Mortal Kombat 3
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Frosty! Crispy!
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Mortal Kombat 3 is a fighting video game developed and published by Midway Games on April 15, 1995 for Arcades, and then ported to various consoles and computers. It received 2 updates: Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 on November 6, 1995 and Mortal Kombat Trilogy on October 10, 1996.
Plot
Shao Kahn, who lost to Liu Kang in the Outworld tournament in the previous game, enacts a 10,000-year-old plan. He would have his Shadow Priests, led by Shang Tsung, revive his former Queen Sindel, who unexpectedly died at a young age. However, she would not be revived in the Outworld, but in Earthrealm. This would allow Shao Kahn to cross the boundary lines and reclaim his queen. When Sindel is reincarnated in Earthrealm, Shao Kahn reaches across the dimensions to reclaim her, and as a result, Earthrealm gradually becomes a part of Outworld, stripping billions of their souls. Only a few are spared, protected by Raiden. He tells them that Shao Kahn must be stopped, but he cannot interfere. Due to his status, he has no power in Outworld, and Earthrealm is partially merged with Outworld. Shao Kahn has unleashed extermination squads to kill any Earthrealm survivors.
Why It Rocks
- Awesome graphics that still look good, even for today and 1995 to 1996 standards. As what would you expect from a Mortal Kombat game, expecially released for Arcade, the graphics for the characters were done by recording them via real-life camera, allowing for some realistic feeling.
- The running mechanic has been implemented, allowing for a much more faster playstyle, considering that the slower playstyle in fighting games was starting to become outdated as the fighting game genre started experiencing with new things, so Midway decided to make MK3 faster with the running mechanic. It comes with a catch though - there's a reun bar and if it's completely red, you cannot run until it is restored.
- Once again, MK3 contains new characters, with some of them being introduced, such as Sindel, Nightwolf, Stryker, Cyrax, Sektor, Sheeva, Motaro and Kabal. Not to mention, 2 of the characters from MK1, Sonya and Kano, return after their absence in Mortal Kombat II.
- And on top of that, some characters from MK1 and MK2 return in UMK3, such as Jade, Reptile, Scorpion, Kitana, Human Smoke, Mileena and Classic Sub-Zero. Even Noob Saibot is no longer a paletteswap of Kano.
- In Mortal Kombat Trilogy, Johnny Cage, Raiden and Baraka finally return after their absence in MK3 and UMK3.
- In Mortal Kombat Trilogy, you can finally play as bosses from MK1, MK2, MK3 and UMK3. This means Goro, Kintaro, Motaro and even Shao Kahn, the final boss of the game became playable in MKT.
- What's more awesome is that we could finally see our long time no seen friend from MK1, Goro, even before the console and PC ports ofMortal Kombat 4.
- The Arcade version of Mortal Kombat 3 contains a hidden game of Galaga, which can be played by a code, or if you will win 100 fights in a row. This is similar to Mortal Kombat II, as MK2 contains a hidden game of Pong.
- There's a combo system implemented in the game called "dial-a-combos", which are chain combos performed by pressing a series of buttons. Finishing the combo will show how much hits connected and how much damage it dealt.
- Ever since Mortal Kombat 3, there are now animalities, which are fatalities where your character transforms into a animal and kills your opponent. There's even a thing called "Mercy", which gives your opponent a little more HP before you would want to actually do a fatality on your opponent.
- As mentioned in WIR#5, there are now codes, which can do some stuff, like turn off the timer. The codes contain 6 spaces, which can be seen in the vs. screen in 2-player mode. 3 of the spaces are controlled by the first player, and others are controlled by the second player.
- The music, just like the rest of the games, is awesome and memorable, thanks to Dan Forden.
- "Toasty!" spawned 2 more easter eggs that are similiar to it. One of them is called "Frosty!", which appears sometimes when you or your opponent gets hit by Sub-Zero's Ice Blast, and "Crispy!", which appears sometimes when you perform the stage fatality in the "Hell" stage.
- The Sega Saturn and Nintendo DS versions are almost arcade-perfect. With the Saturn version, it can give you the feeling that you're playing the Arcade version at home, while the DS version can give you a feeling that you're playing the Arcade version on the go.
- The announcer's line: "Friendship! FRIENDSHIP, AGAIN?!"
Bad Qualities
- Just like MK1, some of the game's console ports can be problematic, even for UMK3 and MKT's ports:
- The Game Boy, Game Gear and Master System versions of MK3 are somehow awful, unlike MK2's Game Boy, Game Gear and Master System ports.
- The 16-bit versions of UMK3, while not bad, are rushed ports, resulting in them having a lot of glitches. There are two most notable glitches exclusive to the SNES and Genesis versions.
- Sheeva is a very broken and unfinished character in the SNES port, which can be easy to crash the game, as using her causes a lot of bugs and glitches. This is because she was removed from the port due to the SNES' weaker hardware, but the developers forgot to disable her in the tournament mode.
- Due to lack of space in both SNES and Genesis versions Animalities were removed and replaced with Brutalities which is just a myriad of punches before the opponent explodes. However, the developers forgot to disable the input for Kabal's Animality in the Genesis port, resulting in glitches and strange effects.
- The Game.com version of Mortal Kombat Trilogy doesn't include Scorpion or even Sub-Zero. Instead, they have been replaced with Rain and Reptile, and this doesn't even feel like Mortal Kombat, since Scorpion and Sub-Zero are the series mascots.
- The Game Boy Advance port of UMK3 is horrendously bad, with cheap A.I, tons of glitches and more.
- As mentioned in WIR#3, the ninjas and Johnny Cage are missing in MK3, due to Daniel Pesina ditching Midway in 1994, although Sub-Zero is still in MK3, but in a different apperance (though his design in MK3 still looks great).
- Not to mention, Noob Saibot had to become a paletteswap of Kano, due to lack of ninjas in MK3.
- Like the previous games, the A.I. is sometimes extremely unfair with Motaro and Shao Kahn being the worst offenders.
- Some fatalities are rather too goofy for a dark and violent franchise like Mortal Kombat. Some highlights include:
- Jax somehow becoming giant and stomping the opponent with his foot.
- Cyrax activating a self-destruction, blowing up himself and the opponent.
- Smoke shooting several bombs which blow up the entire planet.
- Kano somehow ripping the opponent's entire skeleton from their mouth.
Trivia
- The Subway stage has a sign in the background that reads: "BOON/TOBIAS." These are the last names of Mortal Kombat co-creators, Ed Boon and John Tobias.
- This is the only Mortal Kombat game to not feature Raiden as a playable character. However, he makes a cameo in the intro and returns as a playable character in MKT.
- In the Sega Genesis port of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, Sheeva is an even more hidden character than in the SNES port. Trying to play as her in the Genesis port in any way crashes the game.
Reception
Mortal Kombat 3 received positive reviews. As of 2014, the review aggregator website GameRankings is giving it the averaged scores of 80.23% for the Super NES, 76.67% for the Genesis, and 70.33% for the PlayStation. Electronic Gaming Monthly (known as EGM for short) gave the PlayStation version their "Game of the Month". They also gave the Sega Saturn version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 8.625/10, while they gave the SNES version of UMK3 6.875/10 ratings. Sega Saturn Magazine gave the Saturn version of UMK3 a 91% rating. The PS1 version of Mortal Kombat Trilogy has a 67% rating by GameRankings, while they gave the N64 version a 52% rating. Game Informer gave the Saturn version a 8.75/10 rating. GameSpot gave the N64 version 5.8/10, 8.6/10 for the PS1, and 6.0/10 for the Saturn version ratings. IGN gave the N64 version 4.1/10 and the PS1 version 6.0/10 ratings. Sega Saturn Magazine gave the Saturn version of MKT 88% score.
Legacy
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 was released to arcades in 1995 as an update of Mortal Kombat 3, featuring altered gameplay, additional characters, and new arenas. Various home versions of the game were released soon afterward, although none of these were completely identical to the arcade version, with the exception of the Sega Saturn and Nintendo DS versions, which are almost identical to the Arcade version. Several more home versions followed between 2002 and 2010, including Mortal Kombat Advance for the Game Boy Advance and Ultimate Mortal Kombat for the Nintendo DS. The DS version features the "Puzzle Kombat" minigame originally from Mortal Kombat: Deception.
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 itself was updated to include content from previous games in the series and serve as the basis for the console-exclusive title Mortal Kombat Trilogy in 1996. It was also remastered to be released as part of the Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection in 2011.
Plot elements from the game were used in the 1997 film Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, the sequel to the first Mortal Kombat film adaptation.
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