Mortal Kombat II

"I wanna be Liu Kang!"

Mortal Kombat is a well-known series of violent fighting games that also host a series I used to watch on Sky One, and a few movies to its name. It got off to a decent start with the original on SNES and Genesis, and with its great 2D action fighting and violence, it has become one of the most loved series of all fighting games that are in existence.

Mortal Kombat II is still sticking to its foundations, but has a lot more to offer than the original because of extra fighters, arenas, moves and all around good old fashioned fun, especially if you are wanting to take on some friends and have Johnny Cage give Scorpion what for...

So what has mortal Kombat II got to offer that makes it such a damn fine fighting game? Read on viewer, and learn more...

So, the basic gist of the game is you have two people bashing the brains out of each other. It can be you against the computer, or you against another person. So you pick one of sixteen characters from the screen, then head into the selected stage in which your battle commences.

Or, if you are playing One Player mode in which you battle everyone in order to become the best, you select the character and scale the mountain, yet the fights remain the same.

The fighting can look simple, but in order to become good at the game, punching and kicking won't do. Every character has special individual moves to try out. They all have advantages and drawbacks with their moves, but this makes it so interesting. You have to gain skills from grapples and projectiles in order to be a great at this game.

Each character, as I have stated, have their own special moves to use. They've got the basic throws and striking moves, and as we get more advanced, there's stronger attacks like projectiles, powerful strikes, throws and stuff. Special moves are harder to pull off because you need to utilise a certain button combo in order to execute them, but if they hit, they generally do more damage, or can have effects like stunning your opponent for a limited amount of time. There's quite a few of these to check out with the many characters, so this will keep you playing for a while until you're used to playing with all the characters.

But not only have you got to learn how to use these cool moves, you must also be able to defend from them. Simple uppercuts or jump kicks can counter moves and moving around helps, instead of just helplessly tapping the block button all the time. This improves your strategy and tactics of the fighting and makes the game more fun.

One last thing is that at the end of the second round in which you deplete your opponent's health bar completely is that you can perform one last move to have them knocked out completely. There are special techniques you can use at this time called ''Fatality'', which are cool moves that make you opponent go down in style, in a more sickening and violent way, for those of you with stronger stomachs. They're harder to pull off than they were in Mortal Kombat I, but well worth it to see some great knock-outs...

Next, I will talk about the graphics of MKII. The characters all have individual looks to make them look recognisable. They're not totally detailed but look humanlike (for those that are humans), and generally colourful. For 16-bit, they're pretty decent.

The arenas of the game look generally okay. The backgrounds suit the levels in which you're fighting. The animations look great too, but the fighting does seem a little slow paced. In general however, it's decent.

Next, I'll talk about the sound. There is a range of soundtracks for each of the stages you fight in and they may not seem totally suited for their levels, they are pretty good and I think they do the job well in general. The sound effects also sound cool, like the grunting and pounding when your fighters make contact with each other. They may not be the best in the world, but still satisfactory for the game.

To sum Mortal Kombat II up, it's a gruesome, horrifying, violent, and addictive fighting game. It may be a bit too bad for some viewers' eyes, especially the children, but if you're into these kind of games, this is generally one of the best fighters around you could play.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/28/04