The first fighter I ever played...and still a great entry in the great MK series...
User Rating: 8.9 | Mortal Kombat 3 SNES
"There is no Knowledge that is not Power" -Raiden When one thinks of the words, Mortal Kombat, what does one think? Does one remember the sight of a losing fighter getting killed by the winner? Does one think of the cries of "GET OVER HERE", "FINISH HIM" or "FATALITY"? Or Does one think of the many people trying to boycott the games because of their very bloody fights? One thing is for sure, I will remember MK for all except the latter. MK3 was the first MK game that I have ever played, and the first fighter I ever played. I first played it so long ago, that I don't remember if I played it at a friends house (where I got my a** kicked on a repeated basis) or if I rented it out of curiosity. Either way, one thing is for sure, that this was the first fighter that I ever played. Later down the track I got to play the rest of the MK series (I'm referring to the fighting games, not the spinoff games) and I got a much deeper appreciation for its game and the rest of the series. I stopped for a while, but when I got Deadly Alliance, two years after the game came out, I managed to get back into the spirit of things. Lets get a more accurate view of the game now. Just to explain, there are two other versions of this game, one called Ultimate MK3 (which added a few characters and backgrounds) and MK Trilogy (which contained all of the characters seen so far in a MK game). And this review is for MK3 only, so some of the elements will apply to the other games. GAMEPLAY: Lets face it, you can have the best story in any game, or you could have the best characters, music etc. But if it doesn't have good gameplay, then there is really no point to play the game, and there's no better case than a fighting game. MK3 is a fighting game, featuring win tokens, win poses and the like. But its what sets MK apart from other games in the genre is the amount of blood in the games. And trust me, be it red, green or otherwise, a lot of it is gonna fall out of you and your opponent. The games speed is a force to be reckoned with, trust me, this is easily one of the fastest fighting games ever, as you can end fights in pretty much a couple of minutes, if you're lucky. The game also introduced a Run bar, meaning that you could run up to your opponent and get him with a combo (or is that kombo?) But its not a really good application because you can just jump up to your opponent, attack with a combo, then jump away to plan the next attack. The game also introduced another feature which made the game even more special, multi-tiered arenas. With this, on certain arenas, you can uppercut your opponent and he will end up in another part of the arena where you can continue fighting. While it's a great idea, the feature applies only to a few stages, which is somewhat disappointing. But still, the feature is better intergrated into the recently released Mortal Kombat: Deception, and is also used in the classic Dead or Alive games. But the games big selling point, the infamous Fatality, is back, and still, takes no prisoners. In case you don't know, after winning a fight, you press a series of buttons that allow your character to kill the loser, all in their own unique ways, from having a MK1 Arcade Machine drop on the loser, stomped on by a massive foot, and others. MK3 also had 'Babalities', 'Animalities', Friendship and Mercy finishers. These allowed you to turn the loser into a baby, turn your character into a animal to kill the loser, have your character do some silly thing to give a cheap laugh, and to give your opponent a small bit of health to continue fighting. STORY: It's a well known fact that most fighting games don't have a good story, or lack having a good one, MK falls to this curse, delivering a half-decent story. The whole idea? Save the world from some overpowered dude that you can't select. But seriously, who plays fighting games for their stories? At best, MK3's story is average, but it's still noticeable in the characters that populate this game, and MK has always managed to have some of the best characters ever made. GRAPHICS: Good for the time. The game had real people modelling the characters, so each character looked lifelike. The games arenas looked great as well, featuring a more urban environment than in previous MK games. Trust me, some of these arenas looked really well made, and some looked just plain stunning. But where would MK be without blood? Oh, it's in this game alright, and by the bucketload...making this easily the SNES's most violent fighter...ever. Above all, there is not much you can say about the graphics. DIFFICULTY: MK has never been a easy game, especially in the first three games. If you think that for one second, you can rely on one button just to win a match, you are WRONG! Your opponents will always find someway to turn the tables on you, so you at least need to know some of the characters moves to at least stay a head of the ruthless CPU. OVERALL: MK3 was the last game that had a comedic structure on the game before returning to a much darker...sinister game. But if you can find this game, and consider yourself a skilled gamer, get it, it will be worth it. There is nothing like the old-school MK games, so at least give this one a shot.
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