"Little improvement on the Genesis verison."

Since Acclaim's policy was to put Mortal Kombat II on every console ever made, even SEGA's doomed 32X console got a version of the game. Probe did this version, like the other Genesis/Mega Drive Mortal Kombat games, which may not be a good thing as many SEGA Mortal Kombat fans felt that their versions were, well how can I say...crappy. This version, sadly, is no different.

It doesn't help that Mortal Kombat II was never a good fighting game to begin with. I simply like it because it is different and has a good dose of humour, but serious fight fans are better off with Super Street Fighter 2 or Samurai Shodown.

Mortal Kombat II is a very bloody fighting game and whilst a big improvement on the first game, is no classic. The game play isn't as deep as a lot of other fighting games, but the finishing moves -called "fatalities" are certainly worth seeing, as well as a lot of other different finishing moves such as stage fatalities (kill your opponent using the stage you are on in some way) babalities (turn your opponent into a baby (?)) and friendships (finish your opponent without any violence) Each fighter also has several special moves, most of them cause the opponent to lose a lot of blood when they hit.

Some of the characters are also quite well designed, with fan favourites such as Raiden and Scorpion returning. Most of the cast from the first game are in this one, but they are joined by several new fighters such as Baraka and Kung Lao.

Despite being on a powerful piece of hardware, the 32X version will probably disappoint, especially those of you that already have the standard Genesis/Mega Drive version. The characters all look the same, but the stages are slightly better with more detail which was missing from before -the chains from the acid pool and the dragons in the combat tomb are all there now. But this isn't enough. The 32X was more than capable of a perfect or near perfect version of the game, but Probe have simply been lazy and not done a good job.

To it's credit, this version does have many more speech samples. All the character yells are there as well as missing speech for special moves. The music, however, is exactly the same as the 16 bit version which just shows off how lazy Probe were. The music isn't that bad though but if would have been nice for the 32X to have some new versions of the music tracks.

If you do buy this game, make sure you have a couple of six button control pads, as the three button variants just aren't up to the job. With a six button pad you can have instant access to all punches and kick attacks, as well as the block, the three button pad you have to press buttons together and it doesn't work that well.

One area I thought they would have changed -the A.I. of the CPU opponents you fight in the one player mode- has been left the same. This means all of the CPU opponents are very cheap and cheat constantly, and it gets very difficult to keep playing the game. The bosses especially will annoy you, and make the one player mode a little unplayable.

Thankfully the two player mode is much more fun, but it won't keep you playing for long. And there are no extra modes or anything -why did they not add a few like a time challenge like in the Genesis/Mega Drive version of Super Street Fighter 2? Because Probe were lazy, that's why.

Overall, this version of Mortal Kombat II will disappoint you and isn't worth buying if you have the standard 16 bit version already. If not, you may like it, but my advice to beat 'em up fans is to get Virtua Fighter 32X instead.

6/10

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 09/06/05