Mortal Kombat II is a seminal release. It was the catalyst for Nintendo kicking off their “Play It Loud” branding heralding in mature content on their consoles. It was also the center of more than a few parents’ groups that had gotten bored with reading books or selling each other Tupperware. For gamers, it was finally a home port of Mortal Kombat that put the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis versions on level playing fields against each other. Previously, MK1 on Sega Genesis arguably took the win thanks to the blood code (anyone remember it?). While back in the day Mortal Kombat II was ported to the Commodore Amiga, that is not stopping a fan from doing it again using the versatile Scorpion Engine.
Massively Launched
Mortal Kombat II was released during a time when publishers pushed to get their cross-platform releases on as many platforms at once as possible. It was impressive. I could not imagine the headaches the logistics team dealt with making this happen.
I remember pre-paying for Mortal Kombat II at a local “Players” location. It was an indie used game store that was the fancy of some rich guy here locally that eventually sold off to another indie store, a movie rental company that was growing quickly. Anyhow, I remember plopping down the full amount instead of the minimum, securing that I had a copy guaranteed on launch day.
Sadly, I would have to wait till the next day to pick it up (by then they were sold out of retail copies) due to my job having impromptu overtime hit us last minute.
I remember walking around stores and seeing signs for MKII and then suddenly, the game was available. It was wild.
Wilder to think that that type of merchandising and celebrating is long gone for gaming.
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GIF created from embedded video on Facebook
When Fans Try Their Hands At Home Conversions
Over on the Scorpion Engine Facebook Group, you can follow along with the absolute latest updates on this port. Since the Commodore Amiga already had a port of Mortal Kombat II it will be interesting to see how the fan port stacks up.
I do want to point out that this fan port is using the Scorpion Engine, nothing wrong with that, while the commercial port used an unknown engine (I have no clue, if you do, please speak up in the comments). Scorpion Engine is quickly showing prowess in being more than an scrolling action engine as it ages.
If you are a fan of Mortal Kombat II then you already know what to expect here.
There is currently no demo available so we can only enjoy the video clips available. It remains to be seen if Warner Bros will drop a cease and desist on this or not.