Mortal Kombat Trilogy

"An acquired taste"

Mortal Kombat Trilogy is a game you either love or hate. Judging from some of the reviews here, the game is certainly a mixed bag. For the uninitiated, MK Trilogy comprises fighters from the first three Mortal Kombat games and sticks them into one fighting arena. The results are decidedly mixed and there are some flaws, but does it really make it a bad game?

I'll be honest with you for a minute; I'm one of the few people who actually enjoy this game and whenever I have a few friends around, we tend to play a few rounds here and there. Having said that, even I can see that Trilogy has its flaws that prevent it from being a classic, but is it really as bad as most people say it is? Let's find out.

STORY: MK Trilogy's story is practically the same as that of Mortal Kombat 3; Outworld king Shao Kahn finds a loophole that allows him to conquer Earth Realm and it's up to the forces of good to kill him and stuff. Nothing great, but the individual character stories are kinda cool, so the game gets points for that at least. 6/10

GRAPHICS: What can I say about the graphics here? Live-action digital graphics look about as good as they can get here so no complaints. What I particularly liked was the return of some older stages from previous MK releases, such as MK2's Living Forest and the original Pit from the first MK, completely with simple uppercut Fatality action. They look just as good as they did in previous incarnations. While some other intermission graphics featured suck, it's forgivable considering the amount of stuff that's already in here. 7/10

SOUND: Trilogy's soundtrack (comprised of music from MK2 and MK3) seem a bit slower paced than usual, but still sounds alright. The sound effects in this game are acceptable. Everything sounds like what they should, so no complaints here. 6/10

GAMEPLAY: The main attraction of Trilogy seems to be the multitude of kombatants at your disposal. Quite simply, you have a lot of varied choices and each one have their own set of attacks that should prove useful if you can master them. Certain characters even have an older version to play as, which seems to be more of a fanservice than anything else. What really kills this game is the fact that the game engine is exactly the same as that of MK3, which isn't exactly one of my favorite MK games. Dial-a-combos, Run Buttons, button-mashing Brutalities, and a lack of AI balance (more on that below) does more to complicate the game than it does to simplify it and it just gets to the point where you become irritated and frustrated with the game rather than enjoy it. On the bright side, the controls seem to be fluid. I've heard some people had issues with the control side of things, but I never got any problems on that note. They're fine as far as I'm concerned; moves execute as they should and respond fairly well. No problem. 7/10

CHALLENGE: There's no balance here... that's it. That's all I need to say. Elaborate, you ask? Okay, fine... certain fighters tend to abuse the run system a lot and perform endless combos that are seemingly impossible to perform by a human being. The bosses, in true MK fashion, are nigh impossible to beat unless your fighter has an inhibiting move of some sort that can give you an edge. There's challenge a-plenty here. It's just a matter of whether you'll want to stick around. 10/10

REPLAY VALUE: As is the case with many fighting games, the game's replay value comes from the assortment of fighters you can choose from and use. In this case, there's bound to be a few fighters you prefer and others you'd might like to try and learn to like (or detest, as it were). And if you have a friend or two, you can play some multiplayer modes such as one-on-one, endurance, and tourney modes. Can't complain about that. 8/10

OVERALL: It's hard to properly gauge Trilogy in comparison to its predecessors, especially considering all the early MK games played equally bad (MK2 being the better of the bunch, but it's not saying much). At best, it is nothing more than a souped-up version of Mortal Kombat 3 with extra characters, extra backgrounds, and a lesser quality that gives it that low-budget feel. At worst, it is a severely unbalanced game with a broken AI that requires a stroke of luck, ingenuity, and perhaps a cheat device to win against the computer. On a multiplayer platform, the game can get fairly enjoyable and be fun to play, but the single-player experience is killed by the lousy AI. MK enthusiasts and fighting game fans with a lot of friends might want to take a gander at this game, but the rest that are looking for a decent fighter on the PS-One should probably avoid Mortal Kombat Trilogy, as there are plenty of better games out there. Still, the game's an acquired taste. 5/10

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 07/27/06