Ah the middle of December, the time when you anticipate
getting out of school for that long winter break. Thirty years ago, I was doing
the same thing myself; the fourth grade was a time when those long breaks would
equal going over to a friend’s house to spend a night or hang out. Almost
always that time would be spent playing video games. There was a lot to choose
from in 1994 both in games and in systems, but 1994 was really the year of the
fighting game. And that Christmas break in particular, I was introduced to what
would become one of my (if not my absolute) favorite.
I was spending a night over at my friend Ben’s house, and
during those years, we’d usually make our way to the video store that Friday
night to rent a movie or a game. Well that December we decided that we would
rent a brand new fighting game, Mortal Kombat II, on SNES. Where I grew up, we
didn’t have a Blockbuster Video, so our rentals came from a local place called
Finklea’s Movies. The game was relatively new, and it included the instruction
manual in with it when you rented it. I remember when we fired the game up and
started playing. Little did I know that Ben had rented the game previously, and
when we played our versus matches, he destroyed me.
This wasn’t my first fighting game experience, but it was
the first time that I really played a Mortal Kombat game. I had played a little
bit of the first Mortal Kombat on the Sega Genesis at a friend’s house earlier
that year, but never the second game. The second game was something else, especially
on the Super Nintendo. The sound and music were amazing, as well as the
visuals. I think playing it that first time, my friend knew one fatality, and
we kept trying to figure out the other ones with no luck. After renting that
game the first time, I was hooked. It was a little too late for me to get that
game for Christmas, but I have an early birthday in the year, so it immediately
was my first choice for the birthday game.
Now obviously, the Mortal Kombat series of games did come
with some controversy, as the game’s violence level along with other titles
around the same time (DOOM comes to mind) caused the ESRB to become a thing.
When my birthday week came around, my mom got the game from Toys R Us, and she
remarked, “They had to check my ID to buy this game, I’ve never had that happen
before”…I kind of just acted like I didn’t know why they would do that. Of
course, in retrospect the amount of cartoonish violence in Mortal Kombat II
pales in comparison to things that are in modern games, but at the time it was
something that was unheard of.
Edgy violence aside, the game was a great fighting game, and
Mortal Kombat II was everywhere at the time. It was in the arcades and nearly
every kid at school had a copy at home. Compared to Street Fighter II and
Street Fighter II Turbo, the main difference was the way you entered special
moves and the way that you blocked. There is a block button in Mortal Kombat,
whereas in Street Fighter you have to hold the back button. The special moves
in Mortal Kombat are way more complicated to execute than in Street Fighter
games. Most Street Fighter moves are a simple quarter-circle motion and a
button, or a charge back and forward and a button. Mortal Kombat uses a myriad
of button and direction presses depending on the character, and there is a lot
of memorization involved. The amount of memorization is so important that I
remember making other kids at school players guides for fatalities and moves
from just my memory. I can still see those pencil drawn lists of moves on
notebook paper in my head. At least the game manual had all the regular moves
in it, aside from the finishing moves.
Along with better graphics and sound, Mortal Kombat II was a
big step up from the first game with content in game. The first game only has
seven selectable characters, two boss characters and one hidden character.
Mortal Kombat II has twelve selectable characters, three hidden characters, and
two new boss characters. The game is set in the realm of Outworld this time,
and the stages you can play in are much more diverse than the first game. Some
of the backgrounds are great in Mortal Kombat II, including stages that have
stage specific fatalities. The first game only had the Pit as the only stage
fatality area, but Mortal Kombat II has the Dead Pool, the Kombat Tomb and a
new pit, the aptly named Pit II. A key difference is that in the first Mortal
Kombat, you only had to perform an uppercut to do the stage fatality on the
Pit. In Mortal Kombat II, each character has a specific stage fatality button
input that works on the Kombat Tomb and the Pit II. The Dead Pool has the same
combination for every character, so there are really two stage fatality moves
sets per character. In addition to all characters having at least two unique
fatalities (as compared to only one in the first game), there are two new
finishing moves: Friendships and Babailites. The Friendship finishing move
basically spares your opponent with something light-hearted like pulling a
rabbit out of a hat or asking them to buy a replica doll. The Babality was
basically a way to really embarrass your opponent by turning them into a baby.
The two new boss characters are Shao Kahn and Kintaro, the latter who is
another four-armed humanoid that replaces Goro from the first game. Shang Tsung
who was the final boss in the first game also returns as a mini boss before
Kintaro in this game. Although, this time Shang Tsung is a playable character
in the game. Three hidden characters are also introduced, including a gray
ninja that smokes named…Smoke, a green tanned lady ninja with Kitana’s fans
named Jade, and a blacked-out ninja named Noob Saibot (Ed Boon and John Tobias’
names backwards). I did always think that Noob Saibot was the most fun to play,
as the sound in the arcade and SNES version didn’t have a sample that actually
said “Noob Saibot wins”…It was always some variation of “FEEL THE POWER OF
…TOASTY!” or “YOU WILL DIE MORTAL! TOASTY!”
Speaking of toasty, the second Mortal Kombat has the best
sound of any 2D Mortal Kombat in my opinion. The stage songs are fantastic and
usually the arcade machines were turned up loud enough that you could always
follow the sound to the MK2 arcade cab. Not only is the sound and music great
on the arcade version, it’s also fantastic on the Super Nintendo version, I
used to love just hearing the character select music. The game ending outro
song is another great banger in a game full of them. Something else that was
new was Shao Kahn taunting you as you fought him, which is another great touch
in the game.
There are many, many home ports of Mortal Kombat II, but I
think for the sake of this post (which is already long-winded for me) we’re
only going to compare the two main home versions, the Super Nintendo and the
SEGA Genesis version. I am slightly biased, as I had the Super Nintendo version
growing up. But I did play the SEGA Genesis version from time to time at my
friend’s house. The main key differences between the two are:
- The Super Nintendo version handily wins in sound
and music. The SEGA Genesis lacks a lot of the announcer voices and sound that
the Super Nintendo version has.
- The Super Nintendo also wins in the graphics
department. There are a few things that I do like about the Genesis version
though, like the names being in the life bars just like the arcade, but overall
the SNES one is better, as that version also has full character animations.
Certain characters like Baraka and Johnny Cage don’t finish their victory
motions in the Genesis version. Hey at least both versions have blood this time
without a code.
- The SEGA Genesis version has tighter controls.
It took me a little while of playing to notice it, but the Genesis version
plays faster and the controls are great. It’s really the selling point of why
you’d want to play the Genesis version over the SNES one, but it’s not THAT
noticeable unless you play the game a lot.
So what is the verdict on which one you should play? Well,
they are both pretty solid ports of the game. Either one with scratch your
itch, but I would say if you like the graphics and sound part, you definitely
have to play the SNES version. I find myself playing the Genesis version a lot
when I just want to play for 15 minutes and want to make my way up the ladder
to Shao Kahn. Both systems have great controllers for the game (make sure you
use the 6-button on the Genesis) so it’s hard to pick which one is better
there. Some people prefer one over the other, I’d probably side with the SNES
controller because that’s what I’m used to, but the Genesis six button is just
as great if that’s what you like.
Let’s give the games a score!
Graphics 15% - (SNES – 4.5, Genesis – 4) The 2D sprites in
both games have held up with age, the Genesis version is a little worse
obviously, especially with some of the animations missing; neither game is
arcade perfect, but they’re still both pretty good.
Sound 15% - (SNES – 4.5, Genesis – 3.5) The sound part
really hurts the Genesis score, those matches being so quiet really takes away
from that arcade experience. Meanwhile the Super Nintendo is blasting away as
you play, which really gives it the edge here.
Control 25% - (SNES – 3.8, Genesis – 4.5) The Genesis really
shines in the controls. Tight and fast, the Genesis version always feels a
little smoother to play. The SNES version can even be a little slow sometimes,
but it’s still pretty good.
Fun Factor 45% - (SNES – 4.5, Genesis – 4) Why would the
SNES get a higher score on the fun factor? Well the SNES does have some cheats
that you can input on the character select screen to quickly go battle the hidden
characters or the bosses, whereas the Genesis does not. Getting 25 wins in a
row in the Genesis version to get to Noob Saibot is a little better than the 50
on the SNES, but you can just put in the code on the SNES one and get there
instantly. Now with that being said, the Genesis does have a test mode to where
you can make some weird stuff happen like Fergalities and some weird guy to
replace Dan Forden’s Toasty. Both games are great multiplayer too, and they’re
both still great to play today.
Final Average – (SNES – 4.325, Genesis – 4.05) As you can
see, there isn’t much between these two versions of the game. They’re both
great and still heavily in my playing rotation. If you’ve never played them
before and want to go back and check them out, please do; this game is really
when Mortal Kombat took off.
eBay outlook – cart alone (December 2024) SNES - $18-22;
Genesis - $12-15. Complete in box SNES - $90-150; Genesis - $20-30
Retroachievements (emulation) – SNES – 42 achievements worth 340 (1,107) points; Genesis – 35 achievements worth 490 (1,835) points.
Some comparison screens, the SEGA Genesis is the first screen, SNES the second:
-241224-104453.png)
%20(Rev%201)-241224-104808.png)
-241224-104513.png)
%20(Rev%201)-241224-104824.png)
-241224-104651.png)
%20(Rev%201)-241224-104928.png)
Thank you for reading my blog posts and I hope you have a Merry Christmas!
