"Who said expansions are exclusive to PC games?"

I see one distinct advantage with PC games as opposed to their console brethren. With console titles, what you see on the day of a given title's release is, most often, what you get. In the PC market, patches and expansions correct errors, omissions, or glitches in the original package. While not completely out of the question, this practice would be, obviously, inefficient in the console world. That doesn't mean people wouldn't try.

Mortal Kombat 3 was a game plagued by decency. It featured many of the hallmarks and ideas that propelled the second Mortal Kombat to amazing heights, yet a few of its attempts at innovation and a lack of something both fresh and appealing halted its progress to those same peaks. It was at this juncture that Midway through efficiency down the crapper and pumped out Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3--a project that would be better described as an updated, souped up rendition of the original MK3, introducing it as if it were a proper follow up to Mortal Kombat.

Once one establishes that this in fact isn't Mortal Kombat 4 with a misjudged title, they can more easily appreciate the strides UMK3 takes in improving the preceding subject matter of MK3 itself. Most of the same Mortal Kombat gameplay is held onto from the third, and consequentially the first and second, offerings of the bloody franchise. Two fighters engage in a high speed, brutal battle in the popular best two out of three rounds format. At the conclusion of the deciding round, UMK3 enters Mortal Kombat's controversial fatality mode, where one of many gory executions can be inflicted on the unfortunate loser of the recently completed battle. Ranging from ripping the outermost layer of skin off the flesh to tossing a human body onto malicious beds of spikes, these stomach wrenching finishers are sure to please the bloodhounds roaming arcades in which UMK3 resides. It can still be argued with some validity that the fatalities showcased in UMK3 follow the same, tamer route as MK3, hesitating to touch the truly sickening displays that lurked amongst the finishers of both Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat II. Two of the finishers being hidden behind a blackened screen is evidence of this.

As much as UMK3 is marketed as an ''ultimate'' compilation of the three original MK titles, it's plain to anyone that's spent some time with the third game that UMK3 draws most of its inspiration from the most recent edition. The dial in combos are still represented in full force and still simplify the game to a ludicrous extent for the ten year old brat who can do nothing but smash down the punch and kick buttons at random. For those who missed the third Mortal Kombat, dial in combos are combos comprised of three or more punches and kicks. An intriguing idea at the least, its execution is flawed by the simplicity of most of the combos it opens up. Sure, you can spend hours mastering Liu Kang's seven hit combo that'll deplete half of the opposition's health bar, but why bother when mindlessly smashing buttons will produce two or three smaller combos that end up with the same effect?

Even the character roster has its essence firmly set in the jaws of Mortal Kombat 3. The character selection screen will offer you just about every face from Mortal Kombat 3 along with some of the old favorites and a few underdeveloped newbies thrown in to give the game the ''ultimate'' roster only its likeness could bare. The Mortal Kombat II versions of Sub-zero and Smoke storm back onto the scene, as does Kitana and Milena. Both Rayden and Johnny Cage decide to stay hidden in the shadows though, even for this ultimate gathering of blood and gore.

Now I think I've gone a good way in making it clear that, under no condition, is UMK3 a new Mortal Kombat game as compared to its Mortal Kombat 3 predecessor. With that out of the way, I can emphasize that Mortal Kombat 3 isn't a terrible game to imitate. The dial in combos aren't my cup of tea, and button mashers get to significantly lessen the gap between novices and masters. However, you can still take a good deal of fun from the UMK3 cabinet in a couple of different ways. The first, and probably most prominent considering its genre and platform, is to gather up a buddy or group of companions to spill a bit of blood alongside. The fast paced agenda the Mortal Kombat 3 engine keeps, enhanced by the still new addition of a run button, makes matches quick and energetic. Two Mortal Kombat veterans playing against one another can still be something to relish, even if Mortal Kombat hasn't traditionally matched other fighting dynasties in terms of depth and strategy.

Fear not. Those of you who are horrible at making friends, are innately antisocial, or are terribly outclassed or above all of the available competition still have something to entertain yourself with when playing Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. The single player gauntlet of sorts has returned, largely unchanged, from the first three Mortal Kombats. After choosing one of four difficulty levels, you'll be confronted with a varying number of one on one duels against some of the other cast members of Mortal Kombat. The length of this gauntlet depends on which level of challenge you'd chosen at the onset, but the final hurdles are all the same: fight multiple opponents without a rest followed by having to tackle Motaro and Shao Kahn, Mortal Kombat's somewhat frustrating bosses. This brand of Mortal Kombat is far from the level of fulfillment the multiplayer adrenalin rush dishes out, but it's probably the best way to hone your skills and tactics against something that resembles a human opponent.

Even aesthetically, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 takes a lot of pages out of Mortal Kombat 3's book. Nearly every stage and song from MK3 is recreated to near reflection, from the underground subway to the enigmatic temple to the desolate Pit III venue. Some of the older stages have been brought back, but the number of MK3 arenas to those of the first two is a bit more than lopsided. The character designs also seem to be taken from MK3 when applicable, and the MKII resurrections carry a redone MK3 style of look about them. Again, this isn't a necessarily detrimental decision. The characters are large, clear, and mostly well designed, although some of the frames for the newer (or older) characters seem to have had a few frames of animation excluded. They carry a more rigid aura about them, but occurrences of this oversight are few and far between.

If you're a long time fan of Mortal Kombat 3 seeking an entire new set of characters, fatalities, stages, controls, and a redone engine and game, I'm afraid I'm going to pull the carpet out from under you and snicker as your expectations fall flat on their proverbial face. What you will get, however, is a machine that puts a new coat of polish over the original Mortal Kombat 3 framework and expands on many of its long suits. The dial in combos still stick around, and it's obvious that the developers did as little work as possible when making their updates, but nothing done here hurts the Mortal Kombat experience. With that in mind, those who didn't like the direction the series had taken with its third game won't have their opinions turned upside down and inside out by UMK3. Those that haven't tried Mortal Kombat's bloody collection of games or those that enjoyed MK3 to any extent have no reason not to dig into their pockets for some change. Everyone else may find this an expansion that doesn't have a solid enough core to pay much attention to.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/29/03