Hours and hours of endless fun...
Written: Aug 28 '02 (Updated Aug 28 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Excellent gameplay, simple controls, fatalities
Cons: Choppy graphics, violent to some
The Bottom Line: Provided hours of fun when I was little!
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| cripper's Full Review: Mortal Kombat II for Sega Genesis |
I still remember the time when the Sega Genesis was the console to have. Everyone around me owned one. All my friends kept telling me about games such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Kabuki Warriors, Golden Axe and FIFA 95. I really wanted one of these consoles, but because of my parents' strict rules on games becoming addictive and not being of any help, they never allowed me to own a Sega Genesis. So whenever one of my friends talked about their Sega Genesis, I would envy them so much. However, when I came to visit my cousins in the Philippines over the summer holiday, I noticed that they had a Sega Genesis too. Because I was staying at their place for a month and was often left with nothing to do, I spent hours and hours stuck to this machine. Oh boy, I was having the time of my life! However, the one game that got me really addicted to this machine is Mortal Kombat II.
Many gamers know what Mortal Kombat is. Essentially, Mortal Kombat is a fighting game, which is extremely similar to other fighting games such as Street Fighter and Fatal Fury. Basically, 12 fighters are taken to the "outworld", where they must fight each other and eventually face Kintaro and Shao Kahn, the game's two "bad guys" of the game (by "bad guys", I mean the guys who have caused all the ruckus). Here below, I will list the 12 characters in this game:
Liu Kang - A Bruce Lee wannabe armed with a variety of kicking moves.
Kung Lao - An man with a razor-sharp hat.
Johnny Cage - A down-on-his-luck actor who has special shadow moves.
Reptile - A revolting, reptilian ninja.
Sub Zero - A ninja who has the ability to freeze objects with his hands.
Shang Tsung - An aged shape-shifter.
Kitana - A fan throwing but extremely beautiful assassin.
Jax - A macho man full of strength.
Mileena - Kitana's blade-throwing, twin sister.
Baraka - A reptilian-looking creature whose sword-fighting skills are his specialty.
Scorpion - A reincarnated ninja who has the ability to shoot a scorpion stinging spear to his opponents.
Raiden - The master of thunder.
These are the 12 main characters of the game. While Kintaro is a four-armed monster who has the ability to stomp on his opponents and Shao Kahn is simply an evil person who depends on charging at people, there are also two other hidden characters in this game. One of them is Smoke, a ninja who is like Scorpion but moves much quicker, while there is also Noob Saibot, another ninja who is even quicker than Smoke is. However, these secret characters can only be played against if you activate a certain cheat and achieve a certain number of victories in the game's two-player mode.
Now that I have mentioned all the characters in this game, you may ask how you set about achieving the game's objective. First, you choose a fighter. Then you have to fight against each of the other fighters (including a clone of yourself) before fighting Kintaro and Shao Kahn. That's it. Simple as that.
Each player has 3 or 4 special moves and each player can also use an uppercut, series of punches/kicks, flying kicks and punches to try to lower the amount of life the opponent has. The computer opponent tends to be aggressive and uses a plethora of moves against you. You have to be just as aggressive and set about ways of blocking your enemy's attacks while finding ways of attacking the enemy. As you defeat more people, the opponents get more difficult to defeat. When you reach Kintaro and Shao Kahn, be prepared as it is extremely hard to defeat these two! Nevertheless, the game is extremely challenging and is particularly a lot of fun when you play against other people on the two-player mode. Even with one, the game is obstacle-filled and will leave you with hours and hours of entertainment.
Once you defeat an enemy, you have to "Finish Him/Her" off. One way is by doing a fatality. These are basically brutal ways of killing the person once and for all. This may range from eating the opponents up or flaming them to death or by cutting their bodies in half. Whatever it is, be prepared for something fatal and bloody! There is also what you call "Friendship", which is when you commit a friendly act to your opponent and save him from dying unpeacefully. The last way to "finish" an opponent is by performing a "Babality", which is turning the opponent into a little baby. This is cute, but I personally find it quite annoying.
Now, onto the controls. The controls are easy to adapt to and the moves are easy to make. In a three-button Genesis controller, the "A" button is for "low/high punch", the "B" button is for "low kick", while the "C" button is for "high kick". The "Start" button is to "block". Anyway, one can easily adapt to these controls and you can play around with the controls on two-player mode for about 15 minutes and already learn some moves of some characters. However, I would advise you to find a website or book that contains all the moves, fatalities and other moves and cheats. The moves are not as complex as that of similar games such as Street Fighter and Fatal Fury, which is a big plus for this game.
The graphics are good but are choppy sometimes. The characters generally look real on the screen and the blood coming from the characters faces looks extremely real for a game on the Sega Genesis. However, some of the characters moves (i.e. Mileena's teleporting kick move and the teleporting moves) run so roughly that it is considered pretty choppy and to me, is just poor graphics. Otherwise, the graphics, although not as fluid as those of modern consoles, are generally quite sound.
The sound is also generally pretty good for an old console game. In fatalities when you hear people being burned, you hear a firing sound. When someone's body is torn in half, you hear a breaking sound. When someone is kicked, you can hear the smacking sound as the foot hits the body. Plus, the sound is in synch, which is another pro of this game.
Generally, this game is one of the most enjoyable games I have ever played. It may be an old console game, but I guarantee you that if I see this game again, I will be addicted. However, it is extremely bloody, so I would not recommend it to younger game players. Despite that, this game is fun and I recommend it to any gamer who enjoys fighting games.
Thank you for reading this review.
Recommended:
Yes
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cripper
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Member: Chris Ying
Location: Sydney, Australia
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