Introduction Another of the "Second Parts can be better" games, this second installment introduced the Babalities and Friendships along with the Stage Fatalities, this game introduced now two Fatalities per character.
Notations Abbreviation key for attacks and commands in all character guides:
F = Forward B = Back D = Down U = Up LP = Low Punch LK = Low Kick HP = High Punch HK = High Kick BL = Block JK = Jump Kick JP = Jump Punch SHK = Standing HK SLK = Standing LK RH = Roundhouse aa = Anti Air TP = Teleport Punch Inf = Infinite otg = Off/on the Ground gc = Glitch cancel Gameplay Close Attacks Specialty : HIGH PUNCH (closest to opponent)
Throw/Flip : LOW PUNCH (closest to opponent)
Knee : HIGH KICK or LOW KICK (closest to opponent)
Block Of course you have a block button instead of hold back when you are attacked.
Sweep Hold Back and press Low Kick
Roundhouse Hold Back and press High Kick
Uppercut Hold Down and press High Punch
FINISHING MOVES Fatality Your typical move to kill your opponent in the decisive round, now you have two, the conditions of the Fatality can be from close,sweep,jump to far distance.
Pit/Spikes This is the fatality where you knock the victim into the pit or onto the spikes, either on The Pit II or Kombat Tomb stages.
Babalities Moves where instead of finishing your opponent you can turn them into a baby.
DON'T USE ANY PUNCH BUTTON IN THE DEFINITIVE ROUND
Friendships Move where you only make friends with your opponent
DON'T USE ANY PUNCH BUTTON IN THE DEFINTIVE ROUND
Advanced Strategies Blocking Blocking in MK is different from virtually every fighting game. Obviously, there is a button for block, rather than holding back, which eliminates the need for proximity blocking entirely, and you can buffer moves easily while blocking. A not so obvious concept about blocking in MK is frame update. Character sprites are behind by one tick in MK, so you can block things upon the frame they connect. There is a similar concept in SFA3 called "Blue Blocking" which your character turns blue and it takes away less guard stun meter. You can essentially Blue Block sweeps and low hitting attacks in MK by tapping D+BL on or just before the frame the sweep will connect, and your character will not have to duck, enabling them to counter faster, or sometimes duck half way, and stand back up instantly. It is a good idea to learn how to block only when absolutely needed, so you aren't stuck in standing back up frames after releasing block, rather, releasing block at the end of the contact and standing up while unblocking.
Jabs/Kara Jabs You can cancel a LP or HP by tapping any other attack button, canceling forward direction with LP or HP and then immidiately blocking will not allow the opponent to hit you. Still there are some moves that could be faster and could hit you like crouch kicks mostly. Kara Jabs is basicaly the same thing in MK1, Canceling a LP or HP with block.
Corner Jabs Once you have someone backed into the corner and blocking, tap LP, because there is no pushback for this scenario in MK1, UNLESS the opponent's character is stand up, if they are ducked you will not be pushed away. They will be in the corner, and they will eat pixel after pixel of block damage. The only thing that the victim can really do is escape with a special move (fly kick, square punch, etc), uppercut, or crouching LK. If you can sniff out when they are going to try to do any of those, do a knee or special move, preferably a containment. If they block a knee you will not be pushed back like it was in umk3, so do it wisely to keep them trapped in the corner. Try to throw out 4-6 jabs then knee, because thats usually when people realize that they are losing a lot of energy to chip damage. If the knee hits, continue to jab and keep them locked down. Also, don't forget to hold back while you do the corner jabs so that they can't counter throw. If you are under corner jab pressure, after the first 1 or 2, try and spam on crouch kick, and you have a good chance of sneaking out.
Throw Defense Hold "Back" and you will not be thrown. Up+Back, Down+Back, Down+Back+Block also works. Many people complain about throws, but throw prevention is pretty easy in MK, and it's been this way from MK1 through MK4. In MK1 there is a way for throws to not be escapable if someone did it to you after you got some move (whiff backwards shadow kick, crouch kick, etc).
Crossup Throws This tactic is best used while an opponent is being defensive. The best way to describe this is when you are at jump distance, do an early jumpkick, so you land directly on top of the victim, without hitting them. You will land overlapping the victim's sprite. If you hit LP right as you land, you will have a very good chance of connecting a throw because they have to hold back to prevent the throw, and the direction is pretty hard to determine in such a close situation in a small amount of time. BTW there are no crossover JKs/JPs in MK1 LOL!
Punishment/Retaliation Mode When certain moves are blocked, they will roll up into a ball and float right next to a player setting up a punisher juggle, sometimes they float away from you but still can be punished. Other punishment scenarios to look for are against Liu Kang's Dragon Kick, Sonya's leg grab, Sub-Zero's Slide and etc. All of these, when blocked, make them stay locked in place, generally very close to you, free to be countered, but only within a very brief time. This is not much longer than the amount of time it takes you get out of blocked so you must react quickly.
Anti-Air Commonly referred to as "aa" directly in place of the attack which would be used as anti-air. These are attacks which are used to take someone out of the air. It is very important to understand every character's best aa opportunities. A standing HK is a very simple and effective way to anti air someone. Some characters can aaHP others out of the air very easily, setting up decent, to super high damage combos. Some characters should go for RHs on their aa's because it will set up combos, traps, or other tactics and set ups. The best simple form of aa is the uppercut. Try and scout early JKs.
Pushback Some attacks/special moves if are blocked or hit opp in corner, the attacker gets pushed back to just under jump distance. If you juggle someone in the corner with LP/HP jab, or a jab after just about any other hit, you will be pushed back, but you can cancel this with any special move. The same thing applies to when you throw out 3 jabs in succession and they are blocked, the third punch frame will freeze and you will be pushed back. At any time during the "iceskate", you can cancel out with a special move.
Wake Ups In MK and many other games, there are times when a move that is usually unsafe to do when the person has the ability to block can be used to generally make you character get up more quickly and reward you for doing so with a potential juggle, or counter after blocking when in close range. What you must understand is that of course, even though this is inherently unsafe in all fighting games due to baiting, errors, etc, it has become a huge part of fighting game psychology, so it is always a factor. "Will they bait" "Will they wake up" etc. These are sometimes referred to as 50/50s. Some characters have excellent wake up moves that are actually safe in certain situations. Moves that will mostly be used as a "Wake Up" are Shadow Kick, Slide, Teleport Punch, etc. Check the Character Guides for some wake up scenarios.
Glitch Canceling Explained in Sub-Zero's Guide since he is the only one that has real glitch cancel in MK1.
The Throw/Uppercut "Brokeness" This will be hard to explain but i will give a try. In a two player game (and only two player) game if you interupt a move/special move or any attack of your opponent with a throw and you do a special move/fireball (the special move should not be anti air) immidiately after the throw without loosing any frames, it will be unblockable. There is no 100% sure way to always get this but you will figure it out by yourself when you can do it and when not. That can often lead you into a victory or into a trouble - for example Raiden - Throw, Torpedo is punishable, because if the Torpedo is not aa the opp can punish you even if it hits. And if you do that vs Scorpion you risk more than half of your energy in this scenario. Still its a very useless stuff in corner and mid-screen in some scenarios. You can get even uppercut after the throw and it wont be unblockable. Another "Broken" move which can lead into unblockable attacks is the uppercut. So far only Raiden has real advantage of this because of his pseudo infinite. Canceling attack with uppercut, then teleport with no frame lost and uppercut again. I know in some very very rare cases Cage can get uppercut unblockable SK or Sweep after it but thats it. Some other moves that can lead into unblockable stuff are the freeze and leg grab. Dont forget that if your opponent just ducks the unblockable uppercut/move will whiff (if its not the torpedo because it hits opps ducked).
Characters New Comers Shang Tsung (MK2) (As Sub Boss and Playable Character) and young again Reptile (MK2) (Secret Character of MK1 and now Normal Character) I'm not a fusion anymore Mileena (MK2) Purple Kunoichi and Twin Sister Kung Lao (MK2) Liu Kang's BFF and Hat Master from Shaolin Kitana (MK2) Blue Kunoichi and Princess Baraka (MK2) One of the Shao Kahn's sidekicks Jax (MK2) Jackson Briggs, Sonya's Blacked when Cage is on set Survivors from MK1 Liu Kang (MK2) The Champ Is Here Rayden (MK2) Thunder God Sub Zero (MK2) The young brother of the MK1 Scorpion (MK2) Wants Revenge Again Johnny Cage (MK2) Now on stage for the sequel, because second parts can be as good as Street Fighter II Kidnapped by Shao Kahn Sonya (MK2) Kano (MK2) Vs CPU Strategies Fighting Kintaro Kintaro is actually a challenge to beat. His moves are very powerful and he is fast for a big guy. Stay away from that scorching fireball blast and you should be OK.
Use footsweeps a lot, he is a sucker for them. Time your sweep so that you hit him with the end of your foot just as he walks into range. He will stagger back and groan. Duck, then repeat.
Jump kicks work sometimes, but don't use them a whole lot. Kintaro will most likely block then grab you or punch you. If he does block, you can try to jump away and run the risk of the fireballs. Or try a standing block. If he punches or uppercuts you, it hurts, but at least you won't go flying. Hop kicks work the same way.
Kintaro is a cocky four armed tony the tiger. If he leans back, growls, and flexes, uppercut him. Projectile him. Jump kick and combo him. Hurt him.
Kintaro is easiest to hurt when he hops towards you. It is easy to spot when he will do it because he hops in place first. If you see him do this, align yourself to be in the best position to retaliate. When he hops towards you, uppercut him or whatever.
If Kintaro spits fireballs at you, duck.
When Kintaro jumps into the sky, get out of the way. The best things to do is jump away and kick. This will usually hit. If you are good, you can uppercut Kintaro as he is coming down. If you are trapped in the corner, try jumping away from the corner while punching.
Always do your projectile after you knock Kintaro down. It will usually hit him unless you are on the far side of the screen.
After Kintaro jumps on you from the sky, he will always lean back and growl. When he does this you can either walk up and uppercut him, use your projectile, or use a jump kick - combo.
Fighting Shao Kahn Shao Kahn, like Kintaro, is a challenge to beat. You can not fight him 'normally' because he is immune to jump kicks, walks faster than you, and has devastating moves. Stay away from his spear, and never get hit by his shadow charge.
When the round begins, chances are Shao Kahn will charge you or throw his spear at you. If this happens, jump away from him quickly. If you can't jump in time, duck and block, then jump away. You will be forced to take blocking damage, which hurts.
Shao Kahn is a taunter. If he says things like 'You will die' and 'I will destroy you', he is taunting you. He is also vulnerable then. Walk up and uppercut him, projectile him, etc.
One tactic to use is to jump right in front of Shao Kahn and immediately duck. He will either charge you (in which case you take damage), or uppercut you. His uppercut will miss and you will have a chance to uppercut him, or do whatever. Repeat this throughout the round.
If you do hit Shao Kahn, be sure to fire your projectile while he is getting up. He will always get hit if you are at the right distance.
Another tactic is to go all the way into the corner. Let Shao Kahn get close. If he charges, block then uppercut. Follow the uppercut with a missle. Then duck and block again and hopefully he will do the same thing.
The easiest way to beat Shao Kahn is to use Kitana. Let Shao Kahn walk close to you then do the fan lift. He will walk right into it. Do the jump kick - fan throw - aerial punch combo. Allow him to walk towards you again and repeat. This tactic also works well on Kintaro.