Game Pilgrimage

OBSERVATIONS:

Background Graphics:

The graphic differences between the three versions are noticable, while no version really looks bad on its own. The graphics are technically better than average for the Genesis game, having very clear and smooth animations and excellent color schemes with the relatively limited color counts. I actually almost prefer some of the Genesis backgrounds, like the Pit II for example, over the upgraded 32X level, just out of asthetic value. The Genesis title screen obviously has fewer colors in the clouds than the 32X version, and the continue screen looks bad in comparision, or even on its own, due to the dithering they used for the color transitions.

The Dead Pool also looks very plain in the Genesis version, thanks again to the dithered color transitions rather than using a simple color transition like the SNES game uses. When compared to the higher color 32X version, the SNES Dead Pool still looks smoother because there is no visible dithering used for color transitions. Meanwhile the 32X Dead Pool actually has more chains on the screen, and they scroll in three seperate planes. Compare that to the SNES version's single plane, for the chains, and single background, or the Genesis version's single background with the chains attached.

Similarly, Shao Kahn's Arena has fewer colors and the crowd doesn't animate in the Genesis version as it does in the SNES and 32X version. Then, both the SNES and the Genesis versions have a single background plane behind the scrolling grounds under the characters, while the 32X game has several background planes behind the same. Apart from that, no other Genesis level really looks worse than the 32X version, even though there are significant additions to each level in the 32X version.

The Genesis Pit II didn't have smooth scaling for the ground in the Pit II fatality, and the 32X version is no different. The SNES Pit II fatality zooms the ground in from even further than the arcade original does. Also Probe, in their amazing mediocrity, didn't redesign each level from the ground up for the 32X hardware. Instead, each level is still the Genesis levels, with different foregrounds, and more colors in the backgrounds, occasionally more levels of parallax, and more animated characters in the backgrounds. Some have observed that the 32X levels with these additions suffer the most framerate dips in fighting animation.

This has been explained both as a consequence of porting Genesis code and splitting it between the Genesis and 32X hardware, and as a rumored sprite processing limitation of the 32X hardware itself. The rumor states that the 32X had no hardware sprite processing capabilities, and thus had to do the majority of its 30+ game library which was sprite based using software code to tell the hardware what a sprite was. This theory seems to be debunked by the existance of non-ports such as Knuckles Chaotix, Tempo, Kolibri, and even Wrestlemania (done by Sculptured Software), which feature no noticable slowdown along with more 2D sprites and background animation than anything on the SNES. The much more likely explanation for what few framerate dips exist in 32X MKII is the obvious "quick port" treatment the game received from Probe, indicated by the Genesis hardware handling all of the backgrounds in the game exclusively.

The SNES version seems to have a different color scheme in each level than either the 32X or Genesis versions. A lot of pastel purple was used in several of the levels, and the SNES version appears to have smoother color transitions in the levels, which could possibly mean a higher color count than the 32X or Genesis versions in the backgrounds. However, due to the lower resolution display of the SNES game, and some type of anti-aliasing applied to the graphics in ZSNES and other emulators, it is difficult to tell if there are more colors, or if the pixels are just blurred over by the anti-aliasing.

Character Graphics:

The Genesis game's character's look good for the hardware. They are missing a few animations in the fighting movements, but overall there are plenty of fine details, even when compared to the other versions. With that said, some of the characters have black lines around them in the Genesis version, and occasionally you can spot SegaCD quality grainyness in the standing animations, Raiden's character being the most noticable. Also, the Genesis characters only have a black oval for a shadow, while the 32X version has the actual character's shadows, as the arcade version did. The SNES game has translucent shadows of the actual characters, rather than solid black as they are in the 32X version.

Other than the voice samples, the characters are what the 32X contributed most to in that version. In fact, the backgrounds are done entirely by the Genesis hardware in the 32X game, and only the characters are running off of the 32X hardware. It is possible to prove this by running the video straight out of the Genesis output when playing the 32X game, the backgrounds will display, but not the characters or the shadows.

What Probe chose to do is take the colors that were being used for the characters in the Genesis version, and add them to the backgrounds of the 32X version while the 32X handled the characters, shadows, special effects and animated background characters with higher color counts and resolution than the Genesis version did. It was a trade off, most likely chosen to save time in an already aging game's development cycle. It would have been interesting to see what the 32X hardware might have done if the entire game was running off of it. It's very easy to see that such a usage of the 32X could have produced an arcade perfect port, if it couldn't run the actual arcade version in emulation as Space Harrier and Afterburner do.

The SNES characters are actually the lowest resolution of all three versions. They do have a slightly higher color count on the characters than the Genesis version, but lower than the 32X version, and a less standing animation than the Genesis and 32X versions. The SNES game does seem to have more animation in the fighting and finishing animations than either Genesis or 32X versions do. MKII 32X also has taller characters, with more colors on the character itself, and more frames of standing animations, with none of the black outlines or grainyness of the Genesis version.

Audio:

The Genesis game is missing a lot of the voice samples from the 32X and SNES versions, which totally doesn't make sense. The Genesis and SNES games are 24 Megabits, while the 32X game is 32 Megabits. Seeing as though there were 32 Meg Genesis games, and SSF2 was 40Mb through on cart trickery, the reason for this limitation is not technical to the Genesis itself. What samples are there are very clear when compared to the horrible Genesis Street Fighter 2 samples, but there is no smashing uppercut yell in the Genesis version, or the sweep "whelp". Overall the Genesis version is missing quite a few noticable samples from the SNES and 32X versions, but it does have virtually all of the character specific voice samples of the playable characters.

The Super Nintendo game has more voice samples than the Genesis version, but noticably less than the 32X game overall. The SNES game has the uppercut yell, but it gets cut off by the "excellent" or some other announcer comment, prematurely. Also, the SNES and Genesis voice samples are noticably lower sample rate than the 32X version, which seems to ring out, in stereo, much more clearly. All of these observations are demonstrated in the MP3 files taken from the actual systems in the Dead Pool level. Although it does have less voice samples overall, the SNES game does have more of Shau Kahn's voice samples than either the Genesis or the 32X versions have. The SNES Forest level also has the tree groan sample that neither of the other version have.

Music is another serious difference between the versions. The SNES game actually has lower sampled Mono music, that's much quieter, as if it's supposed to be ambient sound, rather than background music. This was likely done deliberatly, and it seems many SNES games have mono music that play at a low bit-rate, while they have more digital instruments than Genesis music. By comparison, many Genesis games have stereo music, but feature analog instruments generated by the sound chip. The Genesis and 32X Mortal Kombat II music are the same, and both seem to be playing at a higher bit-rate than the SNES version. The Genesis and 32X music is much closer to the Arcade music than the SNES game's, and the SNES version's title music is playing off key from what it should be.

Conclusion:

There is no bottom line to these three versions of Mortal Kombat II that sets one above another absolutely. Whichever version was played first will very likely be the one that remains prefered. While the Genesis version is technically inferior to the other two versions, it also has more of the arcade game's combos than the SNES game, and many players prefer the Genesis 6-button control pad anyway. Then, the SNES version's graphics and audio are excellent by any standard, and what issues with the combos there may be hardly stand out as a glaring flaw. Finally, while the 32X game may carry the edge in technical prowess and accuracy to the arcade gameplay, it came out three months after the other two, after the press had moved on to hyping some other game, for an add-on that relatively few people ever bought, and even fewer appreciated.

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