It was your typical boring Saturday afternoon, so I decided to give my friend Weird Ed a call for a possible get together. After listening to him go on and on about his "monstrous" new game for his Sega Genesis system, which he feels is far superior to my AMIGA, (I told you, Ed is weird), I told him to bring it on over so I could mock it 'till he cried. So he brings over his Sega and this little game called Mortal Kombat, and after playing it ALL day and MOST of the night, I was hooked... big time! Even my Fiance', the great video game hater, had to admit it was great fun pounding the poop out of me. After several months the AMIGA version was out and, you guessed it, I bought me a copy.

Mortal Kombat (1993 Acclaim Entertainment) runs on any AMIGA with at least 1 meg of memory. It comes on two SEVERELY copy- protected disks (DRAT!) and CANNOT be installed on a hard drive, thanks once again to all the cretinous losers out there who pirate software. 1 or 2 joysticks are required, depending on how many players want to get in on the action. When booting up the game, I suggest a nice walk or two around the block while the game loads since it takes the better part of 5 minutes to load up. This can be tolerated since this makes for quite short load times during actual gameplay. The game will recognize a one- button or a two-button joystick. Game control with a one-button joystick play can be quite challenging, almost frustrating at first. A two-button joystick makes things much easier and is HIGHLY recommended.

The plot (if you actually need such rubbish) is very simple; beat up everyone else, oh and you may also kill them if you so desire. There are seven "Warriors" to chose from, each one possessing a different personality and fighting style. They range from supernatural God-like beings to a Bruce Lee look alike (here's Liu Kang at you). Game control can be quite intimidating at first since there are about 20 different commands that apply to all characters, not to mention 3 or 4 "special attacks" for each character. Each character also has his/her own "finishing DEATH move", which I'll have more to say about later. In a two player game, each player selects a dude (or dudette) and proceeds to kick the living feces out of each other in "best of 3" matches. In the 1 player vs. Computer game, you choose the tough guy (or gal) of your choice and enter the "Tournament". Here you fight all six of the other fighters, then fight a "Mirror Match" against yourself (the game changes the color of your opposite self in this round for easy identification, a nice touch), and finally 3 endurance matches of two opponents at once. Then comes Goro, a hulking four-armed brute with an extremely poor attitude and the integrity of a Commodore Executive. Lastly you must take on Shang Tsung, an withered, elderly, Oriental fella...... who just so happens to be able to shapeshift into any other character (very tough).

In between the fighting rounds is what is probably the only lame part of the game. Ok, here you have a game where each of the numerous, detailed fighting moves are so well thought out that it takes much more to succeed than merely slamming the joystick back and forth and hammering repeatedly on the button. Yet in between the fighting rounds is this inane "Karate Chop" scene where the object is to slam the joystick back and forth as FAST AS HUMANLY POSSIBLY (real arcade action here), and hammer on the button. The objects you must chop get harder (literally) as you progress. First you chop wood, then stone, steel, ruby and finally diamond for huge bonus points (I guess the only thing harder than diamond might be the heart of a Commodore Executive). It's not as if you even get bonus lives for accomplishing this feat. In the end you've got a ruined 20 dollar joystick and some points which mean basically nothing in the overall game. I'd probably like this part much more if I could just break that @#%$*& diamond!

The Amiga version of Mortal Kombat is not some cheesy conversion from an inferior platform. This version is a direct conversion of the original arcade machine! Even though each move of the warriors is a digitized shot of an actual actor, the combat animation is SMOOTH and FAST (I play it on an un- accelerated 500 and it boogies right along!). The sound effects are perfect and add to the hard hitting brutality of the game, and the music is top notch. The nice options screen which comes up at the start of the game lets you set the difficulty rating between 5 different levels (Very easy to Very hard), and the amount of times you can "Continue" a match (6 being the max). From this screen you may also sit and listen to any of the 8 musical tunes or any of 75 sound effects and digitized voice samples from the game, that is if your life is so amazingly dull that sitting and listening to sound effects is what spins your tassels.

Which brings us to the "Finishing Moves" and the real controversy or "Kontroversy" of the game. After you have beaten an opponent 2 out of 3 rounds, a voice screams "FINISH HIM" and you have but a few seconds to perform a Finishing Move. If you can do it just right, your character will spring into action and perform his move. These range from pulling out the opponent's dripping heart from his chest to tearing his head from his shoulders (with a bloody spinal cord still danglin' from it, of course). I'm really torn over these nasty little moves (sorry, bad pun). I'm old enough to appreciate the warning on the label (the game is not recommended for 15 years or younger), but I'm young enough to still appreciate a really cool act of senseless violence! These finishing moves are EXTREMELY GRAPHIC and huge amounts of blood pour from the slain victims, yet I find myself excited when I pull one off (sorry, another bad pun).

Aside from the finish moves, Mortal Kombat is filled with other gruesome tidbits of violence. Blood flies through the air in large splatters with EVERY punch and EVERY kick! In one battle arena (there are 6 all together) known as THE PIT, the two fighters have at each other atop a long, slender, stone catwalk, and if finished off with an uppercut, your opponent plummets from the platform and gets impaled upon razor sharp spikes on the floor below. Call it "Sick" or call it "Excellent", depending on which half of your conscience wins out (but be honest). I personally feel that the violence and realism adds to the game. When I get beat, I feel a personal grudge towards the winner and I am pumped up to get revenge on him (OK, I have no life). I take great pleasure in making his head explode or searing the flesh from his bones with a Hellfire finishing move. But then again, I haven't got any little tykes running around my house to see this either. If this were the case I might be singing a different tune........ maybe.

And no I am NOT one of these people who believes that playing a violent game or watching a violent movie causes people to run right out and commit atrocities. I believe that if someone is so deranged that playing a game makes them carve up the milkman with a weed whacker, they were probably bent beyond straightening long before they sat down to play. As far as kids playing this game, I can see where it might upset very young children, but c'mon, older kids are smarter than that. YOU were, weren't you? Blood or no blood, Moral Kombat is an excellent game for just about anyone who loves fast-paced, hard-hitting, blood-pumping, spine-tingling, head-decapitating, arcade action. Maybe you agree, maybe you don't, but Weird Ed and I both love it!

Dr. Torgo

Our story so far....

As many of you already know, I wrote a review of the game "Mortal Kombat", which appeared in the July issue of "ICFTB". In the August issue there appeared an article titled "A Letter To The Editor - Immoral Combat", in which a fellow BAUG member stated his opinion of my review and my integrity as a human being. The author of this article had some unpleasant things to say about my review and my outlook on computer games, and to this person I must say that I accept his opinions, but I cannot just let this go by without saying a few words in my own defense.

If this has you scratching your head in confusion let me just say this; I believe freedom of speech to be the greatest freedom our nation has the honor of bestowing upon it's citizens. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and should be ENCOURAGED to stand up and voice these opinions, whether you agree with what the person has to say or not. When I wrote the review, I knew there was an air of controversy suurounding the game, but I WAS and AM fully prepared to accept the consequences of my writings. If you think what I say is crap, then by golly tell me so! Believe me, I won't hate you for it (As long as you're honest about it).

Ok, I purchased Mortal Kombat. It is EXTREMELY violent and EXTREMELY graphic and I tried to make this EXTREMELY clear in my review. I am honest when I say that I like the game, and if I said I hated the gruesomeness of it I would be a liar. After receiving the newsletter with "the Rebuttal" in it , I went back and re-read my MK review. Even though I had good things to say about the game, I thoroughly pointed out the violent nature of it's gameplay. What my point is, is that a positive review can also serve as a warning. If I tell you a game is violent, then I have simply stated a fact, boom. It might make you want to run out and play the game, it might warn you away from it, it's all in the interpretation of the article and your own particular frame of reference.

Violence (sigh), lots of violence. Lets face it, our world (as far as worlds go) is a very violent place. It has been violent since the dawn of time, long before video games, R-rated movies, wars, guns, tofu and other nasty things were invented by man. Violence is everywhere. As I look upon my video game shelf, at least half of some 50 titles are violent to some degree. The object of many of these games (as well as books, films etc.) is to "KILL THE BAD GUY". Sometimes "the bad guy" is shaped like a little spaceship, sometimes it's a colorful sprite, sometimes it's a human shaped character. It's up to you to decide where to draw the line for your personal intake of the stuff. Or, as in the authors case as a parent, where to draw the line for your children. Author, you are a good Father, of that there is no doubt. But I must remind you it is your responsibility to protect them, not mine. ICFTB is an AMIGA-NEWS-LETTER. If an AMIGA game is released, it should be reviewed. Any review of software must contain a strong balance of FACTS and OPINIONS. The game works on any Amiga, FACT. The game is extremely violent, FACT. The game is fun to play, OPINION. If opinions were not present in software reviews, you might as well get all your Info about them from the back of the box. I stated facts and opinions about a game, someone stated facts and opinions about me. In a sense two reviews were written.

As for statements against my character for liking this game, let me say this. I consider myself a decent and caring person. I detest real life violence in every way. I DO NOT watch the 6 o'clock news. I DO NOT watch "True life Road Accidents of the 911 Patrol". I am an animal lover and I cry when I run over a rabbit in the road. But I also grew up on "Hollywood Horror". When Frankenstein's monster tosses a guy against a wall, I can't wait to see the sequel! But I have a SOLID, WELL- DEFINED wall between what is real and what is make believe. Mortal Kombat is make-believe. I classify it the same as I would a violent movie. Entertainment is entertainment, whether it is a movie or a game. When I stated in my article that I "get a kick" (no pun intended) out of the violence in the game, this does not mean that I am sitting there playing this thing getting all hot and bothered, wringing my sweaty hands with excitement and cackling like a lunatic. I get the same thrill as when Darth Vader's Death Star explodes, as when The Lost Ark of the Covenant vaporizes all the Nazis, as when Captain Kirk kicks the evil Klingon Captain over the cliff into the molten magma below. Maybe some of you reading this have caught yourself getting these same "thrills".

Some BAUG members may have already caught on to the fact that I do not like to do game demonstrations in front of a group. Yet after my MK review was printed, two different BAUG members (whose names will not be revealed, now or ever) aproached me at the July meeting and asked if I would bring MK in and demo it. I said I was sorry but I would not be demonstrating the game. This shows that there IS an interest in the Amiga conversion of the game. I don't know if they wanted to see how GOOD it was or how BAD it was, my point is they expressed an interest in the game, FACT.

I would like to close out this long winded statement with an apology. I deeply apologize for any stain I have put upon the BAUG newsletter, group, editor, and it's many members. I did not intentionaly set out to cause a stir. I intend my articles and reviews to be 30% information and 70% humorous entertainment, with some statements written for the sole purpose of getting a laugh. Maybe you laughed, maybe you didn't; humor is a very hazy area. The BAUG is one of my favorite activities and I hope to be a contributing member until my A500 crumbles into pixie-dust. As for the BAUG member who disliked my review, I can say only this; thank you for your honesty. I have a deep respect for any opinions you may have. Thanks for helping stir the soup a little. That's why we are all here. If you don't stir the soup once in a while, we all just sink.

One final note and then I'll shut my trap. This is the absolute FINAL word I will have to say about this whole MORTAL KONTROVERSY. If it causes further rebuttals and outrage feel free to throw them at me with all your might. I'm a big boy, I can take it. But I've said my peace and this is how I stand.

Long live the Amiga!

Dr. Torgo