"Use the control pad! Use the damn control pad! "You suck.." ...damn it..."

Continuing on in the Mortal Kombat series, you come across a game such as MK3. Introducing the combination system, which followed the game through the rest of its days, MK3 was the first time that characters like Sektor, Smoke and Cyrax were introduced into the fray. Although it wasn’t the most popular game of the series, and in all honesty it has some serious problems both in the arcade and the PC realm, you’ll still find that this is a needed addition to the collection if you’re into Mortal Kombat games.

The story line takes place after the second tournament in which Shao Kahn cheats his way into the Earth Realm and starts to take over by changing everything in sight. While the story line has some pretty interesting sub-stories to it, it’s still a game that features the same save the world plot and otherwise in which heroes must save the day! You may find that without a six-button controller to play with on your PC, that this game is nearly impossible to play with the keyboard, so take the time and a few bucks to buy one.

As with most computer games, the results that I got with my game play was different than it may be with yours. For the most part, the game is nothing more than a carbon copy of the arcade machine and it is worth playing if you’ve got some bucks to spend. However, if your computer isn’t set up to handle the speed and the different visuals that you find here, you may find that some of the fatalities cause the program to shut down or cause illegal operations. Beware, as always because the files on this game take up a small portion of your drive, and if you try to delete it, it could screw everything up!

It's got some new fighters and new looks for the old ones. But that doesn't save it from being the same storyline as before, only with different characters. Innovation was starting to slip with this Mortal Kombat, all the time was spent now for giving the game more moves and finishers, instead of actual variation! There are no endurance rounds; there were no Test-Your-Might rounds, nothing...just straight through fighting. That can, and does, get on your nerves after doing it with this type of game for so long. Something else that has been added to the game is the addition of the combination system that allows you to nail off a three to six hit combination with the right button presses, all corresponding to the different high and low attack buttons.

While this is something new, there isn’t much variation here in the way that you can do the combinations other than throwing in a jump attack at either the end or the beginning! Now if you’re playing up against a skilled player, you’ll get your ass handed to you simply because once you start a combination, you can’t stop it until you are finished with the button presses, or it hits at some point. This brings a little more challenge to the game, but really doesn’t do much but force you to learn a new facet of Mortal Kombat and one that the game could do without in the long run!

The computer version of this title will require you to have the six-button monster in order to do anything important with the game including finishing moves and specials. The moves can come off fairly well, but this time, there is a new option, the Run button and with the Genesis controller, this makes it hard to use, and hard to do anything that entails using the Run button. That was a major downfall in the Arcade version of this is because some of your fatalities must use the run button!

If you don’t have the correct set up with the six-button controller, you’ll find that the game takes on a whole new meaning of challenge with the amount of finger twisting you’ll have to do in game. Something else that you’ll notice is that the response time in Mortal Kombat 3 isn’t the greatest simply because the computer controller is somewhat slow to react with any fighting game, and some wrestling around with the directional pad may be in order.

Most of the character animations are there, although they tend to breakdown when the action starts getting heavy. The backgrounds are nicely drawn, but again, they suffer from a grainy texture that you won't find appealing to the eye. The interaction on the backgrounds, is a plus, having paper blow around your fighter's feet, or the swirling in the distance, all nicely done, but it still doesn't make up for the graininess. The character animations are spectacular to watch, but you'll notice while playing, that sometimes they cut out in mid move, or the fatalities don't quite match up. Some blaze through, while others seem to miss, and then the camera kind of adjusts to make up for it!

It's got all of the game music, and it does, for the most part, fit nicely while fighting. The only complaints that I have are with the sound effects. There is hardly anything that seems to match up with what you're doing when you pull off a special move. Hard to hear at certain points of the game and can be a little disappointing when you want to hear what the game has to offer! Even though the game music has returned for the most part, there are some issues that can be taken with the overall quality of what you hear.

Mortal Kombat 3 isn’t a bad addition to the series, but it is one that sparks a change that is still debated to this day. With the introduction of an extensive combination system, new characters and locations as well as some pretty interesting fatalities, you may find that this is the turning point of future Mortal Kombat games. Although it isn’t easy to find, it is a rather interesting, if not essential part of your Mortal Kombat collection and truly worthy to end up in your collection if you’re a Mortal Kombat affectionado!

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/27/02, Updated 01/27/02