Hardly 'Ultimate'
Written: Oct 15 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Scorpion and Reptile are back!
Cons: Very little has changed, for almost every addition something has been removed
The Bottom Line: UMK3 is only marginally better than regular MK3, and neither is comparable to the work of art that was 2, but it is fairly enjoyable for fans.
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| flash-hammer's Full Review: Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 for Sega Genesis |
I remember being over the moon about Mortal Kombat 3 upon it's release, but after a few weeks it's appeal had faded, in part due to the absence of my favourite characters Scorpion and Johhny Cage, in part due to the fact it generally wasn't as good as it's predecessor. I remember Ultimate MK3 launched with no hype, and I wasn't even aware it existed until I saw it in a shop one day, not too long after my birthday (or Christmas, one of these times when kids have money), and had to get my mum to take it to the till, because it was clearly rated 15 on the front (I think this was the first game to feature such a rating). While I was never big on the constant upgrading Capcom did with it's Streetfighter games, one look at the back of the box showed the character select screen, and Scorpion was back, with a legion of other Ninja in tow.
The story of UMK3 is essentially the same as that of the regular third entry, so see the above link for a better outline of the story, but here is a rough one:
The evil warlord Shao Kahn has given up on hosting tournaments to try and take over the Earth realm, so he employs a plan utilising black magic that reincarnates princess Kitana's mother Sindel, who somehow opens a portal to Earth, and it begins to merge with the Outoworld realm, and Kahn and Shang Tsung reap the souls of all those on Earth. It's up to the Earth Realm's warriors, spearheaded by Liu Kang, to take down Kahn once and for all and save the realm
The new characters don't really add much in terms of plot, although I do like how they brought Scorpion into things, as Shang Tsung and co have been messing about with souls and such it messed up hell, and Scorpion was able to return to Earth. Returning from previous Mortal Kombat games that didn't show up in regular 3 are Scorpion,Kitana,Mileena,Reptile,Jade and Noob Saibot. New characters include Rain, a purple, weather controlling Ninja who first appeared in the demo video of arcade UMK3, even though he wasn't in the game, Ermac, the infamous Red Ninja, who was a rumoured glitched version of Scorpion in the first two MK games, also here are less new characters, but you can play as Classic Sub Zero, and with the help of a code Human Smoke. Strangely, Shiva has actually been removed from UMK3's Genesis port, presumabley to make space for the 300 Ninja characters.
These take the total amount of playable fighters to 24(25 when you count Human Smoke), with both boss characters also being unlockable via code.
The gameplay is, if you don't know, a one-on-one fighter where the idea is to win two rounds out of three by using a variety of attacks to beat your enemy's health bar down to empty. At the end of the second round, you are prompted to 'FINISH HIM/HER!', at which point you have a few seconds to enter a button combination that will cause your character to perform some variety of finisher.
For god knows what reason, Midway decided to remove Animalitys, MK3's biggest new feature, and replace them with 'Brutalities'. This wouldn't be so bad if Brutalities were any good, but they are just essentially Killer Instinct's Ultra Combo's that make your opponent explode.
The game still features 'Dial-a-Combos', where combos are made simple by pressing a number of buttons in the correct order, and so therefore the same faults I found with regular 3 apply here, most of the combos are easily button mashed, and there is no way of breaking them, leading to much frustration.
The single player game is also marred by having absolutely horrible AI. You either fight what is essentially a dummy, or you go up against foes that are so cheap you will be lucky to get a hit in. Returning to UMK3 are 'Endurance' matches, where you fight two characters in quick succession, and these are nearly impossible due to the horrible AI. Second last boss Motaro is still too easy, and the game generally carries over all of the gameplay faults of 3, including the less than good collision detection, which when it comes to sweeps is pretty atrocious.
Despite it's faults, I would be lying if I told you the game was terrible, it is still playable, and with it's Tournament mode for multiplayer, I have to say I had a great time with it. Some minor improvements have been made, such as Stryker can now use his gun in combat, which made me feel like I hadn't been that short changed, and while the gameplay cannot even hope to compare to MK2, it is decent, and enjoyable enough for a 16-Bit scrapper.
Graphically, UMK3 is at the same level as MK3, good, but actually not as good to look at as part 2. The character sprites are fairly detailed and well animated, however the fact that there are 5 male Ninja characters all using the same sprite and having two sets of animations divided between them does stand out as being silly.
The stages are now a mixed bag. Several of them have been removed from MK3, inlcuding the Street, the bridge and Motaro's lair, and in there place the new stages range from awesome, Scorpion's hell level, Jade's desert, complete with Cyrax buried in the sand behind the fighters are welcome additions, but the river combat stage looks like it comes from a NES game and the potentially awesome level that is a pit with the portal from MK2 behind it is marred by the fact they didn't animate the portal, so it looks like the characters are fighting in front of a big painting of a portal.
The game has removed two of the stages that connected to others, so sadly the number of levels that allow you to uppercut your enemy to another stage has been put down from 3 to 2, with there being 4 in the arcade version.
The sound in the game is actually recycled from regular 3, featuring the same music and sound effects. While this is lazy, it isn't that bad because 3 had excellent moody music, and the voices were at best good and at worst funny, so it's a decent situation, but still not a good show from Midway when you think about it.
The controls work the same as in 3, with a 6-Button controller essentially being a requirement.
X:High Punch
Y:Run
Z:High Kick
A:Low Punch
B:Block
C:Low Kick
While I loathe having to press a button to block, and run, you do get used to it, and there are no complaints in way of responsiveness from me. The 3 Button controls are such a travesty, I don't actually see a point in even attempting to explain them.
On the whole, what was supposed to be an upgrade of MK3, ends up being only marginally better than it's original incarnation. Sure it has a good few more characters, but for every stage added another is removed, and the lack of any new music is just plain lazy. Combine this with the fact that the game carries over essentially every fault the regular game had, and it's impossible to score Ultimate MK3 in any region far from what I gave the regular third game.
While I gave this game a 'Recommended', there isn't really all that much to recommend it on, I just feel it does deserve to be slightly distinguished from regular 3, and if given the choice of which one to take, I would opt for this version, just because it has the most classic MK characters out of the two.
If you already own MK3, there really isn't much incentive to buy UMK3, unless of course you love the regular game, and want to play it with more fighters, but the removal of stages and Animalitys makes this less of an upgrade and more of an alternate version, so it really isn't that much of a step up.
So, three and a recommended. I had to score it the same amount of stars as regular MK3, basically because the meat and bones of the game are almost identical, and for almost every addition this game makes, it also removes something from the original incarnation. However, it has more fighters, inlcuding ones players are more familiar with, so that's what earns it it's recommended tag, the fact that if you were to play this with a group of friends now, chances are this would go down decently, due to the fact the majority of the MK1/2 cast appears (sadly sans Raiden). If you are a fan of MK and don't own any version of the third game, but want to, then Ultimate is probably the one to opt for. It doesn't have much over regular 3, but it does have a little, and the return of some of the series staple characters.
Related Reviews
Games
Mortal Kombat for Super Nintendo
Mortal Kombat for Sega Genesis
Mortal Kombat 2 for Super Nintendo
Mortal Kombat 2 for Sega Genesis
Mortal Kombat 3 for Sega Genesis
Movies
Mortal Kombat
Recommended:
Yes
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flash-hammer
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