Street Fighter vs Mortal Kombat 2011 vs 1992

2011
Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition (3DS) vs Mortal Kombat (Xbox 360)

Imagine a world where you’ve got a miniature animated army, some who’ve been around for nearly 25 years, in the palm of your hand. You choose your finest fighter to take on 8 consecutive fighters to be crowned the baddest, maddest fighter on the street, airfield or jungle in glorious 3 dimensions. Welcome to SSIV – 3D.


Imagine a world, on an original 2D fighting plane, ram packed with glorious gore, brand new x-ray super moves and the old favourite - fatality moves. Combining mortals and gods – a fight to save earthrealm at any cost. On the big screen, 27 playable characters, new lands and the almighty pit. It can only be Mortal Kombat.

Both operate on the classic arcade style 2D fighting plane (this was the second most fan requested feature for the developers of MK9), they both have new playing modes and features (SF – collecting figurines, utilising the innovative street pass to fight battles when you’re not looking and MK has Tag Team mode and Krypt collections) and they both offer online playing possibilities. MK has the big screen possibilities to see all that lush and detailed background and beautifully rendered character artwork vs the small screen, tightly packed, diamond like quality of SF. They’re both brilliant and it’s the first time a fighting game has felt good enough being portable to compete with the big screen big boys - though some of the intricate moves are a trifle difficult to execute on the d-pad. In comparison the 360 controller reacts to every feather light touch in your finest fatal hour, if you can’t pull it off – tools workman bad blames his a always.

What makes both such strong games is the speed of play, the combo’s and there’s a familiarity, like they’re both old friends but have been re-energised, pimped, stripped down and re-invented for the modern fighter. MK runs at an impressive 60 fps and the fighting system is as impressively deep as the 3DS tasty little screen. Both games are dip inable, but MK satisfies that thirst for a heavy session, romping through the story mode, playing through each of the characters and slowly unlocking your XP. The more you play Mortal Kombat, the better it gets.

1992
Street Fighter II (SNES) vs Mortal Kombat (Megadrive)

Twas just shy of 20 years when these first fighting beasts made the leap from arcade goodness to home console happiness, but now, many iterations later, we’re on MK9 and SF43 (ok a slight exaggeration). Who wins? 1990s vs 2010s, SF vs Mk. You decide. Or rather, I will.

I, Mr Cyan, can safely say that the class of 2011 lay to bed any of the nasty, complicated and unnecessarily embellished versions of the 2 games in the last 20 years.

As the great Chairman Mao once said: Civilize the mind but make savage the body.