Under Construction

Released in 1993, Mortal Kombat 2 is a classic fighting game, it's an incredibly fun multiplayer game, has some great lore, loads of secrets to keep you busy, and some great characters with some gruesome, and some funny, finishing moves!

It was also, of course, a great success for Midway and was what turned Mortal Kombat into what we know of it today.

However, as I'm sure you'd have guessed from the title of this page, there was one big reason it got so much money in the arcades.

I'm sure many people here who have played Mortal Kombat II have had more than a handful of moments where you could have sworn they connected a punch of a sweep, only for it to be cancelled out or nullified. Othertimes, it feels like the AI can read your inputs and respond before you can even execute that move

I remember feeling this as well, but put it down to me just being a bad player, and I need to, as the kids say nowadays, "git gud". (Even though git doesn't have such a command)

Turns out... we were all right.

The AI were reading our inputs, and cancelling our moves! They were cheating!

I'm sure this is common knowledge at this point, but I was shocked at this. All this time, I was putting myself down for being bad at the time, I wasn't, the game just wasn't playing fair.

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Recently, I beat the game on very hard difficulty. 4 times. Twice on Midway Arcade Treasures on PSP, and twice on MK Kollection on Steam.

"What a gamer!" many of you are probably thinking. "They have mastered one of the hardest games of all time! They have ascended! How did they achieve such an amazing feat?!"

I'll reveal my secrets. Here's how I did it:

...yeah.

You can do this trick over and over again with the AI, and provided you time it right and get the right distance, you'll always win.

Sub-Zero is the most difficult, but only because his projectile move involves him crouching to freeze you, which makes his hitbox lower, but you can still get him with this move if you distance yourself correctly.

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"What about Kintario and Shao Kahn?"

Believe it or not, Kintaro is even easier! All you have to do is jump kick him and time the kick part right!

(I did record these, but it turns out they didn't record the sound, and I can't be bothered to record the whole game again, so I just made GIFs instead.)

Shao Kahn is, in terms of AI manipulation, probably the hardest character in the game. He doesn't read inputs, but his attacks are very damaging, and he can take you out in seconds!

Kung Lao, or at least the way I play him, is useless against Kahn, so I have to switch to Baraka and use the blade fury move, and 9 times out of 10, he just walks into it!

Of course this also means I can't 1cc the game as of right now. I need to find a strategy with Kung Lao to do so, but I can definitely 2cc it.

On a side note, as he doesn't input read or cancel attacks, Shao Kahn is the least frustrating character overall, and is actually fun to fight against. He's not as fun as his MK3 appearance, but I could battle him for days, losing every time, and not feel angry. Shao Kahn is my favourite boss in all of video gaming!

So there you have it, you can 2cc MK2 even if you're shit at the game, and I'm proof of this.

While MK2 is, like I said, a fantastic multiplayer game, the AI is dreadful. The game looks good, has a great atmosphere, but the AI ruins the experience as a solo player!