- It has a good gameplay to measure skills.
- Well balanced characters (Everybody, but then everybody rocks in MKII).
- Overall harmony. Graphics, sounds it all fits.
You can time Cage's last buttonpress precisly if you listen to the low of the music.
- Digitized chracters for realism. Same for MKI, didn't like the graphics of MK3. It was a real smartass idea that worked amazing.
-The fighting. You can counter any ground move (exept specials and the sweep.) with another move.

I could go on forever with this most brilliant game.

It was original, and you could tell that the developers put a lot of effort into it. It seems like the developers got a little lazy, after that, with MK3, UMK3, and MKT. They had to put effort into MK4, by bringing MK into 3D. This is often taken for granted. Just look at how long it took streetfighter to make it into 3D. MK:DA could have been a LOT better.

Although MK:DA was modern, I still say that MK2 will, more than likely, never be topped...Unless they put thier true hearts into MK6. They they will have to become obsessed with perfection (like I am).

The total package was perfect. Everything was in harmony. The colors of the characters and backgrounds were bright enough to be eye catching and interesting but were done just right so that they still gave a dark overall look the game. The music fit both the visuals and the pace of fighting with the game.

Nothing really looked out of place or poorly done. I even think the friendships were great in that game, they were just right to make them very entertaining. I think an awful lot of the quality in the music and visuals was lost with MK3.

MK2 just seemed to take the best parts of MK1 and expand upon them in the correct manner because MK1, I thought, also had great looking characters and amazing backgrounds and musics. Its like they had so many great ideas for MK1 and did the best they could with their limited budget and then for MK2 they could finally let out all the ideas they had. But then by MK3, at least asthetically, they were sapped.