Mortal Kombat II

This game improves on some of the problems of the original: the characters and fighting stages were kinda bland in those games, but here the original characters look more colourful (Liu Kang, Tsang Shung) and the new character look great (Baraka, Mileena). The backgrounds are now better and bizarre, unlike the bland ones in the original. A truly fun (though disturbing) game.

The visual style and finishing moves stand out most in my mind. Like its predecessor, Mortal Kombat 2 uses digitized actors except everything has a more colorful, more fantastic, slightly animated, slightly photoshopped, appearance. Neither cartoony nor real. Somewhere inbetween. Combined with the games moody, atmospheric, lo-key music; the game's darker, more dynamic and visually interesting backgrounds; the more intense announcer whose voice takes on a menacing quality. And MK2 succeeded in attaining the appropriate tone for an other-wordly over the top fighting game with gore galore.

The trademark Fatalities return with a vengeance. Going bigger, more over the top, than the original Fatalities – delivering some of the best in the series. It hits a good mixture of dark, violent, slightly fantastic, some slightly humorous, and all outrageous -- Jax smashes someone's head, Kitana delivers a kiss that makes them inflate and explode, Kung Lao cuts them in half with his hat, Liu Kang morphs into a dragon, Sub-Zero throws an explosive ice-ball, Scorpion still has his trademark "Toasty" Fatality, and my personal favorite: Shang Tsung morphs into the four-armed monstrosity, Kintaro, and punches his victim in half.

In addition to not one but two fatalities per character, everyone receives two joke finishing moves -- friendships and babalities (the former, funny. the latter, pointless.) Friendships range as much as Fatalities in diversity, only in the goofy department. From Kitana baking a cake, to Reptile advertising a doll, to Liu Kang breakin' down with a disco-ball. Hey, if the Fatalities themselves weren't enough clue that this violent game has a sense of humor, here's the Friendships. Babalities? Turn your opponent into a baby. "Woopee."

The game play deepens significantly from its predecessor (which, granted, MK was pretty shallow as fighting games go.) Like Mortal Kombat 1, all of the characters share all the same basic punches, kicks, uppercuts, jump heights (etc) which again gives the character-specific special moves all the more emphasis and importance in differentiating the characters. Mortal Kombat 2 features special moves that flow more naturally, more fluidly, into high damage combos/juggles (watch a Kitana player for a crash course.)

An expanded character roster – dropping two characters from the previous game (Kano and Sonya), MK2 added five new characters to the lineup including Kung Lao, Kitana, Jax, Mileena, and Baraka, and finally making two previously unplayable characters playable (Reptile, and the shape-shifting Shang Tsung). Returning characters, naturally, receive a few upgrades. Lui Kang gets a little more color to his costume, and gains a low fireball, and a bicycle kick. Sub-Zero can now freeze the ground and make his opponents slip. Johnny Cage has a shadow uppercut to match his kick, just to name a few.

MK2 drops the endurance matches, the mini-games, replaces the underwhelming Goro with the bigger, badder, faster (not to mention far more interesting) Shokan Kintaro. Then further adds a taunting boss, Shao Kahn. Both bosses possess moves that start faster than any playable characters, and feature less recovery time. Oh yes, they also do far more damage than any individual move a playable character could unleash.

Once again, Mortal Kombat delivers bosses who play by a different set of rules. In MK2's defense, at least the Kintaro and Shao Kahn battles still entertain, which I can't say the same for a few future MK games (MK3, Deadly Alliance.) Overall, MK2 doubles everything the first game offers, and delivers a game infinitely superior to its predecessor. It looks better, it sounds better, it plays better.

Mortal Kombat II rocked.

Mortal Kombat II is, without a doubt, the best fighting game ever made. As graphics and sound quality are irrelevant factors in game quality, the 16-bit sound and video on its Super Nintendo version are more than sufficient (as a side note, despite its obsolete technology, the SNES is still the best console ever because the games made for it were more fun than any game on any other system with the possible exceptions of Red Faction for the PS-2 and Perfect Dark for the N64). What makes MKII so wonderful is in the personality its characters have and the well-developed game mechanics.

A problem with too many games in the fighting genre is that the developers decided to subdivide attacks by strength or speed (Killer Instinct is the worst offender). I always enjoyed the fact that the Mortal Kombat series divided by height (Low Punch/High Punch, Low Kick/High Kick) instead. Also, the Mortal Kombat series is alone in having a meaningful block function (absent from the Street Fighter series, as well as Killer Instinct, Primal Rage, and Virtua Fighter). Beyond that, special moves are meaningful and distinct, and although some have the same basic principle (for instance, Scorpion's harpoon, Sub-Zero's freeze, and Reptile's force ball are all projectile attacks to disable an opponent), they all look and act differently (in the previous example, the freeze does no damage, the force ball is the slowest attack in the game and easily jumped over, and the harpoon can be stopped if Scorpion's hit while it's in the air).

Anyway, the point is, Mortal Kombat II, particularly with a human opponent, is incredible fun. I play between 2 and 3 hours a week against other people, still. This is the finest fighting game ever made, and it's worth the 40 bucks or so to buy a used Super Nintendo just to play it.

This game in my opinion is the best game in the mortal kombat video game series because it has everything you want in mortal kombat and is much better than the original game because it has more artistic and cooler characters than the original did and MUCH better fatalities and in overall is the best mortal kombat game you can buy at the minute.

"Mortal Kombat II," out just a year after the original, is one of the greatest video game sequels of all time. Returning some characters from the first (Liu Kang, Johnny Cage, Rayden, Reptile, and Shang Tsung) and introducing new characters (Kitana, Mileena, Jade, Jax, Kung Lao, and Baraka) and new stage fatalities (and character fatalities), it's the greatest in kombative entertainment. Ed Boon and John Tobias are geniuses in my book. "Mortal Kombat 3" was just a few years down the road, but it's also easy to appreciate how far kombat has come since 1992. "Deadly Alliance," "Deception," "Shaolin Monks," and the upcoming "Armageddon" are masterpieces of bloody marvelous martial arts action. "Mortal Kombat" forever!