When Midway released the first Mortal Kombat to the arcades back in 1992, they probably never thought of doing a sequel. But the game was very well received. For the first time digitized actors replaced hand-drawn fighters, the action looked very realistic and most of all, it took violence in a video game to a standard that had never been reached before. It all lead to the inevitable release of Mortal Kombat II, which is widely considered the best and most original of the series.
The SNES version is probably the best home conversion available. Everything from the arcade version is included, from blood and gore to fatalities and hidden characters. The story behind the game is fresh. At the end of the first tournament, Liu Kang has managed to defeat Shang Tsung and banish him to the "Outworld".
Tsung's master, Shao Kahn, has restored Tsung's youth in exchange for a plan to lure the earth warriors to a tournament held in the Outworld itself. This tournament is none other than Mortal Kombat II.
MK2 introduces a host of new kombatants including Kung Lao, Jax, Kitana, Mileena, Baraka and the now playable Reptile and Shang Tsung. The original fighters return, minus Sonya and Kano. Each fighter has at least two fatalities, plus a friendship and a babality! The old guys have been polished up a bit and given some new moves to match them with the new ones. There are two brand new bosses. The first is Kintaro, who is of the same clan of creatures as Goro from the original, but is far more powerful. The second is Shao Kahn, who's insults are his own downfall.
What the MK series is really known for is the finishing moves, and MK2 manages to satisfy any lust you would have for blood! These make MK1 look tame! Especially violent are Johnny Cage's torso rip, Jax's arm rip and face smash and Baraka's blade lift. New to the series are Friendships (in which the winner shows his friendship towards the loser) and babalities (in which the loser is turned into an infant). Three new stage fatalities are present as well! Two brand new secret characters are present and will appear during the game giving various clues. They are of course, Smoke and Jade. Unfortunately you can't play as them, but only fight them.
A noticable weakness of the game is the irritating scratching sound that almost always appears when something is announced. The music is also not much in the quality department, but then again, Mortal Kombat was never known for its music. The visuals were pretty amazing for it's time, but will hardly impress anyone today. Controls, though responsive are a bit awkward. The characters tend to slide too much.
Anyway after all these years, it can still be quite addicting. SNES owners looking for worthy fighting games should pick this up. You might also want to try MK3 (but not Ultimate MK3 please...). If you are a fan of Mortal Kombat 4, then you will undoubtedly enjoy this. For the ultimate in SNES fighting games however, consider Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting.
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I have not played this game since it came out in the 1990's, so I'm working off very old memory.It came out three years after it was initially announced, but still had a MAJOR bug in it that forced you to restart the game after getting about 80% of the way through.Anyone starting out on this game should consult an Equinox guru, before getting halfway through, to learn how to avoid this problem.(This bug is the only reason why the game doesn't get my fifth star.)Otherwise, Equinox is a huge, attractive, challenging, but not impossible 3-D dungeon romp.The ability to save every bit of progress you make is a great leap forward from its NES predecessor, Solstice, which, lacking this feature, is for platform aces only.
