Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Review

Prepare For Kombat!!!

Shao Kahn, that nasty guy from the outworld, has gotten tired of trying to win Mortal Kombat in order to invade earth. So, just like any truly evil entity, he cheats. Somehow, he gets his dead wife reincarnated in Earth's realm. This action allows him to invade Earth and steal all their souls. The only souls he is unable to take are those of the chosen warriors protected by Rayden. The chosen ones aren't the only ones spared, however. Shadows from the past, such as Mileena and Classic Sub-Zero, have reemerged from the chaos to join in the fight for Earth. In an age of upheaval, only these chosen few will save mankind from Shao Kahn's evil plans.

That is, at least, what the makers of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 would like you to believe. In the most recent reincarnation of the classic Mortal Kombat series, the fighters find themselves in your home. The Saturn is the first home console to have Mortal Kombat 3 and the designers did a beautiful job capturing the arcade game. The loading problem still exists, but it is only noticeable when somebody plays Shang Tsung. This is definitely the best translation of Mortal Kombat so far.

The graphics are almost identical to that of the arcade. From Cyrax's plastic armor to Shiva's skimpy clothing, it's all there. It's smooth, too. During the actual fight, there is no load time. Each character executes their moves flawlessly. Even the backgrounds move smoothly. When you punch somebody up through the roof, there is no pause for the new background to load. Unfortunately, because this is Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, you don't have quite the variety of backgrounds that you had in the original version. Despite the opposition, all the fatalities, no matter how disturbing, are still there. When you execute them, however, the game has to pause in order to load the fatality from memory. Still, if you forget about the occasional pauses due to CD technology, this game is visually perfect.

The only noticeable difference in the sound between the arcade and the home version is the lack of music for the introduction. It is so quite during the title screen that I thought I hadní•t hooked the audio jacks into the TV. Other than that, the designers successfully transferred all the sounds from the arcade into the home version. All the screams, laughter, and 'toastie''s that you love in UMK3 are still there.

All the secrets you loved to discover in the arcade are also in the Saturn version of UMK3. Ermac, Mileena, Classic Sub-Zero, a human Smoke, and more are all waiting to be discovered. We can help you out a bit with our secret codes. Those codes will get you started, but believe me, there are a lot more in there. Unfortunately, any characters that you uncover while playing will be lost the moment you reset the game. This oversight by the designers is unforgivable, when all it takes is a small save file to record the characters you have found.

The AI for the game is also identical to the arcade, and trust me, this is not a good thing. The AI for UMK3 is one of the worst of any fighting game on the market. It can be fooled over and over again by doing the same moves. You can even do that forward, back trick to win after time runs out. Of all things the designers could have improved upon with the home systems, the AI tops the list.

If you are a die hard Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 fan and need the most detailed home version possible, this game may just be your favorite thing in the universe. Every detail, good and bad, has been successfully duplicated at home. With the only difference being the load time, true fans will love this game.