Mortal Kombat Trilogy

"This is the best Mortal Kombat game ever. Too bad it still sucks."

Arrrrrrgh here we go again with another review for a Mortal Kombat game which in my own opinion has to be the most overrated game franchise in history. Well Midway knew that the MK games were rapidly losing their popularity fast so what were they going to do well they did a sucker punch by releasing another upgrade to MK3 with all the characters that appeared in previous games including classic versions of Rayden,Kano,Kung Lao,and Jax and some of the boss characters from before like the four armed beast Goro. While on paper this strategy would have worked but when executed it didn't work out all that good and what we got instead of was a new type of finishing move called the Brutallity,and a cast of characters that mostly consists of boring palette swap ninjas. Well there are two new characters here and guess what they too are ninjas and they are Noob Saibot who was a hidden character in past games but you couldn't play as him and also Rain who made a cameo in UMK3 and basically this guy plays like Ermac(What kind of name is Ermac anyway thats a stupid name for a ninja it sounds more like a name for a muppet). But anyway did Midway even bother improving the game here because even with the big cast of characters this game is about as dull as dull could get. What you mean they finally added a pause feature in the home version well its about damn time because in the other home versions of MK you couldn't pause(Name me another home console game that does not have a pause feature and I'am talking about during gameplay not in between matches). Pause feature aside lets get on down to the magic.

Graphics
The characters don't really look that good if you ask me because some of them especially the MK1 versions of Rayden and Kano don't fit well and look kind of lousy compared to past efforts. The stiff animation that you all know and love is still present and like before you can probably count how many frames it takes(Wow only two frames for walking still and look only two frames for jump kicking this is really neat). The backgrounds are mostly previous battlegrounds from the last three games and while the MK2 and 3 look fine and dandy like sour candy, the returning MK1 backgrounds look ridiculous with some of the newer characters. The blood still looks more like ketchup then real blood as always. Kinda bad graphics wise.

Gameplay(If you call it that)
Even with the big cast of characters the gameplay still sucks as always. You can probably beat the game with only a select number of fighters like Sub Zero or Noob because the CPU is almost as cheap as ever now because it seems like they will predict what move you are going to use 8 seconds before you even end up doing that move and some opponents are just plain unfair(It took me 11 continues just to defeat Kabal and I think that is just plain idiotic that I have to use that many continues). Probably the only two redeeming qualities found here are the two on two match ups with a friend and the 8 player tournament but other then that the gameplay just stinks to high heaven just like it always has. If you hate the gameplay in MK then this still won't change your mind.

Sound
Well I like the music here kind of since it is the same tunes from MK2 and 3(Thank God they didn't bring the MK1 tunes because those were terrible). The voices are about as crappy as you could get thanks to their annoying screams and ridiculous voice samples that makes listening to Little Bow Wow seem tolerable. I kind of got sick of the announcer(Who is also Shoa Khan)because he started to get on my nerves too. Sound is just okay.

Control
The lame dial em combos are still here and so is the awkward run and block buttons. The moves still require tap tap motions that don't fit into a fighting game. I don't get it why don't the MK1 versions of Rayden and Kano can't do low punches I mean look I know they didn't have low punches in MK1 but is it really that hard to just add them in there. There is also the aggressive meter and when it fills up your character runs really fast up to your foe as if he was on crack trying to do insane combo for a limited time and yes that too was another pointless aspect that they would soon get rid of. The control is as bad as always.

Replay
Maybe the cast of characters and the two player match ups will hold you for some time but other then that the replay value is pure krap(excuse the bad pun). MK fans will play this a lot but people like myself that can't stand the series won't bother after some time.

Final Word
What else can I say except that this game sucks plain and simple. This fails as game but it does make a good coaster,frisbee,a chew toy for your dog,and pretty much anything else I can thing of just as long as it does not involve playing the actual game. Don't be fooled by the big cast of characters,if want a fighting game that has that and much more then go play Marvel vs. Capcom 2 or King of Fighters'98.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 05/29/01, Updated 05/29/01