Despite the fact that I'm a huge fan of fighting games, I never really put much time into Mortal Kombat 3. I enjoyed the original Mortal Kombat for what it was and I loved the second game because of its mythology and dark atmosphere, but I never could get into the third and final 2D sequel. There was just something about it that made me shy away; perhaps it was the dial-a-combo game play and the more lighthearted mood. Over the past ten years I have been vocal in my support for Mortal Kombat II, often treating the third installment like a bad dream. I am just not that into Mortal Kombat 3.
But maybe I have been wrong all these years. Maybe my impressions of Mortal Kombat 3 were clouded by my disappointment that it wasn't more like the far-superior Mortal Kombat II. Maybe I've just been too tough on this fighting game. Now that Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 is on the Xbox Live Arcade I knew I had a chance to give this sequel a second shot, maybe ten years time is enough to reset my own bias and give the game a fair shake.
The very first thing I noticed while playing Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 is how fresh it felt. These days it's rare for a 2D fighting game to feel fresh to me, I've played so many of them over the years that it's easy for me to just take their stale game play for granted. While I enjoyed playing Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting on the Xbox Live Arcade I couldn't shake the familiarity of it. But I've barely played Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 in the past ten years; I didn't even remember that there was a Run button.
As you might expect, this Xbox Live Arcade version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 is a direct port of the 1995 arcade game. The game looks, sounds, and feels exactly like it did eleven years ago when it cost fifty cents to play. Now it's a one-time $10 investment on the Xbox 360, not a bad deal when you consider all of the content you get in this download.
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 isn't a sequel, per se. The game acted as the upgrade (or expansion pack) to 1994's Mortal Kombat 3. Ultimate added new levels, new characters and a bunch of new fatalities. It took what was good about the original game and refined the rest to make a complete package full of mysteries and secrets. Of course, seeing as this is the only Mortal Kombat title available on the Xbox Live Arcade it doesn't matter if this is an expansion pack or not, what you're getting is the most complete version of Mortal Kombat 3 available.
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 features more than twenty characters, including a few that have to be unlocked. Each of the characters has a number of different moves, at least two fatalities, Babalities, Friendships, Animalities and stage kills. While the fatalities in Mortal Kombat II were dark and sadistic, the Mortal Kombat 3 fatalities seem more upbeat and comical. There are more than a few that will make you laugh more than cringe at the violence. The good news is that each character has a massive selection of ending moves to memorize, which often makes the last few seconds of the match the best part. With so many different finishing moves one could probably argue that it's worth the $10 just to see them all.
The fighting itself isn't bad, but I'm not a fan of the new dial-a-combo system they incorporated for this sequel. To put this all in context, Mortal Kombat 3 was released right after Killer Instinct hit the arcades, and in a lot of ways this Mortal Kombat game is trying to steal some of that thunder. Thankfully the combos are not as over the top as Killer Instinct, but it still feels like it requires you to memorize buttons rather than linking moves together with good timing and skill. Looking back at it now I'm more forgiving of this style of game play, especially since it was done so much worse in other games.
While this Xbox Live Arcade game comes with the full arcade mode, the real reason to download this game is to play it online. Now that online gaming has successfully taken over where the arcade left off, it's great to see games like Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 on a system that is so dedicated towards building an online community. Playing online is relatively trouble free, you don't need to worry about lag issues and it's always easy to find somebody to play against. You are also able to go into a four-player room where everybody rotates around playing the winner of each round. The online mode is very straight forward, but that's the kind of thing you want with a game like Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3.
Beyond the great online game play, you are also able to collect 200 achievement points from Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Most of the points are extremely easy to pick up, and you'll get a good 50-60 points simple from going through the single player mode once. There are a few online points that are more difficult to come by, but none of the points are that difficult to unlock.
After spending several days playing Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 online and off, I have a new found respect for the game. I'm surprised at how well the game has held up over the last 11 years, it is still a rock solid fighting game with a lot of cool extras to unlock. I still don't care for some of the "improvements" Midway made to this sequel, but they don't take away from what is otherwise a fantastic fighting game that is a lot of fun to play with friends. At $10 this game is well worth the money and is easily one of the best games currently available on the Xbox Live Arcade service. Hopefully one day Midway will make Mortal Kombat II available.
