I remember the game being released for the Super Nintendo and me and my brothers playing a rental copy. The game was similar to Street Fighter II, in the same way that it had a similar amount of playable fighters, featured boss characters, and had a two player mode. The thing that was probably most cool about this game were the digitized fighters. At the time of playing, me and my brothers probably weren't aware of the "real fatalities" that were missing from this port of the game, so we enjoyed the game despite it having that particular flaw.
At the time, my oldest brother had a Sega Genesis, and we decided to rent Mortal Kombat for the Sega system to. The Genesis was a different kettle of fish entirely. It had THE BLOODCODE :D for one thing. The graphical style and gameplay were also different for the Genesis, but more about that later. The Genesis version had the advantage with most gamers because it featured the fatalities of the arcade that the SNES version different. At the time, the Super Nintendo was quite a family friendly system, and Nintendo were afraid to release games that would offend children and families. Fatalities that were included in the Sega version, but not the Nintendo, included Sub Zero's ripping off his enemy's head, Kano's heart removal, and Rayden's electrocuting his foes head off.
That being said, the lack of blood and fatalities in the SNES conversion didn't really affect the gameplay, at least in the sense that it was still a one on one fighter and had all the gameplay mechanics of such a game in that genre. How does the SNES version hold up to its Genesis counterpart in terms of gameplay though?
Well, the SNES version was actually truer to the arcade version because it featured much of the beautiful graphics and animation of like the arcade. The sound is also very good in this version, and featured most of the grunts and growls of the arcade, as well as the great music. The problem with this conversion of this game is the games mechanics. The controls lack because the characters feel bulky, like they are being weighed down by an invisible weight, and many of the moves feel delayed. That being said, once you get used to the controls, things greatly improve and the game becomes a lot more fun to play. Still, you will find yourself becoming extremely frustrated even on normal mode, as you progress further towards the games bosses, Goro and Shang Tsung.
The Genesis version, lacks the graphics and sound of the SNES version, and many of the effects, such as Rayden's yell during his torpedo move, are missing. As far as graphics go, well it just looks a whole lot more "16 bit" than the SNES version, which in my opinion is not a bad thing, but it may turn some gamers off. The controls feel a lot lighter than the SNES version, which is a great benefit to this port because the gameplay is a lot smoother. This is the port that I grew up playing, and the one I prefer.
So which Mortal Kombat port is actually the best? Well, it does depend on what you want really. If you can compromise graphics and sound for better gameplay and the fatalities that the missing in the SNES version, then go for the Genesis. If you want something that is closer to the arcade as far as looks and sound goes, then go for the SNES. I will give this round to the Genesis so its Genesis 1 - Snes 0.
Thanks for reading the review.
