The arcade era was an interesting time for gaming. Games were generally designed to be difficult as a means of maximizing the number of quarters players would have to spend to get the an entire playthrough.
For fighting games, this translated to give the AI the ability to read the player’s inputs and then apply the appropriate counter every single time. As if that wasn’t enough, the AI was often outfitted with the ability to outright cheat in a manner that allowed them access to interactions that simply were not possible for humans.
Despite being designed by such a small team, the original Mortal Kombat became a national sensation at the arcade scene. As such, a bigger and better sequel became the obvious next step.
While Mortal Kombat 2 certainly improved upon everything, this also meant that it also escalated its ability to cheat players out of their quarters. Indeed, Mortal Kombat 2 is designed with increased difficulty over its predecessor.
In a previous video, Mass Replay analyzed the “arcade economy” of the first Mortal Kombat entry. He initially rated it a 9 out of 10 in terms of difficulty and its ability to cheat players out of their quarters, but was actually forced to lower that rating after playing through Mortal Kombat 2.
He ended up giving Mortal Kombat 2 a 10 out of 10 in terms of difficulty. With each play costing $0.50, Mass Replay calculated that it would’ve costed him $52.00 to beat Mortal Kombat 2 (which is about $117.77 when considering inflation).
The bosses alone costed him $30.00, though it’s interesting to note that Shao Kahn himself only contributed to $2.00 due to Mass Replay eventually figuring out tactics to exploit the AI. Check it all out below:
