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The Sega Master System... an ill-fated console, probably better than the NES, and very popular in certain areas of the world, namely Brazil, Australia, and even Europe. Many good games were made in these areas for the SMS, but never saw the light of day in North America. Such a game is Mortal Kombat II.

Made by Acclaim and Probe Software, some time after the Genesis or SNES versions, the 8-bit port of this amazing game is not on par with the 16-bit versions, but it is not bad. It's the easiest of all the ports and pretty fun to play, but a lot of details were lost. Please read on.

The beginning of the game is more or less identical to the superior versions. The nicely-coloured Acclaim logo and the gloomy, cloudy animation before the words Mortal II Kombat appear are there in all their glory. A great feature is that, after you press 'Start', you can select the difficulty level ('Easy', 'Medium' or 'Hard'). Pressing 'Start again takes the player to the 'Character Select' screen.

Only 8 characters out of the usual 12 have made it: Liu Kang, Sub-Zero, Kitana, Reptile, Shang Tsung (called just 'Tsung' the majority of the time), Mileena, Scorpion and Jax. These characters have not suffered any toning-down, regarding graphics, from the Genesis version. They look good as ever and their animations during the fights are quite good. Kintaro and Shao Kahn, the 2 bosses, are a little smaller than in other ports (pretty much as tall as the other kombatants), but they still look impressive, and you still wouldn't want the four-arms Shokan warrior thump on your character. You can even fight Jade and Smoke by using subtle variations of the well-known tricks. I'm not sure about Noob Saibot, or about the old Pong game.

The stages and the hit detection are a different story, though. There are just 2 stages: the 'Kombat Tomb' and 'The Pit II'. The tomb is not as beautifully coloured as in the Genesis version, but it still has the wicked spikes at the top, where you can impale the oponent after a good fight (but they don't slide down afterwards anymore); the second pit is very cool here, too, but there seems to be no stage fatality available for it and the bridge far in the background is also gone, unfortunately. You could see a third stage, the bottom of the first pit, if you use the code to get to Jade. The fights look a little odd, as sometimes the hits register before the characters actually touch, but one can get used to this fighting style quite easily.

Just one of the two fatalities per character are available in the SMS version of MK II. Although the box mentions Friendships and Babalities, they are yet to be discovered. Liu Kang's 'Dragon Morph' fatality, Sub-Zero's 'Freeze-and-Shatter' and Shang Tsung's 'Soul Steal' (my favourite, how I'd love to be able to do that!) fatalities are present. The regular moves are all there, for every character, also there is a decent amount of blood and Shao Kahn still says "Fight!" in a crisp voice.

There are 6 continues and that is enough. The ending animation is good, with Shao Kahn exploding into pieces, and the ending shown over the background where the last fight took place -- a lot like the Genesis version, only the ending itself doesn't roll upwards. The end credits do, but over a gray screen. Speaking of screen, the game is presented in widescreen (probably the PAL-NTSC contrasts).

Overall, this port of the very popular Mortal Kombat II was very well made, for 8-bit capabilities. You can find it for (under) 20 dollars and it is worth it, especially if you are a MK fan like me. Let the Kombat kontinue!

- Swordlord