Mortal Kombat II

The Good
More, more MORE! MK2 set out to topple the original arcade hit by adding as much features and secret thingies as they could think of at the time. It may not be revolutionary, but it certainly wins by it's use of sheer brute force and it is one of the best sequels to any arcade game ever.

For starters you have new moves, new characters (12, which seem like a frigging thousand when compared to MK1's measly lineup) which include the remarkably smart addition of Shang Tsung (and yes, you can morph into any other character mid-game) and the only thing better than ninja warriors: Ninja warrior BABES!! You also have 2 standard fatalities for each character (though more for some), a new "friendship" and "babality" feature which are amusing though remarkably gay, 3 secret characters and additional stage-specific fatalities as well as plenty of glitches and funny things to mess around with (like Johnny Cage's Triple decapitation).

Technically speaking the game didn't make so much of a quantum leap, with only slightly sharper graphics but with way more colorful and interesting backgrounds and better character designs. All of which have perfectly been translated to the pc (though aurealy speaking the port seems to have taken a hit and the sounds don't feel the same as in the arcade, particularly the music).

Finally the general storyline has managed to expand on the original mythos and not become boring or lame, and the whole game still has that interesting dark edge that no other fighting game had in it's time.

The Bad
Gameplay wise things are still the same, only to spice things up they resorted to adding cheap moves to some characters to make more of a difference, thus you have Kitana with that super-cheap fan stun move, Milenna's teleport kick or Baraka's overpowered blade slice, etc... nothing nowhere near MK3 but still.... Oh, and Shao Kahn may not qualify as an SNK-sanctioned "King of Cheapness" boss, but he sure is an overpowered sob! He's beatable, but I sure enjoyed more fighting Shang Tsung than this doofus. And Kintaro doesn't have a fraction of the charisma good ol' Goro had! All you could think while you fought him was that Goro sure was a kickass boss...

The Bottom Line
Bitching aside, after Kombat-mania setted in, this game had a really tough act to follow. It had to live up to incredible hype with and cope with those kickass commercials and that freaky kid yelling "Mooooooortaaaaaaaal Koooooooombaaaaaaaaat!!" and heck, any sequel that survives that is a winner in my book, especially if it also manages to be a fantastic action game. Bigger and better than 1, I played the hell out of this one and had a blast doing so, no one who considers himself an arcade gamer or fighting aficionado can let this one pass up.