---
title: Mortal Kombat II (32X)
tags:
- 2d
- beat 'em up
- mortal kombat
years:
- '1994'
params:
  specs:
  - label: year of release
    value: '1994'
  - label: companies
    value: Acclaim (publisher), Midway, Probe (developer)
  - label: type
    value: game
  - label: media
    value: cartridge
  - label: requirement
    value: Sega 32X add-on
  - label: systems
    value: Sega Mega Drive compatible systems
  - label: number of players
    value: 1 - 2 players (versus)
  screenshots:
  - title: title screen
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: null
  - title: menu / options
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: null
  - title: Character select screen
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: null
  - title: ''
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: null
  - title: The Dead Pool stage fatality
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: null
  - title: ''
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: null
  - title: The Kintaro morph fatality
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: null
  - title: Secret character Jade in Goro's Lair
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: null
  machines:
  - /museum/sega-genesis
  company: /companies/sega
  oc_id: 211
  source:
    url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230530141404/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/software_detail.asp?id=211
    date: '2023-05-30'
---

One of the finest 2D beat 'em ups ever made, Mortal Kombat II improved on the original game in almost every way possible and is widely considered to be the best in the series. Originally released in the arcades it featured more characters, more stages, and, of course, more fatalities, along with new babalities and friendships and a huge amount of moves which kept fans busy for ages.

The graphics were superb, taking the first games digitised characters but adding almost a hand drawn finish to them. The sound was equally good, with some bone-crunching sound effects.

For anyone that's interested there are some very effective tactics that could possibly be considered bugs. To easily beat your first opponent, simply duck and use only uppercuts. There is no easy way to beat the second opponent but from the third fight you can use this simple, but hard to master, technique. When your opponent gets to the edge of sweeping range, jump backwards. They should jump towards you, so jump forwards and perform a flying kick. Simply repeat this process for an easy victory against everybody, right up to Kintaro!

As you might expect, the 32X version is better than the Mega Drive one, but not by much. The graphics are more detailed and better animated, but the backgrounds are quite pixelated and suffer from the same limited colour palette. The sound is also quite weak, and this really isn't anywhere near the standard set by the impressive SNES port of the game, although it is the only cartridge version to feature the arcade game's intro.