Mortal Kombat Trilogy

"Finish her!"

Ahhh.. Mortal Kombat, the original game that angered Joe Lieberman, the original ultra-violent game, and the original button mashing fighting game. This N64 version of the game isn't truly a Trilogy of Mortal Kombat 1, 2, and 3, rather, it is an all new game with a hodge-podge of maps and characters from the first three games. Let's sum up the good and bad of this game.

Graphics: 4/10
I'm obviously not comparing the graphics to the beautiful visuals on today's consoles. But even for its time, the graphics were quite poor. The 2-D environments look okay at times, but look like Sega Genesis at other times. Also, there are classic Mortal Kombat environments, but the attack animations look ridiculous, the blood looks like ketchup, and the character models are a bunch of pallet swaps. At least the character movements don't look too rigid and the frame rate always holds up, even when spamming attacks. Although people used to think that the graphics were super violent and realistic, they're now more funny than anything.

Controls: 2/10
The controls are nothing short of abysmal. You can control with the control stick or the d-pad, and both work well enough, but it doesn't change the fact that you need to find a way to incorporate your kicks and sprinting on the c-pad. The c-pad buttons are very unresponsive, they stick, and therefore, they're very hard to mash quickly. You can practice your kick combos all day, but when you actually face the competition, the awkwardness of the c-buttons make things hellacious. At least there are combos. But even those aren't that great. You can easily win against your friends using the same move over and over again. When I played this game, I always knew what the Sony fanboys meant when they talked about the N64 controller being bad for fighting games.


Sound: 8/10
The audio isn't high quality, but the music is classic Mortal Kombat, and it always enhances the gameplay experience. The sounds are pretty amusing. From Shao Khan's maniacal laughter, to "Toasty", to Liu Kang sounding like a stereotype Asian, the sounds rarely disappoint. The only big problem lies in the fact that every character doesn't have their own voice. Kitana, Mileena, Sonya and Jade have the same exact voice, and it shows a lot of sloppiness and laziness on the part of the producers.

Gameplay: 7/10
It might be hard to explain if you've never played it, but Mortal Kombat Trilogy is just fun. The object of the game is to try to beat a whole roster of opponents, eventually defeating the evil Motaro and Shao Khan (the bosses of the game). The characters start off pretty easy, but by the end of the ladder, you will have a tough time winning the match. Eventually, there is a super tough endurance match where you have to face two people at one. One thing that you will notice is that some characters are tougher than others when the computer controls them. Jade, Sonya and Kano seem to be the toughest three characters to eliminate. Others, like Reptile and Nightwolf, always seem to receive and absolute ass-kicking. However, when you control the characters, you will be surprised at how balanced the characters are. Despite the similarities of the characters in appearance, they all control very differently.

Fatalities are back, and they're better than ever. Though they're not exactly easy to do, a good amount of the stages have stage fatalities, and there are entertaining Animalities, Babalities and the ever brutal Brutalities. There is nothing like finishing off Jade with a fatality, especially after she cheaply did the same attack to you over and over. That's another thing. Jade is really, really amazing when controlled by the computer. She is almost impossible to stop.

The game has a few gameplay modes - 1P mode, 1 on 1 with 2 players, 2 on 2, 3 on 3 and 8 man kombat, which is what they call four on four. All of these are pretty fun once in a while, but the one player is where the game shines. As for special features.. don't expect any.

One last thing about the gameplay is the aggressor meter. When you hit someone a lot, even if they block it, your aggressor meter fills up. When this fills all the way to the top, you become faster and your attacks do much more damage. It only lasts five seconds, but it sure punishes you for blocking. It sucks, because it perpetuates Mortal Kombat's standing as a fighting game where defense is optional.



Overall: 5/10
The game is fun enough to play, but the poor graphics and execrable controls avoid the game from reaching its true potential. However, for a near 13 year old game, it sure it enjoyable.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 01/05/09

Game Release: Mortal Kombat Trilogy (US, 10/31/96)