Mortal Kombat

The Good
Great atmosphere, very dark. It makes you want to keep playing just so you can see what neat effect comes next, not because the gameplay is good. Sound effects are very nice, especially the voice. If pulling out a defeated opponent's spine is your idea of fun, this game is loads of fun.

The Bad
The music is even worse than contemporaries Street Fighter and One Must Fall. The graphics may have been sweet when it came out, but after a while it just gets cheesy. Midway tried to do an anime-style gore-fest but failed. Characters are almost identical, in some cases only color is changed. This means balance is horrible (if your one move is better than theirs you win). A separate "block" button and plenty of useless commands make the interface more frustrating than playable. Way too much gore... only Primal Rage comes close to matching the fountains of blood everywhere and brutal finishing moves.

The Bottom Line
It may be popular, but then again, so are the Teletubbies. If you're really hankering for an old-school 2D fighter, try Marvel v. Capcom or One Must Fall.