Mortal Kombat (Game Boy) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
397A playthrough of Acclaim's 1993 versus-fighting game for the Nintendo Game Boy, Mortal Kombat.
Played through as Liu Kang.
You know that feeling you get when you see a screenshot makes things look a bit better than you know they should? Or when you just know in your gut, "Oh God, this is not going to work..." I remember feeling exactly that way about Mortal Kombat on the Game Boy. And then I played it.
. . . . .
Yeah. It didn't work.
It's not all completely rancid, though, so let me start off with the positives. The graphics, at least when they aren't moving too much, look pretty alright. It's still using digitized sprites, though the impact is obviously lessened on a monochromatic 4-shades of green screen. The animation is a joke, but there are generally enough frames to figure out what is happening and when it is happening. The complete lack of blood and the censored fatalities don't really help, though. The sound also isn't bad - at least - it starts out with enough promise. The main theme is there and it sounds pretty cool in its quirky C64-sounding rendition. The other music is okay, but you'll probably turn it off after awhile. It does start to grate after a couple of matches.
The real problem with this title is the game play is a complete mess. I can easily forgive only having three backgrounds and having a character missing from the roster. I can forgive the gross sound effects and jerky animation. The thing that I can't overlook is how utterly infuriating the controls are. They work - I will give them that. But they certainly don't function in any way that you are likely accustomed to or that will ever feel intuitive. They are very specific on their input timing requirements, but there's a good half-second pause you have to take between each button press unless you'd like to end up flailing around ineffectively (which often leads to the CPU pouncing on you and killing you in two seconds flat). Let me give an example:
Liu Kang's fireball move is done by hitting back, back, punch. An easy enough input combination, right? Well, the only way it will work is if you: 1. Push left and let go of it, removing your thumb from the D-pad entirely. 2. Push left again and let go of it, the same as you did the first time. 3. Hit the B button, and then let go of it yet again the same way. Then, if the enemy hasn't jumped in to take advantage of the painstakingly slow process of inputting the move, you'll do the move. This is seriously the only way I could ever figure out to do it - by completely removing my thumb from the button, I was usually able to approximate the amount of time necessary between button presses to get it to work. It's absurd, it's frustrating, and it's no wonder that this game was critically savaged when it was released. Nobody wanted to play it.
I don't absolutely hate it. It did grow on me, but only after I'd learned to loathe it for how broken the controls are. There is fun to be found here, but I wouldn't recommend it. It's not worth the torture you'll put yourself through to find it. Go play ANY version of Mortal Kombat instead of this one.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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