Mortal Kombat II

What the reviews talk about

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What the critics said

• Initial critical reception towards Mortal Kombat II was overwhelmingly positive, with Sega Visions describing the way in which the sequel was directed as "sheer brilliance", and Nintendo Power calling it "the hottest fighter ever".

  — Nintendo Power

• Sushi-X of Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) called the Genesis version "a great translation considering its limitations," saying that its graphics and sounds are not as good as those of the SNES version.

  — Electronic Gaming Monthly· about another version

• Next Generation said of the SNES version that "with full creative license, Acclaim has produced possibly the best arcade conversion ever."

  — Next Generation, 1995· about another version

• Critical reception of the Amiga version was also mostly favorable, with Ed Lawrence of CU Amiga declaring that "every person who own an Amiga has to own Mortal Kombat 2. In terms of revitalising the Amiga market, this is far more important than any Commodore buy-out could ever be."

  — CU Amiga (Ed Lawrence)· about another version

• In a rare dissenting opinion, Jonathan Nash of Amiga Power dismissed Mortal Kombat II as "a clearly nonsensical title", recommending to "buy Shadow Fighter instead".

  — Amiga Power, 1995 (Jonathan Nash)· about another version

• Reviewing the 32X version, IGN's Levi Buchanan said that "if you do not have a SNES, this is the home version of MKII to get."

  — IGN, 2008 (Levi Buchanan)· about another version

• Lawrence Neves (writing under the pseudonym "Scary Larry") of GamePro agreed that the Saturn port "duplicates the arcade version perfectly", but argued that the slowdown and load times make the game frustrating to play.

  — GamePro· about another version

• Sega Saturn Magazine was extremely disappointed with the final version of the Saturn port, calling it "much worse than any of the versions seen on the cartridge format", as opposed to the vastly superior pre-release version they had reviewed five months earlier.

  — Sega Saturn Magazine, 1995· about another version

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

Scores

• Computer and Video Games 1994 ARC: 93% ; SMD: 97% ; SNES: 96% ; AMI: 96% ; 32X: 93% ; GB: 90% ; SGG: 88%
• Electronic Gaming Monthly SNES: 9/10, 8/10, 8/10, 8/10 ; SMD: 8/10, 7/10, 7/10, 7/10 ; SGG: 7/10 ; GB: 6/10 ; SSAT: 5.75/10
• Famitsu 1994 SNES: 8/10, 7/10, 7/10, 6/10 ; SMD: 8/10, 8/10, 7/10, 6/10 ; ; SGG: 7/10, 5/10, 6/10, 4/10 ; GB: 5/10, 4/10, 5/10, 4/10 ; PS: 6/10, 5/10, 5/10, 3/10
• Game Informer SSAT: 7/10 (other versions)
• GamePro SNES: 20/20 ; SMD: 17.5/20 ; SGG: 16.5/20 ; GB: 15/20
• GamesMaster SMD: 94% (other versions)
• GameSpot 2013 PS3: 7.9/10 (other versions)
• IGN 2008 32X: 7.8/10 ; PS3: 7.3/10
• Next Generation SNES: 5/5 ; PC: 4/5 ; 32X/SSAT: 3/5 ;
• Amiga Format AMI: 90% (other versions)
• CU Amiga AMI: 95% (other versions)
• Mean Machines Sega 32X: 92% ; SMS: 80%
• Sega Saturn Magazine SSAT (Pre-release): 93% ; 2/5
• VG&CE SNES: 10/10 ; 32X: 9/10 ; GB: 8/10 ; SMD: 7/10 ; SGG: 7/10

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