SNES vs Genesis: Mortal Kombat

Game: Mortal Kombat
Console: Super Nintendo Entertainment System/Sega Mega Drive
Developer: Midway (SNES)/Probe Entertainment (MD)
Release Date: 13th September 1993

Mortal Kombat is quite a well known name in the fighting game genre and its often referenced as a classic, but how good is it compared to other fighting games, and does it live up to the hype? In a word, no. It may well be a good laugh when you have friends around, and want to play some older fighting games (although I'd reccomend Street Fighter II for that), but as a fighting game both versions I'm about to review have some key flaws.

We'll start with the basics; Mortal Kombat features 7 fighters (the joint least of any fighting game I can think of alongside Primal Rage) and in single player you progress through fighting every character (including a mirror match) before fighting teams of 2 opponents one after another in a sort of double battle mode. Finally after these, you fight the game's 2 bosses before getting an ending for your character. There's also a two player mode although it acts as the first rung of the tournament ladder, once the other player gives up.

In both versions of the game, there are executable combos and fatalities for each player, although beyond this their basic fighting moves are all extremely similar. Not only this, the character designs seem to be somewhat uninspired across the board with recolours having become a trademark of the series (although you'd have thought it wouldn't be something to be proud of), and fairly forgettable characters in this first installment. Due to their similarities, however the fighters in Mortal Kombat are fairly balanced for use in two player mode, as everyone has a ranged attack, and some special moves.

The one player mode difficulty in both games is pretty much the same with an adjustable level of difficulty on the options screen. Playing in normal mode on both games presents a steep difficulty curve once the player is about 5 fights in, however due to the AI on both versions being somewhat susceptible to certain combinations of moves it can be still easy to progress. The SNES version suffers a little more from this as I found the best way to win fights was to constantly hit the Y button until the opponent was dead. On the Mega Drive you'll need a combination of the uppercut, jump kick and mashing the punch button.

(Mortal Kombat - SNES Version)

Both versions of the game feature motion capture style fighters on an animated background which only has about 4 frames. Sometimes the hit detection seems a little iffy; other players can hit you when you're too far away to hit them, and if you both hit eachother at the same time it's anyone's guess what'll happen. One good dynamic is that blocking doesn't completely save you from damage, but blocks most of the damage from the attack. This means that unlike some other fighting games, players cannot rely on blocking as much as they might.

In the one player mode, I managed to get to the battle before the final boss by mashing the high punch button until the opponent was dead on medium difficulty. In truth, there's a lot of ways you can beat the AI easily and this makes two player mode the only really viable option for this version, since trying to fight fairly on harder battles and difficulty levels will usually result in a loss.

(Mortal Kombat - SNES Version)

In both versions between levels there are strength test minigames which involve rapidly pressing buttons until the meter is above a certain point. These are nice for breaking up the flow of gameplay and work well on both versions. The levels are also fairly interesting with a variety of backdrops and animations going on behind fights. 

The boss design in the game is good; Goro is a four armed creature who has by far the most interesting design of anyone featured in the game, and Shang Tsung can morph into any of the cast in order to attack the player, as well as using his own attacks. With such interesting boss designs you wonder why they weren't able to be unlockable characters, as it'd have increased the fighter count to 9 and added variety to the roster. 

(Mortal Kombat - Mega Drive version)

For the Mega Drive version, visually there's a few changes to note; the backgrounds of levels are changed a little, the fighters are smaller than those on the SNES, and have more detailed shadows, the health bars are thinner and character names are displayed outside of them, the colours look more vivid in most parts, and without the blood cheat there's no sweat/hit effect.These don't make a whole lot of difference to the gameplay (save for the last change, which makes moves feel less satisfying) but they give both versions a distinctively different look.

As the games were released simultaneously by different developers, I assume the changes are to do with the capabilities of each console or something like that. Soundwise, the Mega Drive version features a more synth based version of the title screen music, which I prefer to the SNES's admittedly more realistic sounding music. The vocal effects on both games are fairly similar but hit sounds on the Mega Drive are another contributor to moves feeling less satisfying, since they sound more like hitting a wall than a person.

(Mortal Kombat - Mega Drive version)

There's a lot of talk about the Mega Drive version's inclusion of blood and how much people prefer it because of that, but for a start it has to be activated by a cheat code otherwise there's literally no sweat/spit effect at all upon damage inflicting moves and although somewhat fun even if blood is turned on, the gameplay still suffers from the same problems with AI and sound. Of course having blood and using fatalities was a somewhat new thing at the time; Nintendo hadn't featured any material that wasn't up to their exacting censor standards in games, and Sega had just set up their own ratings board just so that they could feature this sort of action in a game.

Overall though there's not a lot between both games; the graphics and music are debatable as to which version is better, the SNES version features more satisfying gameplay and larger character sprites and well as the classic look of the game for most people. The Mega Drive version features the option to have blood, better AI in one player mode and a few more fatalities that weren't featured on the SNES.

Mortal Kombat as a game itself is disappointing and the arcade version wasn't exactly amazing (although it beat both of the versions shown here for gameplay, graphics and sound). With fatalities being the focus of gameplay, the fighters similar attacks and lack of roster choice really let the game down. There's also a lack of replay value with no unlockable characters and only endings to reward you for completing tournament mode. For me, the SNES version plays slightly better than the Mega Drive version but they're both about as fun as eachother.

SNES version                                                                                                   Mega Drive version
Rating: 56/100                                                                                                  Rating: 50/100
Grade: D                                                                                                          Grade: D