Mortal Kombat II SNES - Review.
Midway to see the resounding success that was his first installment, and as I said in my previous post talking about the first Mortal Kombat, he saw that this game had become his goose that lays the golden eggs, he did not hesitate or wait long to get a sequel who broke the phrase "the sequels are always bad", because Midway did nothing but improve the game in all aspects, creating (as said by many fans of MK, including me) one of the best games in the bloody saga, double the blood, duplicate violence with better gameplay, better graphics, better story and stop counting. Personally, I could enjoy this game much more than its previous delivery, since the first one I played just for writing a review, but I played it for more hours than I thought I was playing, I was stuck in this incredible tournament.
Just a year after the release of the first game, I would not expect much, but Midway left the first Mk as a rough diamond, because he refined it and took out this magnificent sequel, which I was able to investigate, was also a resounding success, and I could not lie to them saying that I played it when it came to light, because I had not even been born, and I came to play it 24 years after its launch, but I have fallen in love, with nothing to be desired, and I hope that in the MK III also have done the same.
After the defeat of Shang Tsung and Goro, Shao Kahn emperor of the outside world and eager to conquer the land, lost the key to the gates of the Earth, is just one victory, so furious decides to send Shang Tsung to run as punishment, but the metamorphic sorcerer managed to convince Shao Kahn to spare his life and thus be able to redeem himself, and obviously get the land. They would make a new tournament to celebrate in the outside world where Shao Kahn commands and Raiden (God of thunder and protector of the earth) had no authority and the fighters of Earth would be attracted and know death at the hands of the evil emperor.
- Liu Kang: The champion of the first tournament arrived at his home as a champion, but when he arrived he did not meet with a warm welcome, but he found that all the inhabitants of his temple were killed by a horde of mutants led by Baraka. Invaded with anger and thirst for revenge, he decides to enter the outside world to seek justice with his own hands. This character arrives with another and better dress than in the first delivery, and like everyone else with new skills and a Fatality in which he transformed into a dragon that undoubtedly left more than one with his mouth open, for me, the best character of MK II.
- Raiden: The God of thunder and protector of the earth, did not stay still to see the plans of Shao Kahn, so he decided to accompany the terrestrial warriors to the outside world to fight against the forces of evil. Like Liu Kang, Raiden also had a change of image that was not bad, because I consider his first MK clothing very simple, he thought of adding a cane, but it was a lot of work, and this was not implemented until the MK IV.
- Jhonny Cage: The arrogant Hollywood actor, in search of much more fame, decides to accompany the fighters of the land who came to the challenge of the evil emperor. Here would start the Stop appearances of Jhonny Cage in the MK, as Midway fired the actor for advertising other games that were the competition of MK.
- kung Lao: A faithful monk believer of peace and for that reason refused to go to the first tournament, but after seeing the massacre enhanced by the mutants under Baraka, decided to accompany Liu Kang to the challenge. A new and pretty good character, who came to cut with his sharp hat, with two very good, and bloody Fatalities.
- Jax: The tracks of the disappearance of his companion Sonia Blade, took him to the outside world, where he found her held together with Kano in a prison of Shao Kang. A new character too, who was so loved that he later starred in his own video game called "Mortal Kombat: Special Forces", at first he would have a completely different outfit, similar to that of a karate, but discarded the idea, since Midway did not want none of his characters remembered those of his direct opponent "Street Fighters".
- Scorpion: This infernal phantom could achieve his revenge by killing Sub Zero, but was left with the eternal condemnation of never seeing his family again, a little after the first tournament he heard rumors that a warrior with the same characteristics and abilities of Sub Zero had appeared, following his trail, Scorpion reaches the outside world, and finding him saw this blue ninja, he forgave the life of an enemy, and realized that this was not more than the younger brother of the original Sub Zero.
- Reptile: This green friend had already appeared in the first Mk, but he was not a selectable character, and he was born of the MK II that he was. Belonging to an extinct race of reptiles in the outside world, his entire race was killed by Shao Kahn himself, but Reptile served the evil emperor, submissive and with a low profile.
- Sub-Zero: He inherited the suit and code name of his older brother, so he had to inherit his mission too, which was to kill Shang Tsung, when Sub-Zero returned to earth, he found that his clan He was turning his members into cyborgs, something he did not approve of, forcing him to become a deserter condemned to death.
- Baraka: Belonging to a race of mutants conquered by Shao Kahn, his task was to massacre the brother monks of Liu Kang on Earth, and to destroy the terrestrial warriors in the outside world. A new character, very striking to the naked eye, not only for its large and sharp teeth but for its two retractable blades that come out of the arms.
- Kitana: The rightful heir to the throne at Edenia, a kingdom conquered by the evil emperor, who was not content with just conquering, also killed Kitana's father, the king. His hatred for Shao Kahn, made him become a great ally and of great importance in the fight against the fearsome emperor. In the end, he falls in love with our champion Liu Kang, something curious about this beautiful lady is that despite her young appearance, she is ten thousand years old.
- Mileena: A clone of Kitana created by the sorcerer Shang Tsung, in the flesh wells, with his black magic, and using a body of a specimen of the same race of Baraka, and for that reason, it conserves the big and sharp teeth, that tries Cover with your mask. Shao Kahn adopted her as her own daughter, and the task of this was to take care of her stepsister Kitana. It looks like Kitana, except for its suit color, weapons, and abilities.
- Shang Tsung: After being defeated by Liu Kang in the first tournament, he was taken to the outside world where he would be executed for his failure in Mortal Kombat, but this managed to dupe the emperor with a plot to attract the terrestrial warriors to the outside world where he supposed he would see death at the hands of Shao Kahn, in exchange, the emperor spared his life, and gave him a little youth. Honestly, that is one of the characters in the game with whom I most hate to fight, because when you face him, it is almost at the end of the tournament and it is extremely difficult, but he has very good skills, and he is the only character that has 3 Fatalities.
- Kintaro: Bodyguard of Shao Kahn, and deputy chief of the game, wants to avenge the death of Prince Goro (both belong to the same race "the shoka"), was much agiler and bigger than Goro.
- Shao Kahn: Antagonist par excellence of the saga, emperor of Outworld (outer world), who wants to conquer the land to add it to his collection of conquered kingdoms, but the ancient gods do not allow it. He is the final boss of the game, and he can drop your life completely with a few blows, so be very careful...
One of the things that I liked most about this sequel were the scenarios of the outside world, since they gave the game a darker and grotesque touch, which the players loved, the atmosphere that these new scenarios gave to the game, were more There were some simple places where battles to the death took place. Midway made these scenarios an important aspect of the game since, in the first MK, they simply ignored this detail.
And like in the first one, they did not leave behind the scenarios that we like so much, and they are those in which they have their own Fatalities, I think it was very novel in their time to apply these extras to the stages, because they gave more freedom to the player within the game.
In a time when everyone was used to recycling, and in their games, just change a couple of things to their characters, such as the color of the suits, Midway was a step forward, and with the great charm that left the digitalization of the first Mortal Kombat, now they showed off the double, hitting a high jump, especially in the graphics, the characters looked more beautiful in every way, softer colors, more realistic animations, and something I did not like about the first Mortal Kombat (which I mentioned a couple of times in the previous post), is that in the SNES version, Nintendo censored Fatalitys and the blood that came out of the characters to be beaten, replacing it with sweat that looked more like semen than sweat.
Nintendo learned of that serious error, and in this game, allowing the blood and did not censor anything, thus making the SNES happen to have the worst MK of all the versions adapted to home consoles, to have one of the best versions of the MK II.
Mortal Kombat's gameplay is simple, it consists of two characters battling, and whoever manages to lower the opponent's life first, wins the round, whoever wins two rounds is the winner of the battle, remains the same, only now, the characters' blows respond much faster, which I loved, because in the other as I said when doing the review, the characters took a little while to react to the moment of pressing a button, doing so even that could cost the victory.
The fighters had more special moves, and new punches and kicks were added, also the strength of these was adjusted, since the uppercut removed an exaggerated amount of life, and the life bar, was made a little longer, making the combats will last longer and be more dynamic and entertaining.
The Fatalitys are crazy, much better than those of the first Mk, there is much more blood, dismemberment explosions, everything I wanted to see in a worthy sequel, and not only that, but they also added the babalitys, which consist in converting the opponent in baby, and the Friendship, in which you make a pact of alliance with or opponent and you even forget that you are in a duel to death, these last two were added to the game, since the creators, knew that the Fatalities as in the first game, they were going to cause controversy, so they decided to include these two because they were less violent.
Mortal Kombat II, was a great leap that gave Midway from the first delivery, talking about quality and quantity, a game that made its way into the world of video games by the controversy, which generated its extreme violence, with its sadistic charms, captivated and fell in love with an army of fans, which I imagine that like me after trying this piece of sequel, they had nothing to be desired for the third installment, so they just had to wait for Midway to surprise them with better things.
More Fatality, more secrets, more characters, more blood, more skills, more gore, more hits, a much neater and cleaner gameplay, with a more beautiful and realistic animation. Living in that time, what more could you ask the world of video games?
Thanks so much for reading.
By:@antoniojmp
Ahhh my childhood! Nostalgia overload. Get over here!! haha. Solid write up!
Very well written sir!
I remember it like yesterday when i first played this at a friends house.
He had the genesis version, which might be even a little better.
All that gore, best if you are a teen :D
I imagine it must be amazing, fight to the death with your friends, I did it with my cousins. HAHAHA
Greetings.
Very well written sir!
I remember it like yesterday when i first played this at a friends house.
He had the genesis version, which might be even a little better.
All that gore, best if you are a teen :D