Mortal Kombat II (32X)

[Melf]

After making a huge splash on the SNES and Genesis, Mortal Kombat II arrived on the game-starved 32X. Gamers anxiously awaited an arcade-perfect port, a game that would finally vindicate their faith in Sega's add-on and give naysayers a reason to keep quiet. Did they get it? Read the review and find out!

[daminmancejin2]

too bad i don't have 32X

[Mel]

Yay, I guess you liked my review !!!...

I'm so excited to have another one up. So excilirating.


I'm gonna try to write another between playing phantasy star 2.

[Melf]

It was fine, Mel! You keep submitting, and I'll keep posting.

I did some minor proofreading, and as always, let me know if there's anything you're not cool with.

[Fang]

Good review. I use to know the special moves and fatalities by heart but I don't remember them now. Time really flies.

[VinnyT]

Was a bit suprised by the logo being on the pics.

Have you found other sites stealing our pics, Melf?

[Genesis Knight]

I was surprised as well.

[Melf]

Every so often I Google the site name and have found people hotlinking to them. A few is no problem, but a lot can cause strain on the server, so I'm going to place watermarks on all the pics from now on. I'm also going back and watermarking all the pics already up.

At just under a thousand pics, I should be done in time to collect SS.

[tim333]

I question the score on that review. Your assessment of it in the text does not seem like an "8" judment - more like a 6 or 7.

[Drixxel]

An 8 does seem generous given the number of complaints, but Mel makes it pretty clear that this version plays better than both the SNES and Genesis ports. Playability is more or less the most important facet, and in this case it would seem to more or less overshadow 32x MKII's shortcomings.

Arg.. as much as I dig the simplicity and ease of a numerical score, an opinion can't be completely summarized by a digit.

[Mel]

See the problem with the game wasn't that it was bad. The problem was that the little glitches and inconsistancies, and annoyances constantly bring up the fact that the game could have been so much more.

The game was good on the genesis/snes level, with a little sloppiness graphically/design wise. However, this game could have easily been at the lvl of a 1st generation psone game or a saturn game had the effort been put forth.

Oh, and the girls shouldn't have the same scream as the boys when I do the toasty fatality w/ scorpion.

[Drixxel]

Oh, and the girls shouldn't have the same scream as the boys when I do the toasty fatality w/ scorpion.

That is some heinous developer slop. I mean, really...

What bothers me most about the game from a visual standpoint are the backgrounds. They could have been so richly coloured and vivid, ever moreso than the SNES version, but instead often they more resemble the colour-limited Genesis counterparts. ..that, and the whole boot-up sequence is directly recycled from the Genesis version, menu screen and everything. C'mon..

Still, MKII is a hugely enjoyable fighter, and my clear favourite of the Mortal Kombats. I was playing it for a bit the other week at the local run down arcade.. and after trying unsuccessfully to pull off some skillful moves (walk right) with the "immaculately maintained" joystick, I've gotta say... Scandia Golf & Games is a hellish armpit.

..this is off-topic, but that wasn't nearly as bad as the Golden Axe machine. Jamming right on the joystick equalled attack! So innovative.

[Mel]

Yep, too much recycling, the 32x version was obviously thrown together.

[16bitter]

Didn't Probe develop this? Screw them. Every MKII port they touched turned to shit. The Genesis version was very lame compared to the SNES (though it did have the better looking sprites). I've never played the 32X version but know enough of its flaws to say that it was half-assed. And Saturn? What a freaking abomination!

[Drixxel]

Genesis MKII is good, but damn, it's a port that really suffers from lacking colour. Side by side against the SNES version is almost tearjerking, although I think for the most part Probe did a fine job with the port, especially control-wise.