MK raised the bar for all other fighting games during its reign of the arcade era.
The game play was tweaked from the Arcade version to fix a few "unfair" problems in the fighting mechanic (i.e. fighters automatically block incoming attacks if they have not been given a fair chance to stand up after being knocked down). This sucks for some, but it was probably necessary to give fighters who are on the receiving end of an onslaught a chance to recover and retaliate. Aside from that, the game feels just as it does in the Arcade.
Just about everything in this game is just how it was when you were in the arcade. Of course, the difficulty is tuned down significantly for your home entertainment - there is no point in making you lose if you aren't forced to feed more quarters into the machine in order to play again. A new character (not playable) named Reptile appears in this game as a secret battle. He is quite cool, and has the powers of Sub-Zero and Scorpion.