The Final Word game review

Mortal Kombat II -- Acclaim/Probe

Shao Khan is back and he plans to take the Earth realm at any cost. Johnny Cage, Sub Zero, Scorpion, and other favorites return along with new many new challengers in this home version of the arcade classic. Mortal Kombat II is for play on the Saturn from Acclaim.

Benjamin
This is not the tragedy you may have expected it to be. The graphics and animation parallel the arcade version, and the control is similarly as flawless. The main faults of this game come in the load time and sound. It does not have the extended pauses of the Sony version of MK 3, but rather breaks them up into one or two second glitches and scatters them throughout the rounds. They also rear their ugly heads between matches as well. The problem with the sound is that there simply is not enough of it. While the effects and voices are in perfect clarity, most of them are missing. A good third to a half were probably eliminated in order to squeeze everything else to the disc. Fret not though, just turn down the volume and crank up the Mortal Kombat soundtrack instead.

R.I.P.
Well, it's better than any of the other versions, cartridge or CD. Aside from the still present hesitations during gameplay (during morphs and fatalities), this title is nearly identical to the arcade, and really is a slap in the face at the PS MK3 which has constant full blown pauses in gameplay. Play control is fine, but I really recommend a joystick. Personally I would say avoid this game and go for one of the stack of good fighters already out for the platform, MK was never a real favorite of mine, and a reissue of a version that is several years old now does even less for me. Of course we get back to the issue of this being a good conversion of an arcade game, so that in and of itself is the only saving grace here.

------ 32.5/50 -------		--Benjamin--	--R.I.P.--
Graphics		5.0	4.5
Sound		2.0	3.0
Gameplay/Control		4.5	3.0
Longevity/Playability		3.5	0.5
Overall		3.5	3.0
Total		18.5	14.0

(07/96)