There have been a huge number of popular fighting games over the year, but few had quite an impact on how video games are perceived by the public as the Mortal Kombat franchise. Though the inaugural game proved to be a huge hit – and a huge controversy – the second, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, fully established the series as far more than just bloody graphics.
The first game was notable for its realistic depictions of violence and gore, and the large public backlash against Mortal Kombat was still fresh – even ongoing – as the development team began work on the second game in the series. Much of the game was overhauled from the first one, with additional characters and moves being added (including new Fatalities). However, a large part of the focus was on making the game slightly less serious, with many of the finishing moves meant to be comedic.
New characters added to the lineup included Baraka, Jax, Kitana, Kung Lao, and Mileena. The story focused on the evil Shang Tsung, who is granted another chance to defeat Liu Kang by holding a new Mortal Kombat Tournament in the Outworld. With Shang Tsung gaining home field advantage in this new tournament, he hopes to subdue Earthrealm by having the advantage.
Mortal Kombat was already known for the Fatality system – where players could perform a lethal finishing move that often involved a lot of blood and gore. But Mortal Kombat II expanded on that with some of the first gag moves in the series, with Babalities (in which the opponent gets turned into a crying baby), and Friendships (where the player performs something nice for their opponent, like giving them a gift).
The game arrived in arcades in April 1993, with numerous home versions arriving later on systems including the Game Boy, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, PlayStation and many others. Mortal Kombat II was an instant success, with the arcade version alone accounting for a multimillion-dollar jump in arcade revenue; home versions of the game sold several millions of copies. The game was critically well-received and was considered a huge improvement on the already-popular original, and Mortal Kombat II went on to pick up a number of awards from various publications.
Of course, like the first Mortal Kombat, it was also subject to various controversies. The game was outright banned in Germany for being in violation of the German Penal Code by depicting cruelty against humans. In Japan, Mortal Kombat II had to be released with green-colored blood in order to meet regional standards.
Mortal Kombat II has since been considered as one of the best fighting games ever, particularly with regards to other games of its era. Retrospectives on the game have called it a turning point for the Mortal Kombat series as a whole, as well as an important release for the 1990s arcade scene.
