Mortal Kombat 3

"Introduction of a Combo system....or wanting Scorpion...what a choice..."

Good old Mortal Kombat and all of its predecessors have always come across on the Genesis as the type of game that you would expect to see with blood, gore and plenty of violence. Nothing here as really changed other than you have a roster of characters that are different than they were in the previous games. Missing from the roster is Scorpion and Reptile, even though they are missed, but rather unneeded from the overall game! Something that you’ll also find, is that the game is not as of the same quality as the SNES version, and that really isn’t saying very much considering that the SNES version had plenty of problems as well. With the story line dragging on from the second Mortal Kombat, you’ll also find that the lack of originality in the game and the overall game play is really showing that Midway does nothing more than milk something to death and keep right on going.

It's got some new fighters and new looks for the old ones. But that doesn't save it from being the same storyline as before, only with different characters. Innovation was starting to slip with this Mortal Kombat, all the time was spent now for giving the game more moves and finishers, instead of actual variation! There are no endurance rounds; there were no Test-Your-Might rounds, nothing...just straight through fighting. That can, and does, get on your nerves after doing it with this type of game for so long. Something else that has been added to the game is the addition of the combination system that allows you to nail off a three to six hit combination with the right button presses, all corresponding to the different high and low attack buttons. While this is something new, there isn’t much variation here in the way that you can do the combinations other than throwing in a jump attack at either the end or the beginning! Now if you’re playing up against a skilled player, you’ll get your ass handed to you simply because once you start a combination, you can’t stop it until you are finished with the button presses, or it hits at some point. This brings a little more challenge to the game, but really doesn’t do much but force you to learn a new facet of Mortal Kombat and one that the game could do without in the long run!

The Genesis control will require you to have the six-button monster in order to do anything important with the game including finishing moves and specials. The moves can come off fairly well, but this time, there is a new option, the Run button and with the Genesis controller, this makes it hard to use, and hard to do anything that entails using the Run button. That was a major downfall in the Arcade version of this is because some of your fatalities must use the run button! If you don’t have the correct set up with the six-button controller, you’ll find that the game takes on a whole new meaning of challenge with the amount of finger twisting you’ll have to do in game. Something else that you’ll notice is that the response time in Mortal Kombat 3 isn’t the greatest simply because the Genesis controller is slow to react with any fighting game, and some wrestling around with the directional pad may be in order.

As with the SNES version, you’ll have some visual problems that are relatively common on a dying system. You'll notice that your character doesn't quite have sharpness to him/her like they did in the SNES version of Mortal Kombat II. Most of the character animations are there, although they tend to breakdown when the action starts getting heavy. The backgrounds are nicely drawn, but again, they suffer from a grainy texture that you won't find appealing to the eye. The interaction on the backgrounds, is a plus, having paper blow around your fighter's feet, or the swirling in the distance, all nicely done, but it still doesn't make up for the graininess. The character animations are spectacular to watch, but you'll notice while playing, that sometimes they cut out in mid move, or the fatalities don't quite match up. Some blaze through, while others seem to miss, and then the camera kind of adjusts to make up for it!

It's got all of the game music, and it does, for the most part, fit nicely while fighting. The only complaints that I have are with the sound effects. There is hardly anything that seems to match up with what you're doing when you pull off a special move. Hard to hear at certain points of the game and can be a little disappointing when you want to hear what the game has to offer! Even though the game music has returned for the most part, there are some issues that can be taken with the overall quality of what you hear. This comes with the different sound effects that were in the Genesis version, in which some of the stages that had background noise no longer has it. It hasn't been toned down in any respect, but more along the lines of taken out completely! The Genesis also has a slight problem with creating the music without adding that tinny tone to it that seems to be a common problem in all fighting games on this system.

This was a definite slip from the Genesis version of Mortal Kombat II. In my opinion of the game, it's got the moves, it's got the characters, and it’s got everything that you might need for a fighting game.... If you haven't played one of the other Mortal Kombat's yet. It's only got one thing...collectable value and that comes with the fact that you really can’t find this version of the game without first going through Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3! Even though the game suffers from many of the common problems that the Genesis seems to produce and the game is rather stale in most respects, it can still be something to play when you’re ready for some Mortal Kombat action and you want to use the new style characters.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 12/04/01, Updated 12/04/01