Description
This is a capture of me playing through the Sega Game Gear version of Mortal Kombat. This is being played through the Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection for the Switch 2. I'm using Sub-Zero and playing on easy difficulty.
I’m a huge fan of the Game Gear (my cousin had one when I was growing up), so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to finally play the Game Gear version of Mortal Kombat through the Legacy Kollection. Before the Legacy Kollection came out, I had never played any of the handheld ports in the Mortal Kombat series.
Back in 1993 there was a lot of debate regarding which home console port of Mortal Kombat was better: the SNES or Genesis version. But there were also competing handheld ports on the Game Boy and Game Gear, which didn’t get nearly as much attention, and which had even greater differences.
Obviously the full-color Game Gear version of Mortal Kombat looks much better than the monochrome Game Boy version. But after playing both ports, I can now say the Game Gear version undeniably plays better as well. In fact, the Game Gear version stomps all over the Game Boy version due to the Game Boy’s incredibly choppy gameplay and unresponsive controls. The sound is also decent.
Sadly, there are only two available stages (the Pit and Goro’s Lair) in the Game Gear version, but there are still six out of the seven total fighters (Kano is missing, who I never liked). Blood and fatalities are also hidden behind a code, much like the Genesis version, but the Legacy Kollection allows you to enable the gore automatically without the need for the code.
8-bit systems couldn’t handle tournament fighters very well, resulting in choppy gameplay, and Mortal Kombat on the Game Gear is no exception. Nonetheless, it’s still playable. The only thing you need to know is that the special moves won’t work unless you delay your button press about a half a second after your D-pad input. Also, I don’t slide the D-pad like I do in Street Fighter II. I press each D-pad direction separately, and that works better for me.
Even though I’m playing on easy difficulty, this port can be quite difficult, especially during the Endurance rounds, so you’ll need to cheese the AI. If you time it right, you can continuously throw your opponent as soon as he gets up, but I had trouble reliable using that trick. You can also jump kick backwards in the corner just as your opponent comes into range. This is almost required against Goro, who tosses highly damaging fireballs at a distance and throws you every time you get too close.
I was actually shocked at how much I enjoyed recording this. I bet the kids who grew up with just the Game Gear version of Mortal Kombat appreciated this port. It’s a neat entry in gaming history.
In this playthrough I beat the game without using any continues, though I did lose some rounds.
Recorded with the Elgato Game Capture HD60 and the Switch 2's HDMI cable at native 1080p resolution and 60 frames per second. I'm using a retro-bit Sega Genesis 8-button Arcade Pad (2.4 GHz Wireless version).