Mortal Kombat II (PC Port)

Previously, in the Mortal Kombat series...

The ancient sorcerer Shang Tsung, lured a group of elite warriors, from various walks of life, to his forsaken island. There, they fought to the death in a martial arts tournament called... well, Mortal Kombat. That is, until Tsung was defeated by the Shaolin monk Liu Kang.

With Tsung defeated, and his allies having either abandoned him or been killed in the tournament, he alone faces execution by Emperor Shao Kahn of the Outworld. Most of us wouldn't have the stones to weasel with a giant, who wears a helmet made out of someone's skull, but Tsung manages to convince Kahn to bait the survivors into a new tournament, in Outworld itself. Suffice it to say, the odds are stacked against our heroes.

Mortal Kombat II was made about a year after the original, and the lineage is definitely there, yet everything looks, sounds, and (mostly) plays so much better than the original. The gameplay is much faster, the backgrounds more elaborate and imaginative, the sound effects more exciting (and present, in the PC version), and not only do the characters look more crisp and detailed, but there are more of them. To be exact, five of the original seven playable characters are back (Sonya and Kano have been relegated to background cameos), and seven additional characters have been brought in -- including Reptile and Shang Tsung, making their debut as playable characters.

The controls are basically the same as in the original game, but in addition to responding somewhat faster, there are a few new incidental moves thrown in. Another welcome improvement (at least for the PC version) is that some of the multi-button special moves have been simplified enough that you only need to hold down three keys at once, to execute certain attacks. The second player controls are also free of the infamous somersault glitch, that had plagued the original game's port.

As before, if you can't find a vintage gamepad to play this on, I strongly recommend playing this on a very robust keyboard... with a replacement one on the horizon, should you be hooked enough to play this a lot. Interestingly enough, I remember that when this game was available in stores, there was a version that came with the Gravis gamepad that bore a strong resemblance to the SNES controller.

The graphics and art style are a nice change from the original game, though I do have to make a couple of comments about the sounds, particularly where incidental vocals are concerned. Most of the time, they're just fine, but there are two that I've always found a bit annoying. One is he rather pathetic howling sound, whenever Player One (as a male) gets hit by an attack. Player Two gets more dignified grunts and yells, why couldn't they have used that for all of the male characters (and in case you're wondering, none of the female warriors wail like this). The other irk for me, is the high-pitched chop-socky that voices Liu Kang. I know that this game was made in the early-to-mid nineties, and that it was intended to pay tribute to cheesy martial arts movies of the previous decades... but to be honest, even at that point, it was cliched for Asian men to sound like that. I won't get into tirades about political correctness, I'll just flat out say it: it's a stupid sound, that I'd heard to death even by the dawn of my teenage years.

My only other comments stem from the actual playing experience. Frankly, it's exasperating. I thought that maybe I just really blew at this game, but I've looked into it: MANY players, can only get through this thing at all, on "Very Easy". Anything higher than that, and the computer players will not only counter moves that you've barely started to make, but will throw you across the room every chance it can get. This is annoying for multiple reasons: it's tied for the strongest non-boss move in the game, it's fast, you can barely touch the opponent, and it can't be blocked. So if you wish to try even the "Easy" mode, here's a quick word of advice: forget about punching anyone. Kicks are your new best friends.

The perverse thing, is that on "Very Easy", getting through the AI versions of the playable characters is almost too easy. I wouldn't quite call them cannon fodder, but once you've gotten the hang of the game, it isn't particularly hard to win every single round (that's 24, before the bosses, assuming you don't make any diversions with hidden characters). However, once you reach the bosses, that's a whole other ball game.

Not surprisingly, final boss Shao Kahn is rather tricky, but not too bad once you notice certain patterns. For one thing, the guy loves to taunt you -- any time he points his finger at you or laughs at you, hit him with your most powerful move (preferably a stun move, so you can get a free uppercut). While it may seem like suicide, you should also hide in the corners and let him shoulder-charge you; you can recover quickly enough to uppercut him before he parries. You can also take advantage of the fact that Kahn will occasionally just stand still for no reason... 

Kintaro, on the other hand, is literally a giant pain in the ass. The guy will spam throw you, or stomp on you (neither of which you can block) with infuriating regularity. He'll also block or nullify the majority of your attacks, and in my experience most cheap tricks said to confuse the AI do not work on this version of him. To be blunt, I can count on one hand the number of times I've even won one round against this bastard -- until just before I was due to post this article, I'd never won a full match against him, without cheating my ass off (and just to rub it in, the cheat mode is damn near impossible to activate, on today's ultra-fast computers). What seemed to work for me, was to stay as far away from him as possible, occasionally fly-kick him, and be ready to use a stun move on him any time that he leaped or roared (in case it's not apparent yet, I really love the ninja characters). Even that, however, is subject to how the CPU is behaving on any given day. Good luck, and try not to be turned into burger meat too often.

The hidden characters in this game (three ninjas, pallete swapped from either Scorpion or Kitana), are much easier to reach in this game, than the original. However, beating them is much harder. They seem to default to the higher difficulty levels (and sure enough, after fighting them, the game switches difficulties when you aren't looking -- yes, I've checked). In other words, in addition to already being really hard to hit, and blisteringly fast, they spend much of the time throwing the shit out of you.

I must also address the elephant in the room, among MK fans. In response to the outcry that the first game received, the sequel took on a decidedly cheekier tone. So while it boasts grislier fatalities than the previous game, it also boasts finishing moves where you turn your opponents into babies, give them dolls, make them cakes, or just do a silly dance. This is in addition to a superimposed head sometimes popping onto the screen, singing "Toasty!" (which became something of a gaming/sports meme, for a little while). Personally, I'm not averse to the humour overall, but think it should have been reserved for easter eggs, instead of an official part of the game.

If you're a very good game fighter... or just have a soft spot for classics in the genre, then by all means add this to your collection. However, you will need a lot of patience, in order to beat this game. Unless you're the virtual cousin of Bruce Lee, be prepared for a rough ride.