The original Mortal Kombat, nowadays, could be seen as a mere appetizer for arcade-goers, showing off simple, yet still fun fights, coupled with plenty of bloody fatalities to leave fans satisfied when they were able to pull them off. Mortal Kombat II, in comparison, feels like the true, main course, providing all of the same bloody and violent fun and charm that the original game had, while expanding upon it by refining the gameplay, adding new, fun characters to play as, new gruesome fatalities, new moves to pull off, new stages to play in, and even different types of fatalities, making for a much more enjoyable and violently satisfying experience for fans of MK and fighting game fanatics alike. And naturally, just like the original game, it went onto become a major success, with it selling like crazy for every platform, spawning many imitators, being enjoyed by millions across the world, and is now considered both one of, if not the best entry in the series, as well as one of the best games of all time. So, with that kind of success in mind, trying to follow up that title in any way whatsoever was gonna be quite the daunting task. I mean, with a game that was heralded as a seemingly flawless masterpiece back in the day, how could they top themselves? Well, I dunno, but they sure did try to, and thus, two years after the previous entry, the world was given the third chapter in this blood-soaked saga that would be simply known as Mortal Kombat 3.
Just like with the last two games, this entry in the series was one that I had no experience with prior to me playing it before this review. I had heard mixed things about it before, with people saying that it was either a step-down from the previous games in the series, or just straight up terrible in general. But hey, at the end of the day, only I can decide whether or not I think a game is good or not, and I decided to stick with the original version of the game so that I can properly see what it did for the series before getting tweaked, as well as so that I can nitpick the fuck out of it. So, based on what I did play through…. I think this may just be the most mechanically sound game in the original trilogy, and a really good entry in the series as a whole. I don’t think it is better than Mortal Kombat II, for reasons I will get into later, but for what we got here, this was definitely the most fun and “unique” game in the series so far, and I am glad that I finally played it.
The story is somewhat of a change of pace from what you expect from this series and fighting games in general, where after his defeat in the previous game, Shao Kahn decides to try a different approach to taking over Earthrealm, with this approach being to have his Shadow Priests revive his late wife Sindel, who would allow Shao Kahn to cross into Earthrealm (somehow), and start to murder every living person while merging the realm with Outworld. Thankfully though, through all of the chaos, several warriors managed to survive the onslaught, including both old and new faces, so it is up to them, with the external help of Raiden, to take on Shao Kahn and save Earthrealm from his wrath, which is mostly a typical plot you would see from any other game, but hey, it is different from the typical “there’s a tournament and bad shit is going down in it” plot we have also seen a million times before.
The graphics are pretty good, still using the style of the previous MK games, and containing plenty of great animations and locations to fight in, but as for the designs of the characters… that’s more of a mixed bag (what the hell did they do to Sub-Zero?!), the music is great, having plenty of appropriate tracks for each of the locations, and a good chunk of them are great to listen to throughout, and the gameplay/control is what is to be expected from an early MK game, but they managed to refine and add onto the gameplay to make it into, in my opinion, the best-playing game in the series so far…………. even if the other changes made to the game kinda suck some of the fun out.
The game is your typical 2D fighting game, where you take control of one 15 different characters, consisting of both new and old faces that are fun enough to try out (even if the roster has problems that we will get into), take on plenty of different opponents in various locations throughout the different realms, throw out many different punches, kicks, special moves, and combos to get the upper hand against any opponent that you are facing, while making sure to block and dodge at any appropriate time, perform a fatality, babality, or whatever finishing move you wish to end off your opponent in a glorious, stupid, or gloriously stupid fashion, and take on several boss opponents that will make you want to rip your hair out as you try to conquer the bullshit AI………. you know, the classic MK experience. Everything you know and love is accounted for here, with plenty of new additions that do change up the way that you play, while making the gameplay smooth and tight enough to where, again, it feels the best to play out of any of the games in the series so far.
In terms of the main gameplay, there were quite a bit of changes made to spice up the fights that you will be partaking in, such as with the inclusion of a run button, which… does exactly what you think it does. This is a neat little addition I guess, but I dunno, I don’t find myself using it all too much, as the game feels fast enough to where it seems slightly unnecessary. The same cannot be said, however, for the game’s dial-a-combos, which are new combos that you can initiate that the opponent cannot break out of, allowing you to deal MASSIVE amounts of damage! I don’t find myself using these too often, cause the concept of chaining combos together turns my brain into this, but whenever I can pull them off, BOY does it ever feel so sweet to actually be good at video games.
Speaking of concepts that my brain can’t comprehend, this brings us over to the Kombat Kodes, which are essentially just cheat codes that can be put in before a match for varying effects, such as having an infinite run meter, causing the entire screen to go dark, or even allowing you to unlock hidden characters to play as. While I myself never tried to unlock any of these, they do sound like a neat way of changing up the game, and I appreciate the fact that they are there for those who are big fans of cheat codes. Some other minor, yet appreciated changes made to the formula would be with the inclusion of somewhat-interactable stages, where sometimes whenever you perform an uppercut onto an enemy which can send them smashing through the ceiling, and moving the fight onto another floor of the stage, which is pretty cool, and in single-player mode, you can even select your own difficulty option!............. which doesn’t help out much in some circumstances, but hey, it helps out for a bit anyway.
Naturally, fatalities are back in this game in full force, with babalities and friendships also making a return right alongside them, with them being just as bloody, gory, and ridiculous as ever. However, that ridiculousness gets ramped up all the way to 11 when it comes to the brand new type of fatalities introduced in this game, Animalities, which involves the character who initiates it turning into some kind of animal and proceeding to tear their opponent apart in the way that their respective animal would do so. These are, naturally, pretty fucking stupid, but in a good way, and it is great to see them play out, but… I dunno, I feel like this is kinda jumping the shark when it comes to these finishing moves. Don’t get me wrong, I am well aware of how ridiculous and dumb Mortal Kombat can get, especially when it comes to its finishing moves, but I dunno, giving all the characters the ability to animorph all for the sake of performing one finishing move………. definitely kinda takes you right out of everything going on, which is probably why this is the only game in the entire series (not counting the later updates) that features these.
This also leads wonderfully into the complaints that I had with this game overall, with the first being that, as a whole, the fatalities in this game are kind of a downgrade compared to what we had previously. Don’t get me wrong, there are some pretty enjoyable ones in there, such as one where Cyrax deploys so many bombs onto his opponent that it ends up destroying the entire world, as well as one where Sindel screams at her opponent so hard that the skin and meat gets ripped right off of them, but most of the other ones could either be seen as downgrades of previous fatalities to an extent, or they are just flatout lazy in their execution. This also applies to the babalities, with them pretty much being the exact same as the previous game, with no changes to make them stand out or be more funny, which does kind of suck. Thankfully though, we still have the friendships, with a lot of them still being pretty funny to watch, especially Cyrax’s, which made me burst out laughing the first time I saw it. Seriously, how can you not love that?
The fatalities weren’t the only thing to receive a downgrade though, as the character roster for this entry of the series is also severely lacking as well. Out of all the characters present here, we do get a good number of classics being brought back, but then we have other characters like Reptile, Johnny Cage, Raiden, and Scorpion, who are completely GONE, which is a MAJOR letdown. I can understand why Raiden isn’t there, because the plot does have an explanation for that, but I don’t understand why several of the other characters aren’t in there, especially Scorpion! Seriously, he is the face of your franchise, and yet you leave him out of this game?! That kind of thing should be impossible to do, and yet, here we are.
Now, this wouldn’t be such a big issue if the new characters that replaced them were fantastic additions to the series, but in terms of the new characters that we do get in this game…. eh… it’s a mixed bag. While I am a big fan of new additions like Kabal, Cyrax and Sektor, you then have other characters like Stryker and Nightwolf, who aren’t terrible by any means, but they just don’t feel like they fit with everyone else, and I never really play as any of them whenever I try playing a round in one of these games. Thankfully though, most of these roster issues are fixed in later updates to the game, so it isn’t that big of a deal, and in terms of any other problems in the game, the only one I can really think of is that fighting game syndrome is present here, with some characters being an absolute BITCH to fight against, but then again, this is standard for Mortal Kombat at this point, so I’m not surprised by it.
Overall, despite the lackluster fatalities and disappointing character roster, I am surprised that I ended up liking Mortal Kombat 3 as much as I did, as it really is a great entry to the series, with plenty of new additions that makes the game that much more fun, gameplay that is much more refined and smooth that makes it wonderful to play, and still just as much bloody gore to where any big fans of the previous games will be mostly satisfied with what they get here. I would recommend it for HUGE Mortal Kombat fans, as well as fighting game fanatics in general, but for everyone else, you would just be best with sticking with the later updates to this game, as they do tweak around a lot of things that this game definitely needed, but we’ll get more into that in a later review. For now though, I would like to leave this review off by showing you one of Kabal’s fatalities from this game that is just… something else. You’re welcome.
Game #591
Just like with the last two games, this entry in the series was one that I had no experience with prior to me playing it before this review. I had heard mixed things about it before, with people saying that it was either a step-down from the previous games in the series, or just straight up terrible in general. But hey, at the end of the day, only I can decide whether or not I think a game is good or not, and I decided to stick with the original version of the game so that I can properly see what it did for the series before getting tweaked, as well as so that I can nitpick the fuck out of it. So, based on what I did play through…. I think this may just be the most mechanically sound game in the original trilogy, and a really good entry in the series as a whole. I don’t think it is better than Mortal Kombat II, for reasons I will get into later, but for what we got here, this was definitely the most fun and “unique” game in the series so far, and I am glad that I finally played it.
The story is somewhat of a change of pace from what you expect from this series and fighting games in general, where after his defeat in the previous game, Shao Kahn decides to try a different approach to taking over Earthrealm, with this approach being to have his Shadow Priests revive his late wife Sindel, who would allow Shao Kahn to cross into Earthrealm (somehow), and start to murder every living person while merging the realm with Outworld. Thankfully though, through all of the chaos, several warriors managed to survive the onslaught, including both old and new faces, so it is up to them, with the external help of Raiden, to take on Shao Kahn and save Earthrealm from his wrath, which is mostly a typical plot you would see from any other game, but hey, it is different from the typical “there’s a tournament and bad shit is going down in it” plot we have also seen a million times before.
The graphics are pretty good, still using the style of the previous MK games, and containing plenty of great animations and locations to fight in, but as for the designs of the characters… that’s more of a mixed bag (what the hell did they do to Sub-Zero?!), the music is great, having plenty of appropriate tracks for each of the locations, and a good chunk of them are great to listen to throughout, and the gameplay/control is what is to be expected from an early MK game, but they managed to refine and add onto the gameplay to make it into, in my opinion, the best-playing game in the series so far…………. even if the other changes made to the game kinda suck some of the fun out.
The game is your typical 2D fighting game, where you take control of one 15 different characters, consisting of both new and old faces that are fun enough to try out (even if the roster has problems that we will get into), take on plenty of different opponents in various locations throughout the different realms, throw out many different punches, kicks, special moves, and combos to get the upper hand against any opponent that you are facing, while making sure to block and dodge at any appropriate time, perform a fatality, babality, or whatever finishing move you wish to end off your opponent in a glorious, stupid, or gloriously stupid fashion, and take on several boss opponents that will make you want to rip your hair out as you try to conquer the bullshit AI………. you know, the classic MK experience. Everything you know and love is accounted for here, with plenty of new additions that do change up the way that you play, while making the gameplay smooth and tight enough to where, again, it feels the best to play out of any of the games in the series so far.
In terms of the main gameplay, there were quite a bit of changes made to spice up the fights that you will be partaking in, such as with the inclusion of a run button, which… does exactly what you think it does. This is a neat little addition I guess, but I dunno, I don’t find myself using it all too much, as the game feels fast enough to where it seems slightly unnecessary. The same cannot be said, however, for the game’s dial-a-combos, which are new combos that you can initiate that the opponent cannot break out of, allowing you to deal MASSIVE amounts of damage! I don’t find myself using these too often, cause the concept of chaining combos together turns my brain into this, but whenever I can pull them off, BOY does it ever feel so sweet to actually be good at video games.
Speaking of concepts that my brain can’t comprehend, this brings us over to the Kombat Kodes, which are essentially just cheat codes that can be put in before a match for varying effects, such as having an infinite run meter, causing the entire screen to go dark, or even allowing you to unlock hidden characters to play as. While I myself never tried to unlock any of these, they do sound like a neat way of changing up the game, and I appreciate the fact that they are there for those who are big fans of cheat codes. Some other minor, yet appreciated changes made to the formula would be with the inclusion of somewhat-interactable stages, where sometimes whenever you perform an uppercut onto an enemy which can send them smashing through the ceiling, and moving the fight onto another floor of the stage, which is pretty cool, and in single-player mode, you can even select your own difficulty option!............. which doesn’t help out much in some circumstances, but hey, it helps out for a bit anyway.
Naturally, fatalities are back in this game in full force, with babalities and friendships also making a return right alongside them, with them being just as bloody, gory, and ridiculous as ever. However, that ridiculousness gets ramped up all the way to 11 when it comes to the brand new type of fatalities introduced in this game, Animalities, which involves the character who initiates it turning into some kind of animal and proceeding to tear their opponent apart in the way that their respective animal would do so. These are, naturally, pretty fucking stupid, but in a good way, and it is great to see them play out, but… I dunno, I feel like this is kinda jumping the shark when it comes to these finishing moves. Don’t get me wrong, I am well aware of how ridiculous and dumb Mortal Kombat can get, especially when it comes to its finishing moves, but I dunno, giving all the characters the ability to animorph all for the sake of performing one finishing move………. definitely kinda takes you right out of everything going on, which is probably why this is the only game in the entire series (not counting the later updates) that features these.
This also leads wonderfully into the complaints that I had with this game overall, with the first being that, as a whole, the fatalities in this game are kind of a downgrade compared to what we had previously. Don’t get me wrong, there are some pretty enjoyable ones in there, such as one where Cyrax deploys so many bombs onto his opponent that it ends up destroying the entire world, as well as one where Sindel screams at her opponent so hard that the skin and meat gets ripped right off of them, but most of the other ones could either be seen as downgrades of previous fatalities to an extent, or they are just flatout lazy in their execution. This also applies to the babalities, with them pretty much being the exact same as the previous game, with no changes to make them stand out or be more funny, which does kind of suck. Thankfully though, we still have the friendships, with a lot of them still being pretty funny to watch, especially Cyrax’s, which made me burst out laughing the first time I saw it. Seriously, how can you not love that?
The fatalities weren’t the only thing to receive a downgrade though, as the character roster for this entry of the series is also severely lacking as well. Out of all the characters present here, we do get a good number of classics being brought back, but then we have other characters like Reptile, Johnny Cage, Raiden, and Scorpion, who are completely GONE, which is a MAJOR letdown. I can understand why Raiden isn’t there, because the plot does have an explanation for that, but I don’t understand why several of the other characters aren’t in there, especially Scorpion! Seriously, he is the face of your franchise, and yet you leave him out of this game?! That kind of thing should be impossible to do, and yet, here we are.
Now, this wouldn’t be such a big issue if the new characters that replaced them were fantastic additions to the series, but in terms of the new characters that we do get in this game…. eh… it’s a mixed bag. While I am a big fan of new additions like Kabal, Cyrax and Sektor, you then have other characters like Stryker and Nightwolf, who aren’t terrible by any means, but they just don’t feel like they fit with everyone else, and I never really play as any of them whenever I try playing a round in one of these games. Thankfully though, most of these roster issues are fixed in later updates to the game, so it isn’t that big of a deal, and in terms of any other problems in the game, the only one I can really think of is that fighting game syndrome is present here, with some characters being an absolute BITCH to fight against, but then again, this is standard for Mortal Kombat at this point, so I’m not surprised by it.
Overall, despite the lackluster fatalities and disappointing character roster, I am surprised that I ended up liking Mortal Kombat 3 as much as I did, as it really is a great entry to the series, with plenty of new additions that makes the game that much more fun, gameplay that is much more refined and smooth that makes it wonderful to play, and still just as much bloody gore to where any big fans of the previous games will be mostly satisfied with what they get here. I would recommend it for HUGE Mortal Kombat fans, as well as fighting game fanatics in general, but for everyone else, you would just be best with sticking with the later updates to this game, as they do tweak around a lot of things that this game definitely needed, but we’ll get more into that in a later review. For now though, I would like to leave this review off by showing you one of Kabal’s fatalities from this game that is just… something else. You’re welcome.
Game #591