Title: Mortal Kombat II Released: 1995 Genre: 2-D Fighter Developer: Probe Publisher: Acclaim Regions: USA, UK, Japan Availability: Uncommon

In all honesty, the 32x port of Midway’s quarter-munching arcade favorite is a bit of a letdown. The best 32x fighting game aside from Virtua Fighter, Mortal Kombat II still comes across as being little more than a mildly enhanced version of the Genesis original. After seeing this game, some critics began to refer to the 32x as the “Super Nintendo upgrade”, and it’s easy to see why. The background graphics appear to be the same ones used in the Genesis version, with the same limited color palate and slightly grainy appearance. The characters themselves are more colorful and are very smoothly animated, but they are still smaller than those found in the original arcade game. Everything else is in place... the blood and fatalities, the special moves, the hidden characters, and the tight control. Don’t bother playing this game with the standard 3-button controller; the 6-button pad is the only way to go (why are you still using the 3-button, anyway?) Many people consider Mortal Kombat II to be the best game in the series (we’ll wait and see what happens with MK V), and it’s great fun on the 32x, despite its faults. Recommended, but only if you don't have the Super Nintendo or Saturn versions.
 

The Super Nintendo port of MKII is really quite remarkable considering the hardware, far superior to the original SNES Mortal Kombat (which had all the blood and gore edited out and sold half as well as the gory Genesis port.) The music and sound effects are literally arcade-perfect, courtesy of the wonderful Sony sound chip found in the SNES. When playing SNES MKII, go to Kung Lao's forest  stage and listen to the background noises. You'll notice that the faces on the trees are animated, perfectly in sync with the booming bass sound effects. Not an important feature, but a feature missing from the 32x game, detracting from Probe’s claim of an “arcade-perfect port.” Mortal Kombat II is also available for the PC, Genesis, Saturn, Game Gear, Game Boy, and foreign Master System.