Mortal Kombat 3

"We Just Made A Very Ridiculous Game. Let's Throw In Galaga to Make Them Happy"

Introduction

Mortal Kombat has a very unique concept of fights "to the death", but in the end this about all there is to the game. By the time we get to putting Mortal Kombat 3 from the arcade to the Super Nintendo we realize that this series is not going to get any better no matter how hard the developers try or what kind of surprises are added into it. Three huge factors really affect how well this game plays. While new characters are introduced some of the best are removed while some should have long been removed. The challenge factor for this game is insane no matter what challenge level you play on. Then you have the very unnecessary and extremely pointless things in this game like an added game of Galaga and the extension of finishing moves in "Friendships" and "Animalities". The game gets old real quick whether you use the special cheats or not and it is nothing compared to the first two games of the series.

Story

There is a story to this game? Apparently no matter how many times Liu Kang (who's voice sounds way too familiar to Mickey Mouse) cannot kill Shao Kahn enough to get the point across and this time Shao Kahn has invaded and killed everybody on Earth except for a Native American with no pupils and a police officer who is utterly worthless. A few new faces show up such as Shao Kahn's woman Sindel who is so comical that even the Clayfighter developers could not come up with a character to top her. Other characters are in this game that have some obscure point in being involved and of course all of the characters have some kind of background story for being in the tournament once again. Somehow the original characters all seem to survive the other games in the series and keep coming back so that is very pointless. The only reason Johnny Cage isn't in this game is because there was a conflict with the guy that did the Cage character and so we get some silly story about him being the only casualty from all the tournaments before. The story is not even necessary because it is the concept of the game that drives the success of the series. In the end one should ask: Does it even matter?

Game Play

Not much fun. The controls are very slow compared to a computer controlled opponent that will be able to knock in its own combos before you ever get the first punch in. The ability to run is introduced, but unfortunately you will not be able to run away. Whatever difficulty you decide to use it does not matter at all. The reason is that there is some kind of challenge pattern where you will be able to defeat the first opponent with a new character that you have, but then the next opponent you face will usually end up knocking you out before you can get in a few come back sweeps or upper cuts. Skill is not a factor in this game at all. To offset the unreasonable difficulty some special cheats will allow you 30 continues along with health and damage cheats. They also threw in a game of Galaga so that you at least get some kind of game worth playing in this cartridge. The characters are basically the same as far as controls go. Each one has unique button mashing combinations to learn, but you have to be very quick to be able to pull off a fatality. Each character has two unique fatalities, but then they also have two new finishing moves in the "Friendship" and "Animality" finishes. These are just pointless extras to play around with each character doing some good service for a defeated foe in "Friendship" and turning into a particular animal and eating the defeated foe with the "Animality". What works for all of this stuff? Not much. The game play may seem great and very helpful once you get the cheats for the game, but this does not add much fun value to the game.

Sound/Graphics

Liu Kang sounds like Mickey Mouse. How can I take the savior of the world seriously when he yells like Mickey Mouse when performing moves? It just doesn't work. Anyway the graphics do not make that much sense either. The fighting areas feature upper levels so that you can upper cut an opponent and he or she or it will go flying through the ceiling whether it be a stone roof, rocky cave, or right through a paved street the opponent will just go fly right through it. Now I don't know about some tough guys out there, but I were upper cutted so hard to go right through a sewer and straight up through a paved street I really doubt I would survive it. The logic does not go well with this game and there are not too many reasons why you or where you fight or whether or not the places you fight have some kind of significance or not. The areas do look detailed and are very much the same you would expect in the previous games.

Replay Value

If you are able to some how actually beat this game without cheats and through the master tournament then you should be given a medal. However the cheats will ruin the game fairly quickly for you and all we really play this game for is to see the fatalities. Once you have seen them all there is not that much to keep this game around for.

Final Recommendation 4/10

Mortal Kombat 3 fails to deliver on improving from the first two games. The first two games in the series pretty much well satisfied all requirements and therefore you could not make another game to top it. Mortal Kombat 3 tries to sell us on too many "Easter Eggs" and to top it off a 2-D game inserted into this game as an unlockable cheat allows is actually more fun than the brutal difficulty of the tournament in this game. Mortal Kombat 3 is not a good buy. It may be worth the go at the arcade when it was a popular novelty back in the day, but it does not do well at all for the transition to the Super Nintendo.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 08/25/08

Game Release: Mortal Kombat 3 (US, 1995)