SNES Game Review - Mortal Kombat 3

In 1995 Mortal Kombat 3 was unleashed upon the world. Following the great success of Mortal Kombat 3, the team at midway polished their game to a sleeker, faster, bloodier, more complicated fighting game.

Unfortunatly for Shang Tsung, his master Shao Kahn has enacted a 10,000 year old plan to revive his dead queen Sindel in the Earthrealm, where she can act as a beacon to allow Shao Kahn to leave the Outworld, and conquer the Earthrealm. Billions of souls are instantly stolen by Shao Kahn, sparing only a few because of Rayden's influence. Now the Fighters must defeat Shao Kahn or risk losing their realm to the lord of the Outworld. Mortal Kombat begins again.

Graphically, Mortal Kombat 3 surpasses any fighter of its generation. Stop motion actors were used for the sprites, beautiful dark backgrounds less concerned with an Asian theme, now portray a stronger western influence. The Effects of special abilities are revamped to include brighter messier visuals that portray even more violence than the previous installments.

Mortal Kombat 3 had impressive brooding fight music, powerful SFX and appropriate announcer sound bytes. Strong hits are accompanied by loud smacks and visceral crunches. Truly Violence has never sounded so satisfying as it does on Mortal Kombat 3

As fighters advanced, so did their control scheme and difficulty. Mortal Kombat 3 builds upon the strong foundation of HI KICK LO KICK, HI PUNCH LO PUNCH, BLOCK, and adds an additional RUN meter as well as "Chain Combos" that are unstoppable after they have begun regardless of hitting an opponent. The learning curve is awfully steep for a fighter because it includes a larger variety of combo attacks as well as a few newly introduced game play aspects such as: multi-tier arenas where an opponent can be knocked upwards into a special arena above the starting ones, a new fatality known as "Animalities"

Mortal Kombat 3 is not an easy game by any standards, it is reserved for seasoned MK veterans as well as those looking for a smarter fighter. Mortal Kombat 3 was marketed towards the Teen audience, despite its massive quantities of violence and gore.

Mortal Kombat 3 expanded upon its predecessors, implemented new features, and polished already impressive graphics to a almost realistic degree. Mortal Kombat 3 deserves a solid 4 bicycle kicks out of 5.