Thread devoted to how anyone who's played the Game Boy versions of MK games would review them. (Does NOT apply to Game Boy Advance) Sorry, I haven't played Game Gear enough to base anything on, so here we go:

MK1: It was a great transition. Even without Johnny Cage, it manages to hold its own with just 6 characters to choose from. The only problem with the game would be the controls, which had the same lagging as the SNES controls did. You had to wait about half a second between button presses to get a move out. The Fatalities were even worse tone down than the SNES, completely ridding Sub-Zero of any fatality worthy of his name, giving him a simple slide punch. There wasn't even a pit fatality, and on top of that, no Reptile. The sound is good for a system like the Game Boy. The best bounus is the ability to play Goro after you beat the game, and replace everyone's name with names of the MK and Midway teams. Despite the flaws, it was very much worth the money and time if you had that kind of patience to put up with the controls.

Rating: 7 / 10

MK2: This one was a good bit better than MK on GB. The controls were vastly improved, as were the sounds and music. This time you had to live without Baraka, Raiden, Kung Lao, Johnny Cage, Noob Saibot, or Kintaro. But the game itself wasn't without it's own flaws (this IS Game Boy after all). Whereas its predecessor had laggy controls, some considered MK2 to have "hyper" controls, and that the speed of the game was significantilly faster than the first game. Even with the fast gameplay it wasn't difficult to nail a hit when you wanted to. Other good aspects included correct transitions of Fatalities and only re-making Liu Kang's (although only one fatality per character), the babality, a pit fatality in the Kombat Tomb (sorry, no Pit II fatality), and 2 hidden characters (Smoke and Jade). While Kintaro didn't appear, Shao Kahn did. Kahn could have been more of a challenge, as many players quickly found that just doing jump punches straight up would do the trick to beat him the vast majority of the time. Overall, this version of MK2 hit the spot and is definitely something to give an MK fan his hit while on the road.

Rating: 9 / 10

MK3: Well, at this point in history it was becoming clear that the 16-bit systems were starting to become unable to even decently duplicate or even emulate the power that arcade hardware was producing now. With the SNES and Genesis versions of MK3 being under par with the arcade counterpart. Limited memory and more reqirements for complete gameplay were growing out of the 16-bit system's reach, and taken over by the Playstation and Saturn. This also held true to the Game Boy version. The graphics were very blocky, and the animation was even choppier than MK2. The controls also lagged like the first game, making the game take a half second before recognizing a move. Even worse, the addition of the Run feature made the control layout of a Game Boy almost obsolete for this type of game. Given only 4 real buttons to use (A, B, Start, and Select), Run had to be given as a combination of forward + A + B. Like MK2, MK3 only gave each character one fatality and a babality. Like the first game, no stage fatalites. Also no friendships, mercies, or Animalities. A LOT was taken out of the game to even make it fit the Game Boy cartridge. Even though they added the ability to use Kombat Kodes in 1-player mode (even allowing you to make the A.I.'s health 1/4 of normal for an easier win), it could not make up for everything else. The sound is also bad, even for Game Boy. Could this game have been better? Maybe. Should it have been made in the first place? Maybe not.

Rating: 4 / 10

MK4: This game should have NEVER been ported to the Game Boy. There was just no way in Hell that a system like the Game Boy, having run on the same hardware and specs for 10 years, could handle what MK4 had to offer. The controls respond like they should, however the animation and the colors from the Game Boy color cannot match up to any other port of MK4. The sound is also the worst of any GB MK game, using small beeps and boops instead of actual music. I could swear that that was even the only track in the game. Special Moves are also hard to figure out, as the controls either do not match other ports or are not in the game at all. This game also copied off MK3 badly, by not only having just 9 characters (Reptile being hidden for absolutely no reason given he's never hidden in any other version), and the same destiny towers that MK3 uses. Count that in with the fact that the characters look like arcade sprites from the 1980's, and it can be a real eyesore. As expected, there could be no FMV or rendered endings, just text, but even text can't do justice to any of the characters, nor to the FMV. This one should have never crossed Midway's mind at all. Bad sound + Bad colors + bad design = one really crappy game. It might have worked for the Game Boy Advance, but for this console... not one bit.

Rating: 1 / 10