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Mortal Kombat II

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Mortal Kombat II
Logo of Mortal Kombat II.
Mortal Kombat II select screen.
Developer(s)Midway
Publisher(s)Midway
Platform(s)Arcade, SNES, Game Boy, Sega Saturn, Sega 32X, Mega Drive/Genesis, Sega Game Gear, Sega Master System, PlayStation, PC, Amiga, PlayStation 3[1]
Release1993
Genre(s)Versus fighting
Mode(s)Up to 2 players
Arcade systemMidway T Unit

Mortal Kombat II (also referred to as MKII) is an arcade game and the second title in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. Storywise, the events before and during this game are portrayed in Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks.

Taglines:

  • Nothing, nothing can prepare you (ad for the home versions)
  • Mortal Kombat has finally met its match
  • It hurts so good, they had to come back for seconds!

Game system

Essentially, Mortal Kombat II is an extension of the game system of Mortal Kombat. A few normal moves have been added (close high punch and crouching punch, for example). The roundhouse kick was made more powerful in part II, and like the uppercut, launched opponents into the air. Additionally returning characters gained new special moves. The game also introduced multiple fatalities, as well as additional finishing moves to the franchise. However, each character still shared generic attributes – speed, power, jump height and airtime – and all normal moves were similar between each character. As with its predecessor, the only thing differentiating each character were their appearance, special moves, hit detection, and finishing moves. This has also led to the similar criticism of the fighting system being very shallow and lacking any real character depth. However, the game plays slightly faster and much more smoothly than the original.

As with its predecessor, matches in the game are divided into rounds. The first player to win two rounds, by fully depleting his/her opponent's life bar is the victor. At this point the loser's character will become dazed and the victor is given the option of using a finishing move. In addition to the fatalities of its predecessor, the victor could also use babalities, friendships, and stage specific fatalities.

This game also drops the point system from its predecessor, in favour of a win tally.

The characters of Mortal Kombat II have a less digitized and more hand-drawn look to them than in the first game. Both the theme and art style of the game are slightly darker, with a less vibrant colour palette employed. Mortal Kombat II also strays from the severe oriental theme of its predecessor, though it does retain the original motif in some aspects, as in some of the music. Finally, the nature of the game is slightly less serious with the addition of trivial and 'joke' fatalities and the addition of the alternative finishing moves.

Characters and cast

File:Mk2cred-10.png
MKII character cast screenshot during postgame credits

New characters

Returning characters

  • Liu Kang (Ho Sung Pak): The Shaolin monk who is the reigning champion of Mortal Kombat. Travels to Outworld to seek revenge for the death of his fellow monks.
  • Johnny Cage (Daniel Pesina): Hollywood movie star who joins Liu Kang in his journey to Outworld.
  • Scorpion (Daniel Pesina): The Hell-spawned spectre who returns to the tournament to once again assassinate Sub-Zero, the man who murdered his family long ago.
  • Shang Tsung (Dr. Phillip Ahn, M.D.): The evil sorcerer who has convinced Shao Kahn to spare his life after losing the last tournament, with a new evil plan to appease his master Shao Kahn, who in turn also restores Tsung's youth, making him more mobile and agile.
  • Sub-Zero (Daniel Pesina): The younger and merciful brother of the original Sub-Zero, sent to assassinate Shang Tsung.
  • Raiden (Carlos Pesina): The Thunder God who returns to Mortal Kombat to stop Shao Kahn's evil plans of taking the Earthrealm for his own.

Boss and sub-boss

  • Shao Kahn (Brian Glynn, voiced by Steve Ritchie): the Emperor of Outworld.
  • Kintaro (Stop-motion): Shokan warrior, general of Shao Kahn's army, and Goro's successor. Though Kintaro is not normally a playable character, it is possible to perform a Fatality in which Shang Tsung briefly morphs into Kintaro and punches the opponent in half.

Hidden opponents

  • Jade (Katalin Zamiar): An Outworld assassin who cannot be hit by projectiles. Childhood friend and protector of Kitana.
  • Noob Saibot (Daniel Pesina): Evil dark ninja, a lost warrior from a previous Mortal Kombat. His true identity would be revealed in Mortal Kombat: Deception.
  • Smoke (Daniel Pesina): Sub-Zero's friend from the Lin Kuei, emits puffs of smoke from his body.

Sonya Blade and Kano are the only playable characters from the first Mortal Kombat to not return as regular fighters, though they do appear in the background of the Kahn's Arena stage, chained and on display.

Arenas

Main article: List of Mortal Kombat arenas
File:Mk2-arcade.png
The Kombat Tomb

There are a total of ten different backgrounds to fight on:

  • The Dead Pool - When an opponent is defeated on this stage, he/she can be uppercutted into the acid bath, burning away the flesh and leaving just a skeleton behind.
  • Kombat Tomb - When an opponent is defeated on this stage, he/she can be uppercutted into the spikes on the ceiling. Additionally, if both joysticks are immediately held down after knocking the victim into the spikes, the victim will gradually slide down the spikes.
  • Wasteland
  • The Tower
  • Living Forest
  • The Armory
  • The Pit II - When an opponent is defeated on this stage, he/she can be uppercutted off the bridge where they will meet their demise on the rocky bottom below.
  • The Portal
  • Kahn's Arena
  • Goro's Lair - Returning from the original Mortal Kombat, this stage is only accessible when the player is fighting one of the hidden opponents.

Storyline

Following his defeat (in the first Mortal Kombat game), Shang Tsung begs his master, Shao Kahn, to spare his life. He tells Shao Kahn that the invitation for Mortal Kombat cannot be turned down, and if they hold it in Outworld, the Earthrealm warriors must attend. Kahn agrees to this plan, and restores Tsung's youth. He extends the invitation to Raiden, who gathers his warriors and takes them into Outworld. The tournament is dangerous, as Shao Kahn has the "home field advantage", and an Outworld victory will unbalance the furies and allow Outworld to subsume Earthrealm.

Mortal Kombat II follows Mortal Kombat and precedes Mortal Kombat 3. The story is similar to Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, though some fans argue that the latter has many contradictions to the events in the Mortal Kombat storyline.

Audio

Mortal Kombat II was the first arcade game to use William's DCS sound system. All Mortal Kombat arcade games to follow would use this sound board, dropping the original Mortal Kombat's inferior Yamaha sound board.

All of the music was composed, performed, recorded and mixed by Dan Forden, composer of the original Mortal Kombat and all of the Mortal Kombat games to follow, with the exception of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon.

Mortal Kombat II: Music from the Arcade Game Soundtrack, an album featuring music from Mortal Kombat II and Mortal Kombat was released in July 1994. It could only be purchased by ordering it through a limited offer posted on the arcade version of Mortal Kombat II's demo screen.

Reception

Mortal Kombat II was so popular when it hit the arcades that several of the machines were later installed with deadlock security panels on the back to prevent thieves from ripping the game's motherboard straight out of the machine and taking it home (pictures of an arcade fitted as such are available as unlockable images in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance). Both MK and MKII were among the first arcade games to display warnings on the cabinet that the motherboards were protected by burglar alarms.

Although Mortal Kombat II is considered by fans to be superior to its predecessor, it is often criticized for being unreasonably difficult in its One Player mode. Even on the easiest settings in the arcade, the computer controlled opponents employ tactics well above and beyond the means of what the game would allow any human player to perform. Computer controlled opponents for example can fire off projectiles at will, rather than having to input a command like human players, and thus can fire them off much faster and in greater succession than human players. Computer controlled characters also have the ability to dodge, block, and counter attacks with inhuman precision, due to the games ability to read the button inputs of the human player to anticipate their next move. Computer players also get nearly complete priority for all their moves, as evidenced by their ability to seemingly ignore uppercuts used by human players, and counter them with uppercuts of their own. Finally, computer controlled opponents gain the ability to perform feats that human controlled players can not, for example Sub-Zero, when controlled by the computer, has the ability to perform his ground freeze move, and immediately follow up with a deep freeze, while a human controlled Sub Zero must wait for the ground freeze to dissipate before he can use the deep freeze.

Easter eggs

File:MKII ARC Toasty.png
Dan "Toasty" Forden in Mortal Kombat II
  • In the arcade version, the 250th two-player game would unlock a clone of the arcade classic PONG.
  • After landing a strong uppercut against the opponent, the face of sound designer Dan Forden would appear in the lower-right corner of the screen and shout, "Toasty!" The "Toasty" shout had originated from Scorpion's finishing move. He would remove his mask, to reveal a (sometimes) fiery skull, and would spit fire at his opponent. This is randomly demonstrated in the new game "Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks" for his fatality. In the Portal stage, if the player very quickly held down and hit the start button before Dan's head left the screen, they would then instantly begin a new stage against a secret character named Smoke, a grey recolor of Scorpion.
  • After knocking the victim into the acid pool, if the player holds down on the joystick, Dan Forden will say something along the lines of "Oh maw!" There is also a sound bite of Shao Kahn saying "Oh maw!", later this was also used again in Mortal Kombat Trilogy and Mortal Kombat Deception.
  • Press down on any joystick during the attract mode to bring up the top 15 players.
  • On the service menu of the arcade, there is a stat in the audits section that shows how many times a Kano Transformation has been performed. Obviously this was just to stir up some rumors as Kano was not in the game. Mortal Kombat gained a lot of interest in video game publications (especially in the US) over its secrets, the Ermac screen in MK1 for example. Midway put this in the service menu to make people wonder if it was possible to morph into Kano with Shang Tsung, which of course it was not.

Significant ports

Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis

File:MD Mortal Kombat 2.png
Screenshot from the Sega Mega Drive & SegaGenesis port

Developed by Probe Entertainment, this port retained all of the blood and fatalities without a special code having to be entered, unlike the original Mortal Kombat for the system. Unfortunately, due to the systems hardware limitations, the port lacked the graphics and sound of the superior Super NES port. Most of the music in this version is altered considerably from the original arcade compositions, and most of the background songs are played on the incorrect stages. Also, Goro's Lair, the secret characters' arena, was removed and replaced with a palette swap of the portal stage.

Despite its shortcomings, the Mega Drive/Genesis port contains several exclusive Easter eggs. By activating a cheat menu in the options screen, Dan Forden's "Toasty" image is replaced by a crudely drawn sprite inserted by one of Probe Entertainment's programmers. This image, apparently drawn by the programmer's son, was intended as an alternative graphic that was simple enough to work around the restriction, while also connecting the game to Probe, rather than Midway. However, in the final code, the sprite wasn't used. In all cases, the "Toasty!" sound remains unchanged.

Also, if an option entitled "Oooh Nasty!" is enabled in the cheat screen, the player could perform a "Fergality". The player needed to select Raiden and be fighting on the Armory stage to perform it. When successfully executed, the opponent would then transform into a smoking character with an oversized head of former founder and CEO of Probe Entertainment, Fergus McGovern.[2]

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

File:Mortal Kombat II for SNES screenshot.png
Screenshot from the Super NES port

This port was developed by Sculptured Software. Unlike the Super NES port of the original Mortal Kombat, Nintendo didn't censor the blood and fatalities this time around. However, they applied a warning label in the front of the game box to warn parents of the game’s mature content. The Japanese version, however, is censored to a degree, with green blood for all fighters, as well as the screen colors turning black and white for fatalities.

This particular port has a secret intro if the two shoulder buttons (L and R) are held down after turning on the game. A scene between Shao Khan and Kintaro will take place during the Acclaim logo.

Also exclusive to this port is the use of the Super Nintendo's Mode 7, a texture mapping graphics mode, during the overhead fall on the Pit II's stage fatality. When the opponent is falling, the background scales forward and rotates slightly counter-clockwise. In the arcade, the background only scaled forward.

This port also changed the colours of Cage's costume. In Arcade version, Cage's primary costume is black and blue, and his second costume is black and red. In SNES version, Cage's primary costume is black and red, and his second costume is black and blue.

Game Boy

File:Gbmortalkombat2.png
Screenshot from the Game Boy port

Developed by Probe Entertainment, this port only contained eight of the twelve playable fighters from the arcade game (Liu Kang, Jax, Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Reptile, Kitana, Mileena and Shang Tsung). Shao Kahn was featured as the final boss, however, Kintaro was removed completely from the game. Hidden opponents Jade and Smoke also appear in this port, although Noob Saibot does not. Three of ten Kombat Zones remain from the arcade; the Kombat Tomb, the Pit II and Goro's Lair. The Kombat Tomb contained the port's only stage fatality and Goro's Lair, like the arcade game, was used exclusively when fighting hidden opponents. Because of the palette restrictions of the system, blood was completely removed, but each character retained a version of one of their fatalities and the babality finishing moves.

Master System and Game Gear

File:MkIIgg.PNG
Screenshot of Sega Game Gear port

Developed by Probe Entertainment, these two ports were almost identical, except for the reduced size of the Game Gear screen. They featured the same fighters and arenas as the Game Boy port (see above) and both Kintaro and Shao Kahn as final bosses, as well as Jade and Smoke as secret opponents.

Unlike the Game Boy port, blood was present, but in much less quantities than in the superior ports; also, it's noticeable that, because of the limited graphical resources the systems could manage, some of the Fatalities in the game were altered so they destroyed completely the opponent's body (except for the generic Gibs such as bones and assorted limbs used for all the characters). For example, Sub-Zero's Deep Freeze/Uppercut fatality would no longer split the victim in half, instead pulverizing him or her completely. Also, some of the Fatalities were simplified to use common animations; for example, Liu Kang's Dragon transformation would scorch the opponent with a fireball (similar to the one in Scorpion's Toasty! Fatality) instead of eating its upper body.

Sega 32X

File:Mortal Kombat II for 32X screenshot.png
Screenshot from the 32X port

Developed by Probe Entertainment, this port contained improved graphics over its Sega Mega Drive counterpart, such as more frames of animation per character, added background details, and faster gameplay. Although there is a broader variety of sound effects than in the Mega Drive version, the background music remains identical to that port.[3]

PC

Like its predecessor, this is a port with more likeness to its console counterparts, hindering the size of the characters and resolution from the actual arcade game.

PlayStation

File:Psxmortalkombat2.JPG
Screenshot from the Playstation port

In Japan, Mortal Kombat II was released on the PlayStation. While the graphics in this port remain close to the quality of those featured in the arcade game, the sound quality does not. Instead of utilizing the CD-ROM format and using CD audio tracks, the game uses the PlayStation's own SPU internal sound chip.

Also, the loading times for the Japanese version were long at times. When performing certain actions (such as Shang Tsung's morph ability), the game would show the Mortal Kombat II symbol and it would take about 1 to 2 seconds to load instead of being instant such as some other versions. Another example of this would be when you would do the stage fatality on the Pit II. When the person hits the ground they are supposed to stop screaming, but when they hit the ground they are still screaming.

Midway Arcade Treasures 2 and others

Mortal Kombat II was re-released in 2004 as a part of Midway Arcade Treasures 2. This version was an emulation of the original Mortal Kombat II arcade game, rather than a port. As a result, this version plays closer to the original Mortal Kombat II arcade game than any version released previous to it. Unfortunately, it suffers from a common graphical bug: each characters' "shadow" sprites flicker. Music and sound effects are also prone to cutting out or playing out of sync. Also, due to a control mapping issue involving the "start button", it is impossible to fight Smoke. But the "random select" can be activated by pressing up+X on the character select screen. Finally, this version's CPU opponents have been claimed to be "cheap" and "overly difficult" compared to the arcade and console ports.

MKII is also unlockable via a secret code in the game Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks in identical quality to the edition released in Midway Arcade Treasures 2.

It also saw a release on the Sony PSP in Midway Arcade Treasures: Extended Play, but like Midway Arcade Treasures 2, it contains bugs in its graphics. Some graphics have actually been removed: the "far" background in the Kahn's Arena no longer has clouds. This version also suffers from heavy loading times. Because of the latter two problems, this version can be considered inferior to the one in Midway Arcade Treasures 2.

PlayStation 3

Midway announced that Mortal Kombat 2 would be coming out for the PlayStation 3's download service, PlayStation Network. [4] The game was made available for sale on April 12, 2007 for $4.99 USD[5] ($5.99 CDN). This version features online play and was handled by Digital Eclipse - the same development team responsible for the Xbox Live Arcade conversion of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3.[6]

Trivia

  • According to MK co-creator John Tobias in a 1993 interview with GamePro magazine, the famous "Toasty!" was originally "You're Toast!", which later evolved into "Toasted!", and then, "Toasty!" The former two were simply taunts used by the programmers during game-playing sessions and were not actually used in the games. [citation needed]

References

  1. ^ http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/action/mortalkombat2/news.html?sid=6163911&om_act=convert&om_clk=newlyadded
  2. ^ http://www.mksecrets.net/mk2/eng/mk2-kodesandsecrets.php
  3. ^ http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/32x/review/R91782.html
  4. ^ http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/action/mortalkombat2/news.html?sid=6163911&om_act=convert&om_clk=newlyadded
  5. ^ http://www.gameinformer.com/NR/exeres/63ee59d3-11e4-4b2f-80e8-c13a1b96846c.htm
  6. ^ http://www.psxextreme.com/ps3-news/885.html
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