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.

The Good
Everything from the original Mortal Kombat was improved upon (graphics, sound, level backgrounds, # of characters, moves, animations, fatalities...the list goes on), and was it ever improved!! There have been many more fighters since this game came out, but I find that this game "feels" the best of them all, and it truly stands the test of time. Keep away from all other versions of Mortal Kombat I I (Super NES, Genesis, Saturn, PC, GameBoy, etc). The only version that gets my stamp of approval is the original arcade beast, revision 3.1 (very important designation to make, as the earlier versions had problems). Mortal Kombat I was alright, and all future Mortal Kombats sucked (MK3 is just horrendous, and MK4 doesn't even feel like MK with the non-digitized actors)...if you want to learn about the game Mortal Kombat, this is the ONLY game in the series in my opinion.

The Bad
The computer AI is too dificult on hard, and the only way to win after a certain # of rounds is to resort to the cheap dropkick, move back, dropkick strategy. Reptiles' energy bolt comes out too slow so he isn't good to use, and certain characters like Jax and Kitana are much better than others so there is a question or character balancing that would have been nice if it had been fixed (which should have been done in lieu of time spent on Mortal Kombat 3). Also, there is too much dependency on uppercuts, roundhouses, and sweeps. These basic moves make some players just sit in a corner and take the defensive approach all day long...and that can get boring really fast.

The Bottom Line
A fighting game that pits 1 on 1 competition between two players, where the object is to defeat your opponent in 2 out of 3 rounds. Fantastic digital imaging of live actors, an incredible score, spectacular moves, and gruesome fatalities (finishing moves that rub in the face of your opponent that you defeated them) make Mortal Kombat I I a classic.

The Good
Although Mr. Gabel said he found the graphics more pixelated in comparison to the first Mortal Kombat, it is definetely the opposite -- in the the first game there were a lot of sharp non anti-aliased edges whereas the sequel features smooth fighter-background interaction. In fact, the strongest aspect of MK2 is its eyecandy graphics. I even thought the graphics were displayed in a square-pixel hi-res tweaked VGA mode when I first saw the game.

Another aspect where MK2 is better than the first is the speed of the game. You can really move very fast. Also the variety and the graphic detail of the finishing moves are totally astounding (especially in the case of Liu Kang).

The Bad
It's really hard even in medium difficulty settings.

The Bottom Line
A worthy sequel to the first Mortal Kombat game.

The Good
Nothing. Nothing at all.

The Bad
Bad controls, graphics even more horribly pixelated than in the first, terrible music and sound effects and amazingly bad gameplay make this one of the worst fighting games in history. Acclaim tried to capitalize on the first game's success. The sequel somehow managed to become a hit almost as big as the first (kill me if I can figure out why), and came up with a game even worse.

The Bottom Line
A horrible, horrible game anyone in his right mind should stay away from.