I've found MKT to be a "diamond in the rough" of Com titles, altho that might need to be tempered with the knowledge of what type of games I prefer. While I've found puzzle games like Lights Out to be excellent titles, I personally don't much care for puzzle games. Conversely, even an average fighting game is going to be well-received by this reviewer :)
Given that, I found MKT to have made a surprisingly nice adaptation tp the Com. In nearly all aspects, the cart has displayed more depth than I expected. There are (at least) 12 playable characters, mostly made up of the late joiners to the MK universe. Using a common MK trick to save valuable memory space, a majority of the characters are palette-swapped choices, such as the ninjas and robots. So, far, the known selectable characters are Rain, Rayden, Kitana, Reptile, Mileena, Jade, Nightwolf, Cyrax, Sektor, Motaro, and Shao Khan. At least 2 other characters are in the game that I've fought as computer-controlled opponents (Noob Saibot, Ermac), which are probably selectable thru some code or other. I'm curious as to the presence of Sub-Zero and Smoke, 2 characters shown in early promo shots of the Com MKT - are these going to be hidden characters for us to discover, or were simply discarded in favor of other choices?
I was suspecting the game to be pruned down to an extreme degree, but it doesn't appear to be too limited. Each character possesses several special moves, altho I was worried that we'd see only 1 move per character. Fatalities, Brutalities, Friendships, and Babalities are in the game, with the computer opponent having a fondness for the Brutalities in mockery of your loss. There are the various hidden characters to discover, and several codes for the game have surfaced across the Internet that enable to change the fundemental rules of the game. The MK series is known for those small, extra details that make the gaming experience more interesting, with the Com adaptation retaining this tradition. The controls are the 2 kicks, 1 punch button (combined), and a block button. Running is accomplished with a double tap in the desired direction. Game control is solid, faithful to other MK versions and less stiff than what we've witnessed so far in Com titles such as B&R and JP2. Perhaps this reviewer simply isn't skilled enuf to accomplish them, but it appears the everpresent combos that in other MKT versions are conspicuously absent. Graphics-wise, the game is a beautiful Com adaptation. There is the standard problem with motion blur, but if you can get past that, you'll do just fine. The characters are superbly detailed, and the backgrounds are impressive to view. On the downside, there is a problem telling palette swapped characters apart in the midst of a heated battle, given that the amount of "palette" to be swapped is somewhat limited. The audio is nicely done, using clips from the original MKT that only serve to aid in the feeling that this title really is Mortal Kombat, not some hackwork with only the name supporting itself. To find a better fighting game for a handheld system, you'd be forced to move up to a 16 bit system (such as Sega's Nomad, the Genesis handheld) - nothing I've experienced on the GameBoy in its decade of production even comes close to this title. If you're a fan of the Mortal Kombat series, or just a fighting game enthusiast looking for a worthwhile title, you could do much worse than picking up a copy of MKT.
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