"Better than the Genesis Version.."

Mortal Kombat is a very well known game series, so you should know what to expect from game play. But perhaps you don't so.. Mortal Kombat is a 1-on-1 fighting game with lots of violence and gore. At the end of 2 or 3 rounds the victor has the chance to execute/murder/finish his opponent. That more or less sums up Mortal Kombat in a nutshell.

This particular port of Mortal Kombat II is NOT arcade perfect. The original arcade game has a somewhat higher resolution for one. And more importantly sound quality is quite inferior.

Graphics: These are extremely improved over the plain Genesis version. The resolution is not quite right, but color depth and animation are pretty close. Some graphical details are lacking. For-instance when you perform a fatality certain gore disappears shortly where in the arcade original there would be a mind boggling amount of gore. This is disappointing, but not that important. Some minor details in backgrounds may be different or missing. For the most part the graphics are very nice.

Sound: Unfortunately the 32X could not do more to improve the sound from the plain Genesis version. Music is still the YM chip mostly which can get old. However many sound effects and voice samples that were missing from the Genesis version are present in the 32X version. So there is a nice improvement. Of-course even with that, it pales in comparison to the SNES version as the SNES sound chip offered much better quality sound/music in MK2.

Game Play: The game plays as well as it always does assuming you have a 6-button controller. With a standard 3-button it is odd but still playable. It can be annoying to pull off certain moves with the 3-button. But assuming you have the 6-button controller it plays very well.

If you have a Genesis and a 32X or plan to get a 32X, this is one of the best titles to get for your 32X. Nowadays you can pick one up dirt cheap. I got mine for 6$ including shipping! Truly a must-have if you like fighting games. However if you are looking for a good MK2 port and don't have a Genesis already, you would be better off buying a SNES and MK2 cartridge. The 32X version holds up well but I don't like the music quality.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/06/05