September 1994: Mortal Monday II
Despite higher pre-sales, the Mortal Kombat II launch was smoother than the
original.
Pre-orders were more routine and organized now (although we still relied on the hefty binder for reservations).
The decision for consumers was a bit tougher now because Nintendo relented and allowed blood & fatalities to appear.
The reviews all ranked the Super Nintendo version superior to the Genesis one this time around.
The play control for both versions was nearly perfect but the Super Nintendo
version sported better graphics.
The pre-orders we took were a mirror image of the original Mortal Kombat with the Super
Nintendo port holding a tremendous lead this time.
Customers also expected "Mortal Monday" to mean "Mortal Friday" as every retailer broke the release date last time.
History repeated itself when everyone ignored the text on the boxes instructing "DO NOT OPEN UNTIL SEPTEMBER 9".
That weekend the store was a madhouse with a deluge of customers picking up one (or two) of the four available editions.
I also started what would end up being my last full semester at junior college.
My academic slacking reached an apex to the point where I never went to class unless there was an exam.
One flaw with that plan, among many, was that exam dates would change and you had to actually be in the class to hear the
announcement.
I missed a few tests and ended up failing or dropping every class I was in.
The college put me on academic probation, which meant I could only sign-up for one class in the next semester.
If I bombed or dropped that then adios. You can probably figure out what happened.
I probably note this someone else in here but I take great pride in being a junior college flunk-out with a Masters degree.
Yeah, junior college is kind of a joke.
It's a good option for adult/continuing education but for the average 18 year-old it's just a way to prolong high school for another 2 years.
Culturally, a junior college from 8:00-3:00 really is no different than high school.
Flunking-out was entirely my fault though.
I didn't take school seriously and had no idea what I wanted to do in life.
Well, I had plenty ideas of what I wanted to do; I just had an unrealistic expectation that they would magically happen without any work.
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