Mortal Kombat is famous for two things. Firstly it's fighting system, with intense fighting and dodging moves, but secondly and (probably) more importantly, the blood! Well....it was a noticeable feature. It was popular because it quite possibly the first fighting game to include blood in and not be ashamed about it, and we're talking really gruesome stuff here. It wasn't afraid to let the player completely over kill their opponent in pointless yet satisfying moves and have blood spat everywhere. But is there more to the game than just mindless violence? .....Your right....what am I saying? Lets just look into it then.

The story is....a little foggy. The screen comes up and tells you about different codes, such as a secret code or the code of honor. Then talks about Mortal Kombat following a certain set of codes. I don't know, then it takes you to the menu screen. Once you start playing, you realize you are in a tournament to be the best fighter, as it shows you a ladder you must climb and fight whoever these guys are. You get to pick bewteen eight characters. I'll pick the Scorpion guy, 'cus he's the only one I really know. And I set it to easy, as these sorts of games tend to have really misleading difficulties, as in normal being next to impossible, with hard being "have to be Chuck Norris" to beat wrtien all over it. This might be different....

The fighting seems simple enough, you can attack with kicks (and punches) and can attack while jumping. But get this, most attacks are round house kicks, so if you want to block them, then all you need to do duck, and they miss. This can lead to really intense game play if done correctly. But the battles can end in a matter of seconds if you don't know what your doing. I found this out the hard way.....on easy mind you! But I defeated the first opponent after a game over or two. There was a chance to finish him, in which I kicked him and.....nothing, he just fell. Wasn't there meant to be a really gory move that involved pulling their spine out if their throat or something?

I later found out that I needed to preform a special move through a series of different buttons, much like the special moves of Street Fighter. It's never simple with these things....I suppose it's all the more satisfying if you press a combination of buttons to make it work. Time to check the internet for these moves. Ah, they are called fatality moves. That's quite catchy. So after a few tries I preform the move correctly and....WOW! Did you see that? Scorpion burnt the opponent to a skeleton! ....I might have over reacted there =S    Each player has their own fatality move for you to try out. Some are pretty gruesome, even by my standards. Well.... now that I've looked at the fatality moves, I think I'm done with the game, to be honest.

On with the the rest of the review, I suppose. The graphics are pretty good, as the backgrounds are pretty detailed, much like Double Dragon. The players look very realistic, even in 16-bit. But the graphics that make them look real, ironically, make them look fake and cheap. It looks like they used some photo system instead of making the spirits themselves. This makes them lose their charm apposed to ones that were made without shortcuts. Just looking at them annoys me a lot, and I'm not sure why.

The music, I think, is much like Street Fighter. But I don't like it as much. It's a bit plain, in my opinion. The game has more to offer than meets the eye. You can fight a hidden character called Reptile, but getting to fight him involves not only a lot of skill, but a lot of luck and patience's. To get double flawless (as if just being flawless wasn't enough), is one thing, but to get it on a certain stage as well? Why....how could you even begin to figure that out? I think there's a cheat to enable blood with every hit, but I've been unable to enable it.

The game is hard, even on easy. I like a challenge, but the difficulty balance on this game seems rather unfair. The first fight is ok, if not  little hard, but the fight after is just insane. I can hardly get his health down to half. You seem to have little recovery time in hits, which can lead to great combos, or your instant death. When you get hit, you must do something clever, or forget it as your death is then intermittent. It's a case of learn fast or die, which isn't good for a fighting game. Good for a steep learning curve strategy game. But for a fighting game? good chance is that some might give up too soon. Although I am pretty bad at these types of games, it's a wonder I completed Street Fight II =P

Overall, I give this game a 7.4/10       This game has something about it that I like about it. I hate it, it annoys me, and it doesn't seem that good. But I can't help but like it as well. The game play can be extremely intense by the very fact of just ducking to dodge a round house kick, and I like that a lot. If you like Street Fighter, you'll probably enjoy this game. If you felt a fighting game should have more violence and gore, then this is the game for you. I have a feeling that this game got it's reputation through the gore alone. Now, I see that a lot of people enjoy this game, and I thought it was one of the all time greats, but the more I play it, the more annoycited (a combination of annoyance and excitement.....yeah, I just made that up) I feel, but more annoyed more than anything. Maybe I just don't understand it. Similar to Street Fighter, I can see what makes it so good, but I don't get it. Maybe it'll grow on me, like Street Fighter....