You would think that if the
Game Gear (and the Game Boy for that matter) can handle a decent playing version of the
game, then the 8-bit Game.com should have a tolerable representation of the game. It's
seems likely that the programmers names are nowhere to found ANYWHERE in the game or in
the documentation so they didn't have to deal with the embarrassment of being attached to
the worst version of the game ever made. From the graphics to the controls, this one
screws everything up. It does however manage to have a few MK firsts. It's the
first version of the game to be rated "Teen" and it's the first one not to
contain Sub-Zero OR Scorpion, neither of these being high points.
Mostly thanks to the Game.com's horrible screen, the graphics are a mess of blurry sprites and bland backgrounds. Movement is slow and jumping is the only thing that seems to move at the right speed. The characters look fine when standing still, it's when they begin moving that things go wrong. No animation routine has more then two frames of animation and movements can be tough to see due to the screens blurring. Low kicks get a special award for their hilarious animations and the fatalities aren't even worth pulling off. Blood is also a factor, but it can honestly be hard to tell the difference between splattering blood and a fallen character.
Voices have pulled directly from the other versions of the game but sound muddled during gameplay. There's no music during the gameplay, so you're left listening to the usual yells and grunts. Let's thank Tiger for the volume button on the side of the console.
The final and inexcusable flaw is the lack of any decent characters. Whoever decided Reptile, Ermac, Rain, and Smoke are more popular than Scorpion should be banned from the game programming world forever. Considering this would only be a matter of changing the name and a special move, this makes no sense. The bosses are selectable from the beginning, but they're actually harder to play as than the regular characters.
For the few who own the console, we here at Digital Press are sorry to inform you that the system has NO decent fighting games. Not even the most die-hard MK fans will like this one, or the most die hard Game.com fanatics (if there are any) for that matter. For a quarter, you may get a decent laugh out of it, but otherwise you'll be a better person if you never play this one.
