Plot. Outworld was undefeated in nine consecutive Mortal Kombat tournaments, but that streak had ended in the tournament that took place in the Earth realm. Shang Tsung's plot was to defeat all of Earth's warriors in the tournament, but suffered a violent defeat at the hands of Liu Kang. Facing execution for his failure, Shang Tsung begs the emperor of Outworld, Shao Kahn, to grant him a second chance. With his youth restored, he lures the Earth Warriors in an Outworld tournament, where they are to face and meet certain death by Shao Kahn himself. The Outworld tournament is far more challenging, and Shao Kahn has a home advantage, failure to stop him, means the end of the world as the Earth warriors know it.
This game also introduced characters performing multiple Fatalities, and even new ones which involves: Friendship (characters play pranks on opponents instead of killing them), Babality (which the opponents are turned into a baby), and stage-specific Fatalities (when players uppercut their opponents by sending them to their deaths into the abyss below, a pool of acid, or the spikes in the ceiling). Players can choose up to nine opponents, introducing four new characters, and the recurring ones of the first game.
Concept. Players must choose one of the nine playable characters, and fight against multiple opponents until they reach Kahn himself. When certain actions are performed (like winning ten consecutive fights without losing), players are allowed to fight with non-playable opponents such as: Smoke, Jade, and Noob Saibot.
Design. The theme and art style of MK2 have a dark tone, although with a more vibrant color palette employed and a much richer color depth than the previous game. The game also strays strongly from the oriental theme of the first game, though it does retain some of it's original motif in aspects, as in the music of the game. The game's nature became less serious because of the addition of trivial and "joke" alternative finishing moves.
Memories. I first played the first Mortal Kombat game in 1993 in the Arcades when I was about 7 years old. I played Mortal Kombat II back in 1996 when I was 9. A friend of my sister lent us the game and we spent hours of fun and excitement. Me and my sister enjoyed highly as we tried to performed the fatalities, babalities, and friendships. Everyday after school and homework, we played the game, and we had so much fun. Then in the best summer of my life, the summer of 1996, I played Mortal Kombat III, and we almost played until 1:00 AM. So many good memories, back when games were MORE than just the graphics.
Rantings. Now for one thing that I find ridiculous in the game is some of the Friendships, like Shang Tsung's which is a rainbow. I see that he doesn't only like to absorb souls. Liu Kang can't even dance, wow that it's so laughable, thinking he's the Chinese John Travolta. Now, what bothers me is that if Kano and Sonya appear, why they are not playable? Well, I guess that developers wanted them only as captured by Shao Kahn. I also disliked that neither the secret fighters were not playable, like: Jade, Noob Saibot, and Smoke. They would not be playable until Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, talk about waiting a few years to play as them.
Good Aspects. This game is tremendous, it's fun to play for one or against a friend or family member. The game has high replay value, and it is worth playing. You can download this game on the PlayStation Network, but the sound effects and audio are cropped unfortunately.
Overall. This is the best Mortal Kombat game in my opinion. It's much better, and more violent than MK3 and it's successors. This game gets a 10 out of 10.