Following his failure to defeat Liu Kang in the Mortal Kombat tournament, the evil sorcerer Shang Tsung begs his master Shao Kahn, supreme ruler of Outworld and the surrounding kingdoms, to spare his life. He tells Shao Kahn that the invitation for the next Mortal Kombat cannot be turned down, and if they hold it in Outworld, the Earthrealm warriors must attend. Kahn agrees to this plan and also restores Shang Tsung's youth. He then extends the invitation to the thunder god and Earthrealm's protector, Raiden, who gathers his warriors and takes them into Outworld. The new tournament is much more dangerous, as Shao Kahn has the home field advantage, and an Outworld victory will allow him to subdue Earthrealm.

According to the Mortal Kombat series' canon, Liu Kang won this tournament as well, defeating Shao Kahn and his bodyguard Kintaro.

Playable characters

Debuting characters:

• Baraka (played by Richard Divizio) – Outworld's Tarkatan race nomad warlord, responsible for the assault on the Shaolin Monastery on the orders of Shao Kahn.
• Jax Briggs (played by John Parrish) – U.S. Special Forces officer who enters the tournament to rescue his partner Sonya Blade from Outworld.
• Kitana (played by Katalin Zamiar) – A female ninja who is a personal assassin in the service of Shao Kahn. She has been suspected of secretly aiding the Earthrealm warriors.
• Kung Lao (played by Anthony Marquez) – Shaolin monk and close friend of Liu Kang, descendant of the Great Kung Lao (who was defeated by Goro and Shang Tsung 500 years before the events of MK). He seeks to avenge his ancestor and the destruction of the Shaolin temple.
• Mileena (played by Katalin Zamiar) – Twin sister to Kitana and also serving as an assassin for Kahn. Her mission during the tournament is to ensure the loyalty of her sister but she also has plans of her own.

Returning characters:

• Johnny Cage (played by Daniel Pesina) – Hollywood actor who joins Liu Kang in his journey to Outworld.
• Liu Kang (played by Ho Sung Pak) – Shaolin monk who is the reigning champion of Mortal Kombat. He travels to Outworld to seek vengeance for the death of his Shaolin monastery brothers.
• Raiden (played by Carlos Pesina) – Thunder god who returns to Mortal Kombat to stop Kahn's evil plans of taking the Earthrealm for his own.
• Reptile (played by Daniel Pesina) – Shang Tsung's personal bodyguard.
• Scorpion (played by Daniel Pesina) – Hellspawned spectre who returns to the tournament to once again assassinate Sub-Zero.
• Shang Tsung (played by Philip Ahn M.D.) – The evil sorcerer who convinced Kahn to spare his life after losing the last tournament, with a new evil plan to appease his master, who in turn restores Tsung's youth. He also serves as a sub-boss of the game, appearing before Kintaro in the single player mode. As in the first game he is able to morph into any of the playable characters, retaining their moves (in some versions only the character against whom he is currently fighting).
• Sub-Zero (played by Daniel Pesina) – A male ninja with the power of ice. Despite having been apparently killed, Sub-Zero mysteriously returns, traveling into the Outworld to again attempt to assassinate Shang Tsung.

Non-playable characters

• Shao Kahn (played by Brian Glynn, voiced by Steve Ritchie) – The evil Emperor of Outworld, who wishes to conquer Earthrealm by any means. The host of the tournament and the game's new final boss.
• Kintaro (stop-motion) – Kahn's bodyguard, sent by his race to avenge Goro's defeat. He is the game's penultimate boss.

The game's hidden opponents are Jade (played by Katalin Zamiar), a green-clothed female ninja;Noob Saibot (played by Daniel Pesina), a dark-silhouetted ninja who is a "lost warrior" from the first MK game; and Smoke (played by Daniel Pesina), a gray-clothed male ninja. Sonya and Kano are the only playable characters from the first Mortal Kombat to not return as regular fighters, though they do appear in the background of the Kahn's Arena stage, chained and on display.

According to the project's lead programmer Ed Boon, Mortal Kombat II was "intended to look different than the original MK" and "had everything we wanted to put into MK but did not have time for." In 2012, Boon placed creating the game among his best Mortal Kombat memories. Both the theme and art style of MKII became slightly darker, although with a more vibrant color palette employed and a much richer color depth than in the previous game. A new feature was use of multiple layers of parallax scrolling in the arcade version. The game became less serious with the addition of humorous alternative finishing moves.

To create the character animations for the game, actors were placed in front of a gray background and performed the motions, which were recorded on a Hi8 videotape, which had been upgraded since the development of the first title from standard to broadcast-quality. The video capture footage was then processed into a computer, and the background was removed from selected frames to create sprites. Towards the end of the game's development, they opted to instead use a blue screen technique and processed the footage directly into the computer for a similar, simpler process. The actors were sprayed lightly with water to give them a sweaty, glistening appearance, while post-editing was done on the sprites afterward to highlight flesh tones and improve the visibility of muscles, which John Tobias felt set the series apart from similar games using digitized graphics. Animations of Shang Tsung morphing into other characters were created by Midway's John Vogel using a computer, while hand-drawn animations were put into effect for other parts of the game, such as the Fatalities. Several characters (namely Jade, Mileena, Noob Saibot, Kitana, Reptile, Scorpion, Smoke and Sub-Zero) were created using the palette swap technique from just two base models. Because of technical restrictions, the actors' costumes had to be simple and no acrobatic moves such as back-flips could have been recorded. Due to memory limitations and the development team's desire to introduce more new characters, two fighters from the original Mortal Kombat, Sonya Blade and Kano, whom Boon cited as the least-picked characters in the game, were excluded. In place of Sonya, two new female characters of Mileena and Kitana were introduced so the game might better compete against Street Fighter II and its Chun-Li. Another planned female fighter, based on the real-life kickboxer Kathy Long whom Tobias admired, was dropped due to time constraints. A bonus character played by Kyu Hwang was also cut out of the game.

Care was taken during the programming process to give the game a "good feel", with Boon simulating elements such as gravity into the game design. Tobias noted that the previous game's reliance on juggling the opponent in the air with successive hits was an accident, and had been tightened in Mortal Kombat II. Boon said that the reason to not completely remove it in favor of a different system of chaining attacks together was to set the game apart from titles such as Street Fighter and allow for players to devise their own combinations of attacks. All of the music was composed, performed, recorded and mixed by Dan Forden, the MK series' sound designer and composer using the Williams' DCS sound system.

The first release of MKII, Version 1.4, "was effectively a public beta test," featuring few Fatalities and many software bugs; it did not even have the endings for the characters. It took three subsequent revision to have the moves and finishing moves finalized and all the bugs taken care of, also adding additional content, as the development continued all that time. The first official release was the revision 2.1.

Marketing and merchandise

In conjunction with the release of the arcade game in 1993, an official comic book Mortal Kombat II Collector's Edition, written and illustrated by Tobias, was released through mail order, describing the backstory of the game in a greater detail.Acclaim Entertainment stated that it "had started Mortal Kombat II with a $10 million global marketing campaign" for the home versions. A part of this sum was used to film and air the live-action TV commercial created by David Anderson and Bob Keen. The video featured Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Reptile (with a notably more reptilian appearance), Kitana, Baraka and Shao Kahn, who were played by the same actors as in the game. The marketing campaign's tagline was "Nothing... Nothing can prepare you." In 2009, Eurogamer called Mortal Kombat II "a marketing triumph."

Malibu Comics published a series of Mortal Kombat comic books featuring the characters from both MKII and the original game.Mortal Kombat II: Music from the Arcade Game Soundtrack, a 38:44 minute long album featuring music from Mortal Kombat II and Mortal Kombat, composed by Dan Forden, could originally only be purchased by ordering it through a limited CD offer, which was posted on the arcade version of the game's attract mode. Other merchandise for the game included a series of collectible stickers by Panini Group and two different series of action figures (released in Argentina in 1995 and in the USA in 1999).Mortal Kombat Kard Game was marketed as "Mortal Kombat II trading cards".

Home versions

Various official port and emulated versions of Mortal Kombat II were released for a wide variety of home systems, including the 8-bit (Game Boy, Master System and Sega Game Gear), 16-bit (SNES and Sega Genesis) and 32-bit (Sega 32X, PlayStation and Sega Saturn) consoles, Amiga and PC DOS computers, and the PlayStation Network (PSN). The game was also featured in several compilation releases, including as part of Midway Arcade Treasures 2 for the PlayStation 2, Midway Arcade Treasures: Extended Play for the PlayStation Portable, and Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection for the PSN, Xbox Live Arcade and Steam.

Sales

Mortal Kombat II proved to be an enormous commercial success and even a cultural phenomenon.WMS Industries' (owner of Midway Games at the time) 1993 sales in the quarter ended December 31 rose to $101 million from $86 million and the company said much of its revenue gain was related to the sale of the arcade version of MKII. By 1996, the number of the arcade game machines sold approached 25,000 units; at that time, arcade games that sold 5,000 units were considered strong titles and an arcade cabinet cost $3,000–4,000.MKII was considered an arcade game of the year, taking over from the original Mortal Kombat.

On the day of the release of the game's first four versions for cartridge-based console systems (Sega's Genesis and Game Gear and Nintendo's SNES and Game Boy), dubbed "Mortal Friday" (September 9, 1994), an unprecedented number of more than 2.5 million copies were shipped to be distributed, with the best opening-week sales in video game history at this point. Acclaim's analysts expected that the number of copies sold would reach at least 2.5 million within the first few weeks of release (at an average retail price of $60) and the sales to top $150 million by end of the year. First-week sales of over $50 million managed to surpass the initial box office results of that season's Hollywood film blockbusters, such as Forrest Gump, True Lies, The Mask and The Lion King.Mortal Kombat II became the world's best-selling video game (until it was eclipsed by Donkey Kong Country, released in November 1994) and just the Genesis version managed to sell 1.78 million copies in the United States alone, along with additional 1.51 million American copies of the game for the SNES. By 2002, estimated gross sales of Mortal Kombat II home video games exceeded $400 million.

Reviews

The initial critical reception of Mortal Kombat II has been overwhelmingly very 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".Next Generation stated about the PC version, "if you like fighting games, this is the best that's available." Reviewing the PlayStation 3 release in 2007, IGN's Jeff Haynes stated that "Mortal Kombat II still manages to stand up almost 15 years later as one of the best arcade fighters around."

Regarding the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive version, Mark Patterson of Computer + Video Games (C+VG) wrote, "Probe has done an incredible job with this conversion. Everything is here, and I mean everything," while Sushi-X of Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) called it "a great translation considering its limitations," but Detroit News felt "very disappointed" with this port and recommended the SNES version instead. About the 32X version, IGN's Levi Buchanan stated that "if you do not have a SNES, this is the home version of MKII to get." A reviewer for The Baltimore Sun called the SNES version "the best game I've ever played - a true translation," while C+VG exclaimed, "it's the bloodiest game Nintendo has ever allowed to be released!" Regarding the portable consoles, C+VG stated that "no Game Boy owner should go without this" and called the Game Gear version "still the best handheld beat-'em up" on the market despite all the cuts to this version of the game. Critical reception of the Amiga version was also mostly very favorable. However, Jonathan Nash's review in Amiga Power called it "a clearly nonsensical title", advising to "buy Shadow Fighter instead."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 almost ready but unreleased previous version they had reviewed five months earlier.

Awards

Mortal Kombat II received numerous annual awards from gaming publications. Game Players gave it the titles of Best Genesis Fighting Game, Best SNES Fighting Game and Best Overall SNES Game of 1994.Nintendo Power ranked MKII as the second (SNES) and fifth (Game Boy) Top Game of 1994. The magazine's readers voted it to receive the 1995's Nintendo Power Awards for Best Tournament Fighter (all Nintendo platforms) and Best Play Control (Game Boy), with the game having been nominated by the staff also in the categories Worst Villain (in a positive meaning, as opposed to Best Hero) and Best Overall (all Nintendo platforms).VideoGames & Computer Entertainment named MKII as the Best Fighting Game of 1994, also awarding it the second place in the categories Best Super NES Game and Best Arcade-to-Home Translation of 1994.Mortal Kombat II also received The Best of the Show (Super NES) for the SCES '94 from GamePro and Bloodiest Game of 1994 from EGM, among many other awards.

Retrospective

Over the following years, multiple publications acclaimed Mortal Kombat II as one the best video games ever, including it being ranked as the 97th top game of all time Game Informer in 2001, as the 38th most important video game of all time by GamePro in 2007, and as the 32nd best video game of all time by The Boston Phoenix in 2010. Featuring it in their 2003 video game hall of fame series, the staff of GameSpot wrote: "Mortal Kombat II was so much better, as a sequel, than it had to be that it absolutely deserves a place in the pantheon of all-time classics."

Many publications also listed it among the best video games of its genre or era. It was ranked as the third best fighting game by GamePro in 2008, as the third top fighting game of all time by UGO and the second best 2D fighting game ever made by GamePlayBook in 2010, and as the third best fighting game of all time Complex in 2011. It was also ranked as the 53rd best game on any Nintendo platform by Nintendo Power in 1997 and featured among the 100 best games of the 20th century by Benchmark in 2009; that same year, PC World also ranked it as the tenth best 16-bit game ever.

In platform-specific retro lists, Mortal Kombat II was ranked as the fifth top arcade game by GameTrailers in 2009 and as the 31st top arcade game of all time by GameSpy in 2011;Wirtualna Polska included it on the list of ten best arcade games. Among the lists for the 16-bit consoles, MKII was ranked as the fourth best Genesis game by Complex and the 19th best Genesis game by GamesRadar, as well as as the 12th best SNES game by Complex and the 25th top game for the SNES by IGN. In Poland, it was included in the retrospective lists of the best Amiga games by CHIP (ranked ninth) and PSX Extreme (ranked 22nd).

As late as 2009, many fans of Mortal Kombat still considered MKII to be the best title in the series. According to PlayStation Universe in 2011, "bigger, bolder and bloodier," the game "remains a firm fan favourite among MK aficionados." That same year, IGN wrote that "Mortal Kombat II is considered by many to be the pinnacle of the series" as well as "still one of the most fun 16-bit fighters to play."

In additition, Jax's "Disarmament" Fatality was included on the list of the ten best gore effects in gaming's history by IGN in 2006. In 2007, GamesRadar included four elements of this game (Dan Forden's "Toasty!" effect during an uppercut, Friendship and Babality finishing moves, and the ceiling-spikes Stage Fatality) among ten greatest things about Mortal Kombat; "Toasty!" was also ranked as the 11th funniest moment in video games by Complex in 2012. GamesRadar in 2012 called Mortal Kombat II "the point when the series became great."

Controversy

As in the case of the first Mortal Kombat game, the absurdly bloody content of Mortal Kombat II became the subject of a great deal of controversy regarding violent video games. According to IGN, "Mortal Kombat II wore its notoriety as a badge of honor, boasting about it in promotional materials, and even parodying it in-game."MKII was put in the index of the works allegedly harmful to young people by the German Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons (BPjM) and all versions of the game except this for Game Boy were subjected to being confiscated from the nation's market for violating the German Penal Code by showing excessive violence and cruel acts against humans. Due to regional censorship, the game was also released with green-colored blood and black-and-white Fatalitiy sequences in Japan. In 2012, Boon recalled: "I've always had the position that the rating system was a good idea and should be put in place. Once Mortal Kombat II came out, there was a rating system in place. We were an M-rated game, and everybody knew the content that was in there, so it became almost a non-issue." Tobias agreed, saying that they "were content with the M for mature on our packaging."

There were also some other controversies. In 1994, Guy Aoki, president of Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA), criticized the game for allegedly perpetuating existing stereotypes of Asians as martial arts experts with the game's portrayal of several of its characters. Allyne Mills, publicist at Acclaim, responded to this by stating: "This is a fantasy game, with all different characters. This is a martial arts game which comes from Asia. [sic] The game was not created to foster stereotypes." In 1996-1997, members of Mortal Kombat II cast (Daniel Pesina, Philip Ahn and Katalin Zamiar, as well as Sonya's actress Elizabeth Malecki), seeking additional royalties for the game's home ports, sued Midway, Williams, Nintendo of America, Sega of America and Acclaim Entertainment for misuse of their likenesses in an unauthorized way in two different cases, losing both of them. After that, Pesina (who sought $10 million for his role in both games, after being paid only several thousand) agreed to participate in the BloodStorm advertisment photo shoot attacking Mortal Kombat. He recalled: "I don't think [the ad] actually upset people at Midway. I think it more upset some of the hardcore Mortal Kombat fans."

Rumored content

While many games have been subject to urban legends about secret features and unlockable content, these kinds of myths were particularly rampant among the dedicated fan community of Mortal Kombat in connection with Mortal Kombat II. The game's creators did little to dispel the rumors, which included Nudality (or Sexuality) finishing moves for Kitana and Mileena, which would supposedly have undressed either fighter, an ability for Shang Tsung to transform into Kano, and Goro and "Hornbuckle" as secret characters.

Some of them were even eventually implemented in subsequent MK games. Among these later-adapted rumors were the Animalities (used in Mortal Kombat 3 and its updates) and an ability to throw an opponent into a mouth of a living tree in the Living Forest stage (first used in Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks). Rumored characters included a red female ninja character (actually just a glitch that simply turned Kitana's outfit from blue to red), who was dubbed "Scarlet" by fans and was officially introduced as Skarlet in the 2011's Mortal Kombat, the red male ninja glitch "Ermac" that became a character in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, and an initially unnamed man-on-fire figure from the background of the Pit II stage that was dubbed as "Blaze" by fans and officially introduced as a secret character in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, before becoming the final boss of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon.

Related titles

The plot and characters of Mortal Kombat II served as basis for the 2005 beat'em up spin-off game Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks. The events of MKII, along with the first Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat 3 (including its expansions), were later retold in the 2011 fighting game Mortal Kombat, where Raiden uses a time travel to revisit the tournaments from the original games in the series in order to change the future in the aftermath of Armageddon. The ladder/arcade mode of this reboot game follows the same order of bosses as in Mortal Kombat II (with Shang Tsung, Kintaro and Shao Kahn as the final three opponents) and its controls and Fatality system are most reminiscent of MKII (the game uses Mortal Kombat 3's characters and story, but not its gameplay mechanics such as running or the Animality and Brutality finishing moves).