Mortal Kombat 3 (Game Boy)

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Mortal Kombat 3
Remember how good Mortal Kombat II on Game Boy was? Well then, the third game has taken all the bad qualities of that port along with the bad qualities of the horrible port of the first Mortal Kombat on Game Boy, and this is how the port of the third game turned out.
Genre(s): Fighting Platform(s): Game Boy Release: NA: October 13, 1995 EU: 1995 Developer(s): Software Creations Publisher(s): Acclaim Entertainment Predecessor: Mortal Kombat II Successor: Mortal Kombat 4

Mortal Kombat 3 is a 1995 Arcade fighting game developed by Midway Games and first released into Arcades in 1995, and then ported into various platforms. While the Arcade and console versions were well-received, the same cannot be said for the Game Boy port and it's what the page will talking about.

Why This Port Needs to Get Over Here

1. For starters, the soundtrack for this version is abysmal; it's sound even worse than the already horrible soundtrack of the Game Gear and Master System ports of this game. The main reason why the soundtrack is abysmal is because it's way too loud, and it's a very abysmal way of trying to recreate the soundtrack of the console and arcade version; in fact, it's sounding so bad that even the first Mortal Kombat on Game Boy has better music than this.
   • Some of the music in this port is also downright creepy due to how bad it sounds. The Pit theme is possibly the worst offender; in fact, the soundtrack of this port is so abysmal that you might want to turn down the volume of the console and play with no sounds.
2. The graphics, just like the Game Gear version, are horrendously bad, but here it's even worse with such terrible graphics that look like a whatered-down version of Mortal Kombat II on the same console in terms of graphics and even the gameplay itself.
   • The sprites look very terrible and looks like it's taken from the Game Gear version and was worsened to the point of making it one of the ugliest Mortal Kombat games of all time.
   • The backgrounds, much like the Game Gear port, are almost completely absent, which adds a lot to how bad the graphics are.
3. Terrible controls; the characters are not as tight as in Mortal Kombat II for the Game Boy, and instead they are very clunky. It's like the developer of this port wanted that the port have the same flaws as the Game Boy port of the first Mortal Kombat; in fact, there are other flaws from the first Mortal Kombat on Game Boy.
4. The hit detection is so bad that sometimes, even if you hit your opponent, he or she will not even take damage from you; it's like the port actually wants to be even worse than the Game Gear port of it and also unplayable.
5. Clunky and slow gameplay It looks like the developers of this port decided to make the exact same mistake as the Game Boy port of Mortal Kombat. The game slows down when your opponent moves and sometimes even when you perform an uppercut on them.
   • Not to mention that the very good Mortal Kombat II port on the Game Boy has better gameplay than this port, but it's also much more fun and more effort was put into that port too, despite the fact that Acclaim has made a great port for the Sega Genesis and SNES versions of the game, so what happens here?
6. No Babality theme. If you do the ballet, the stage music still plays. Not to mention, there's no effect once you turn your opponent into a baby.
7. There are barely any sound effects in the fight whatsoever; even the Game Gear version has sound effects, despite them being godawful.
8. Unsurprisingly, this port doesn't have the extremely fun combo system from the original versions of the game, which makes this port very boring, especially for people who loved the combo system from the original version.
9. There isn't any mode for the two players to link to play multiplayer, which is just sad because there are already plenty of Game Boy games that use this link for multiplayer.
10. There are no replay values whatsoever, mostly due to how bad this port is.
11. The fatalities are again extremely awful and lazy; this might be because of the Game Boy limitation.
12. Lack of endurance levels (the levels where you can fight more than 1 opponent), meaning it can be disappointing to those who loved the endurance levels in the original version.
13. Motaro doesn't appear at all. This means once you defeat your opponent, that is, before Shao Kahn, you will fight Shao Kahn instead of Motaro.
14. Only 9 characters are available (8 if you don't have Smoke unlocked). Despite Liu Kang being considered the main character, he doesn't appear in this port at all, much like in the Game Gear port. Even the first two Mortal Kombats on the Game Boy allowed you to play as Liu Kang as one of the playable characters.
15. Not only are the graphics awful in this port, but it also got some awful animation that would make the characters of this game want to force Software Creations to make them better, much like the graphics themselves.
16. There are no other modes other than the regular Tournament Kombat mode, which means that this port was probably rushed like the Game Gear version.

Reception

This port received overwelmingly negative reviews from critics and a reviewer on GameFAQs. In GameFAQs, most critics range from a 2 to a 1/10 score; they criticized the poor controls, terrible soundtrack and graphics, and how bad this port is; in fact, it even got a 2.20/5.00 score based on 82 user scores.

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