Mortal Kombat II (Hummer Team)

This article is about Hummer Team Version. For Yoko Version, see Mortal Kombat II (Yoko).

Mortal Kombat II
Mortal Kombat II's opening screen
Publisher	J.Y. Company
Developer	Hummer Team
Cart ID(s)	JY-011 (JY-024, JY-026 (A/B))
Console	Famicom
Date	1994
Engine	Street Fighter II Engine
Sound engine	Hummer Sound Engine
Alternate names/hacks	Mortal Kombat II Turbo, Mortal Kombat III, Mortal Kombat III Turbo, Mortal Kombat II (Blue Version) Mortal Kombat 18

Mortal Kombat II is a pirated port of Mortal Kombat made by Hummer Team. According to the circuit board, the game was released in mid-1994. Both Kart Fighter and AV Bishoujo Senshi Girl Fighting, which were released later, use an earlier version of this game's engine.

Overview

Mortal Kombat II's Title Screen/Menu

Despite the title, this game is actually a port of the first Mortal Kombat. This was likely done as a form of selling the product as a sequel, a common trait with pirated NES games. While the game is mostly faithful to the original game graphics-wise, some features were cut from the game. These include fatalities and blood which are found only in Mortal Kombat II Special. As such, it's possible that the game was based on the official SNES port. The game includes the seven standard characters, plus Shang Tsung (whose name is misspelt as Skang-Tsung) and Goro as playable characters. However, Goro is the same size as the other characters, probably due to the NES's limitations. It's also been suggested that this game is based on the official Game Boy port published a year earlier. Both ports lack the hidden character Reptile and feature Goro as a playable character (although Goro can be used from the start here, unlike the Game Boy version). Special moves also don't work as they do in Mortal Kombat, and some have been removed, again likely due to console limitations. For example, Sub-Zero's ice ball works like an ordinary fireball. Scorpion's spear has also been replaced with a similar fireball. Moves-wise, all characters (except Goro and Skang-Tsung) don't differ much from each other.

The arenas are largely faithful to the original game, though the order in which they appear aren't. The Courtyard for example, features animated monk spectators who clap when the round is over, though small details like the roof over Skang-Tsung are missing. The Courtyard also appears in most versions of the game as the third stage, where in the original version it's the first stage.

Various versions of Skang Tsung's Throne Room and the Palace Gates arenas can also be found in hacked versions. In Mortal Kombat III, there are three Skang-Tsungs sitting in the background, for example.

The soundtrack is mostly original, save for the title screen sting, the character select theme, and the Goro's Lair theme (which is really a lightly remixed version of the original Courtyard theme).

The game has different endings depending on the difficulty, setting although these are very basic which isn't unusual for a pirate game.

Trivia

• As with many bootleg NES games, hacked versions exist: the know ones are Mortal Kombat II Turbo, Mortal Kombat III, 'Mortal Kombat III Turbo, and 'Mortal Kombat 18'. 
  • The latter three have an expanded roster full of recoloured characters.
  • Mortal Kombat 18 drops the title screen and settings menu. Instead, it goes straight to the character select screen from the logo screen.
• In the options screen, "Difficulty Level" is misspelled as "Divfficulty Level," a typo which would return in Mortal Kombat II Special. Hard is also the default difficulty as opposed to Medium in the official ports.
• Midway is credited on the title screen of Mortal Kombat II and Mortal Kombat III, which is unusual for a pirated game. In the other hacks, the "Midway" text is instead replaced with "Turbo."
• A revised version of this was later released, with the menu on the title screen moving up from the bottom as opposed to staying still. Strangely, the sound effect of it stopping on the screen is present in all versions of the game, even though it doesn't make sense in the other versions.
• Another version has the Mortal Kombat logo coloured in blue instead of red.

External links

• Website with pictures and screenshots of the game
• The Cutting Room Floor page with unused and hidden content