INTRODUCTION
The original Mortal Kombat was one hell of a game and it sold like the proverbial hot cakes across almost every single game format, but it didn't too well on the Amiga. Why? I don't know, maybe we just go squeamish at the sight of all that blood!
The actual game was a very good conversion from the console versions and was packed full of some of the most horrific and blood-
Just as luck would have it, Acclaim due to its success on the consoles, has released the second game in the Mortal Kombat series on the Amiga. To give you an idea of just how big this sequel is, there were two and a half million copies distributed to 15,000 retailers across the world. The game was backed up by a £7 million advertising campaign, it went straight to the number one spot in the Gallup charts, and was selling out across the UK within days of its release.
There is your evidence. Mortal Kombat 2 is the biggest, most important video game created so far, but how will it perform on the Amiga? Sometimes a product as big as this just gets hyped to death, everyone runs out to buy it and then finds out later that it was really a pile of rubbish.
Does Mortal Kombat 2 have the guts to kick its way to the top of the software charts, or is it lacking the muscle to fight off the competition?
STORYLINE
While the kombatants in the original Shaolin Tournament wagered their lives upon their skills, in Shao Kahn's Outworld tournament the stakes have been raised.
The tournament first tests a warrior's fighting skill by pitting him against each of the Earth warriors. Once a warrior has defeated the other kombatants in the tournament, he then takes on the first of the Outworld's hosts, the demon Shang Tsung.
His youth restored by master Shao Khn, Tsung possess both powerful magic and considerable physical skill.
Should the warrior defeat Tsung, the next opponent is the huge Kintaro. Kintaro is from the same race of half-human dragons that spawned Goro. Enraged at his comrade's death (in Mortal Kombat 1) at the hands of a mere mortal, Kintaro sought entrance to the tournament to seek revenge. Shao Kahn granted him this privilege in exchange for his servitude.
Defeat Kintaro and you'll become powerful enough to face Shao Kahn, the supreme ruler of the Outworld. End his life and his rule and you'll achieve your objective and become the Supreme Warrior in the Outworld realm.
SOUND
Well, to be honest with you, I don't think you'll be impressed with the soundtrack contained within the game. It's fairly atmospheric and it's got a distinct eastern flavour to it, but it's nothing that you haven't heard before. If you like bog-standard coin-op tunes with no emotion whatsoever then turn up your TV, but I suggest that you simply turn it off or put on some banging tunes of your own on your stereo.
The sound effects are not too bad, with plenty of squelches and smacks to keep you interested, but there isn't anything that you haven't heard in the previous Mortal Kombat incarnation.
40%GRAPHICS
I think this box should've been renamed 'Gore' because that's exactly what Mortal Kombat 2 is packed with - the fatalities are even worse than last time around. Multiple decapitations and cannibalism are at the forefront of the various 'death' manoeuvres. If you want to see someone getting the top of his/her head eaten off, or you want to admire someone else getting their arms pulled off, then I guess this is the game you've been lusting for, you sick-sick person.
Of course this is what sparked off the controversy last time around and probably the reason, due to all the hype and media involvement, that the game became so big in the first place. Remember Mortal Kombat 2 isn't real and none of the characters really exist, so if everyone gets that into their heads then there won't be any controversy this time around... probably.
Take the blood and gore aside for a moment, and you'll find that the various backdrops and sprites look pretty damn good. The digitised actors have been faithfully ported over from the Megadrive version and look slightly better and a tad sharper than the sprites found in the original version.
Mortal Kombat looks brilliant when it;s in full flow. It's as close as you're ever going to get to having a full-
OPINION80%
It took me quite a long time to come to a decision about the percentage Mortal Kombat deserves. OK, so the graphics are delightfully gory and blood-
The two-player option works well, but only if you and a friend are at the same kind of beat-'em-up standard. The one-player game is just far too hard to complete and if you can get anywhere near the end of the tournament then you must be the world's best gamesplayer.
Even by switching the games difficulty level to very easy, you still can't progress properly. One go you might defeat three characters on the run, but then you'll meet up with a fighter who you couldn't possibly defeat in a month of Sundays and it's more than likely you'll waste all your 30 credits in trying. Highly frustrating even for gamers with bags of patience.
Another downer is the outrageous amount of disk swapping that has to be done - surely somebody somewhere at Acclaim could have come up with a hard-
Tossing that comment aside, Mortal Kombat 2 is an astounding beat-'em-up that has been lovingly converted from the Megadrive version. Even if you have a casual interest in fighting games, you will want to get your boxing gloves around this, but watch out for that progress-
Mortal Kombat 2 is a major improvement over the original, and in the years to come I'm sure it'll be heralded as a classic, only not by me.