Mortal Kombat: Information from Answers.com

Release Date: 1992
Genre: Fighting
Style: 2D Fighting
Similar Games: Batman Forever (Sega Game Gear)

Game Description

The Mortal Kombat tournament is held once a generation. Each tournament is the setting for competition between the greatest fighters of each era. But this Mortal Kombat tournament is particularly important. An evil wizard by the name of Shang Tsung has taken over the tournament and has been draining the souls of all the previous fighters who lost. Each of the fighters participating in this tournament has a personal reason for joining, but they're all out for blood.

Mortal Kombat is a 2D fighting game using digitized actors for character animation. Players can select from six fighters: Rayden, Liu Kang, Sub Zero, Scorpion, Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade. Each character has a selection of special attacks to complement his or her regular punches, kicks and throws. After defeating other fighters, each character can also use a special "fatality" to finish them off and earn more points. Alternatively, on certain stages characters can use an uppercut to punch their defeated opponents off the edge of the ring and into a pit of spikes.

Players can choose from three difficulty settings. After that players progress through the game's stages one by one through defeating the enemy on each stage. Players will face each of the game's characters once, including his or her double. Then they have to compete in three battles in which they will face two enemies one after the other. Finally, players must defeat the two bosses to claim victory.

The game allows players six credits to continue.

~ Kyle Knight, All Game Guide

Review: Overall

After the ludicrously violent Mortal Kombat exploded into the arcades in the early Nineties, gamers were clamoring for home versions so they could take the carnage home. After the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis versions made waves in the console market, the wacky funsters at Probe Limited ported a portable version for the Sega Game Gear. But can the digitized destruction make its way onto a portable system? The answer is a surprising yes.

Though the roster of playable characters has been cut short by two (where's Kano?), Mortal Kombat is still nearly as playable as its console big brothers. The five-button control scheme has been appropriately mapped onto the Game Gear's three-button pad, and keypresses seems a little bit lagged -- but the game is still quite controllable.

You get to spar with another digitized contestant through a series of fights to the death -- best two of three, of course. After you've trounced your opponent two times, it's time to enter a secret combination of d-pad and button-presses, and execute your buddy with a "Fatality" -- a spectacular finishing move that's wonderfully bloody.

Graphics are large and well-defined, with characters taking up half the screen. Animation is a little choppy, but the overall quality of the game's digitized graphics more than make up for it. The moody Mortal Kombat background music has come through intact, though the digitized screams and battlecries were axed.

For portable Mortal Kombat, the Game Gear version certainly satisfies (and it's exponentially better than the beyond-bad Game Boy port). If over-the-top martial arts action is your bag, Mortal Kombat is big fun on the go.