History YMMV / MortalKombatII

** An easy way to cheese Kintaro in the [[UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem SNES]] version is to jump into range to make him go for an attack, immediately jump back out and then immediately jump back in with a jump-kick. He'll either still be reeling from trying to go for an attack during your first jump-in and take the kick to the face or he'll be forced to block the hit and take chip damage. Rinse and repeat until he keels over. The same technique does work to a certain extent in the Arcade version too but if you're not careful [[NoFairCheating he'll get fed up with the cheese and]] [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard chaingrab you to death.]]

** Unbelievably, the UsefulNotes/GameBoy version turned out really well. Yes, the character roster had to be cut down due to hardware limitations, but the graphics and music are very good, the controls are perfect, and the gameplay is actually ''faster'' than the other versions.
** The UsefulNotes/Sega32X port vastly improves the maligned UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis version. All of the narration samples from the arcade are present (character names, round cues, etc.), as well as the game's type-font and UI matching the arcade version. The game also restores colors, background elements, the attract mode, full-screen character photos for the endings, sound and voice effects, and frames of animation missing in the base Genesis game. The music was left unaltered, however, though considering it wasn't bad in the first place, this isn't exactly a bad thing.

** The UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis version has the gameplay mostly intact, especially with a six-button controller, but the visuals are really bad, with missing frames in a lot of animations (Baraka and Johnny Cage's victory animations stand out; neither of which are the complete animation from the arcade); the sound, on the other hand, is almost completely absent outside of background music, with only a handful of the arcade's character sounds in combat, and as with the first game, the only voiceover narration is "Fight" and "Finish [=Him/Her=]". The port [[VideoGame/MortalKombat3 its sequel]] would get, from a different developer and being quite faithful to the source, is a very clear example that ''Mortal Kombat II'' could have had a much, much better Sega Genesis port. At least the music sounds awesome, being composed by Matt Furniss.
** The UsefulNotes/PlayStation port, released [[NoExportForYou only in Japan]], is riddled with constant disc access issues, requiring the game to go into brief load times, especially during fatalities. Get used to seeing the ''[=MKII=]'' loading logo in the corner of the screen often.

* HarsherInHindsight: [[http://youtu.be/yrjq6aNYVFk The special intro]] in the UsefulNotes/{{Super Nintendo|EntertainmentSystem}} port, which features Shao Kahn and Kintaro, is this due to the bankruptcy of Creator/{{Acclaim}}, the company that distributed the first two games for said console.

* DracoInLeatherPants: Shao Kahn is this for a lot of fans due to his EvilIsCool and EvilIsSexy tendencies.

* EvilIsSexy:
** Shao Kahn. Just look at that ''body''!
** Mileena is ''supposed'' to be a deliberate subversion, as her hideous face is meant to be completely at odds with her curvaceous build. Tell that to a bevy of fans who still find her dead sexy. [[ProgressivelyPrettier Her looks marginally improving over the course of the series]] hasn't helped this stance.
** Take Goro, cross-breed him with a [[BeastMan tiger]] and then [[StoutStrength make him roughly 1.5 times more massive]] [[MonsterModesty with the exact same level]] [[UnderwearOfPower of clothing]] and you end up with Kintaro, who may not be as popular as Goro in the mainstream fandom, but [[DracoInLeatherPants certainly has a sizable fanbase]] of his own [[UsefulNotes/FurryFandom among certain groups]].

* SugarWiki/AndTheFandomRejoiced: [[AndTheFandomRejoiced/MortalKombat Shares a page with the rest of the franchise]].

See also the franchise-wide pages for:
* [[AndTheFandomRejoiced/MortalKombat And The Fandom Rejoiced]]
* [[Monster/MortalKombat Complete Monster]]
* [[HilariousInHindsight/MortalKombat Hilarious In Hindsight]]
* [[Memes/MortalKombat Memes]]
* [[NauseaFuel/MortalKombat Nausea Fuel]]
* [[TheScrappy/MortalKombat The Scrappy]]
* [[Woobie/MortalKombat The Woobie]]
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* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound: The sound heard whenever Raiden teleports, regenerates after being knocked down, or performs his winpose.

* SequelDifficultySpike: A major issue with the game is [[Main/TheComputerIsACheatingBastard its cheating AI]], causing the game to become absurdly hard. It's difficult to enjoy a game when you get thrown almost every five seconds while your attacks are almost always blocked.

** The SNES port is quite beloved, with the visuals and sound being quite close to the arcade version and the gameplay being translated perfectly. Oh, and of course, it's fully uncensored.

* EvenBetterSequel: While [[VideoGame/MortalKombat1 the first game]] being inspired by ''VideoGame/KarateChamp'' but BloodierAndGorier and had selectable fighters that makes the first game so original, this sequel takes the first game's violence and brutality up to eleven and introduces many fan favorite characters as well as the Outworld setting that would follow the series from here on out. The game also ran on more powerful hardware than the original, being a quantum leap forward in visuals, animation and audio from the first game, improved several gameplay issues of the first game, and was jam-packed with secrets galore, from the new stage fatalities to the ''three'' secret opponents.

** An easy way to cheese Kintaro in the SNES version is to jump into range to make him go for an attack, immediately jump back out and then immediately jump back in with a jump-kick. He'll either still be reeling from trying to go for an attack during your first jump-in and take the kick to the face or he'll be forced to block the hit and take chip damage. Rinse and repeat until he keels over. The same technique does work to a certain extent in the Arcade version too but if you're not careful [[NoFairCheating he'll get fed up with the cheese and]] [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard chaingrab you to death.]]

** As the first ''Mortal Kombat'' sequel, it was the first to remove characters for little reason, in its case Sonya and Kano [[TheWorfEffect being captured by Shao Kahn to establish his badass cred]]. It was forgiven for this game because, at the time, they were by far the least popular characters, so their removal was seen as an acceptable tradeoff in return for keeping the real fan-favorites (Liu Kang, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, etc.) and adding new characters who would themselves become favorites (Jax, Kitana and Mileena). It only became a problem when ''VideoGame/MortalKombat3'' started to remove characters for less in-universe reason, in its case because the actors portraying them, Dan Pesina and Katalin Zamiar, left after the second game's development - Johnny Cage was unceremoniously killed off, Raiden [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere gave up and left Earthrealm to its fate]], neither Kitana nor Mileena are present despite how much sense it would make, and most infamously, Scorpion, the ''most popular character in the series'', was left out for no explained reason. All of these would be rectified with ''[[UpdatedRerelease Ultimate]]'', but for the more casual fans it was too little, too late. It wouldn't be long after this that the series gained its infamy for arbitrarily dropping and re-adding characters for little rhyme or reason - sometimes suddenly killing them (Liu Kang in the opening to ''[[VideoGame/MortalKombatDeadlyAlliance Deadly Alliance]]''), sometimes replacing them with a SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute (Kano sitting out again for ''[[VideoGame/MortalKombat4 4/Gold]]'' in favor of his new underling Jarek) - to the point that whenever a new game is announced, one of the first and most common questions asked about it is "will [insert character] be in it?"

** The [=32X=] port vastly improves the maligned Genesis version. All of the narration samples from the arcade are present (character names, round cues, etc.), as well as the game's type-font and UI matching the arcade version. The game also restores colors, background elements, the attract mode, full-screen character photos for the endings, sound and voice effects, and frames of animation missing in the base Genesis game. The music was left unaltered, however, though considering it wasn't bad in the first place, this isn't exactly a bad thing.

** The [=PlayStation=] port, released only in Japan, is riddled with constant disc access issues, requiring the game to go into brief load times, especially during fatalities. Get used to seeing the ''[=MKII=]'' loading logo in the corner of the screen often.

** As the first ''Mortal Kombat'' sequel, it was the first to remove characters for little reason, in its case Sonya and Kano [[TheWorfEffect being captured by Shao Kahn to establish his badass cred]]. It was forgiven for this game because, at the time, they were by far the least popular characters, so their removal was seen as an acceptable tradeoff in return for keeping the real fan-favorites (Liu Kang, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, etc.) and adding new characters who would themselves become favorites (Jax, Kitana and Mileena). It only became a problem when ''VideoGame/MortalKombat3'' started to remove characters for less in-universe reason, in its case because the actors portraying them, Dan Pesina and Katalin Zamiar, left after the second game's development - Johnny Cage was unceremoniously killed off, Raiden [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere gave up and left Earthrealm to its fate]], neither Kitana nor Mileena are present despite how much sense it would make, and most infamously, Scorpion, the ''most popular character in the series'', was left out for no explained reason. All of these would be rectified with ''[[UpdatedRerelease Ultimate]]'', but for the more casual fans it was too little, too late. It wouldn't be long after this that the series gained its infamy for arbitrarily dropping and re-adding characters for little rhyme or reason, to the point that whenever a new game is announced, one of the first and most common questions asked about it is "will [insert character] be in it?"
** Related in a sort of chicken-or-the-egg case is the later games' bloated roster. ''MKII'' could again be considered the start of this, which added Reptile, the first game's secret boss, and other characters with some connection to existing ones, like Kung Lao or Jax who were respectively partners to Liu Kang and Sonya. The difference is that the series was still small back then, so new characters were a welcome sight and felt like genuine expansions to the lore. Not long after that, however, the games started adding more and more characters, including bland and forgettable ones with even more vague and sometimes forced connections to existing ones (perhaps most infamously Mavado and Hsu Hao from ''[[VideoGame/MortalKombatDeadlyAlliance Deadly Alliance]]'', members of a [[RememberTheNewGuy never-before-mentioned]] "Red Dragon" crime syndicate that are rivals to the existing Black Dragon and ended up doing nothing of interest) and even ones that have only been ''vaguely'' hinted at, even just in a meme. This continued up to the point where the developers, as part of a ''deliberate'' attempt to [[TorchTheFranchiseAndRun kill the series]], included [[DreamMatchGame every single character from the previous games]] in ''[[VideoGame/MortalKombatArmageddon Armageddon]]'' - even superfluous {{joke|Character}}s like Meat or ones they'd gone on-record as [[CreatorsPest disliking]] like the aforementioned Hsu Hao.
* FridgeBrilliance: When Noob Saibot wins a match, the announcement is "[[Franchise/StarWars Feel the POWER of ''Toasty!'']]". This could be considered a hint towards the fact that he's the original Sub-Zero since Bi-Han was killed by Scorpion, who tends to be most-associated with the phrase "Toasty" due to him being able to burn people down to a charred skeleton.

** In the Super Nintendo version, using Johnny Cage's Shadow Ball twice in rapid succession so that a second one comes out while the first is still active, it will cause ALL projectile physics to break, making them stay in place once thrown and causing graphical glitches for other SFX. While this has very little utility during a fight outside of some wacky combos using the now-stationary hitboxes, it can create hilarious graphical glitches and especially broken fatalities.
** Ed Boon considered some of the overpowered Kitana combos to be these; despite breaking any semblance of balance with the game, he expressed that he was genuinely impressed how players could come up with creatively timed juggle combos for her that no one on the team would even think of (and could nerf as a result).

** As the first ''Mortal Kombat'' sequel, it was the first to remove characters for little reason, in its case Sonya and Kano [[TheWorfEffect being captured by Shao Kahn to establish his badass cred]]. It was forgiven for this game because, at the time, they were by far the least popular characters, so their removal was seen as an acceptable tradeoff in return for keeping the real fan-favorites (Liu Kang, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, etc.) and adding new characters who would themselves become favorites (Jax, Kitana and Mileena). It only became a problem when ''VideoGame/MortalKombat3'' started to remove characters for less in-universe reason, in its case because the actors portraying them, Dan Pesina and Katalin Zamiar, left after its development - Johnny Cage was unceremoniously killed off, Raiden [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere gave up and left Earthrealm to its fate]], neither Kitana nor Mileena are present despite how much sense it would make, and most infamously, Scorpion, the ''most popular character in the series'', was left out for no explained reason. All of these would be rectified with ''[[UpdatedRerelease Ultimate]]'', but for the more casual fans it was too little, too late. It wouldn't be long after this that the series gained its infamy for arbitrarily dropping and re-adding characters for little rhyme or reason, to the point that whenever a new game is announced, one of the first and most common questions asked about it is "will [insert character] be in it?"
** Related in a sort of chicken-or-the-egg case is the later games' bloated roster. ''MKII'' could again be considered the start of this, which added Reptile, the first game's secret boss, and other characters with some connection to existing ones, like Kung Lao or Jax who were respectively partners to Liu Kang and Sonya. The difference is that the series was still small back then, so new characters were a welcome sight and felt like genuine expansions to the lore. Not long after that, however, the games started adding more and more characters, including bland and forgettable characters with even more vague connections to existing ones (perhaps most infamously Mavado and Hsu Hao from ''[[VideoGame/MortalKombatDeadlyAlliance Deadly Alliance]]'', members of a never-before-mentioned "Red Dragon" crime syndicate that are rivals to the existing Black Dragon and ended up doing nothing of interest) and even ones that have only been ''vaguely'' hinted at, even just in a meme. This continued up to the point where the developers, as part of a ''deliberate'' attempt to [[TorchTheFranchiseAndRun kill the series]], included [[DreamMatchGame every single character from the previous games]] in ''[[VideoGame/MortalKombatArmageddon Armageddon]]'' - even superfluous {{joke|Character}}s like Meat or ones they'd gone on-record as [[CreatorsPest disliking]] like the aforementioned Hsu Hao.

** Related in a sort of chicken-or-the-egg case is the later games' bloated roster. ''MKII'' could again be considered the start of this, which added Reptile, the first game's secret boss, and other characters with some connection to existing ones, like Kung Lao or Jax who were respectively partners to Liu Kang and Sonya. The difference is that the series was still small back then, so new characters were a welcome sight and felt like genuine expansions to the lore. Not long after that, however, the games started adding more and more characters, including bland and forgettable characters with even more vague connections to existing ones (perhaps most infamously Mavado and Hsu Hao from ''[[VideoGame/MortalKombatDeadlyAlliance Deadly Alliance]]'', members of a never-before-mentioned "Red Dragon" crime syndicate that are rivals to the existing Black Dragon and ended up doing nothing of interest) and even ones that have only been ''vaguely'' hinted at, even just in a meme. This continued up to the point where the developers, as part of a ''deliberate'' attempt to [[TorchTheFranchiseAndRun kill the series]], included [[DreamMatchGame every single character who had ever been in the series before]] in ''[[VideoGame/MortalKombatArmageddon Armageddon]]'' - even superluous {{joke|Character}}s like Meat or ones they'd gone on-record as [[CreatorsPest disliking]] like the aforementioned Hsu Hao.

** As the first ''Mortal Kombat'' sequel, it was the first to remove characters for little reason, in its case Sonya becoming a DamselInDistress and Kano [[TheWorfEffect being killed off by Shao Kahn to establish his badass cred]]. It was forgiven for this game because, at the time, Sonya and Kano were by far the least popular characters, so their removal was seen as an acceptable tradeoff in return for keeping the real fan-favorites (Liu Kang, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, etc.) and adding new characters who would themselves become favorites (Jax, Kitana and Mileena). It only became a problem when ''VideoGame/MortalKombat3'' started to remove characters for less in-universe reason, in its case because Dan Pesina and Katalin Zamiar left after its development - Johnny Cage was unceremoniously killed off, Raiden [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere gave up and left Earthrealm to its fate]], neither Kitana nor Mileena are present despite how much sense it would make, and most infamously, Scorpion, the ''most popular character in the series'', was left out for no explained reason. All of these would be rectified with ''[[UpdatedRerelease Ultimate]]'', but for the more casual fans it was too little, too late. It wouldn't be long after this that the series gained its infamy for arbitrarily dropping and re-adding characters for little rhyme or reason, to the point that whenever a new game is announced, one of the first and most common questions asked about it is "will [insert character] be in it?"

** On the Dead Pool battlezone if a losing player goes into "Finish Him/Her" phase from a knockdown, with a fast enough input, they can sometimes get their fighter to [[HoistByHisOwnPetard sneak in an uppercut before the winning fighter can react and send ''them'' into the acid instead.]]