Dang! When I started to write this review, I was thinking about those times when I waited in a line to play Mortal Kombat at Fantasy Arcades. Those were good times for video gaming; Mortal Kombat was big success here in Argentina, and we'd miss classes, dates and other stuff just to hang out at the arcades, play some coins, beat some noobs and discover tricks, glitches, and fatalities in the good game by Midway.

When I was young -- with SF2, Mortal Kombat, and Killer Instinct -- I thought, "Wow, I want these games at home." But that was when I bought Master Fighter II (a hack of Street Fighter 2 from Yoko) and discovered how much of a total deception these fighters could be, so I avoided buying fighter games for the Famicom. But when I saw Mortal Kombat II for the Famicom at a Chinese market, I couldn't resist the temptation to buy it for the price of $50 (nearly $20 USD). That market was closed after a rotten food problem, and that's what it deserves for selling me this piece of crap as if it were an original game.

But I love this game, god knows I love this game to death. I have Mortal Kombat for every console I own, so when I bought this cart, I already own Mortal Kombat 2 for Genesis and SNES. I was curious about playing a version made for my Famicom. Like Jack Slater says, "That was a big mistake!"

The cool stuff about doing reviews for pirate games is when you find a real piece of art or a jewel, both words apply to good games. In this case, Mortal Kombat II is not a artpiece, but it's not an horrible game either.

Let's check it out!
 

When you put the game into the console, you will notice something really sweet, the game has an intro, the classic intro for MK2: some clouds, night, lightning, the MK dragon logo appears. That's all. So, let the massacre begin.

This game has 14 characters to use, which is great. We have: Liu Kang, Kung Lao, Cage, Reptile, Sub Zero, Shang Tsung, Milenna, Jax, Kitana, Baraka, Scorpion and Rayden. And the first unique part of this cart is that Shao Khan and Kintaro are playable characters, too. I could imagine the conversation between the programmers of the game:

   "We must do a better MK2 than the Genesis and SNES versions. How

    the hell we can do it?"

    "Include fatalities?"

    "Nah, we can't do that. We don't know how."

    "Hmm...improving the graphics?"

    "They are already good enough...something else."

    "Hmm...what about adding bosses to the playable characters' list?"

    "Yeah! That's an excellent idea! Let's add Kintaro and Shao Khan. A

    lot of disappointed kids will buy our game 'cause they can't use them

    in SNES/Genesis versions. We will be millionaires!"

    *Hugs, champagne, and pizza*
 

This game has all the original characters plus two added because of the concept that a pirate fighter with more characters than the others is more fun.

The graphics are nice, but there's a flickering problem due to a sprite per line trouble of the hack, so you mostly see disappearing sprites like this if you play like a retard, like me:
 

Besides characters, we get all the stages. Yeah, the programmers also put a lot of stages for our pleasure. I will show you in screenshots below how detailed the backgrounds get, and if you known the backgrounds in the original game, you'll notice these are pretty good. And a lot of them have animation. Something really awesome, besides characters and stages, are the moves. You have almost all the moves, fireballs, bicycle kicks, super punches, freezes, fireballs, rolls, teleports, invisibility, and so on -- all the good stuff is in the game. Also, there's a lot a blood in it! Yeah!

Besides the graphics, pushing the great Famicom to its limit, the music is good. There are a lot of songs, one for each stage!! So you're thinking, "This game fucking rocks!"

No way man. It doesn't.

The most important fact in the Mortal Kombat series is gone: WE DON'T GET FATALITIES!

So, if you are like me, you're wondering why the fuck the Game Gear version, which lacks stages, characters, and fun, has fatalities, and why this game, with graphics that kind of rock, 14 playable characters, a lot of stages, different music for each stage, and different moves, doesn't have fatalities? I don't have a clue.

That question is going to bounce around the universe for eternity, again and again.
 

But well, far away from Master Fighter II, Mortal Kombat II has a decent level of difficulty. It's not fucking insane like MF2, and it's not a flickering-fest like MF. It's not unfair like MF2, but I feel the controls are a little inaccurate, but, well, this is Famicom fighter port, so what are you expecting? You'll see parts of the body disappear when you connect a hit, bouncing kicks, and hooks which don't hook, but yeah, there's some fun playing against the CPU.

I beat the four first contenders using Baraka, but uh-oh, Milenna must've taken some pills with an energy drink because, dang, I can't beat her. Infinite teleports, a lot of rolls, it was a massacre, again and again. I lost all hope of getting a pic of the ending for this review.

I don't know if Milenna it's the strongest character; I don't know if the game just turned into a crazy machine of blood, breaking all my dreams of showing you the super-duper ending for Baraka. I fought with Milenna almost 15 times and I didn't win a round. If someday I beat her, I promise you I will take a shot of the ending. I promise.

I feel this is unfair. I can easily beat the first four enemies, very easily, and then I go against a character who attacks constantly, with insane speed and doing a lot of special moves all the time. That sucks.
 

So, well, is MKII good? Well, that's a tough question. The programmers put a lot of effort into giving you a lot of characters, a lot of music, a lot of stages, and almost all the moves and special moves, but they forget the most important fact in Mortal Kombat: the fatalities. Imagine MK in an arcade without fatalities. Who would play that crap? Not me. MK is about blood, guts and ripping off the head of your enemies, not beating the crap out of people like SF2. That was SF2; Mortal Kombat was the bloody game.

I know, it's the Famicom, the machine doesn't support fatalities, and that's my question, why not? I mean, why couldn't the programmers includes fatalities? Is it that hard put some button combinations to get something like a heart being ripped out?

This MK is the best MK pirate for Famicom, by far, really by far. It's a good fighting game...but without fatalities, there's no "Mortal" in Mortal Kombat.

Happy dreams and good night, ladies and gentlemen.