Reserved for hardkore fans only
Written: Sep 10 '02
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Closest arcade-to-home port of Mortal Kombat II
Cons: Frequent "freeze" loading in mid-battles, poorly recorded voices and sounds
The Bottom Line: Whilst capturing arcade-ported perfection almost in it's entirety, the Saturn version remains a fan-only recommendation as it includes plenty of problems to boot
|
|
|
| NMD85's Full Review: Mortal Kombat II for Saturn |
In the live days of the Sega Saturn, I could always say that I was never a pure follower in Sega Saturn games nor was I very supportive of it's mediocre, desolate line-up. Truly saying, I only own around ten Saturn games, and most of them can be found on other consoles in superior forms. Mortal Kombat II, however, is one of those games that I often may pull out my Saturn out of the closet and wisk the dust away from it every now and again. I have always been a long coming Mortal Kombat fan since the early 1990's, when it was in it's peak, and truthfully the entire reason for buying the Saturn console was for Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. I was a hardcore fan, and I had to have the console to own the only definitive home version of my second favorite in the series Ultimate MK3, which only the Saturn supported (at the times before the unspeakable SNES and Genesis beefed-up ports came around). Getting back to Mortal Kombat II, it was indeed the second full-priced piece of Saturn software I bought and it has remained closest I've ever played to the arcade version as a home release. Not to say that MKII didn't have it memorable problems, it has always remained to be the closest home port released. Does that mean it's the best? Well... hardly.
Let's start off by giving those absent-minded MK fans a slight introduction on Mortal Kombat II. The game was a revolutionary upgrade from the first that added more blood, more fatalities, new characters and plenty returning and some missing, and even included some new "finishing moves" including Friendships, where the specific character would show his utmost gratitude by friendly sparing his/her life by flashing a friendly symbol in front of them such as a cake, or even a doll. Babalities, another new finisher, introduced more of Midway's humorous edge by transforming the opponent into a toddler version of him/herself. Along with all of that, Midway had a full cast of sixteen fighters including the first-ever playable form of Shang Tsung and Reptile (an extremely reworked and dumbed down form of Sub-Zero and Scorpion with no more abilities like their's), and some returning familiarites like Liu Kang, Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Cage, and even the immortal/mortal Rayden. All in all, fans could definately agree that the Mortal Kombat series was by far at it's peak with the divinity of MKII and it's true enhancements over the 1991 original.
Whatever happened as a child, my craving for Mortal Kombat grew on. The pure violence, and blood-enraged combat only drew me in closer to loving the games. Amongst that, it's always been known to me when I could easily tell when something is missing from the arcade-to-home releases. I'd like to say I have some sort of perfectionist's gift when differentiating ill-perfected arcade-to-home ports. Take Capcom's Street Fighter II as a classic example of my gift. I could tell the loss of animation in the 16-bit home versions when Ryu and Ken stepped backwards and the way they hit the ground a second time, the sudden switch of Ryu's leg movements and facial expressions caught my attention as being nonexistant in the Super NES and Sega Genesis versions. I don't imagine many would have noticably caught this, but over the years it's been a dream of mine to have the exact arcade releases, with all the animations from the original cabinet releases. Another example closer to the topic, MKII on SNES secured the same exact grunts and sound effects, but the lifebars didn't have the names sculpted inside of them. Instead, they were carelessly placed below the lifebars. Why should I even care? Can't help it, my gift tends to control my verdicts on games being their 100% ports (and I'm not talking about the "Insert Coin" logos flashing, those are purposely removed from home releases so it can't be helped). Mortal Kombat II captures the arcade version in it's near entirety from music to animation to grunts.
What really makes Mortal Kombat II a troubled arcade port is that it wasn't given the amount of effort it should have. This could be because it was on a system as the Saturn that's technology was inferior to Playstation's or possibly that the developers didn't make it a top priority nor thought it was entirely important to make MKII and stunning port of the JAMMA board arcade version. Although Mortal Kombat II doesn't suffer extremely long load times as Ultimate MK3 does, it doesn't mean it's load-free. Notably, the game suffers plenty of problems and that being that the game loads at all the wrong times. Instead of loading completely before battles (and waiting a few more seconds), the game will often load right in mid-combat when you are trying to fire a iceball from Sub-Zero or execute any ability that requires the game to load it into the system's database at the spur of that moment. Instead, the developers should have loaded that information before the matches load up instead of having freezing moments whenever the system needs to search for that info on the disc while trying to play at the same time. If it doesn't occur in battle most everytime, it will easily be noticed especially during fatalities when you see three different load periods while the fatality is trying to be displayed after execution of the proper commands. For instance when doing Sub-Zero's two-part fatality where you freeze the opponent then uppercut, that sequence will take a couple pauses during and after the millions of body parts fly out of the opponent scattering around the room. Since it happens most everytime, you'll be glad to see that the cartridge-based home versions do not do this.
You'll immediately notice the low-key, boring soundtrack, that may put some people to sleep since it's unengaging MIDI-sounding scores will just linger in the background. Another problem the game faces is the sound effects in conjunction with the gameplay. The sound bites where properly implemented in their rightful executions, however, it will seldomly be heard you've actually heard the yell of the opponent's pain. Whatever the reasons, the developers obviously got a little lax when matching the sound to follow the flow of the gameplay at the same times. What's good to know here is that all the sound effects from the arcade version are indeed intact, and you will hear all the sound bites in their originality in the game if yet not hearing them at times. If this is any importance to anyone but hardcore MK fans, it's all there sadly with it's problems alike.
Should the Saturn version be the Mortal Kombat II title worth picking up? Aside from it's extensive line of sound and load problems, what we have here is one of the best ported arcade games available in the Mortal Kombat series. Especially since many of us never really got an arcade version on Playstation (although it was planned to be packed with the original Mortal Kombat, it was only considered on Game Boy probably due to financial issues), the Saturn version serves as a fan's collector's piece. If you're a casual Mortal Kombat II player and just want to play the game you'll have to go with the best one that balances everything perfectly: the Super Nintendo version. Simply putting it, just because MKII is in it's entirety on the Saturn doesn't mean it exceeds the fun factor from the classic Super NES rendition.
Recommended:
No
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
NMD85
|
|
Member: Nick M. DiMaio
Location: Connecticut
Reviews written: 183
Trusted by: 17 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.