Mortal Kombat

What the reviews talk about

Key wordsviolentquirkygoryunresponsiveawkwardresponsive

What the critics said

• The review criticized the game as "pretty easy unless you set the difficulty to hard."

  — Nintendo Power, 1993

• Reviewing the Game Boy version of the game, Nintendo Power stated that the graphic have been simplified but that "the essence of the Super NES and arcade games have been well-preserved" while noting that "the animation, not surprisingly, is considerably slower than the Super NES."

  — Nintendo Power, 1993

• GamePro similarly commented "The original Mortal Kombat is back, this time on CD, and you'd think there'd be some improvements. Think again."

  — GamePro

• The review summarized that it was inferior to Street Fighter II and that the game's main appeal was its graphics and gory content and "proved that you didn't need to have amazing game mechanics in order to be popular."

  — Retro Gamer

• In 2004, readers of Retro Gamer voted Mortal Kombat as the 55th top retro game, with the staff commenting that "future versions would address the limitations of the first game, but this is where it all began."

  — Retro Gamer

• They concluded, "Despite some control glitches and the altered Fatality Moves, Mortal Kombat for the SNES is a great representation of an arcade classic that will more than satisfy most gamers."

  — GamePro, 1993· about another version

• They also criticized the fact that the port was developed for the three-button controller, saying this makes some moves awkward to pull off, but concluded, "Great graphics, sound, and control in combination with the special Mode A setting make the Genesis Mortal Kombat a beat-em-up force."

  — GamePro, 1993· about another version

• Highly praising the graphical detail and sharpness, as well as the bloody action when the violence code is enabled, GamePro declared the Game Gear version to be "everything its 16-bit big brother is, plus it's portable."

  — GamePro· about another version

From the Reception section of Wikipedia's Mortal Kombat (1992 video game) article, under CC BY-SA 4.0. The words are the critics'; their full reviews are on the publishers' pages.

Scores

• Giant Bomb true
• AllGame 4/5; 3.5/5 (other versions)
• Computer and Video Games 1992 72%; 93% (other versions)
• Electronic Gaming Monthly 8.25/10 ; 6.25/10 (SCD); 7.25/10 (other versions)
• Famitsu 1994 8/10, 6/10, 8/10, 8/10; 5/10, 4/10, 5/10, 3/10; 6/10, 6/10, 6/10, 4/10; 8/10, 7/10, 7/10, 7/10 ; 8/10, 7/10, 7/10, 7/10 (SCD)
• GamesMaster 81%; 81% (other versions)
• Sinclair User 69% (other versions)

From the review table of Wikipedia's article. The face takes, first that applies: the Metascore for this platform, GameRankings' archived average, our average of the critics (one number per publication, a panel averaged), one review alone, the players' rating. Critics and players are never mixed.

Full reviews

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• Wikipedia: Reception