When I first heard that Akklaim was planning a conversion of their arcade hit Mortal Kombat for the PC, I was beyond happy.  Then a funny thing happened:  I played Street Fighter 2 for the PC.  Actually, that's not funny at all unless you're a sadist.  SF2 is perhaps one of the worst games I have ever had the displeasure of trying to play on the PC.  It had great potential, but it screwed up in a big way.  First of all, it didn't support four-button joysticks, ala the Gravis GamePad.  That was just plain stupid; when Street Fighter 2 Turbo and Street Fighter 2 Championship came out for the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis, respectively, a hot issue was the stock controllers for those game systems just didn't have enough buttons to play the game well.  Sure enough, about a month later new controllers came out for both systems geared specifically for Street Fighter 2 and featuring more buttons than the original models of controller.  Why then were PC gamers expected to make due with two buttons?  My guess is pure laziness on the part of the game's manufacturer.  As a result, the game relied upon some silly and perverted combinations of joystick movement and button tapping to make the fighters perform, and the game was virtually uncontrollable.  To top this off, even on a 33Mhz 486 the game ran absurdly slow, and the key word here is absurd.  I clocked one fighter at taking five seconds to complete a standing jump, and just over 10 seconds for a side-to-side jump.  Either of these faults on their own would have made the game terrible, but the combination turned an excellent fighting game into the most torturous gaming experience I can remember having on a PC, and I've played some pretty bad games in my day.

	Let's just say that my experience with Street Fighter 2 (which I still have nightmares about, even though it is some months past now) somewhat dampened my enthusiasm for the PC conversion of Mortal Kombat.  I began considering buying a Genesis just so I could play MK at home, since I damn well couldn't afford to be repeatedly demolished in the arcade.  Finally, after what can now be considered a fairly short delay, Mortal Kombat came out for the PC, and I picked up a copy with not much more than mild curiosity.  Mostly, I wanted to see just how bad it was.

	Grabbing that copy of MK was a truly educational experience.  First of all, I noticed on the box that it supported 4-button joysticks, a very big step in the right direction.  I felt a flash of excitement, but quelled it instantly with a thought of the dreadfully slow gameplay of SF2.  After all, I thought, a direct mind-to-CPU link wouldn't have made that a good game.  So highly reserved I installed MK on my hard drive, finding that it only took 7 MB as opposed to the box's claimed need for 8.  I started the game and was immediately impressed by the graphics, but reminded myself that SF2 had had good graphics, and it still blew goats.  Finally I configured the game for my Gravis GamePad, set the detail for a 486, selected a fighter and started my first game.

	Wow!  I couldn't believe it.  It was actually fast!  Not just playable, but as fast as the arcade or Genesis games!  I moved my stick; my fighter moved at the same time, not two seconds later like in SF2.  I punched.  He punched.  I kicked.  He kicked.  So did my opponent.  I blocked.  It didn't help.  I died.  I had never been so happy to be dead.  I was happy because it had happened quickly; with SF2 I had wanted to run away before I even took my first punch.  I was impressed.  I was happy.  I was playing another game.

	Yes, Mortal Kombat for the PC is good.  How good?  Very good!  It is obvious that Akklaim has not abandoned this game in favor of rushing MK2 for Genesis and SuperNes, nor have they simply churned out a second-rate product with the hope of turning a fast buck before bad word of mouth gets out.  A little reading in the manual informed me that Probe, the company who handled the conversion and had also produced the other home versions, had converted the arcade machine's code line by line to make a PC game that was as close to the arcade version as possible.  At this they have succeeded.  Let me tell you 'bout it.

	The first thing I noticed was the graphics.  The reproduction of the background scenery is beautiful.  The colors are vibrant and eye-catching, and the detail is about as crisp as you can get without delving into extended VGA modes.  The digitized figures of the fighters themselves are very good as well.  While standing still the combatants look somewhat more pixelated than in the arcade, but during battle I didn't notice at all, so unless you plan to buy this game and just stand around instead of fight, don't worry about it.

	Control has thankfully been turned into a dream instead of the nightmare it had the potential to be, thanks in part to the 4-button joystick support.  On the Gravis GamePad, the upper buttons are for low punch and block, and the lower buttons produce low and high kicks; there is no high punch button, but your punches are easily directed by holding the joystick toward your opponent (for high) or letting it center (for low).  Keyboard control will, of course, require good dexterity with both hands, but the keys are user programmable, and some players are bound to prefer keyboard control just for the sake of accuracy.  Two-button stick users have it a little tougher, but the control layout is very logical and shouldn't prove to be much of a stumbling block, although if you're a big Kombat fan, the extra $25 or so for a 4-button stick would certainly be a reasonable purchase.

	Finally we come to the most important aspect of the game:  the feel.  It's here that the line-by-line code conversion (thank you, Probe!!!) really pays off.  Put simply, it feels like the arcade game, or the Genesis version.  I've been playing the Game Gear version of MK since the day it was released; it's a good version, especially considering the limitations of that machine, but it doesn't feel the same as the arcade version.  This does.  It's got speed to burn, the characters move smoothly, and the computer attacks vigorously, even on the "very easy" difficulty setting.  There's a tiny pause when you execute one of your fighter's special moves, but to be honest, if the manual hadn't pointed it out I doubt I would have noticed; after all, those moves are supposed to leave you vulnerable for a brief moment.  Combination moves are executed with ease; they aren't always effective, but that's my fault and not the software's.

	As I worked my way through my first marathon PC MK session, I began to notice some of the less-important aspects of the game that had been included, which solidified my impression that Probe and Akklaim really paid attention to this conversion.  The "test your might" bonus rounds are here, appearing after every third bout.  For those unfamiliar, these rounds let you amass bonus points by breaking blocks of varying substance, ranging from wood to diamond.  With the keyboard or 4-button stick you rapidly press your two low attack buttons to build up power, then hit the block button to unleash your blow on the unlucky chunk-o-hardness; two-button stick users must waggle the stick left and right to build up power.  In addition to the bonus rounds, the PC version also includes the Reptile; this is a mysterious creature dressed in a green ninja garb who drops in occasionally, gives a cryptic clue on how to find him, and vanishes; ultimately you fight him, but I haven't gotten to him yet.  (This game is no easy meat even on the cheesiest difficulty setting.)  Also, the infamous pit of spikes is in place.  If you win a fight on the bridge, kill your opponent with an uppercut instead of a finishing move; doing so will drop your unfortunate victim below the bridge, where they will be impaled bloodilly on long spikes, joining a few other heads and torsos that call the pit home.  There are no bonus points involved; it's just a little extra gore for die-hard freaks.

	Speaking of gore, this version has plenty of it.  Copious amounts of blood fly as the kombatants beat each other to death.  If you don't favor graphic violence in your games, this isn't the place for you.  The game's box carries a mock rating of PC-17 and states that it is not recommended for audiences under 17.  I think the age limit is a little excessive, but like those shock horror films used to state, those of especially weak nature should consult with a physician before entering.  Things really heat up when fatalities are carried out.  Each fighter has a specific method of killing opponents.  The control combinations for these moves aren't included in the manual (just like the other versions of the game), so some experimenting will have to be done, but if you figure them out you'll find they're worth it--in bonus points as well as visual (visceral?) satisfaction.  Sub-Zero pulls his opponents' head off--with their spine attached; Kano bashes open his victim's chest and pulls their still-beating heart out.  These are not nice people.

	Now's the time where I have to point out all the bad, nasty, evil shortcomings of the game to create a "balanced review" instead of writing a breathless droolfest.  Fortunately, this will be quick and fairly painless.  I have only found two flaws, and they are both minor and should be fixed by the time you read this.  The first deals with sound.  Version 1 of Mortal Kombat shipped before support for the Sound Blaster 16 line of sound cards was ready.  (Just my luck that I upgraded to a SB16 Basic a week before this game came out!)  This is plainly stated on the system requirements sticker on the box, so at least they're being honest about it.  A note inside the box says that support should be ready in three to five weeks, and a patch can be obtained for free by mailing in the registration card and the first disk.  I assume that as soon as the sound support is finished all subsequent shipments of the game will include it.  I tried to use the regular Sound Blaster setting with my SB16, but the game locked up quite frequently.

	The other "undocumented feature" would be much more serious if I hadn't figured out how to correct it.  After loading the game for about the fifth time it suddenly slowed down to a crawl and was absolutely unplayable.  Street Fighter 2 flashbacks caused me to break out in the cold sweat of panic.  After freaking privately for a few seconds, I exited the program and took a good look at its directory listing, hoping I could find something glaringly wrong.  I was lucky to find a file that I know hadn't been there before I ran the program for the first time.  The program creates a small file called CMOS, which I suspect is some kind of configuration file.  It is a hidden archived system file, so it does not appear in the standard directory listing.  Deleting this file will return the game to proper speed, although you will have to reset your control device, difficulty level, detail level and all that when you play the game next.  Before you delete the file you have to reset its attributes to allow you free access to it.  Simply go to the Mortal Kombat directory and type the following:

			ATTRIB -A -H -S CMOS<CR>
			DEL CMOS<CR>

	That's all there is to it.  The game will make this file again when you run it, but you don't need to delete it until the game slows down again.  My copy of version 1.00 does this about every fourth time I load the game.  This may well be fixed in the next version, but if it remains you'll know how to deal with it.  I would suggest writing a small batch file to make the process easier.  And that's all for the bad stuff.

	It's been my experience that people either really get into Mortal Kombat or don't care for it at all.  Fans of MK should find this version very much to their liking.  Once again I have to thank and congratulate Akklaim and Probe for bringing a first-rate conversion of this great game to the PC.  It would have been very easy for them to do a quick knock-off and hope the press didn't beat buyers to the shelf.  Instead, they took the time and effort to create a product they can be proud of.  I've always believed that anything a Super Nintendo or Genesis could do a PC with the right peripherals could do just as well, and now I have tangible proof.  I only hope that when the inevitable home versions of Mortal Kombat II come out the PC conversion is handled this well.  Until then, I'm still trying to find the Reptile.