“Wisdom of the Fighting Monks.”
“The ensuing battles rage on for years. And the wars result in our world’s final destruction.
Have a nice day.”
North American box art.
September 13th, 1993: A date which will live in infamy. Retailers in The United States of America were suddenly and deliberately stocked with home and handheld versions of Midway Games’ Mortal Kombat, which had been released in arcades just a little over a year earlier in October of 1992. The facts of that “Mortal Monday” speak for themselves. The people of the United States have already formed their opinions, and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation.
I know it’s been said a million times before, but the arcade release of Mortal Kombat really was a big huge deal back in the day, and its impact was felt almost immediately. Midway knew they had struck gold, and also knew that porting / converting their game to the consoles of the time would be a guaranteed success. Trusting matters of publishing and developing the conversions to Acclaim Entertainment, it was decided that four versions of the game would be developed across Nintendo and Sega’s home and handheld consoles and all be released on the same day, unifying four major releases into a singular launch day spectacular. The marketing and hype surrounding the simultaneous release was inescapable: Whether you watched television, listened to radio, or simply thumbed through magazines, Midway made damn sure you knew that Mortal Monday was coming.
But not all conversions are created equal. Much has already been said of the quality of the Super Nintendo version of Mortal Kombat in comparison to the Sega Genesis version, and how the latter is considered by most to be the better / more arcade accurate of the two. But I’m not here to explain how “Sega doing what Nintendidn’t” helped their business immeasurably, or how the U.S. Senate came cracking down on both corporations for allowing the game onto their systems in any capacity. Rather, this article is about one of the conversions which is less often discussed, though when it is it is not often fondly. It’s a game which some might see as having squandered its potential, while others may contend it was a doomed prospect from its very conception. I speak of none other than Mortal Kombat… for the Game Boy.
If you need a refresher on the Senate committee hearings on violence in video games, I do go into some amount of detail in our article on Night Trap.
“The Art of Kombat.”
The original arcade release of Mortal Kombat needs no introduction. In fact, I’m just going to assume that you’ve played some version of it or another, or that you’ve seen video of it in action at the very least. Less easily remembered historical details worth refreshing ourselves on are its August 2nd, 1992 release date, and the fact that the cabinet would go on to gross $570 million in coin revenue by 2002. This would ultimately earn the game the not-too-shabby distinction of being the ninth highest-grossing arcade game of all time. Needless to say, Midway Games were pretty pleased with themselves by that point! But you don’t just walk away from a gold mine after filling your pockets once: You’ve gotta go back and mine for more. And what better way to capitalize on their success than to convert their arcade to console format? After careful consideration, they picked a partner in Acclaim Entertainment, who had a knack for licensing and experience in publishing on all the major consoles. It was Acclaim who would be handling most of the business from this point forward, allowing Midway to focus their efforts on developing Mortal Kombat II.
There were plenty of successful precedents by this point for arcade-to-home releases: Conversions of classic arcade titles like Asteroids and Pac-Man to the Atari 2600, Donkey Kong’s notable conversions to the Colecovision and Nintendo Entertainment System, and a bevy of others which had proven profitable. I’d be remiss not to mention that one of Mortal Kombat’s predecessors in digitized fighting, Pit-Fighter, had also made the rounds with versions of it appearing on most of the consoles available in 1991 and ‘92. But perhaps the most significant conversion [within the context of this article] was of Street Fighter II (in its original The World Warrior format) to the Super Nintendo. What makes The World Warrior’s conversion so important was the lengths it went to in adapting the game for the console, such as redrawing all of the art assets to accommodate for a smaller screen resolution, and giving players a range of options for adjusting difficulty. In other words, it set a pretty high bar not only for arcade-to-home conversions, but also for console fighting games in general. What’s more, Capcom were set to raise the bar again in 1993, with the Hyper Fighting revision due on the Super Nintendo in July (Japan) / August (worldwide) and Special Champion Edition set for late September release on the Sega Genesis.
Acclaim likely determined that they wouldn’t be able to beat the latest Super Nintendo version of Street Fighter II to market, but figured they could at least preempt the release of the Sega Genesis version by a couple of weeks. In fact, they’d make sure their own conversions to the two systems would be available same-day, making sure their fans didn’t have to endure further waiting because of their choice of console. While they were at it, they could attempt a couple of other feats that Capcom hadn’t: They would advertise ahead of time for conversions to the Sega CD and PC, which would see releases in mid-1994. Another idea was to additionally convert the game to the original Nintendo Entertainment System, but this plan would be scrapped before programming began. The reason given by Acclaim representative Phylene Riggs was that “another [NES] game was already in the programming stage” (most likely Alien³), and so the necessary resources wouldn’t be available for some length of time. Which brings us to the matter of another untapped console market, and to an idea that Acclaim would actually go ahead with: Releasing versions of the game for the two leading handheld consoles of the time, the Nintendo Game Boy and Sega Game Gear. Not only that, but these two handheld conversions would be available on the same day as their console counterparts.
Mortal Kombat for Genesis (Acclaim / Midway, 1993)
There was only the smallest of precedents set for producing fighting games for handhelds, and what few games had attempted the feat previously were largely terrible, quite frankly. On Game Boy you had Fist of the North Star: 10 Big Brawls for the King of Universe, the aforementioned conversion of Pit-Fighter… aaand that’s pretty much it, if you don’t count boxing and wrestling games (which you shouldn’t). On Game Gear, there were actually no available fighting games at that point, which at least meant that Acclaim had nowhere to go but up! The fact of the matter was obvious to most publishers and developers: Two-button handhelds were no place for fighting games — especially the Game Boy with its ghosting-prone monochrome dot matrix display. But Acclaim wanted an extra edge over Capcom, and they’d be damned if they didn’t give it a shot.
Acclaim Entertainment had a number of development studios at their disposal, and decided to divide duties across two of them for the different intended platforms. Sculptured Software would take on the task of converting the game to the Super Nintendo, while Probe Software would develop the versions for the Genesis, Game Gear, and Game Boy (as well as later versions for the Sega CD and PC for Acclaim, plus an Amiga conversion published by Virgin Interactive). It would seem that Probe got stuck with the lion’s share of work cut out for them, and were tasked with dividing their resources across the three different versions of the game due for September. The shared challenge across all three of these platforms was in working within the limitations of weaker hardware — compared not only to the original arcade hardware, but even to the more powerful Super Nintendo as well. Luckily, port work was Probe’s speciality: The overwhelming majority of games they developed were conversions of some form, typically to less powerful hardware than the source material was initially developed for. If any developer was up to the challenge, it’d be Probe.
On the Genesis, they would have to compromise on graphical detail and audio quality, but the team were ultimately able to reproduce the all-important feel of the arcade game. This version is also helped by the fact that the original Fatalities and appearance of blood remain largely intact, albeit hidden behind a not-so-secret “Blood Code” (which a number of game magazines were happy to provide to paying customers). The Game Gear version would suffer from further compromises to audiovisual quality, further impacted by less available storage and a limiting two-button control scheme. In fact, the character Kano would ultimately have to be omitted from this version of the game due to lack of cartridge capacity. But seeing as it was again under the purview of Sega, the game would benefit from not having to compromise on its violent content (limited only by the capabilities of the hardware itself), only having to hide it behind another variation on the Blood Code. Additionally, the work done on this version of the game was easily transferable to the Sega Master System format, allowing a European-exclusive port to that console to exist as well.
Which brings us to the last version they had to have ready by September, and possibly the most difficult task ahead of Probe in terms of dealing with limitations: Not only did the Game Boy feature the most primitive hardware of the whole lot, but it was also subject to the same content restrictions on violence as the Super Nintendo version. Granted, this factor mattered less when the hardware was so prohibitive, they’d have been hard-pressed to even find a way of depicting blood if they had been allowed to. Not only would compromises have to be made, but there was now the question of whether or not developing a functional fighting game for the platform was even possible. The world had its answer on Mortal Monday, when copies of the game for Game Boy hit shelves with all the rest.
I end up using the words “convert” and “conversion” a lot in this article, rather than the often misused term “port.” To be clear here, calling a game a port implies that it is an identical game to another, simply retooled to run on different hardware with a possibility for minor alterations to be made. By comparison, the versions of Mortal Kombat that appear on consoles had to be rebuilt nearly from scratch in terms of code, since the programming done for the arcade version was not directly transferrable to weaker console hardware. In other words, the home versions are attempts to recreate the original game, rather than direct copies of it.
“Let the Tournament Begin!”
The first thing that might surprise you on booting up Mortal Kombat for the Game Boy is the fact that the arcade “attract mode” is still intact to some extent. That is to say, the game goes through its series of title screens, high scores, character bios and fight demonstrations, for as long as you can go without pressing the start button to begin. They even go as far as to recreate the “towers of scrolling portraits” screen, for as well as the Game Boy can recreate the effect. Probe could’ve been forgiven for not including these additional bits of presentation, but the fact that they do actually helps by starting the first-time playing experience off on an optimistic note. “If they put the effort in trying to get this stuff looking right, there’s the chance they might’ve actually pulled off keeping the rest of the game mostly intact too!”
The second thing that might surprise you is pressing start to begin the game, and noticing that Johnny Cage is nowhere to be seen. As mentioned earlier, Kano was a casualty of cut content in the Game Gear version, and so you might have expected him to be missing from the Game Boy version as well. But instead, it’s Johnny who gets the ax this time, while Kano returns to compete in the tournament. Folk have since dug through the code of the game and discovered that some remnant of Johnny Cage remains in the game (“CAGE” still exists as a variable for the names in the health bars), likely intended to be playable at some point and eventually cut as either a time or space-saving measure. In any case, it’s disappointing to see any member of the character roster get cut, even if you can understand the reasons for it.
I should also mention that the Game Boy version of Mortal Kombat is the only conversion of the game not to feature an options menu of any sort. The Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis versions gave you five difficulty options for computer opponents, with the Sega Genesis version additionally allowing you to decide how many credits (continues) you were allowed and the Super Nintendo version providing extra versus mode options and button configuration. Even the Game Gear version gave you a choice of easy, medium, or hard difficulty after selecting your character. On the Game Boy, you’re given six credits and tossed right into the fray, with no sense for how difficult the game might be. I suppose in that sense it’s sort of like the arcade version, innit? Technically, the arcade version actually did have an options menu that arcade owners could access from the service mode, but that isn’t really what you’d call “accessible” to the players themselves.
You start from the bottom of the Battle Plan tower, displaying your character’s portrait next to that of the competitor you’re up to face off against. The new renders for the digitized portraits, to their credit, are easily discernable (save for the two ninjas Sub-Zero and Scorpion, who are easily confused for one another), and translate about as well as they can from their original form given the Game Boy’s four-color palette. I mean, they’d probably have looked better if they were redrawn from scratch and redesigned with the system in mind, but they’re acceptable enough as is. And when you’re finally taken to the battle screen, and get your first glimpse at two fighters staring each other down, you may be amazed to discover that the digitized characters have also mostly survived the transition! You’d be forgiven for assuming that all the sprites and animations would have to be redrawn from scratch, attempting to depict the same characters in a fresh, four-color light. Instead, Probe went ahead and further scaled down the original digitized sprites, reduced the color palette to the bare minimum (down to just two colors in the case of Sub-Zero), and made whatever alterations they must have had to from there. The result is admittedly rough, and certainly not without its blemishes and imperfections. But the fact that they are immediately recognizable as re-renderings of the original assets is undoubtedly impressive.
And then the fight starts.
Let’s try and talk technical details. The game runs at somewhere between seven and eight frames per second. This is slightly below average for a Game Boy game, but that isn’t really the biggest issue at hand here. Most character animations are allotted two or three frames, with a maximum of four. As a result, the animations are actually fairly smooth given the platform, but end up suffering from an overall sense of sluggishness. To put it in perspective, a standard kick takes about a half a second to be performed, before often lingering for another several frames on the last sprite of its animation. Now, here’s the kicker: On top of all this, there are also input locks in effect, which may prevent you from moving or attacking again for a variable amount of time even after you’ve finished an animation. At its worst, you can be locked in place for upwards of two seconds after attempting an attack, leaving you a sitting duck stuck in place for your opponent to attack freely. The only saving grace is the fact that the computer is seemingly affected by this problem as well, which levels the playing field to some extent at least? Either way, it simply feels horrible in the hands to control and play.
Further complicating proceedings was the decision by the developers to change the combinations for each character’s special moves. For example: Sub-Zero’s famous freezing ice ability in the arcade version should be easily memorized, as it follows the commonly-seen “Down > Forward > Low Punch” combination for projectile moves in fighting games. Now, of course, the Game Boy version lacks the buttons necessary to differentiate between high and low punches or kicks, so it would make sense that the single designated punch button would take its place in the sequence. Instead, for reasons known only to the developers and their soulmates, the combination for this attack becomes “Back > Forward > Kick.” In case you were curious, Sub-Zero does in fact still launch ice from his hands, and not from his feet as the input might suggest. Weirder still are combinations for moves that are based entirely on moving, and which don’t even end up involving a punch or kick. Like, you can launch into Raiden’s flying thunderbolt move by total accident if you happen to press “Back > Back > Back > Forward.” I’ll also go ahead and mention here that select and start are never used during gameplay, let alone in any of these combinations.
On the one hand, these revised combinations prove easier to perform than some of the more convoluted combinations seen in better versions of the game. On the other hand, dedicated fans of the arcade version had spent the better part of a year discovering and seeking out the combinations for these moves, and had probably grown pretty accustomed to them at this point. Also in that hand is the fact that the controls barely work, and require you to adapt to an incredibly specific rhythm which corresponds with the stuttering framerate of the game. And of course, if you happen to mess up, you’ll probably have to deal with a delay before you can even attempt the combination again, otherwise the first step of the combination might not register while the game is locking out your inputs. You will quickly learn that the most effective combat strategy mostly involves standard jumping attacks, since attempting the special moves is a fool’s errand.
So, let’s say you win your fight, and are greeted with the infamous “FINISH HIM / HER” prompt. It’s Fatality time — or “FINISHING MOVE” time as the Nintendo versions of the game call it. Whatever, it’s not important so long as it looks cool and gives you extra points. So now it’s time for you to figure out the new combination for it, master the precise timing for it, and pray that the game is gracious enough to grant your wish for it. And for all that work, what do you get? For the sake of thoroughness, let’s take this opportunity to go through all of the new and improved finishers!
- Kano yanking the heart out of his opponent’s chest is replaced with a variation on a high kick.
- Raiden’s head-exploding lightning is replaced by him briefly becoming electricity in order to shock his victim into falling over.
- Liu Kang’s already-tame flipping kick-into-uppercut technique is swapped out for a jump into an uppercut.
- Sub-Zero pulling the head off of his foe with spinal cord attached is replaced with a basic punch.
- Surprisingly, Scorpion’s pulling off his mask and burning his victim to death as well as Sonya’s kiss of death (resulting in a similar charred skeleton) are both intact.
As the game progresses and you face off against increasingly more difficult opponents [theoretically], you may eventually find yourself in the final stretch of gimmick matches beginning with the mirror match. Oh, by the way, if you were wondering why there haven’t been any “Test Your Might” minigames up to this point, it’s because they aren’t in this version of the game. Anyway, your mirror image will be rendered in a two-color variation to help distinguish your four-color character from them (unless you are Sub-Zero, in which case you’ll still be two-color while your mirror image is four-color), which is also how they appear in the two-player versus mode should both players happen to pick the same character. Vanquishing your doppelganger will bring you to the series of “Endurance Matches” (or “PAIRS” as it is called here) where you must face two enemies in a row each round. These are by far the most difficult matches in the game. However, if you should survive, you will go on to face penultimate boss Goro, who you might discover is immune to your standard punches and throwing.
Having defeated the four-armed beast, it’s as the instruction manual details: “If Goro is defeated, the demon Shang Tsung will enter the contest to oppose you! Defeat him to become the Supreme Mortal Kombat Warrior!” Sure enough, Shang Tsung appears in all his original floating / transforming glory. On successfully besting the sorcerer in two out of three rounds, the game will compliment you as being “OUTSTANDING” before whisking you away to the epilogue screen… which simply reads “YOU HAVE DEFEATED SHANG TSUNG. YOU ARE THE SUPREME MORTAL KOMBAT WARRIOR,” before sending you over to the credits. Gone are the “Where Are They Now” summations of your fighters activities after the tournament, which served as satisfying / amusing rewards for your perseverance in the arcade original. On the bright side, at least it means that Raiden doesn’t end up accidentally destroying our planet!
There is one other reward for beating the game: In a feature exclusive to the Game Boy version, you can actually unlock the ability to play as Goro, by pressing and holding “Up + Left + Select + A” when “THE END” appears at the end of the credits roll. After you’re done entering your initials for the high scores board, you’ll be handily informed by the game that “GORO LIVES… AS YOU…” Playing as Goro, you can basically win every match by simply holding up and forward, as his stomp can easily lock opponents into an infinite combo. As an added bit of goofiness, all the character names are replaced with far more mundane names such as Bob, Carl, and Peter (“BATTLE PLAN” also becomes “BRITTLE PLUM,” inexplicably). These names are likely those of staffers at Probe, but the only name I could directly tie to a member of the team was that of company co-founder Fergus McGovern (whose first name replaces Sonya’s). This pair of easter eggs replaces the ability to encounter the hidden kombatant Reptile.
That’s about all there is to Mortal Kombat on the Game Boy. As briefly alluded to earlier, the game does support Game Link Cable functionality for versus play. I couldn’t test it for myself, but video of it in action would seem to indicate it’s just as “functional” as the single player mode. Only three of the original seven arenas have made the transition to the Game Boy: The Pit and Courtyard look decent enough, but Goro’s Lair uses checkerboard-esque dithering to an awful effect and makes the stage a genuine eyesore. Sound and music are acceptable for the platform, though some sound effects seem to occasionally miss their cue. But none of this really matters when the core gameplay is so unsatisfying, it would nullify even a flawless recreation of the original arcade presentation.
We may never know the full story behind development of the Game Boy version of Mortal Kombat, and so all we can do is make assumptions. I imagine many of the design decisions during development boiling down to one of two broader choices: Cut more corners on presentation to make gameplay more fluid, or sacrifice gameplay to maintain a stronger presentation. For example, the developers must have realized at some point that every extra frame of character attack animations would detract from the pace and flow of gameplay. Seeing the decisions they made in the finished product, it’s clear the developers prioritized the presentation of the game over the gameplay itself. And so, if there is one “pro” to be made in the game’s favor – one desperate compliment – it’s that it is still unmistakably recognizable as Mortal Kombat. The problem is, it’s no fun to actually play.
This also means that you can’t pause mid-match, which we can pretend was part of some misguided effort to be more “arcade accurate” if we want.
He would also be inserted into Probe’s home conversions of Mortal Kombat II, where Raiden could perform a “Fergality” transforming his opponent into a likeness of the founder.
“None Who Have Opposed Him Have Survived.”
Mortal Monday went ahead as planned, setting records for first-week game sales and selling a combined total of at least three million games [across all four platforms] by February of 1994. Naturally, most of the focus was on the two console versions of the game, and the debates over “which version is better” would soon begin to be waged. While the case on handhelds was more clear-cut in favor of the Game Gear version – boasting better gameplay as well as better graphics – there were two problems holding it back: Game Boy owners far and away outnumbered Game Gear owners, and many of the major game magazines of the time were more than happy to sell readers on the inferior Game Boy conversion.
In an issue of Nintendo Power featuring individual articles on both the Super Nintendo and Game Boy versions of the game, it goes on to review both releases as well, saying this of the handheld installment: “Mortal Kombat for Game Boy proves that you don’t have to have sophisticated technology if you have strong game elements.” And so, while the Game Gear version proved to be a totally serviceable portable version of the arcade version, it was still overshadowed by an inarguably inferior product in the Game Boy version. Though, it’s not like Acclaim or Probe could be upset about that outcome, since they were responsible for both of the games.
In spite of the failings of the Game Boy conversion – thanks mostly to the success of the Genesis conversion, really – Probe Software would be called upon yet again to convert Mortal Kombat II to consoles in 1994. Sculptured Software would again handle Super Nintendo duties, leaving Probe to handle conversions to the same platforms as before (as well as later additional ports to the Sega Saturn and Sony Playstation). And so it would come to pass that Mortal Kombat II on the Game Boy would be released exactly one year after it’s Game Boy predecessor — again, simultaneously with the release of other conversions of the game, just in time for the newly-scheduled “Mortal Tuesday.” And of all the conversions of Mortal Kombat II, the Game Boy version might honestly be the most impressive as far as I’m concerned! At the very least, it’s certainly the most improved. Given a year to reflect on and improve on their previous work, Probe apparently learned some incredibly valuable development lessons. Perhaps the most important of these lessons was learning to make smarter sacrifices; having a better sense for what they could get away with changing / removing while still maintaining the spirit of the source material.
Mortal Kombat II for Game Boy (Acclaim / Midway, 1994)
This time, all the art in the game has been recreated from scratch — simplified while still maintaining at least some level of resemblance to their source. No character animation in the game consists of more than two frames, but the new sprites are all tailored to this limitation. Sure, you can easily pick out every individual frame of animation, but it’s a fair trade for smoother animation and movement across the screen. Not to mention, input response feels instantaneous, giving you a far greater sense of control over your fighter. That being said, the loss of content is severe: Only eight of the original twelve playable fighters from the arcade game are available, with the three ninjas (Sub-Zero, Scorpion, and Reptile) and two female fighters (Kitana and Mileena) sharing many of the same sprites / looking largely similarly to each other. Only three of the ten stages make appearances, and are heavily compromised versions at that. Furthermore, only one of the stage Fatalities remains intact, while each fighter is limited to only one of their personal Fatalities (and to a Babality, funnily enough). Shockingly, you can still unlock the secret fights against the ninja Smoke and lady Jade, who of course consist entirely of sprites recycled from other characters. Miraculously in spite of all the cuts – massive as they may be – the game is still somehow unmistakably recognizable as Mortal Kombat II. But this time around, it’s actually fun to play as well.
Mortal Kombat continues to survive and thrive with each new generation of game consoles. However, many of the original publishers and developers involved with it have not. Probe Software was rebranded as “Acclaim Studios London” in 1999, and again in 2000 as “Acclaim Studios Cheltenham,” before Acclaim Entertainment themselves ultimately declared bankruptcy in September of 2004. The publisher would be briefly succeeded by Acclaim Games in 2006, before being acquired by social games publisher Playdom in May of 2010 and promptly shuttered three months later. Meanwhile, Midway Games had struggled through the 2000s, enduring successive annual net losses before being rendered defunct by June of 2010. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment would purchase many of their assets in 2009 — including none other than the Mortal Kombat franchise, saving it from the fate that would befall its original developer. NetherRealm Studios have been taking care of the series since then, led by none other than series co-creator Ed Boon. I should also mention that they also handle developing their own ports and conversions at this point, which is probably for the best.
Between September 13th, 1993 and today, a number of different developers have made efforts at converting and creating different installments of Mortal Kombat for a number of different handhelds. Some have been good, some have been mediocre. But for whatever it’s worth, all of them (yes, even Mortal Kombat Trilogy for the Tiger Game.com) can at least share one claim to their credit: There’s nowhere to go but up from the original’s conversion to the Game Boy… except maybe Mortal Kombat 4 on the Game Boy Color. That game is an absolute disaster. In fact, now that I think about it, it might even be worse than — well, I guess we’re just gonna have to investigate that one further at some point, aren’t we?
