Mortal Kombat II

"Ah!, there is green blood in your pocket!"

Acclaim likes to make Game Boy version from almost all their games for the Snes, and most of them suck for both for the Game Boy and the Snes. This Mortal Kombat II however, even if the port is a bit crappy, is probably the most entertaining fighting game for this beloved Nintendo`s portable system, or at least without counting The King of Fighters and Toshinden, two fighting games that although I have never had the pleasure to play, from what I have seen look much more than terrific, who knows.

The number of characters is not as big as the Snes version, there are only eight, we have Liu Kang, Shang Tsung, Jax, Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Kitana, Mileena and Reptile, it is a nice quantity in any case, and while that cool beast that was Kintaro is gone, Shao Khan is still the last boss. Most of their movements, Fatalities and skills are still there also (and they have the same effects and consequences), and most of the Snes controls combinations work for this version as well. The Pit Fatalities and Babalities are there too (though if I am not wrong there is only one Pit Fatality), but the Friendships have been removed. So even if some movements have been removed, for a conversion of a 24 megabit cartridge to a 2 megabyte one I guess we can`t complaint.

The gameplay is similar to the Snes version only that slower, just like the first Mortal Kombat for the Game Boy, and this makes the game look pretty ugly at the beginning, but if you just keep playing you will see that is a fun title, and mainly because of the Fatalities and special movements, because like in the Snes version there are a lot more finishing movements, not to mention ten times more impressive and good looking, and as they are very easy to perform and to discover even if you have no idea a bout how to use them, this is one of the most interesting parts of the game, to find out how to use each character`s abilities.

The enemie`s AI (or the difficulty in short) is mixed bag for me, the game is not easy, but it is not nearly as hard as the Snes version either, it is hard to explain, sometimes the enemies become like crazy and you can kill them with ten slides in a row while they just stay there like idiots while in other occasions they are easily going to kick the hell out of you in no time. This makes the game oddly balanced in my opinion, it is challenging enough without being as insanely hard as the Snes version, which is a relief because most of time you are probably going to play this game alone.

The graphics are pretty good, the Fatalities look quite good also, as well as the scenarios and specially the characters, which are very big and detailed enough. The bad news here if that there are only two scenarios. Very good graphically anyway. The music if I can remember well is the same one from the Snes version only that there are only two themes, and their quality is pretty cheap, but it is are ok anyway, really, thye are a couple of cheap but nice themes, this is unusual but it`s true.

More than anything this Game Boy version of Mortal Kombat II is fun, and if you have a Link Cable, a friend with another cartridge, and like Game Boy games then you will like this game quite a lot, and if not, you will also enjoy it if quite a lot, I am almost sure.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/03/04