Story: Fed
up with continuous losses in tournament battle, Shao Kahn, who had lost to Liu
Kang in the Outworld tournament, enacts a 10,000 year-old plan. He would have
his Shadow Priests, led by Shang Tsung, revive his former Queen Sindel, who
unexpectedly died at a young age. However, she wouldn't be revived in the
Outworld. She would be resurrected in the Earthrealm. This would allow Shao Kahn
to cross the boundary lines and reclaim his queen. When Sindel is reincarnated
in Earthrealm, Shao Kahn reaches across the dimensions to reclaim her. As a
consequence of his action, the Earthrealm becomes a part of the Outworld,
killing billions instantly. Only a few are spared, as Raiden protects their
souls. He tells them that Shao Kahn must be stopped, but he cannot interfere;
due to his status, he has no power in Outworld, and Earthrealm is partially
merged with Outworld. Shao
Kahn has unleashed extermination squads to roam throughout the Earthrealm and
kill any survivors. Also, Raiden's protection only extends to the soul, not to
the body, so his chosen warriors have to fight the extermination squads and
repel Shao Kahn. Eventually somehow every human on Earthrealm comes back.
.
.
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Review: With the
tremendous success of the first sequel, Mortal Kombat 3 had an extremely
high bar to clear to surpass the greatness associated with Mortal
Kombat II. To put it frankly, Mortal Kombat 3 missed the bar by a wide
margin. First off, many "MK favorites" were clearly missing, like Raiden
and Scorpion. Mortal Kombat
3, to many people, marked the end of its rise in popularity with the game's
casual player demographic.
Midway had
made radical gameplay changes and added a new combo system that many people
just didn't accept. The game was too complex to enjoy for "casual" fighting
game players. Seasoned veterans also had to memorize the five- to six-hit
"dial-a-combos," leaving the casual player standing there helpless while
he got the crap kicked out of him.
.
In addition,
the mixture of computer-generated and hand-drawn elements stood out strangely
Furthermore, Midway added to the insanely long list of "cute" finishers
with "Animalities." Animalities morphed your character into a single bright-colored
animal that then proceeded to maim its opponent. This new finisher was
panned in the arcades by even the most devoted MK fans... It just looked
retarded, and made little-to-no sense.
.
Manufacturer: Midway
Platforms: Arcade,
Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Playstation, PSP (featured in Midway Collection)
Release: 1994
Characters:
Liu
Kang, Sub Zero, Sonya,
Kung
Lao, Jax,
Sektor,
Shang
Tsung, Cyrax,
Sindel,
Stryker,
Nightwolf,
Sheeva,
Smoke,
Kabal,
Kano,
Motaro,
Shao
Kahn
Related Games:
Mortal
Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal
Kombat 3 Ultimate,
Mortal Kombat 4, Mortal
Kombat: Armageddon, Mortal Kombat: Deadly
Alliance, Mortal Kombat: Deception,
Mortal
Kombat Gold, Mortal
Kombat Trilogy, Mortal
Kombat VS DC Universe
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7.5 / 10 |
Closing Comment: A lot of people hated MK3 with a passion, so I'm being nice here... I didn't mind playing it at the arcades when it came out, but no, it wasn't nearly as good as MK2. Still, with the third installment to the series, Midway delivers an interesting "new cast" and even a convincing atmosphere, and an interesting new combo system. But the fact that many "favorites" were missing on the character selection screen, brought the overall appeal for this game down... The sequel, Mortal Kombat 3 Ultimate fixed some of these problems. ~F.Yagami, Webmaster of TFG
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