MORTAL KOMBAT II by Probe/Acclaim Entertainment

  Platform: Sega Genesis
      Size: 24 Meg
   Players: 1-2 Difficulty: Very Hard

Well, amidst much hype and controversy, it has arrived. You've been patiently waiting, wondering if it will be worth the $70+ bucks, wondering if it will live up to the arcade version's high standards... wondering if it will look and sound as bad as the Genesis MKI did...

Put simply, the answers are YES, YES, and NO!

I can truly say that this game is one of, if not the best arcade translations I have ever played for the Genesis. The graphics and sound are both 100% improved from the original, and the controls are still extremely good. It's rare to find a game that doesn't trade off one of the above categories for another. This game does not compromise. Mortal Kombat II is one of the few Genesis games in recent memory that I can wholeheartedly justify spending obscene amounts of money on.

If you were worried about the Genesis' ability to reproduce all the gore and action of MKII, put your fears to rest. Somehow, Probe managed to make this game look GREAT. The characters look excellent, and are much more animated than in MKI. The backgrounds are, of course, hindered by the limitations of the Genesis, and don't look as rich and beautiful as the SNES version, but are very respectable as far as the Genesis goes. The Dead Pool and Living Forest stages are particularly well rendered, and the background animations in most of the scenes are nicely done as well. The life meters have been made smaller, and the characters' names are now displayed inside the bar, as in the SNES versions of MKI and II. The only annoyance I have is the MK logos which are placed under your bar when you win a match. They are now tiny and it is sometimes difficult to see who has won a match.

The sound is, again, limited by the Genesis' hardware, but they're a long way from the lacking effects of the original Genesis MKI. The few voice samples that are included are well done ("Fight", "Come Here", "Gotcha") "Finish Him/Her, "Excellent", and Shao Kahn's obligatory "YOU WILL DIE!"), but those characters who aren't lucky enough to have sampled voices instead use generic grunts. The background music is good in this installment, it's not terribly thrilling, but isn't intrusive, either. It sets a macabre mood, but serves its purpose. There are multiple sound effects for the different special moves, and the "thud" of a roundhouse kick is particularly obnoxious, like in old poorly-dubbed kung-fu movies. I was particularly impressed with the sound the blood makes when it generously flows forth from your victim.

The controls are pretty close to flawless here, with moves being executed quite easily. The finishing moves are a bit harder to execute than MKI, but since there are so many ways to "finish" your opponent (fatalities, babalities, friendships), it would take the better part of a week to learn all of the various moves. This, along with the countless hidden tricks and surprises, increase the shelf life of this game almost indefinately.

The only negative about this game is the computer's total lack of mercy. Even on "Very Easy", it's pretty tough to make it to the top of the mountain without dying a bunch of times. (It doesn't really matter if you make it to the top anyway; Kintaro, Goro's successor, dispatches even the most skilled of contenders without even breaking a sweat) The game is in a word, ruthless. My main gripe is that there are several moves which require you to hold a button or button combo for several seconds, and then release. The computer conveniently avoids this, and proceeds to do these moves at will, multiple times. At times, this becomes extremely annoying, such as when Mileena throws multiple Sai at you each time you jump, knocking the crap out of you. That's all fine and good except to do Mileena's Sai throw, you have to hold X for 2 seconds. I'd love to see a delay programmed into computer AI in future versions of the MK series.

This is a great translation of a great game. There's not much more I can say. If you don't have this game, and like fighting games, I highly recommend it. If you don't have two 6-button controllers yet, this is the excuse you've been waiting for to buy them. I am really impressed with this game; the Genesis doesn't seem quite at the end of its rope when I play games like this.