Mortal Kombat II Review
Played on PC
Developed by Midway
Released 25th June 1993
Continuing with 'Mortal Kombat's legacy, I decided to visit 'Mortal Kombat II'; the bigger and better version of the first game. While the original is what set the series on its path to becoming one of the Big 3 of fighting games (the other two being 'Street Fighter' and 'Tekken'), this sequel is where a good chunk of the series' charm originated from, with a tightened focus on its juggling mechanics, a visual uplift that would become the franchise's regular, and many easter eggs that would shape characters, fatalities and more in the later entries.
As Ed Boon stated, 'Mortal Kombat II's development cycle was one of his best Mortal Kombat memories. The presence of new equipment and improved technology that would improve the game's colour depth, the joy of adding elements that were a missed opportunity in the first game, the upgrade of up to 12 characters with 2 fatalities each, and more were probably what made the experience so memorable. The game went through many revised versions before landing in its final state of 3.1 in January 1994, fixing prominent bugs and finalising the fatalities and endings for each character. With all of this, Midway would be able to celebrate as 'Mortal Kombat II' would go on to be a massively successful commercial outing with $600 million generated from the arcade version as of 2002, another $50 million in its first week as a console release (outperforming blockbuster movie hits like Forrest Gump and The Lion King) and was the best-selling video game until 'Donkey Kong Country' beat it in November 1994. Culturally, it achieved similar glory as it was labelled Arcade Game of the Year and received resounding praise from critics, acknowledging how it was better than the previous game. With how much love this game got, it must've been an unforgettable period in arcade gaming, and while a lot of its adoration is well-deserved, some of it hasn't stood against the test of time all that well.
Story
Just like the first game, I won't be factoring in the story into my score given how this is an arcade experience that, at most, gets a couple of lines of text to explain what's happening and why. For any of those who are interested, the storyline here continues from the first 'Mortal Kombat' where Shang Tsung has failed to win the tournament with his unstoppable prized champion Goro, and so now, at the mercy of his leader Shao Kahn, aims to win the next tournament within Outworld where they have home-court advantage.
Gameplay
While heralded as a massive improvement back in the 1990s, it truly is near-identical when looking back at it today. It still retains that classic move list of heavy & light punches and kicks that can change into jumping kicks or uppercuts depending on your movement input. The new and improved juggling mechanic that was accidental in the first game, but purposeful here, is ironically not that different, only making attacks more possible to string together by a small margin. The special moves, that were mostly decent in the first game, are essentially the same again, the difference being that on average each character has 4-5 moves instead of the limited 3 and that there are 7 new playable characters, at the cost of scrapping 2 that were previously in the roster. While the increase in playable characters is cool, the fact that they still only boast 4-5 moves compared to other fighting games where the standard is 10, is kind of disappointing but not as negatively effective as it once was. This is mostly due to how the appeal of the classic 'Mortal Kombat' titles is the quick and easy matches you can play with your friends in a frenzy of button mashing. As a result, a lot of the game's shortcomings are simple inconveniences when playing paired up. However, when playing solo, the issue of AI being overwhelmingly difficult is significantly more obvious. Once again, it's understandable that this was a simple business tactic of draining people of their pennies, but nowadays, it is just irritating and can put many people off from finishing this otherwise short classic.
Characters
Just like the story, I won't factor the characters into the score given how there's little to no personality given to them outside of the occasional block of text to describe them. Are these descriptions cool? Hell yeah, but that doesn't qualify as enough to critique. A small fun bonus, however, is that it continues the dynamic of Scorpion's and Sub-Zero's rivalry with the infamous "Sub-Zero is now Kuai Liuang, instead of his older brother Bi-Han" story.
Atmosphere
It's wild to see the visual improvement be so clear with a year-difference in release when games nowadays are struggling to keep up with decade-old titles. The greater colour depth and number of pixels help amplify the aesthetic that each character's design is going for. The colour palette is more expressive but the theme and tone of the designs still being quite dark is a nice contrast that balances itself out. The OST, like it always has been in the Mortal Kombat series, is as epic as it could be to help make the vibes of the rest of the game work that much better in tandem. If you are planning on playing this game but don't have the right consoles to play it, here's the web browser alternative that I tried and tested: Play Classic Games Online.
Gameplay - 6.25/10
Atmosphere - 7.5/10
MEDIOCRE
It's better than its predecessor in providing short yet enjoyable match-ups with your friends, but this classic is still far from the modern-day standard of fighting games.
