Recently, never before seen footage of an early version of Mortal Kombat II has been released on YouTube and it is fascinating.
It is Version 0.1, which was never released to the public or playable for its release. Credit to theonblastshow2012 for unearthing the footage and YouTube Channel YourMKArcadeSource for releasing it.
Keep in mind, it is old footage and it is clearly VHS quality. But when you watch this footage, the gameplay, sound, music, and presentation is completely different from the Mortal Kombat II arcade version we are all used to.
Some stand out notes:
- Johnny Cage’s sprite has “Otomix” on his pants (that was later removed but can be seen when Shang Tsung performs his Soul Steal Fatality on him via a bug)
- Although there are no scores by the health meter, there was in fact going to be scores in Mortal Kombat II (similar to Mortal Kombat) because at the end of every match you see the winner’s TIME BONUS and HEALTH BONUS
- Baraka’s spin move is present, which was later taken off (but was brought back in Mortal Kombat Trilogy)
- There are tall Buddha/Daimajin like statues seen in the background of The Tower stage
- Music from other stages are used (for example the Wasteland theme is played over the Deadpool stage)
- No Shao Kahn or Kintaro seen on the MK Battle Plan screen
- Attract Mode shows off the stages and pans across
- No announcer
- Less blood/gore
There’s probably a lot more details in there not mentioned above, so if you see anything noteworthy that we may have missed, let us know in the comments. It’s definitely a fascinating watch to see the early progression of the game and actually see what was added in and taken away on the next revisions.
