Mortal Kombat III reviewed on www.vidgames.com

Mortal Kombat III
Reviewed by Nils Jacobsen

Story

The portal to the Outworld has again opened, and Shao Khan is after the bodies and souls of the Earthlings. In fact, he has captured most of them already. You are to fight his forces which are lead by Motaro in order to free the world. Your basic two-player, 2D, fighter, kill or be killed.

You can choose any of 14 fighters to complete your task. Fireballs, flaming arrows, missiles, four arms, nets etc. will be at your disposal depending on which character you choose. You can choose difficulty level, none of which are "easy".

Graphics

If you saw the arcade version, you saw how the PS version is. A very close translation of the graphics! All the moves, fatalities, babalities, animalities etc. from the arcade, with a couple of exceptions. For a 2D fighting game, I guess it is as good as it gets. I wish there were a few more frames of animation on each move, but that's probably just because I'm spoiled by Tekken and Tohshinden. Backgrounds are nice, more or less 2D.

What did bother me though, was the graphics in this game while using the S-Video cable. Apparently the programmers optimized the color scheme for use with the composite cable, and succeeded. However, when using the S-Video cable, all the graphics looks like a mesh has been put on top of it. Quite annoying! The colors doesn't blend as they would with a composite cable, and the result isn't very nice. Oh well, I got used to it. I ask myself why thogh, since most other games don't show this effect.

Sound

Excellent quality soundeffects. Tons better than in the arcade if you crank up your stereo system. The music comes alive in the homeversion, adding a lot to the atmosphere. Not many ommisions from the arcade, only "Fight" in the beginning of each match.

Gameplay

As far as I can tell, a prefect arcade translation! The gameplay is just as fast, if not a tad faster! Playing against the computer isn't easy, even on very easy. A novice like me made it to Motaro pretty fast, but then died without a chance. Motaro and Shao Khan is very hard on all levels! But, as with most other fighting games, the fun starts when you play the two-player game. I only wish it was possible to increase the number of rounds. Pulling off fatalities etc. on your friend gives a lot more satisfaction than against a computer opponent. As yo do, there is a slight delay before it actually happens, nothing major. A bit more serious is the 3-4 second delay when Shang Tsung morphs into another character. Due to memory limitations, only two characters can be held in memory at any given time. Thus, when you morph, your new character must be loaded from the CD. (This is unavoidable on a CD system, unless you have a 8 speed CD, and 8MB of RAM available...) Luckily, the programmers put in an option to either disable morphs or only allow you to morph into whoever your opponent is. For some a major flaw, for others, like me, doesn't matter.

An added twist are the kombat kodes you can enter at the vs. screen when in two-player mode. By manipulating the symbols you can do all kinds of funky stuff, including accessing a hidden game!

If you are into fighting games you might want to consider buying a joystick of some kind. The pad works, but once you get on a stick, you never want to go back. Several offerings are on the market, from $50 up to $90 for the true arcade joystick. Check the Hardware section for what is available.

Lastability

With the amount of different fighters, moves, fatalitites, animalities, babalities, combos and secret kombat kodes, this game should be well worth its money. Unless, of course, you're not into 2D fighting games like the MK series.

Overall

A truly great arcade translation. If you are a Mortal Kombat fan, this game will not disappoint you. Great graphics, sound and playability makes it king of 2D fighters. Hook it up to your big screen and sub-woofer setup for the true fighting experience.

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