Mortal Kombat 3

"Not as good as the second game............"

Mortal Kombat was terrible. Mortal Kombat II was decent, and Mortal Kombat 3 fits somewhere in between. First, the concept. You choose one of 15 fighters and fight the computer or a human opponent in a fight to the death. This is a fighting game, plain and simple, with combos, projectile attacks, and Fatalities. Fatalities are attacks executed when an opponent's energy is gone and they're "out on their feet", so to speak. Most Fatalities are gruesome and elaborate. Thrown into the mix are Friendships, where you surpise your opponent with an act of kindness, Babalities, where you turn them into a baby, Animalities, where you turn into an animal and maul them, as well, players can can be finished off by being uppercutted into a part of the background, such as into the path of a train or down onto spikes. The selectable characters are Shang Tsung, Sindel, Jax, Kabal, Lui Kang, Sonya Blade, Stryker, Smoke, Sub Zero, Cyrax, Kano, Sektor, Nightwolf, Sheeva and Kung Lao. Combos are a big part of this game, but not used as effectively as Mortal Kombat II.

Graphics: 8/10

Nice. Some of the character look the same but are just different colors, but they all look OK. Some of the finishing sequences look pretty good as well.

Sound: 8/10

Typical Mortal Kombat sound effects and music.

Gameplay: 6/10

Hmm. Not as good as Mortal Kombat 2. More emphasis on combos here, but it's not as smooth as the second game. There are more characters, but many of them are too similar to one another, several of the characters feel rushed and only thrown together, and a few are just plain stupid (ahem..Stryker). All the new finishing moves are a nice touch, but don't really add anything to the gameplay. Control is OK, but could have been better. The two player mode is some fun to play. Basically, this game is Mortal Kombat II with a rushed feel.

Replay: 6/10

You might want to play it until you've watched all the Fatalities, but after that it gets stale.

Overall: 7/10

If you want to play a Mortal Kombat game for the SNES, don't get this one, go for MK II. If you loved that game, chances are you'll like this one, but not as much. Either way, there's no real reason to check this game out.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 08/07/01