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Mortal Kombat II (also referred to as MKII or Mortal Kombat 2) is an arcade game and the second title in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. Storywise, the events before and during this game are portrayed in Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks.//

Game system

Essentially, Mortal Kombat II is an extension of the game system of Mortal Kombat. A few normal moves have been added (crouching punch, for example). The roundhouse kick was made more powerful in part II, and like the uppercut, launched opponents into the air. Additionally returning characters gained new special moves. The game also introduced multiple fatalities, as well as additional finishing moves to the franchise. However, each character still shared generic attributes – speed, power, jump height and airtime – and all normal moves were similar between each character. As with its predecessor, the only thing differentiating each character were their appearance, special moves, hit detection, and finishing moves. This has also led to the similar criticism of the fighting system being very shallow and lacking any real character depth. However, the game plays slightly faster and much more smoothly than the original.

As with its predecessor, matches in the game are divided into rounds. The first player to win two rounds, by fully depleting his/her opponent's life bar is the winner. At this point the loser's character will become dazed and the winner is given the option of using a finishing move. In addition to the fatalities of its predecessor, the winner could also use babalities, friendships, and stage specific fatalities.

This game also drops the point system from its predecessor, in favor of a win tally.

The characters of Mortal Kombat II have a less digitized and more hand-drawn look to them than in the first game. Both the theme and art style of the game are slightly darker, although with a more vibrant color palette employed. Also, the graphics system now uses a much richer color depth than in the previous game. Mortal Kombat II also strays from the severe oriental theme of its predecessor, though it does retain the original motive in some aspects, as in some of the music. Finally, the nature of the game is slightly less serious with the addition of trivial and 'joke' fatalities and the addition of the alternative finishing moves.

Characters and cast

MKII character cast screenshot during postgame credits

New characters

Baraka (Richard Divizio): Tarkatan warlord, responsible for the assault to the Shaolin temple.

Jax Briggs (John Parrish): A member of the U.S. Special Forces and a longtime comrade of Sonya Blade, who enters the tournament to rescue her from Shao Kahn.

Kitana (Katalin Zamiar): Shao Kahn's personal assassin and stepdaughter.

Kung Lao (Anthony Marquez): Shaolin monk and best friend of Liu Kang, who seeks to avenge the destruction of the Shaolin Temple.

Mileena (Katalin Zamiar): Shao Kahn's personal assassin and clone of Kitana.

Sub-Zero (Daniel Pesina): The younger and merciful brother of the original Sub-Zero, sent to assassinate Shang Tsung.

Returning characters

Johnny Cage (Daniel Pesina): A Hollywood movie star who joins Liu Kang in his journey to Outworld.

Liu Kang (Ho Sung Pak): The Shaolin monk who is the reigning champion of Mortal Kombat. Travels to Outworld to seek revenge for the death of his fellow monks.

Raiden (Carlos Pesina): The Thunder god who returns to Mortal Kombat to stop Shao Kahn's evil plans of taking the Earthrealm for his own.

Reptile (Daniel Pesina): Shang Tsung's personal bodyguard.

Scorpion (Daniel Pesina): The Hell-spawned spectre who returns to the tournament to once again assassinate Sub-Zero, the man who he believed to be the murderer of his family.

Shang Tsung (Dr. Phillip Ahn, M.D.): The evil sorcerer who has convinced Shao Kahn to spare his life after losing the last tournament, with a new evil plan to appease his master Shao Kahn, who in turn also restores Tsung's youth, making him more mobile and agile.

Boss and sub-bosses

Shang Tsung

Kintaro (Stop-motion)

Shao Kahn (Brian Glynn), voiced by Steve Ritchie)

Hidden opponents

Jade (Katalin Zamiar): An Outworld assassin who can't be hit by projectiles. Childhood friend and protector of Kitana.

Noob Saibot (Daniel Pesina): Evil dark ninja, a lost warrior from a previous Mortal Kombat tournament. His true identity would be revealed in Mortal Kombat: Deception.

Smoke (Daniel Pesina): Sub-Zero's friend from the Lin Kuei, emits puffs of smoke from his body.

Sonya Blade and Kano are the only playable characters from the first Mortal Kombat to not return as regular fighters, though they do appear in the background of the Kahn's Arena stage, chained and on display. Sonya and Kano were believed to have been removed from Mortal Kombat II due to a memory constraint and that they were the least picked characters in the previous Mortal Kombat, based on Game Audit statistics found in the diagnostic menu of the original arcade game.

Arenas

There are a total of ten different backgrounds to fight on:

The Dead Pool - When an opponent is defeated on this stage, he/she can be uppercutted into the acid bath, burning away the flesh and leaving just a skeleton behind. (In early revisions it was not possible to perform a stage fatality in The Dead Pool this ability was added in Rev 3.1)

Kombat Tomb - When an opponent is defeated on this stage, he/she can be uppercutted into the spikes on the ceiling. Additionally, if both joysticks are immediately held down after knocking the victim into the spikes, the victim will gradually slide down the spikes.

Wasteland

The Tower

Living Forest

The Armory

The Pit II - When an opponent is defeated on this stage, he/she can be uppercutted off the bridge where they will meet their demise on the rocky bottom below.

The Portal - When Dan "Toasty" Forden appears on this stage, hitting down+start would access Smoke.

Kahn's Arena (In early revisions Kahn, Sonya and Kano are not present in this stage the platforms are both empty as is Kahn's chair)

Goro's Lair - Returning from the original Mortal Kombat, this stage is only accessible when the player is fighting one of the hidden opponents.

Storyline

Following his defeat (in the first Mortal Kombat game), Shang Tsung begs his master, Shao Kahn, to spare his life. He tells Shao Kahn that the invitation for Mortal Kombat can't be turned down, and if they hold it in Outworld, the Earthrealm warriors must attend. Kahn agrees to this plan, and restores Tsung's youth. He extends the invitation to Raiden, who gathers his warriors and takes them into Outworld. The tournament is dangerous, as Shao Kahn has the "home field advantage", and an Outworld victory will unbalance the furies and allow Outworld to subsume Earthrealm.

Mortal Kombat II follows Mortal Kombat and precedes Mortal Kombat 3. The story is similar to Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, though some fans argue that the latter has many contradictions to the events in the Mortal Kombat storyline.

Audio

Mortal Kombat II was the first arcade game to use the Williams DCS sound system. All Mortal Kombat arcade games to follow would use this sound board, dropping the original Mortal Kombat's inferior Yamaha sound board.

All of the music was composed, performed, recorded and mixed by Dan Forden, composer of the original Mortal Kombat and all of the Mortal Kombat games to follow, with the exception of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon.

Mortal Kombat II: Music from the Arcade Game Soundtrack, an album featuring music from Mortal Kombat II and Mortal Kombat was released in July 1994. It could only be purchased by ordering it through a limited offer posted on the arcade version of Mortal Kombat II's demo screen.

Easter eggs

Dan "Toasty" Forden in Mortal Kombat II

In the arcade version, the 250th two-player game would unlock a clone of the arcade classic Pong.

After landing a strong uppercut against the opponent, the face of sound designer Dan Forden would appear in the lower-right corner of the screen and shout, "Toasty!" The "Toasty" shout had originated from Scorpion's finishing move. He would remove his mask to reveal a (sometimes) fiery skull and spit fire at his opponent. This is demonstrated in "Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks". In the Portal stage, if the player very quickly held down and hit the start button before Dan's head left the screen, they would then instantly begin a new stage against a secret character named Smoke, a grey recolor of Scorpion.

After knocking the victim into the acid pool, if the player holds down on the joystick, Dan Forden will say something along the lines of "Oh maw!" There is also a sound bite of Shao Kahn saying "Oh maw!", later this was also used again in Mortal Kombat Trilogy and Mortal Kombat Deception.

Press down on any joystick during the attract mode to bring up the top 15 players.

On the service menu of the arcade, there is a stat in the audits section that shows how many times a Kano Transformation has been performed. Obviously this was just to stir up some rumors as Kano was not in the game. Mortal Kombat gained a lot of interest in video game publications (especially in the US) over its secrets, the Ermac screen in MK1 for example. Midway put this in the service menu to make people wonder if it was possible to morph into Kano with Shang Tsung, which of course it was not.

Ports

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

This port was developed by Sculptured Software. Unlike the Super NES port of the original Mortal Kombat, Nintendo didn't censor the blood and fatalities this time around. However, they applied a warning label in the front of the game box to warn parents of the game's mature content. The Japanese version, however, is censored to a degree, with green blood for all fighters, as well as the screen colors turning black and white for fatalities.

This particular port has a secret intro if the two L and R buttons are held down after turning on the game. A scene between Shao Khan and Kintaro will take place during the Acclaim logo. Also, a special team mode is unlocked by holding down these buttons when pressing Start on the Start/Options screen.

Also exclusive to this port is the use of the Super Nintendo's Mode 7, a texture mapping graphics mode, during the overhead fall on the Pit II's stage fatality. When the opponent is falling, the background scales forward and rotates slightly counter-clockwise. In the arcade, the background only scaled forward.

This port also changed the colors of Cage's costume. In Arcade version, Cage's primary costume is black and blue, and his second costume is black and red. In SNES version, Cage's primary costume is black and red, and his second costume is black and blue.

Sega Genesis/Sega Mega Drive

Developed by Probe Entertainment, this port retained all of the blood and fatalities without a special code having to be entered, unlike the original Mortal Kombat for the system. Unfortunately, due to the system's hardware limitations, the port lacked the graphics and sound of the superior Super NES port. Graphics are more grainy and not so bright-colored, and character shadows are all oval.

Most of the music in this version is altered considerably from the original arcade compositions, and most of the background songs are played on the incorrect stages. Also, Goro's Lair, the secret characters' arena, was removed and replaced with a palette swap of the portal stage.

Despite its shortcomings, the Genesis/MegaDrive port contains several exclusive Easter eggs. By activating a cheat menu in the options screen, Dan Forden's "Toasty" image is replaced by a crudely drawn sprite inserted by one of Probe Entertainment's programmers. This image, apparently drawn by the programmer's son, was intended as an alternative graphic that was simple enough to work around the restriction, while also connecting the game to Probe, rather than Midway. However, in the final code, the sprite wasn't used. In all cases, the "Toasty!" sound remains unchanged.

Also, if an option entitled "Oooh Nasty!" is enabled in the cheat screen, the player could perform a "Fergality". The player needed to select Raiden and be fighting on the Armory stage to perform it. When successfully executed, the opponent would then transform into a smoking character with an oversized head of former founder and CEO of Probe Entertainment, Fergus McGovern.

This port also includes some animation differences. One of them is Shang Tsung's victory stance, where he has a laughing animation instead of his still pose in all other ports. This animation can be seen in the arcade only during the game's ending credits when Shang Tsung appears. Baraka's winning stance also ends with him bowing forward with his swords pointing down, instead of ending with him standing straight with his swords crossed over his chest.

Game Boy

Developed by Probe Entertainment, this port only contained eight of the twelve playable fighters from the arcade game (Liu Kang, Jax, Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Reptile, Kitana, Mileena and Shang Tsung). Shao Kahn was featured as the final boss, however, Kintaro was removed completely from the game. Hidden opponents Jade and Smoke also appear in this port, although Noob Saibot does not. Three of ten Kombat Zones remain from the arcade; the Kombat Tomb, the Pit II and Goro's Lair. The Kombat Tomb contained the port's only stage fatality and Goro's Lair, like the arcade game, was used exclusively when fighting hidden opponents. Because of the palette restrictions of the system, blood was completely removed, but each character retained a version of one of their fatalities and the babality finishing moves.

Master System and Game Gear

Developed by Probe Entertainment, these two ports were almost identical, except for the reduced size of the Game Gear screen. They featured the same fighters and arenas as the Game Boy port (see above) and both Kintaro and Shao Kahn as final bosses, as well as Jade and Smoke as secret opponents.

Unlike the Game Boy port, blood was present, but in much less quantities than in the superior ports; also, it's noticeable that, because of the limited graphical resources the systems could manage, some of the Fatalities in the game were altered so they destroyed completely the opponent's body (except for the generic Gibs such as bones and assorted limbs used for all the characters). For example, Sub-Zero's Deep Freeze/Uppercut fatality would no longer split the victim in half, instead pulverizing him or her completely. Also, some of the Fatalities were simplified to use common animations; for example, Liu Kang's Dragon transformation would scorch the opponent with a fireball (similar to the one in Scorpion's Toasty! Fatality) instead of eating its upper body. The only stage fatality involves uppercutting your opponent into the ceiling.

Sega 32X

Cover artwork of the 32X version.

Developed by Probe Entertainment, this port contained improved graphics over the Sega Genesis counterpart, such as more frames of animation per character, added background details, and faster gameplay. Although there is a broader variety of sound effects than in the Genesis version, the background music remains identical to that port.

PC

Mortal Kombat 2 had good graphics that looked very similar to the arcade version, but in a lower resolution. Although the music was midi, the sound effects were far superior to the console versions. The gameplay on the PC version was equal to the arcades as well.

PlayStation

In Japan, Mortal Kombat II was released on the PlayStation. While the graphics in this port remain close to the quality of those featured in the arcade game, the sound quality does not. Instead of utilizing the CD-ROM format and using CD audio tracks, the game uses the PlayStation's own SPU internal sound chip.

Also, the loading times for the Japanese version were long at times. When performing certain actions (such as Shang Tsung's morph ability), the game would show the Mortal Kombat II symbol and it would take about 1 to 2 seconds to load instead of being instant such as some other versions. Another example of this would be when you would do the stage fatality on the Pit II. When the person hits the ground they are supposed to stop screaming, but when they hit the ground they are still screaming.

Sega Saturn

The Sega Saturn port of the game is possibly the best home console port of Mortal Kombat II (excluding modern re-releases such as Midway Arcade Treasures 2). The game itself seems to be based off the Playstation port, but loading times are faster, the graphics have been slightly enhanced and look even closer to the Arcade version, and the music has also been updated from the poor audio quality of the Playstation's Sound Chip to CD Quality soundtracks (though still not quite up to par with the original arcade's quality for some reason). What it lacks is voiceovers from Shao Kahn such as "Round 1" or "Scorpion Wins" and other sound effects such as Kitana's death screams seem to be missing.

Midway Arcade Treasures 2 and others

Mortal Kombat II was re-released in 2004 as a part of Midway Arcade Treasures 2. This version was an emulation of the original Mortal Kombat II arcade game, rather than a port. As a result, this version plays closer to the original Mortal Kombat II arcade game than any version released previous to it. Unfortunately, it suffers from a common graphical bug: each characters' "shadow" sprites flicker. Music and sound effects are also prone to cutting out or playing out of sync. Also, due to a control mapping issue involving the "start button", it is impossible to fight Smoke. However, the "random select" can be activated by pressing up+X on the character select screen. Finally, this version's CPU opponents have been claimed to be "cheap" and "overly difficult" compared to the arcade and console ports.

MKII is also unlockable via a secret code in the game Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks in identical quality to the edition released in Midway Arcade Treasures 2.

It also saw a release on the Sony PSP in Midway Arcade Treasures: Extended Play, but like Midway Arcade Treasures 2, it contains bugs in its graphics. Some graphics have actually been removed: the "far" background in the Kahn's Arena no longer has clouds. This version also suffers from heavy loading times.

PlayStation 3

Midway announced that Mortal Kombat 2 would be coming out for the PlayStation 3's download service, PlayStation Network. The game was made available for sale on April 12, 2007 for $4.99 USD ($5.99 CDN). This version features online play and was handled by Digital Eclipse - the same development team responsible for the Xbox Live Arcade conversion of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3.

Amiga

The Amiga port of Mortal Kombat 2 was released at the end of 1994. Critical reception was mostly favourable, ranging from CU Amiga Magazine's 95% Superstar award to Amiga Computing's 80% Gold Award. Amiga Power was particularly critical, awarding 63%. Whilst the reviewer praised the accuracy of the conversion, the "chunky" sound effects, weighty characters and the exciting visuals, he also criticized the lack of two-button joystick support, overly complex special moves and boring characters.

Hacks

In the arcade versions, there are only 3 known hacks for MKII, notably MKII Challenger.

Mortal Kombat II 4.2 - A hacked update of the original (3.1 according to MAME) with few tweaks, such as fast uppercuts, red shadow for Johnny Cage, fight Noob after six wins, fight Smoke when Dan Forden comes out in any stage, playing Pong sooner, and easy Dead Pool fatality.

Mortal Kombat II 9.1 - A very rare hack for MKII, but is similar to the previous hack, 4.2.

Mortal Kombat II Challenger - A popular hack for MKII. It has a very difficult ladder which can start with a secret character (Smoke or Noob), or Kintaro, and infinite time for fatalities. Other features are similar to the 2 previous hacks, 4.2 and 9.1.

Mortal Kombat II Arcade Version 2.0 - Very rare version of the arcade game where during the "Finish "Him/Her" sequence of the game, you could preform as many finishing moves as the player wanted in the allotted time. Constant Babalaties could be performed, causing numerous babies to appear on screen. Performing the character's Fatality would usually end the sequence entirely. If you performed the Fatality after a Babality or Friendship, the opponent's image would typically freeze on screen (Regardless if the "baby version" of the opponent was already on screen.) rather than go through the Fatality animation.