GameSpot has a series of articles called The Greatest Games of All Time, in which they discuss the games which they consider to be the best ever made. In the September 12th edition, they pay homage to Midway's classic fighting game Mortal Kombat II! From the article:

If you had to trace the debate on excessive violence in video games back to a single game, that game would be Mortal Kombat. Midway's absurdly bloody fighter took arcades by storm in 1992, with its graphic depictions of character-inflicted carnage that included decapitated heads, eviscerated hearts, and buckets of spilled blood. Problem was, Mortal Kombat wasn't exactly the best fighting game. The mechanics were simple and the fighting wooden; sometimes, you felt like the whole game was just a vehicle for the gore. Midway fixed that problem, scarcely a year later, with the aptly titled follow-up: Mortal Kombat II. The sequel balked at the senators, parents' groups, and media watchdogs who had condemned the first game by upping the gore factor considerably. But more importantly, the second installment also brought Mortal Kombat into its own as a fighting series.

Considering how quickly Mortal Kombat II came out after its predecessor, Midway went well above expectations with its creativity and, frankly, the sheer amount of stuff that it put into the game. While Mortal Kombat took place on Earth in a series of bland, gray stone temples, the sequel moved to the twisted, bizarrely colorful Outworld. The varied and strange backgrounds there gave the game a real unique visual character. MKII nearly doubled the number of available player characters as well, and all of the characters had plenty of new and useful moves. The plot involved the Earth warriors from the first game, who were transported to Outworld to fight against Shao Kahn, the oppressive master of the first game's boss, Shang Tsung. In an amusing twist, the shape-shifting Shang Tsung became a playable character, with all of his transformation powers intact. You could actually use him to turn into any other fighter in the game, making him a real Swiss army knife of a character.

To read GameSpot's article, entitled "The First Fighting Game That Let You Just Be Friends", in its entirety, click here. We at MK5.ORG send our congratulations to Midway and the Mortal Kombat development team on this achievement!

Our thanks to forum members _JRF_ and Baraka_MK for the heads up on this story!

Gamespot was next in line in releasing its hands on review of the new GBA-exclusive Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition.  They scored the game with an overall rating of 7.6, while keeping with the tradition of rather kind words for this special sequel to last fall's Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. Here's a snippit:

For anyone who hasn't already tried the Mortal Kombat series on the Game Boy Advance, Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition is a good starting point. If you already own MK: Deadly Alliance, however, the decision to make the jump to Tournament Edition will primarily depend on your love of the series and whether or not you have friends to compete against. Despite the change in cast members, Tournament Edition and Deadly Alliance are basically identical in solo play. To get the most out of Tournament Edition, you really need to gather some friends and link together multiple copies of the game.

Thanks to Baraka_MK; as well as our own digitalninja, for the tip on the update.

Pocket IGN has come through with their promised review of the recent release of Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition. They had some nice things to say about this GBA exclusive title, giving it an overall rating of 8.5; becoming one of IGN's Editor's Choice. From the article:

Midway had already impressed us with Deadly Alliance on the Game Boy Advance, offering a game that not only looked great on the handheld, but also played well with an aggressive, combo-based fighting engine. We've already raved about that development, which is why this review focuses on the additional elements that Tournament Edition brings to the handheld. The game's technical "wow" factor has died off in the sequel, but the focus on adding features -- both for single as well as multiple players -- keeps the design exciting and fun. And it's definitely worth a purchase...even if you've fronted the dough for the original

Definitely worth a purchase, indeed. Pick up Mortal Kombat: TE at your local retailer or by visiting our online store today.

UPDATE: We have just learned that MK: Tournament Edition has in fact won IGN's Editor's Choice award for August 2003. Our congratulations to Midway and the MK:TE development team for their achievement!

Having spent some time on MK: Tournament Edition today, I have the following pieces of information to add:

• If you beat the game with all the basic characters on normal difficulty, you don't get Reptile (or anyone else).
• I unlocked Cyrax's Weapon Fatality when I beat 18 people in Survival mode with Cyrax. A little weird, because other Weapon Fatalities (Hsu Hao's, for example) are unlockable via koffins in the Krypt. I suspect that certain koffins, represented with question marks, are not "for sale" and can only be unlocked by performing some feat.
• Easy Money - Test Your Might gives you over 1,000 koins at once if you qualify for the "Perfection Bonus". Just get your power meter filled all the way to the top. If you save up 12,000 red koins and purchase the "GA" koffin you can play Test Your Might all you want, and really rack those koins up high.

We have a couple of quick updates concerning Midway's GBA fighter, Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition!

• Unlock two locked characters w/o koins: While it's already been confirmed that Hsu Hao can be unlocked by beating the game in one-player Arcade mode at Normal or higher difficulty, a source within Midway has informed us that if you beat it with all characters at Normal or higher difficulty, Reptile is then unlocked!
• Shades from the Past: Total-MK of Total Mortal Kombat was the first to tell us that one of the hidden stages is a 3D rendition of the Armory stage from Mortal Kombat II. Its koffin location is IL. As of right now it appears that it may be the only stage from the past to return, but we won't know for certain until all the koffins are unlocked...

As always, MK: Tournament Edition is available either from a retailer near you, or from the MK5.ORG Online Store!