Mortal Kombat review by Tyson
Overall
Rent
The arcade hit comes home the SNES but sadly with some censoring. Sadly this censoring will turn many people away from this version of the game. Even with its problems Mortal Kombat is a good weekend rental game.
Gameplay
The Earthrealm is in trouble and the only way to solve this problem is to fight it out in the Mortal Kombat tournament. In order to win the tournament you will take control of one of the 7 fighters in the game. The game plays very similar to other fighting games like street fighter. You have a high and low punch and a high and low kick along with a block button. Using various button and movement combinations you can unleash various special moves.
What I really enjoyed about Mortal Kombat was the special moves that each character had. For example Sub-Zero has an ice projectile special move that can freeze your opponent in place. While Scorpion throws a spear across the screen that lets him pulls his opponent towards him. I also really like Sonya’s scissor leg throw move. Overall I came away really impressed about the special moves and I think it makes the standout from other fighting games.
I did find some issues with the game though. For one the A.I. opponents are cheap as you go through the game. At times I can only win matches by simply cheesing a specific move like a jumping kick to take out the A.I. since no other move seems to work. Also I didn’t like the endurance matches that force you to fight 2 A.I. opponents in a row. Also the bosses are really cheap as well. The sub boss Goro is immune to various special moves and has attacks that do a lot of damage.
I do feel that I need to mention the games censoring. The blood and many of the fatalities have been changed. Sadly this will turn away many people who are looking for a true arcade experience but the censoring didn’t bother me as much. I will say that I did enjoy the censored fatalities since they used the characters abilities in them. For example Sub-Zero no longer rips his opponents head off but now he turns them into ice and shatters them.
Control
I found the control to be a little stiff. It feels like there is a little delay between when you press a button and your attack comes out.
Graphics
Wow I am really impressed wit the graphics here. It looks almost arcade quality. I also loved how the game uses digitized actors instead of hand drawn characters. I must say that I also loved Sonya Blade’s outfit since it looks like she just came from the gym.
Sound
I found the audio and sound effects in the game to be arcade quality as well. The SNES sound capabilities are fantastic and this game really works well with them. I just really cant say much more then the sound was fantastic.