Mortal Kombat
Reviewed by Dyson Turner
This game is truly on e of the better Genesis game on the
market of yesteryear. Mortal Kombat I brought home the
arcade goods, and more. All 7 characters made it to the home
version, and so did their entire arcade moves and
fatalities. Each character was around the same size as they
were here, and even though graphics wise they looked a bit
blockier and distorted you still could tell it was they.
Upon first impression I was amazed at the speed of the game,
and how it felt quite close to the arcade. The music did
seem a little watered down and just not as good as what the
arcade had to offer. Prior to playing this I played the
"clean" SNES version and this surely surpassed that. I
could pull off the majority of the arcade moves to some
effect. Although some things did seem a bit missing, and
some scenes and fatalities seemed cooler in the arcade. No
one can deny the fun or challenge this possessed on your
Genesis though.
Story 9.0/10
Shang Tsung an evil wizard types held a tournament where he
hands selected 7 of the best fighters that were known on
Earth. They all came to the tournament for their personal
reasons and goals. The characters were:
Liu Kang: Expert martial artist in one of the best fighters
on Earth. He came to put a stop to Shang Tsung's evil plan
of world domination.
Johnny Cage- Another great action films star. He is a friend
of Liu Kang and he also wanted to put a stop to Tsung. He
also felt that the tournament would lead to his next
blockbuster action film.
Kano- The world's most notorious criminal. He is wanted all
over and he could care less about putting a stop to Tsung.
He just wants in Tsung temple to steal the gold it
reportedly had.
Sonya Blaze: A lieutenant in the army, she enters the
tournament to find out more about Tsung's evil plot. She is
also there to try and capture Kano her archenemy.
Sub-Zero- A super secret ninja who is part of a large clan.
The clan doesn't like Shang Tsung and their out to find out
why this tournament is being held. He also heard that his
dead brother some how came back to life, and is part of the
tournament
Scorpion- Sub-Zeroes brother has been brought to life and is
on the side of Tsung. He also takes this as an opportunity
to finally kill his brother, and get his revenge.
Raiden- He has no problem with Tsung, and many consider him
neutral because the effects either way won't apply to him.
Graphics 9.0/10
The graphics were great although they weren't arcade quality
they come close to the feel of them. Each character though a
little choppy looking still resembles there arcades
counterparts. The backgrounds took the biggest hit in the
graphics department because they just didn't have the same
feel, or look. The pit before was scattered with blood
bones, and bodies, now there isn't anything down there but
spikes, which sucks. In Goro's Lair their use to be a huge
skeleton on the wall and blood and bones now you get one
bone and some eyes in the background. The characters
individually look the same, and have the same move and body
structure as they did in the arcades. Well with the
translation, came some of the arcade problems and the major
ones too. Like the occasional blinking of the characters.
Some times particularly when you jump you will notice that
you are walking on air, just like in early arcade versions.
Sound 8.0/10
Your usual watered down Genesis sound applies here as well.
I was really disappointed that most of the arcade music
sounded distorted beyond belief. Although some of the other
game sounds, and music make up for it. Particularly the
opening theme and the masculine fatality screams. The sound
FX sounded as realistic as possible as well, and they at
least came close to the arcade quality, which I expected.
The punches kicks and wizen sounds of projectiles, and bone
crunching punches and kicks. My only real problem with the
sound is the music, during certain stages, it was the same
music from the arcade but it just wasn't as clear. It
sounded like someone took the arcade cabinet and drowned it.
Luckily the sound effects make up for everything.
Game Play 10/10
This game was for 1 or 2 players. You had all 7 characters
to chose, from plus find the elusive Reptile. Each character
came equipped with at least 2 special moves, and one
fatality. You could say two fatalities for some, because
with out the blood code you couldn't see some of the great
fatalities. The fatalities here were the most gruesome here
then in the entire series. Especially since we get the
Sub-Zero head rip, which is never seen again in any series,
because people consider it to gory to be in a video game.
There was over fatalities where heads were decapitated but
none where they were actually ripped off. You don't get
another decapitation like this until 6 years later with Wu
Tang Shaolin Style. Most of the fatalities however looked
realistic and arcade like, and still have all the same frame
animations. The blood looks good but not quite as good, as
its arcade big brother. You really only have 2 modes play,
regular mode where you go to the top, and a vs. mode. Then
there was a bonus round in between every other fight, where
you had to break wood brick stone and other harder stuff all
the way up to diamond. This was fun for a while, but it got
old in a hurry because it really wasn't anything more than
macho button pressing. The difficulty was adjustable, and
there wasn't any saves or battery back up.
Overall 10/10
Even though a few problems plagued it, this was the start of
the phenomena known as Mortal Kombat. They put the gore in
games, and made everything we have now look just as great.
This is a video game pioneer and it perfected the fighting
genre and surpassed what street fighter did. This was also
one of the first and only games, that was better than its
SNES counterpart. The replay value is high this is one of
the only games out there, where you would want to beat it
with all the characters, because there all interesting and
fun to play as. The fun factor is high especially if you
have a friend you have definite fun, and some matches that
can go back and forth for hours. If you played the SNES
version and were skeptical then you can not go wrong with
this one it is truly better.
OR
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