Play Mortal Kombat II in Your Browser

About Mortal Kombat II

Mortal Kombat II is a fighting game that Midway developed and published for arcades in November 1993. Ed Boon and John Tobias designed it, and Dan Forden composed the music. It follows the first Mortal Kombat, and DOS.Zone’s description points to what changed: improved graphics, smoother animation and a larger set of moves, with every fighter on the roster getting their own abilities and fatalities.

The game soon spread to home systems, all published by Acclaim Entertainment. Versions for the Game Boy, Game Gear, Sega Genesis and Super NES arrived on September 9, 1994, followed by the Master System and the Amiga later that year, the 32X in March 1995, the Sega Saturn in early 1996 and, in Japan in August 1996, the PlayStation. Sculptured Software made the Super NES version, while Probe Software handled most of the others, including the one for MS-DOS.

That MS-DOS version is the one on DOS.Zone. It is the PC release rather than the arcade original, which is worth knowing if you’re looking for the cabinet version specifically.

How it runs in your browser

The Play button sends you to DOS.Zone, which opens in a new tab and loads the game. Behind it is js-dos, DOS.Zone’s open-source DOSBox build for the browser, which emulates an MS-DOS PC so the original DOS program can run in a browser tab. All the files are hosted on the site, so you don’t install anything or upload a copy of your own. You don’t need an account, and the site has no ads. DOS.Zone files the game under action and fighting, and its page shows a five-star average from 32 player reviews.

Multiplayer is one of the game’s modes, but there’s no online play on this listing. Whether two people can share one keyboard for a match isn’t stated on the DOS.Zone page, so check the game’s own control options if you want to try.

Controls and devices

You play with the keyboard. DOS.Zone doesn’t publish this game’s key layout, so look at the setup or options screens before your first fight and find the attack keys. On phones, DOS.Zone shows virtual on-screen controls, but the game was built for a keyboard, and a desktop or laptop handles it better.

Who it’s for

It is for players who remember Mortal Kombat II from the PC and want a few rounds without setting up an emulator, and for fighting game fans who want to see an early chapter of the series. If you’d like to face other people online, later games in the series also run in a browser: Mortal Kombat: Armageddon from 2006 and the 2011 reboot, Mortal Kombat 9, both have online play.