Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3

"If you always wanted to play UMK3 against some real opponents, but missed out on the arcade-craze, here's finally your chance."

Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 released on Xbox Live Arcade has really just one main purpose, and that's to provide online competition. Plain and simple, if you aren't interested in fighting other players online, don't bother with this game.

Gameplay 9/10
Although Mortal Kombat 2 might have been the best Mortal Kombat for its time, there's no denying that Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 is the most balanced and competitive of all of them from the 2D era. As for Mortal Kombat Trilogy, it was a fun fan tribute from Midway, but was never intended to be played competitively.

First and foremost, this version of UMK3 is the arcade version. There is no playable Rain and Noob Saibot. Ermac, Mileena and Classic Sub-Zero also must be unlocked using their respective Ultimate Kombat Kodes. Not only does this require 2 controllers, it becomes particularly annoying in that the characters do not stay unlocked properly. There is a simple fix however, make sure that you don't exit to the dashboard using the Guide button after unlocking them and always go to the character selection screen in singleplayer first before heading online.

As for the game itself, this is an excellent port of UMK3. Although the singleplayer AI is still as atrocious as ever, thankfully multiplayer matches are easy find and offer little to no lag. You'll have almost no trouble pulling off every combo, with the only real limiting factor being the controller you play the game with. I managed to get use to the Xbox 360 official d-pad, but many others have gone for the Mad Catz controllers or a modded joystick. Note that you cannot edit the controller configurations, which is unfortunate and thus makes your expensive Dead or Alive 4 stick useless for this game.

Multiplayer comes in the form of the usual ranked matches, and player matches. The difference being that in ranked matches, you can only play one match until you are booted back to the main menu. In player matches, you can play with the same guy for as long as you like. There is also a mode called "Challenger" in player matches, which is essentially a re-creation of the arcade scene. Allowing a maximum of 4 players, the winner stays as the two other players who are waiting can watch the match. All in all, the multiplayer is pretty much perfect except for a rather annoying bug that will have you fighting on the same 2-3 arenas the whole time. This is due to the game being an arcade port and by keep resetting after each match, the arcade is never able to cycle through the arenas.

Graphics 8/10
The original UMK3 graphics are brought back. Nothing has changed. You can adjust the size of the screen if you like, though you'll likely just keep the aspect ratio.

Sound 8/10
Same sound effects and music as always. There have actually been some minor sound improvements for a smoother audio experience, but most people won't notice any differences.

Final Verdict 8/10
Ultimate MK3 is a game that all Mortal Kombat fans will adore. Newcomers will likely have steep hill to climb, as they'll be facing against players all over the world that have been playing this game for years. There is no practice mode, and the singleplayer AI does an awful job at teaching you how you should be playing.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/15/06