Mortal Kombat II © 1993 Midway Mfg. Co.
Mortal Kombat II is a direct sequel to the 1992 original featuring new fighters (increasing the character roster from 7 to 12) and improved graphics.
As with its predecessor, MKII's matches are divided into rounds, with victory awarded to the first player to win two rounds. At the point of defeat, the losing fighter will become dazed and the winner is given the opportunity to execute a 'finishing move'.
Some of the standard fighting moves (moves shared by all characters) have now been expanded or enhanced. A crouching punch has been added and the 'roundhouse kick' is more powerful and now knocks opponents across the screen. Also, the difference in hit boxes between high and low kicks is now more marked.
Additionally, returning characters gain new special moves and MKII marks the first appearance of multiple Fatalities - as well as additional, non-lethal finishing moves - in the series. In addition to the Fatalities of its predecessor, MKII offers 'Babalities' (turning a defeated opponent into a crying baby), 'Friendships' (a non-malicious interaction, such as dancing or giving a gift to the defeated opponent) and stage-specific Fatalities (the winner uppercutting their opponent into an abyss below, spikes above, or a pool of acid in the background).
Each character still shares generic attributes - speed, power, jump height and airtime - albeit with differing hit boxes. The sequel drops the points system of its prequel in favor of a consecutive win tally.
Midway T Unit hardware
Main CPU : TMS34010 (@ 6.25 Mhz)
Sound CPU : ADSP2105 (@ 10 Mhz)
Sound Chips : DMA-driven (@ 10 Mhz)
Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 5
=> [1] High Punch, [2] Block, [3] High Kick
=> [4] Low Punch, [5] Low Kick
Mortal Kombat II was released in June 1993 in USA.
MKII was the first Midway release to use the DCS Sound System.
'Noob Saibot' backwards spells 'Boon' and 'Tobias' who are the names of the principle game designers.
'Jax' was originally supposed to be in the original Mortal Kombat game and named Kurtis Stryker. Jax was then moved to MKII and the Stryker character debuted in Mortal Kombat 3.
'Kintaro' was originally intended to be a humanoid tiger, similar to the creature in Japanese mythology. This idea was scrapped, however, due to the fact that creating the costume would not have been feasable. However, thanks to this original idea, the Shokan we know as Kintaro has the tiger stripes on his back.
Real life : Philip Ahn, who played the regenerated Shang Tsung, is in fact a doctor.
Three of the cast members for MKII filed a lawsuit against Midway shortly after the game was released. The claim? The physical instructors/martial artists Elizabeth Malecki (Sonya Blade), Catalin Zamiar (Kitana/Milenna) and Philip Ahn were under the impression that they were hired under typical acting contracts and were entitled to a small modicum of benefits including royalties of title sales, etc. The plaintiffs banded together against Midway, who took the case to court. Eventually the judge failed on Midway's behalf, citing that the work done by the plaintiffs for Midway was done strictly as a 'work-for-hire' and Midway owned all the property and benefits on the characters/titles/etc. As a consequence, all three left the project, and were recast for Mortal Kombat 3.
SFII / MK2 : both games were supposed to be released within weeks of each other (at this time, Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat were the dominant fighting games). Capcom released Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers early so that they could attract fans away from MK. At the same time, Midway released MK2 early for similar reasons. As you can see, the result meant that both came back to square one.
One of Jade's clues references Chun Li from Street Fighter "Chun who?"
'Friendships' and 'Babalities' (see 'Tips And Tricks' section for more info) in MKII were used in making light of the violence controversy in the first Mortal Kombat game.
Two non-existent hidden characters were 'Torch', and 'Hornbuckle'. In MKII there is a location called 'The Pit II'. Far in the background of this stage there is another bridge across the chasm. Standing stationary on this bridge are two fighters : one of them is a Liu Kang sprite with green pants who was named Hornbuckle by fans. One of Jade's hints was 'Hornbuckle who?', which people thought was the name of a hidden fighter, and was apparently given to the guy opposite 'Torch' on The Pit II. If you watch the ending credits, one of the programmers' last names is Hornbuckle. The other fighter is a humanoid character that seems to be made of fire. As these two characters never move, it has been suggested that the 'other fighter' is actually a funeral pyre. Finally, there is a cloaked figure who floats in front of the window during fights in The Tower and Portal stages in MKII. This character was dubbed Cloak by fans, and was assumed to be a hidden character. The character of Torch, who had been very popular with fans, eventually showed up as a playable character in "Mortal Kombat : Deadly Alliance". Unfortunately, due to trademark issues, he had to be called Blaze instead of Torch. The true identity of Cloak was revealed in "Mortal Kombat : Shaolin Monks" to be one of Shang Tsung's servants, a shadow priest.
The head that occasionally appears after an uppercut and says 'Toasty' is the digitized head of Dan Forden who worked on the sound and music for the game.
Ed Boon's face was superimposed onto the trees for the Living Forest stage.
Jimmy Cardenas holds the official record for this game with 282,000 points.
Midway released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Mortal Kombat II: Music from the Arcade Game Soundtrack - 123770-C1) on December 1, 1993.
An arcade-perfect emulation of this game is an unlockable feature in Mortal Kombat - Shaolin Monks for the Sony PlayStation 2 and Microsoft XBOX.
Popular pirate hacks of MK2 are known as:
Mortal Kombat II 4.2
Mortal Kombat II 9.1
Mortal Kombat II Challenger..
Sega Master System (1994) Mortal Kombat II [Model MK-29029-50] 
(1994) Mortal Kombat II [Model 028.530] by Tec Toy 
Sega Genesis (1994) Mortal Kombat II [Model T-81346] (1994) Mortal Kombat II [Model 047070] by Tec Toy Sega Mega Drive (1994) Mortal Kombat II [Model T-81346-50] 
(1994) "Mortal Kombat II [Sega Platinum Collection]" (1994) Mortal Kombat II [Model T-8101B] (1994) Mortal Kombat II [Model 153010] by Tec Toy (sept.1994) Mortal Kombat II [Model SNS-28-USA] (sept.9, 1994) Mortal Kombat II [Model SNSP-28-EUR] 
Sega Mega Drive (sept.9, 1994) Mortal Kombat II [Model T-8104A] Nintendo Super Famicom (nov.11, 1994) Mortal Kombat II - Kyuukyoku Shinken [Model SHVC-28] (mar.1995) Mortal Kombat II [Model T-8101B-50] (may.19, 1995) Mortal Kombat II - Kyuukyoku Shinken [Model T-8104A] Sega Saturn (1996) Mortal Kombat II [Model T-8103H-50] Sega Saturn (mar.28, 1996) Mortal Kombat II [Model T-8103H] Sega Saturn (mar.29, 1996) Mortal Kombat II Kanzenban [Model T-8107G] Sony PlayStation (aug.2, 1996) Mortal Kombat II [Model SLPS-00444] (2004) Midway Arcade Treasures 2 Microsoft XBOX (oct.11, 2004) "Midway Arcade Treasures 2 [Model MWO-3201W]" (oct.11, 2004) Midway Arcade Treasures 2 [Model DOL-GAYE-USA] Sony PS2 (oct.11, 2004) Midway Arcade Treasures 2 [Model SLUS-20997] Microsoft XBOX (oct.29, 2004) Midway Arcade Treasures 2 Sony PS2 (oct.29, 2004) Midway Arcade Treasures 2 [Model SLES-52844] (apr.12, 2007) (june.8, 2007) (aug.31, 2011) "Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection" (1994) Mortal Kombat II [Model T-81278] Nintendo Game Boy (sept.1994) Mortal Kombat II [Model DMG-AMKE-USA] Sega Game Gear (sept.9, 1994) Mortal Kombat II - Kyuukyoku Jinken [Model T-81107] Sega Game Gear (sept.9, 1994) Mortal Kombat II [Model T-81278-50] Nintendo Game Boy (oct.27, 1994) Mortal Kombat II [Model DMG-AMKE-EUR] Nintendo Game Boy (nov.11, 1994) Mortal Kombat II - Kyuukyoku Shinken [Model DMG-AMKJ-JPN] Nintendo Game Boy (nov.1997) "Mortal Kombat & Mortal Kombat II [Model DMG-AK2E-USA]" Nintendo Game Boy (sept.10, 1998) "Mortal Kombat & Mortal Kombat II [Model DMG-AK2J-JPN]" Sony PSP (dec.13, 2005) Midway Arcade Treasures Extended Play [Model ULUS-10059] Sony PSP (feb.24, 2006) Midway Arcade Treasures Extended Play [Model ULES-00180] (1994) (1994) (sept.10, 1998) "Mortal Kombat & Mortal Kombat II" PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (feb.17, 2006) Midway Arcade Treasures Deluxe Edition PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (mar.17, 2006) Midway Arcade Treasures Deluxe Edition by Zoo Digital Publishing (aug.31, 2011) "Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection" (feb.2, 2012) "Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection"