Genesis

Mortal Kombat

Bone-crunching action - and blood for the Segans! - makes this one of the top fighting games. Love those finishing moves!

Some of the fatalities here are a lot of fun to watch, but you have to hit some pretty complicated button combinations to get them to work. Besides the blood, this game has a few other things going for it. Unlike Street Fighter, these fighters were created from digitized images, so they look more realistic. Instead of moving the joystick back to block, there's a special button for that purpose (the Start button). The boss, Goro, is a hulking, four-armed monster. Mortal Kombat is fun to play, but a bit stiff compared to Street Fighter 2. The seven fighters each have a handful of special moves, and the background graphics have a dark, medieval look that's very appealing. The voice synthesis is pretty bad (typical of the Genesis), but the music is outstanding. The SNES version looked sharper, but Mortal Kombat with no blood is like watching a slasher flick edited for TV. What's the point?

Blood, death, and blood. That about sums up this translation of '93s hottest battle. Gameplay and sound severly suffer on this version, although the graphics are definently there. If you play Mortal for the gore, there is no other way to go. It says something to watch as your friend's charater goes plummeting into the pit covered with blood. All in all, a great translation.

In closing Mortal Kombat on the Genesis is/was a great arcade port, one of many games that help Sega stay ahead of Nintendo. While the sequels do overshadow it, Mortal Kombat still provides a good fighting gaming session.

C'mon, you know what this game is. I really shouldn't have to write anything about the first MK, since anyone reading this review likely knows every single thing about it already. It's the one the news media demonized, moms feared, Senator Lieberman used to further his own political career, and people with level heads and an ounce of sense took as just another fighting game.