Mortal Kombat for 8-bit NES/Famicom

Did you know that Mortal Kombat cartridges have been pirated for the 8-bit Nintendo and Famicom systems?  I first heard about these on The Limit's site (R.I.P.).  Later on, I noticed web pages popping up containing a "Pirate NES" section.  These pages always had Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat carts.  Screenshots were usually supplied, but never sounds.  With the arrival of emulation, it wasn't long before one of the Mortal Kombat carts was dumped and we could play the pirate MK games on our computers.  It's still not as good as having the "real thing" which I found out when one of these carts came in to my possession :)

The one I got hasn't been dumped - so I will try to do something most others haven't, and share as much of it as possible with the video gaming community.  First, a brief description - it's a 3-in-1 multicart with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 (why?), Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat II.  As with most pirate Famicom carts, the artwork on the label is silly and mostly inapproriate.  For instance, Wolverine makes an appearance on the cart.  But hey, I'm not complaining :)


When you first turn on the game, there's the standard scroll through menu that's typical of these multicarts.



Press down to move down the list, press up to move up - pretty self-explanatory.  Both Mortal Kombat games here (MKII + MK3) are really just versions of MK1.  Some of the backgrounds in each game look slightly different, and so I've made enough screenshots to show them all off.

   


The graphics look terribly flickery, but you get used to it after a while.  It looks like the sprites were copied from the Game Boy/Game Gear versions of Mortal Kombat.  As for gameplay, it plays more like Street Fighter than Mortal Kombat.  Since there are pirate Street Fighter carts for the Famicom, it's entirely possible that the MK games and SF games are programmed by the same people.  Or maybe the MK carts are just a bunch of SF hacks?  Both of these options are likely considering that there are "repeat" characters in the "Choose Your Fighter" screen, just as in the pirate Street Fighter games.  There are no Fatalities at the end of the round, and you can make your opponent get "dizzy" right in the middle of a match.  There's no "Block" button, you hold "back" for that.  The game also (intentionally) slows down at the end of the match when your opponent "dies".



The "Battle Plan" we all know and love is gone, instead we just get a screen like this before a new match starts:



There are no endings, but since we already know those this isn't quite as annoying as all the spelling errors in this game ("Skang-Tsung", "Liu-Kang", "Divfficulty") - or the fact that Goro is actually SMALLER than the rest of the characters.  But since Goro is a playable character, I guess it's only fair.  Shang Tsung is playable too, only the computer does random morphing for you - I wonder if this came out before the idea of "Randper Kombat"?

   


One last thing little oddity: When you get a Game Over, and it's counting down...it asks "Press Start to Continue?" but you really have to press the A button.  The Start button will not work.  Those pirates just don't know how to program properly ;)



Pics:

Longest Winning Streak
MKII Dragon Logo
MKII Title Screen
MKII Choose your Fighter
MK3 Dragon Logo
MK3 Title Screen
MK3 Choose your Fighter
Johnny Cage's "Green" Flame
Kano's Knife Throw
Liu Kang doing a Jump Kick
Rayden's Lightning
Scorpion's Fireball
Sonya's Square Wave Flight
Liu Kang doing a Roundhouse Kick
Scorpion doing an Uppercut
Sub-Zero's Slide
Endurance Round Pre-Match Screen
Shang Tsung Paradox
The Game Is Almost Won
The Game Is Won

Sounds:

Character Select Screen
The Courtyard
Goro's Lair
Longest Winning Streak
The Pit
Short Intro Sequence
Tsung's Throne Room
Warrior Shrine



There is also a device floating around called the "Mega Joy II" (and so I presume, there was a "Mega Joy 1").  It has 60 NES/Famicom games in 1 N64 controller!  The catch: there is no way to play with 2 players, and no way to play any other games.  Naturally, the reason this is on here is because MK is one of the games built-in (this one's called Mortal Kombat 3 Turbo).  The sounds are the same as above, so no need to have more of those.  But here are some pics:

60-in-1 Menu (1st screen)
Character Select Screen
MK3 Turbo Title Screen
Kano and Sub-Zero
Liu Kang and Sub-Zero

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