Mortal Kombat II is a fighting game developed and published by Midway, released in arcades in November 1993. Its lead designers were Ed Boon and John Tobias, and Dan Forden composed and recorded all of the music. The roster has 12 playable fighters, with newcomers such as Baraka, Jax, Kitana, Kung Lao and Mileena, plus the hidden Jade, Noob Saibot and Smoke. Sonya Blade and Kano, the least-picked characters of the first game, were reduced to background sprites.
The home versions for SNES, Genesis, Game Boy and Game Gear, published by Acclaim, launched together on 9 September 1994 under the "Mortal Friday" banner. Ports to the Master System, Amiga, 32X, DOS and Saturn followed. The PlayStation version, Mortal Kombat II: Kyūkyoku Shinken, came out only in Japan, on 2 August 1996.
The game was banned in Germany and censored in Japan.1
Names and releases
| Region | Title on the box | Platform | Date | Publisher | Src |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NA | Mortal Kombat IIFinal arcade revision 3.1 followed in January 1994 | Arcade | November 1993 | Midway | 1 |
| NA | Mortal Kombat II | Game Boy | Sep 9, 1994 | Acclaim Entertainment | 1 |
| NA | Mortal Kombat IIAlso Europe the same day | Genesis | Sep 9, 1994 | Acclaim Entertainment | 1 |
| NA | Mortal Kombat II | Game Gear | Sep 9, 1994 | Acclaim Entertainment | 1 |
| NA | Mortal Kombat II'Mortal Friday' launch together with the Genesis, Game Boy and Game Gear versions; also Europe | SNES | Sep 9, 1994 | Acclaim Entertainment | 1 |
| NA | Mortal Kombat IIAlso PAL regions | 32X | March 1995 | Acclaim Entertainment | 1 |
| NA | Mortal Kombat II | MS-DOS | May 16, 1995 | Acclaim Entertainment | 1 |
| EU | Mortal Kombat II | Master System | November 1994 | Acclaim Entertainment | 1 |
| EU | Mortal Kombat II | Amiga | 1994 | Acclaim Entertainment | 1 |
| EU | Mortal Kombat IINorth America 28 March 1996 | Saturn | Feb 2, 1996 | Acclaim Entertainment | 1 |
| JP | モータルコンバットII 究極神拳Mōtaru Konbatto Tsū Kyūkyoku ShinkenPlayStation version released only in Japan | PlayStation | Aug 2, 1996 | — | 1 |
| WW | Mortal Kombat: Legacy KollectionCompilation with the arcade, SNES, Genesis, Game Boy and 32X versions; also Switch, Switch 2, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S; physical edition 12 December 2025 | Windows | Oct 30, 2025 | — | 2 |
Also known as: モータルコンバットII 究極神拳 JP1Mōtaru Konbatto Tsū Kyūkyoku Shinken JP1Mortal Kombat II: Ultimate Godly Fist JP1
Box art by region
NA Mortal Kombat II
Box art © its publishers, shown to identify each release. Scans: Wikipedia.
Version differences
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CensorshipSNES
Unlike the censored SNES port of the first game, the SNES version of Mortal Kombat II kept blood and Fatalities, with only a warning label on the box.1
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CensorshipSNES (JP)
The Japanese SNES release has green blood and shows the lethal Fatalities in black and white.1
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ContentGame Boy
The Game Boy version has only 8 of the 12 fighters and 3 of the 10 arenas, no blood, and one Fatality per character plus a Babality.1
Translations
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Spanish Official
Digital Eclipse / Atari2025Windows · Mortal Kombat: Legacy KollectionReleased
Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection (2025) lists Spanish for Spain and Latin America on Steam, but the emulated original games themselves are in English.3
Where to play legally today
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Steam Purchase
Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection
Arcade, SNES, Genesis, Game Boy and 32X versions of Mortal Kombat II inside the compilation
Checked: 2026-10-133store.steampowered.com
Reception
The arcade game was the top-grossing arcade game of 1994 in the US according to the AMOA, with 27,000 cabinets sold. About 2.5 million home copies shipped on "Mortal Friday", and the Genesis and SNES versions sold 1.78 million and 1.51 million copies in the US.1
In lists
Sources
Checked: 2026-10-13Text reviewed: 2026-10-13
Spotted a mistake? Write to atlas@old-games.net.