Mortal Kombat II Review (Game Boy, 1994)

After the trainwreck that was the first Mortal Kombat on the Game Boy I didn’t have high hopes for its sequel. It just seemed like Nintendo’s first handheld didn’t have enough oomph to re-create the fighting game experience. On consoles and in the arcade Mortal Kombat II was one of the best sequels ever created. It expanded the franchise in some seriously interesting ways introducing iconic characters that resonate even today. At the same time the developers managed to finally make a competent fighting game. Today we’re putting MK II’s legacy aside and taking a look at what is probably the worst version of it. This is Mortal Kombat II on the Game Boy. Let’s get this party started.

Mortal Kombat II is a direct continuation in story from the original. Not that it matters much. This is a fighting game after all. Following Shang Tsung’s defeat at the end of the original Mortal Kombat tournament he has been hatching a new plot with Outworld’s leader Shao Kahn to finally merge the two worlds. This time they plan to hold the Mortal Kombat tournament in Outworld instead of Earthrealm. Earth’s strongest warriors must now travel to this dark fantastical world to fight against Shao Kahn and his minions while also competing against one another in a series of one-on-one battles. It’s cheesy and over the top, but considering this was the 90s it worked.

The highest point of Mortal Kombat II was always in its character roster. They bumped the head count from nine to twelve, and introduced some of the best guys in this one. Unfortunately this Game Boy version loses that advantage. The character roster here consists of only eight fighters. What’s worse is that the most iconic ones were omitted. Johnny Cage, Kung Lao, Baraka, and Raiden all didn’t make the cut. Considering how important some of these are to the story it’s shocking they left them out. I’m a little turned off by just how full the roster is with ninjas. You have Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Reptile, Kitana and Mileena. That’s over half of the roster. If you wanted more choice Liu Kang, Jax, and Shang Tsung are the only non ninja fighters available.

We all love the ninja characters in Mortal Kombat so I’m willing to let it slide this time. Plus, the character roster is the least of Mortal Kombat II’s issues anyway. This portable version plays very similarly to its console counterparts. It’s a 2D fighting game where the simple goal is to drain your enemy’s life bar. One face button is designated for punch, and the other for kick. It’s simple enough, right? There are no high or low strikes in this version. This was likely due to the limited number of buttons on the Game Boy itself. Unfortunately the developers didn’t just map block to the back input. Instead you have to press start. This is so far out of the way on literally every iteration of the Game Boy that it’s basically useless. They may as well have excluded block altogether because I sure haven’t been using it.

Unfortunately many of the finishing fatality moves require you to press the block button. Even worse is that several of Shang Tsung’s transformation also use this input. In other instances, such as with Jax for example, block is used for some of his signature moves. This leaves you with two choices. Either forget about anything requiring you to press start or hold the unit awkwardly in the claw shaped alignment. Personally I opted to just not use it altogether. It’s a real shame that the developers dropped the ball so hard with this because Mortal Kombat II GB is actually better than the first one.

I’m happy to report that most of the special moves have made the cut. You can still freeze enemies as Sub-Zero and even shoot ice at the floor, as well as grapple enemies as Scorpion, transform into enemies as Shang Tsung etc. One of the big problems I had with the first Game Boy game was the fact that these were so hard to perform. Here that’s not a problem. I still have most of the special moves memorized and I was able to consistently use them. This is the area of the engine that has seen the most improvement. The combo mechanics still have some issues. You’re battling against the clunkiness of the game after all, but I was still able to perform basic combinations fairly well here.

Despite the enhancements to the engine the Game Boy still wasn’t up to the task of running a complicated fighter as well as its console counterparts. Characters do move significantly more smoothly than in the first handheld entry. The main issue here is in the hit detection. It’s inconsistent to say the least. I found enemies were often able to hit me when I was several pixels away from their strike. Unfortunately the game doesn’t offer the player the same leniency. When against CPU opponents I often tried an uppercut on a standing opponent and missed, and they were able to then perform the same action and hit without even moving. If I’m being honest it’s pretty darn cheap, and the CPU takes advantage of this constantly. Even on the easy difficulty the later opponents put up a really tough fight.

I went in to this one expecting to not have a fun time. The original game on Game Boy traumatized me. Dramatics aside the developers did a significantly better job of delivering a fighting game for the very limited hardware in this case. It actually feels like Mortal Kombat II. A scaled down and nerfed version, but Mortal Kombat II nonetheless. That’s pretty impressive considering how much less powerful the Game Boy is than say the Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis. Sure I wouldn’t pick this version over either of the 16-bit counterparts but the fact that they were able to re-create some of the magic is a feat in and of itself.

I realize I was throwing shade (as the kids say) at the game for omitting several characters from its roster, but there’s actually a good amount of content here besides that. Eight fighters is pretty good by Game Boy standards, and the fact that most of the special moves remain is pretty impressive. Even the fatalities have made the cut. Even the babalities made it into this version. Bear in mind that not all of these finishing moves are present, but the fact that each character has multiple versions of them is really something else even if they are just the stage versions. Furthermore you can also play multiplayer provided you both have a Game Boy and a copy of the game. Don’t forget that link cable too. Some other play modes would have been nice, but I’ll take what I can get.

Mortal Kombat II also looks really nice by Game Boy standards. The digitized characters have significantly more detail to them in this follow up. You can even now tell the ninjas apart from one another. That might sound minor but it was something that really bugged me last time. They also have many more frames of animations and while they look clunky at least they aren’t warping around anymore. The developers also incorporated more stages this time around. Although there are only a handful of them the change in scenery is very welcome. Even the fatalities look, dare I say, nice? Up to the point of this game’s release Mortal Kombat II was easily one of the best looking Game Boy games. The soundtrack has its issues but the music is faithfully re-created from the arcade game. At least I can tell what track each one is supposed to be.