Mortal Kombat 3

"What is this?, what have they done with the good old Mortal Kombat?"

Big changes, no, truly drastic changes are what fans of this violent but “once” excellent series of fighting games are going to find. The gameplay (the only reason why this game is so bad) is completely different from the previous installments, entirely. That wonderful gameplay that worked so good is gone and now we have a furious but bloody hard and frustrating fighting game that supposed the beginning of the end of this series.

Plot:
Yeah! ok ok, who in the world cares about the plot in a fighting game?, probably there is someone out there, this is strange world, anyway, as “there is” a somehow competent plot in the Mortal Kombat series......oh no!, it seems that the competent plot was only found in the first two Mortal Kombat games, well... if you still want to know, it is very simple, Shao Khan wants to conquer the real world again and...hmpf, that is all.

Graphics: 9
Superior graphics, they are better than in Mortal Kombat II, but like in many other games, while better, they are not nearly as nice. The game has a much more realistic graphic style, with bigger characters and urban scenarios most of the time. The only reason why I can’t give them a perfect rating are the finishing movements (Fatalities and such), because they look pretty bad, nothing like Mortal Kombat II.

Music: 5
Well, not that I care about the music in a fighting game, if it is good better, but if it isn’t, it is the same as long as it is not annoying, the thing is that here the music is just there, it does its job.

Gameplay: 4
Despite all the blood and violence, the truth was that the first two Mortal Kombat games were very pleasant to play, their gameplay was like, a little bit slow, and that was excellent because there was time to think and to do everything correctly, but in this game everything is completely different.

To play Mortal Kombat 3 you have to look for someone who has no idea about the game, that way both of you will be able to enjoy the game for a while, otherwise, there is no point on playing, because this is one of those games where everything goes on so fast that you won’t stand a chance against someone who knows how to play, and then, once both of you know how to play, everything consists in a weird mess of superpowers, punching and kicking are no longer an option, this time everything consists on being fast while performing special attacks.

The Fatalities have gotten stupid, very boring, and completely uninspired. they all look very bad and lack any trace of originally, mainly because all of them have the same effect, which is making you opponent explode, then the Pit Fatalities are terrible, the effects are very badly done, they sure look shameful when compared with the ones of Mortal Kombat II.

Aside from the Fatalities, Babalities and Friendships, this time we also have Animalities, at the beginning this is not a bad idea at all because it is something that adds more variety, but the problem is the same one every single Fatality has, they all look bland, completely unimpressive, and the consequences are al ways the same, so the only interesting thing about them is the animal each character becomes, something that is interesting only after seeing how poorly made they are, because they just morph into a black shadow that is supposed to be an animal, they never become a true animal.

To sum up, all the deadly movements have gotten terribly bland and completely unimpressive, this time there are a lot more movements, but the quantity has dropped the quality is truly horrible way.

Right before each combat, we have the possibility to introduce some codes, there are tons of codes but I have no idea about their utility aside from the ones that let you make Fatalities with only one button (something terrible because this was one of the most interesting things in the series, and it is no fun to do them with only one button), and I always get mad when I see someone desperately pressing the buttons to introduce those ridiculous combinations to do I don’t know what, why can’t we play fairly like in Mortal Kombat II?, bah.

Overall: 4
This game is a real pity because I somehow liked the new look of the game, maybe it was not as good as the one of Mortal Kombat II, but it was good nonetheless, then the new characters are very well made, there are exception of course, but most of them are very interesting characters. With Mortal Kombat’s II gameplay I am sure this could have been the best fighting game in the Snes, even surpassing Street Fighter II.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 03/28/04