Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3

Review

by Jon Thompson

Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 for the Sega Saturn brings the Kombat home with crisper graphics, clearer sound, and a host of extras, but it is important to note right away that the game is still, at its heart, Mortal Kombat 3. All of the original MK3 gameplay elements are in tact here: the 2D photo-realistic fighters, the multi-hit combos, special moves, and of course the fatalities. These basic elements have been added to in the way of cosmetic updates and enhancements. In addition, a number of older characters return to the fray, and several new warriors join the battle. Regardless of these enhancements, whether or not you're going to enjoy this game will definitely depend on how you enjoyed Mortal Kombat 3 in the first place.When Mortal Kombat first hit the scene, players weren't so much fascinated by its relatively simple gameplay as they were for the fact that it reveled in violence, being the first game that took "fighting to the death" to its logical extreme. The second entry was perhaps even more popular, with beautiful graphics, more gore, and extra characters. Unfortunately, the series managed to run out of a lot of its steam once it hit the third game, mainly due to some overly ridiculous characters, fatalities that rang as uninspired and general gameplay that was updated in the wrong areas.The addition of the run button did little to enhance Mortal Kombat's luster. Fighting games have always worked well with run being activated by a double tap forward or some similar movement. Having to press another button, in addition to having to press one to block, only made the system more cumbersome. And the edition of Killer Instinct-like canned combos did little to differentiate the characters and only seemed to cheapen play. Each character still played essentially the same as the next, with a few different special moves to mix things up.In addition, one of the series' favorite features, the fatalities, were drastically cut down on the gore level, and many went for a more humorous bent, especially with the return of the babalities and the addition of animalities. Most of these felt stale rather than new and refreshing. To make matters worse, the new characters just weren't exciting, as they had to resort to multiple ninja robots and a police officer that looked more like a baseball catcher than a world-class martial artist. Still, despite the relatively lackluster nature of the title, fans of Mortal Kombat 3 in the arcade will more than likely be impressed with Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 on the Saturn. Ultimate is loaded down with extra goodies for fans of the series to relish in, including a whole host of characters that haven't appeared since the first or second games, and a bevy of secret characters that can only be accessed by code. Many of these characters are simply palette swaps of characters already in the game with several new moves, but die-hard fans of Mortal Kombat have already accepted the palette-swap as part of the game. In addition to these secret and returning characters, which boosts the game's total to an impressive twenty-two (not including eventually playable boss characters) there are several new backgrounds to choose from in this Ultimate version. There is also a new difficulty mode, as well as a tournament that up to eight fighters can compete in to crown an Ultimate Mortal Kombat champion.The visuals on Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 are crisp and clear on the Sega Saturn, very much resembling the graphics from the arcade. If the visual look of realistic characters enhanced with sprite graphics that move in a slightly choppy manner is what you've enjoyed in the arcade, then you can feel safe to know that it is almost perfectly done here. The rumbling, evil music and sound effects also all seem to be intact, preserving the arcade experience to a T. Mortal Kombat 3 was not a game for everyone, and many of the more hardcore fighting fans turned their heads from the series after the second title, probably rightly so. But if you were a fan of Mortal Kombat 3, then you can't go wrong to pick up the Ultimate version, as it goes the extra yard and is chock full of more gory extras to enjoy.