them.

A noticable weakness of the game is the irritating scratching sound that almost always appears when something is announced. The music is also not much in the quality department, but then again, Mortal Kombat was never known for its music. The visuals were pretty amazing for it's time, but will hardly impress anyone today. Controls, though responsive are a bit awkward. The characters tend to slide too much.

Anyway after all these years, it can still be quite addicting. SNES owners looking for worthy fighting games should pick this up. You might also want to try MK3 (but not Ultimate MK3 please...). If you are a fan of Mortal Kombat 4, then you will undoubtedly enjoy this. For the ultimate in SNES fighting games however, consider Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting.

Mortal Kombat II, it sounds so funny to talk about this game now as the next installment of this game is coming out (MORTAL KOMBAT : Deadly Alliance). But let's say it, Mortal Kombat II was a perfect home version of the Arcade Hit and from then on, it proved to be that if Mortal Kombat was going to do well on any home systems, it had to be clear, un-cut, un-censored unlike Mortal Kombat and it had to play just like it did in the arcade.

That and this was the last Mortal Kombat to be some-what serious before it became a fighting Cartoon in Mortal Kombat 3 and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3.

Honestly, I still play this every now and then. It takes me a little while to get back the information of the game because it's been that long (LOL). But it's still worth it to just do that.

I say this a lot, but this was another game (in the history of games) that a person needed to get to complete a collection. Personally, I skipped the SNES version of the original Mortal Kombat and went straight to Mortal Kombat II because it was un-cut.

If you still have your SNES, and you don't have Mortal Kombat II, you have to get it. After all, you might regret it later when the only time you can find any decent games are at Flea Markets and Garage Sales and for me as a collector of some of the "old school" game systems and games, I despise rummaging through piles of junk just to find that needle in the hay stack. Why go through all that trouble when you can do your collecting here?

Mortal Kombat II is widely held as the best installment of the bloody fighting series. Graphics and sound have been given a nice upgrade since the first installment, and controls are tight and responsive. The game walks a fine line between dreary, violent gore (ripping torsos apart, cutting people in half, impaling them, etc) and light humour (Friendship moves, Babalities). Too much of the latter turned the next installment of the franchise into self-parody, but it's kept in check here. The game features one of the most memorable roster of fighters since the original Street Fighter II, and gameplay is loose enough to let players develop their own combos. Finally, lots of secret characters and easter eggs await those who search hard enough.

The SNES version is definitely superior to the Genesis port this go-around, with all of the gore intact and presentation true to the arcade. Still one of the best conversions of Mortal Kombat II. If you own an SNES and still don't have this gem, get it.

This game caused allot of controversy in its heyday. I think it was unfairly judged. It was accused of being to bloody. But it comes with the option of turning off the blood and fatalities. And in the face of some games of today, this game would be considered rated 'G'. It teaches hand/eye coordination as well as brings hours of fun. You can play a single player game or 2 player game. Each charachter has many special moves that are their own. With so many character and so many moves to learn and master someone could play this game for many years and not get bored of it. This game is fun. I have no problem letting my kids play this game either. In fact it has become a regular in our house on family night. My husband and i both play it as well as our kids.

MK 2 Rocks, this is a really fun game, and it's better than the first. there are new characters and returning characters. And ther is new fatalities. This is one game you gotta play.


If you liked this game check out all of the Mortal Kombat games, Movies, Books & cd's

mortal kombat II is one of the undisputed classics in the pantheon of fighting games. even better than the original, MKII for the super nes was one of the best ports of any arcade game ever, especially for a 16-bit system. the sounds, graphics, and frame rate are excellent translations from the arcade version. nintendo had the common sense to bite the bullet and include all of the blood and gore that made the genesis version of mortal kombat outsell the super nes version by a long shot. this change combined the with the super nes's superior processing power and graphical/color capabilities but the nintendo port of this game heads and shoulders above the awful genesis version. the gore in this game is excellent: when someone explodes you can actually pick out the individual body parts. the fatalities in this game are undoubtedly the best and most creative of the series while the friendships and babalities are an interesting addition that truly marked the peak of the franchise before williams took over and the mediocre MK 3 came out.

mortal kombat II also marks a watershed moment in console gaming history, as the release of this game coincided with the first true surge in research over whether violent games fueled violent behavior in youths. the eventual console release was much lauded in all the gaming magazines and was promotional efforts were literally all over the place. i had loved the arcade version and this development made me await the home release even more impatiently, as i could tell my $10/week addiction was about to be made available 24/7. being about 9 when this game first hit consoles, my parents of course deemed it too violent for me to have access to all the time and i was relegated to renting it once a week. that became a problem eventually, as all of the rental stores in my area would frequently have their entire inventories of the game rented out the minute they became available and many copies were never returned! in those ancient pre-internet days, i remember scouring every game magazine i could get my hands on in order to access the various fatalities and special moves to be found in the game. i'd recommend buying not only this game but midway arcade classics volume 2 as well. it contains a perfect arcade rendering of MKII and MK3 and it finally renders the super nes version obsolete after its 10 year reign.

You all remember playing that bloody, graphic game Mortal Kombat on your SNES or SEGA. It was gory and fun as hell. If you missed it because you were too young, you should definitely try this one out on the PS3 on PSN.

Mortal Kombat II upped the character amount, the gory fatalities and all of the game's ruthlessness. Old favorites such as Raiden, Lui Kang, Scorpion, Sub-Zero and Johnny Cage make their return here while newcomers like Mileena, Kitana, Jax and Baraka made the game much cooler than its predecessor. The graphics were crisper and made more colorful, the sounds more varied and the settings much more detailed/eerie. The game was just an all-around delight to experience.

Not everything was perfect, however. The main thing I'd like to say about this game that brings the score down is the difficulty. Playing through on Normal was somewhat tolerable, but any higher and the game gets damn ruthless. You would find yourself dying over and over again even if you were just facing the second person up the totem pole. To this day, I still haven't completed this game in all of its difficulties and I have no desire to. The game just gets too cheap too soon. But that's what 2-player mode is for!

All in all, still one of the best fighting games you could ever ask for. It had nice graphics for its time, contains my two favorites characters (Sub-Zero and Kitana), introduced Babalities and just made the series that much harder to live up to itself later on. III was solid, but it wasn't II. Deadly Alliance was great but it (as well as some of the characters) didn't have the same "umph". When in doubt, II it is!

A near classic!

Overall score ------> 4.25/5

(This review can also be found at gamespot. com under the name darksongbird)

Mortal Kombat 1 was a bit weak on its own since it was the first in the series, but made a good setup for this sequel, which had more characters, more of a storyline, and better features. Definitely a classic in the MK line.

Mortal Kombat was a great fighter in the arcades, but when the sequel came out, the series already blew over the roof!

The digitized graphics were better, the gameplay was better, and they even put in more amusing sound effects. In fact, remember the "TOASTY!" guy? That is random and cool at the same time.

The gameplay is one-on-one fighting at perhaps its finest. You choose from a wide selection of characters, and then you duke it out with one of them. Fighting moves include punching, kicking, uppercutting, and using a special move. It is incredibly fun and it would always keep you playing.

The music is really well-done and neatly composed. Sadly, you'd be concentrating on the fighting, and given how the sound effects are being heard as you smack the opponent to a pulp, it's like as if you'd forget there's music. That happens in almost every fighting game you can imagine existed.

Overall, this game is awesome. It will never die out.

Had a big case of nostalgia wanted to do some retro gaming so ordered Mortal Kombat II and it came in super fast and works perfect, The game is still awesome as it was years ago! If you are looking at it BUY IT NOW! It's Kombat for Pete's sake!