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Post by windfisch on May 30, 2022 6:42:55 GMT -5
Having witnessed the arcade game during its heyday on a ferry trip (arcade machines were locked away in 18+ gambling halls in Germany), I was quite fascinated with the sheer spectacle of it. Digitzed colourful ninja? Count me in! And thus, against my better judgement, I got the Game Boy version a bit later, the only genuinely bad game in my library (though NBA Jam, another "fad" game, wasn't too hot on GB either). Even then I knew it wasn't good, but it retained just enough of the original's atmosphere to make me sit through a lot of frustration: It was slooow and controls were unresponsive. They made move inputs even more complicated if you can believe it! However, if you squinted really hard, a bit of the original's "photorealism" remained and the music had a mysterious quality to it (though only a few tracks remained). Heck, you could even unlock a playable Goro! So maybe it's not quite the worst fighting game on the system. But it's close.
Anyway, the SNES versoin was a lot better, naturally. Though, when I finally got to properly play it via emulation, I had already experienced the superior DOS port. The latter was as close to the original as one could hope for at the time. By comparison, the SNES game simply felt a bit sloppier the way it played and looked. The censorship didn't bother me that much. Though it's hard to deny that attacks and fatalities feel a lot less impactful without large red drops flying around. I even kinda like the substitute fatalities for Rayden and Sub Zero, as those suit their traits rather well. But again, with little to compensate for the missing fountains of blood and too few frames of animation, there isn't that much left to look at. It's almost laughable how quickly fatalities go by in general, especially compared to later entries. The same is even true for some of the arcade-faithful ones, like Scorpion's flame-spitting skull. Ultimately Mortal Kombat, even in its arcade iteration, is a somewhat playable but pretty shallow game. Once the wow-factor wears off, it's not a whole lot of fun to play against the AI, which is both stupid and cheap. The SNES version is barely worth a D, imo. |
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Post by spanky on May 30, 2022 6:47:19 GMT -5
Mortal Kombat was heavily hyped and the home port was my first time playing the game. I remember not being particularly impressed - the characters seemed very samey compared to Street Fighter - everyone had a projectile of some sort, everyone had the same sweeps and uppercuts etc. I always felt the game felt sort of stiff. I thought it was funny the SNES box labeled the game as the "competition edition" as if they were implying this should be used for tournaments...but on top of being censored, it plays worse than the Genesis version too! It feels a bit sluggish, like there's some input lag. The 16-bit Mortal Kombat ports also have this really annoying thing where you can't pause during matches. It looks and sounds just fine though. It sure was popular though. Kids went on and on about this game while I just kept on playing Street Fighter II: Turbo.
To the game's credit, there is a bit of charm there. The character designs are pretty cool and I love the "Enter The Dragon with some supernatural elements thrown in" setting. Later games would continue to get more otherworldly, but I like the aesthetic here. There are some neat details too, like how Liu Kang explicitly does not murder his opponent during his fatality, or the concept of having a hidden opponent to fight. Midway really leaned into throwing in hidden stuff and was not afraid to troll players either.
It's a disappointing port of a game that was getting by on aesthetics and shock value. It's also very historically interesting. Aside from reigniting the "violence in video games" debate, it is also extremely important to the narrative of the 16-bit wars in the west. The Genesis game outsold the SNES one at something like a 3-1 ratio and made Nintendo reconsider their content policies. The series would go on to much greater things but Mortal Kombat for the SNES isn't a particularly great game. It's harsh but I think I am going to have to give this a D.
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Post by windfisch on May 30, 2022 7:20:09 GMT -5
Is MK the only succesful western 2D fighter franchise? It's debatable, but I'd say the Killer Instinct games have had a certain degree of success. The reboot even seems to be somewhat popular among tournament folks.
Other than? If we really want to stretch the definition of "success": Primal Rage got this close to having a sequel released  . More recently, Skullgirls seems to have a faithful fanbase as updates are still happening. And by now at least one of those countless Smash clones has to be doing well, right? But yeah, I'm struggling to come up with anything. |
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Post by ommadawnyawn2 on May 30, 2022 7:44:15 GMT -5
I always felt like you had to cheese the game to beat it, and also be lucky as the enemy AI would sometimes get much harder. Liu Kang and the ninjas are overall the best chars right? Haven't played it much on SNES but it seems like a decent version besides having to re-insert the blood and the music not sounding as good. I like MK2 more for the larger roster and better audiovisuals.
I remember now I had to play the GB version of MK2 because my mom returned the SNES MK2 after seeing me play it, lol. That version also led to me semi-breaking the screen on my GB pocket out of frustration with the last opponents.
D for me.
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Post by dsparil on May 30, 2022 7:49:35 GMT -5
MK on Genesis is a mixed bag. For one thing, it's very difficult to play with the standard controller since it's a five button game making the six button controller basically a requirement which isn't a problem on SNES. The graphics and sound are also noticeable worse, and the blood technically requires a code although it doesn't on Sega CD. MK is a bad game in general though, and the novelty of the violence doesn't make up for that. If MK was a game actually worth playing in general, maybe the advantages of SNES would give it an edge over the Genesis port. Since it isn't for longer than a few minutes, I don't think any version deserves higher than a D.
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Post by windfisch on May 30, 2022 9:23:24 GMT -5
MK on Genesis is a mixed bag. For one thing, it's very difficult to play with the standard controller since it's a five button game making the six button controller basically a requirement which isn't a problem on SNES. The graphics and sound are also noticeable worse, and the blood technically requires a code although it doesn't on Sega CD. MK is a bad game in general though, and the novelty of the violence doesn't make up for that. If MK was a game actually worth playing in general, maybe the advantages of SNES would give it an edge over the Genesis port. Since it isn't for longer than a few minutes, I don't think any version deserves higher than a D. I agree, Mega Drive Mortal Kombat wasn't the greatest either. It had some odd colouring choices, sky backgrounds in particular looked very flat. Sound FX are also weaker than on SNES. But music-wise it's good and it plays a bit more smoothly than the SNES game.
There is a recent hack that improves the MD version by changing some of the colours and adding background details, frames of animation, voice samples and such. It's still Mortal Kombat, mind you, but it's fascinating how much effort some people will put into these fan projects:
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Post by excelsior on May 30, 2022 9:41:17 GMT -5
Is MK the only succesful western 2D fighter franchise? It's debatable, but I'd say the Killer Instinct games have had a certain degree of success. The reboot even seems to be somewhat popular among tournament folks.
Other than? If we really want to stretch the definition of "success": Primal Rage got this close to having a sequel released  . More recently, Skullgirls seems to have a faithful fanbase as updates are still happening. And by now at least one of those countless Smash clones has to be doing well, right? But yeah, I'm struggling to come up with anything. Seems like a snub towards Rise of the Robots |
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Post by windfisch on May 30, 2022 10:11:18 GMT -5
It's debatable, but I'd say the Killer Instinct games have had a certain degree of success. The reboot even seems to be somewhat popular among tournament folks.
Other than? If we really want to stretch the definition of "success": Primal Rage got this close to having a sequel released . More recently, Skullgirls seems to have a faithful fanbase as updates are still happening. And by now at least one of those countless Smash clones has to be doing well, right? But yeah, I'm struggling to come up with anything. Seems like a snub towards Rise of the Robots Right, that one did get a sequel! The same dev also made another beloved classic called Theatre of Pain: They were on a roll!
And to be honest, both of those follow-ups were a lot better than the first RotR. I kinda adore those mid-tier jank games.
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Post by dsparil on May 30, 2022 10:51:04 GMT -5
One Must Fall was sort of a real series if you count the original demo which was basically a knock off of the two player mode in the original Street Fighter. OMF: 2097 was actually successful and for a while was considering the best PC exclusive fighting game*. It does have a depth that wouldn't be expected from a shareware game. It's a shame the developer spent almost a decade noodling away on a sequel that changed things way too much instead of iterating on what worked. People probably still play Killer Instinct, but I think that was also a case of Microsoft throwing money at something because they needed their own fighting game. People do like it, but Microsoft didn't immediately jump on making a sequel either. There's been rumors of one for a few years, but nothing has come of it yet.
* I'd give that title now to Arm Joe, the completely bizarre fighting game based on Les Misérables. The title is a pun on the Japanese version of the book's title, Aa Mujou.
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Post by windfisch on May 30, 2022 12:04:50 GMT -5
One Must Fall was sort of a real series if you count the original demo which was basically a knock off of the two player mode in the original Street Fighter. OMF: 2097 was actually successful and for a while was considering the best PC exclusive fighting game*. It does have a depth that wouldn't be expected from a shareware game. It's a shame the developer spent almost a decade noodling away on a sequel that changed things way too much instead of iterating on what worked. People probably still play Killer Instinct, but I think that was also a case of Microsoft throwing money at something because they needed their own fighting game. People do like it, but Microsoft didn't immediately jump on making a sequel either. There's been rumors of one for a few years, but nothing has come of it yet. * I'd give that title now to Arm Joe, the completely bizarre fighting game based on Les Misérables. The title is a pun on the Japanese version of the book's title, Aa Mujou. One Must Fall was the good prerendered fighting robots game of 1994.
Thanks for the Arm Joe mention, a game I was not aware of. Looking at vids, that one has a lot of weirdness and smooth animation going for it. Though the excessively zooming and scrolling camera should make it hard to keep track of things. Lots of screen flashes, too.  |
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Post by 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 on May 30, 2022 15:18:47 GMT -5
It's debatable, but I'd say the Killer Instinct games have had a certain degree of success. The reboot even seems to be somewhat popular among tournament folks. Other than? If we really want to stretch the definition of "success": Primal Rage got this close to having a sequel released . More recently, Skullgirls seems to have a faithful fanbase as updates are still happening. And by now at least one of those countless Smash clones has to be doing well, right? But yeah, I'm struggling to come up with anything. Oh yeah, I forgot about Killer Instinct. That one counts as succesful, sure. I don't really follow fighting games so I didn't know Skullgirls was still going. I did play it but don't remember too much about it. I think Rivals of Aether is the only truly successful of the SSB clones. I mean, it's getting a sequel and a spinoff even. It's pretty good. |
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Post by excelsior on May 31, 2022 1:20:02 GMT -5
The Injustice series was successful also, but of course it's made by the current MK guys and plays similarly to MK so it's pretty much cheating.
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Post by ommadawnyawn2 on May 31, 2022 4:45:24 GMT -5
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Post by windfisch on May 31, 2022 15:22:55 GMT -5
Nice one.
I like your reviews, but I feel those could benefit from a few sentences summarizing your overall opinion. |
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Post by ommadawnyawn2 on May 31, 2022 18:55:32 GMT -5
Thanks, I do that occasionally. Generally they're just to remind myself of what I thought of a game though, and writing reviews doesn't come quickly for me while I also like to be thorough so I tend to prefer the list format.
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. More recently, Skullgirls seems to have a faithful fanbase as updates are still happening. And by now at least one of those countless Smash clones has to be doing well, right? But yeah, I'm struggling to come up with anything.
. More recently, Skullgirls seems to have a faithful fanbase as updates are still happening. And by now at least one of those countless Smash clones has to be doing well, right? But yeah, I'm struggling to come up with anything.
