It's possible this is the ultimate incarnation of this game
Written: Nov 22 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Fun game,looks better than other versions
Cons: Loading times are the worst I have ever seen
The Bottom Line: Big MK fans will want this, as it is probably the best home version of 3, but it still has it's faults, and general fight fans will find better
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| flash-hammer's Full Review: Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 for Saturn |
If you are a regular reader of my reviews, chances are you are wondering exactly what is wrong with me, and what on earth possessed me to buy this, my third version of the third Mortal Kombat title. The answer is simple, when I first got my hands on a Saturn, I only had two crappy football games to play. For the next few months, I compulsively bought any Saturn games I saw, something like Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3(UMK3), that I was familiar with, was always going to be something I would go for.
In the necessary rundown of the game, it's a one on one fighter where the goal is to deplete your opponent's energy bar using punches,kicks and special moves. Where MK stood out from the pack was it's 'Finish Him', message which comes up after you defeat your opponent and allows the player limited time to perform a death move. This then progressed to other odd moves being implemented here, such as babalities, which turn your enemy into a child and Mercy's, which give your opponent a tiny piece of life back.
Differences in terms of gameplay between the Saturn port and the other versions of the game aren't numerous. While Animalities are possible in this version, something that doesn't apply to the other home ports, this version is minus a character in the form of purple ninja Rain. Completely off topic, I just got that, 'purple' Rain. The Prince song. Im tempted to take off a star just for that. Sorry, however Shokan woman Shiva is back, if that's a good thing or not is up to you, and Mileena,Classic Sub Zero and Ermac need to be unlocked.
MK3, in all it's incarnations, utilizes a combo-system pretty much universally hated, of course I'm talking about the infamous 'dial-a-conbo' system in which combos are performed simply by tapping buttons in the correct order with little use for time and special moves. This didn't go down too well with players who actually liked to learn and master fighters, and was pretty flawed due to the fact it was far too easy to get into these combos, and once in there was no way of breaking them for the player on the recieving end.
None of the Mortal Kombat games barring the second outing have ever been able to lay claim to be gameplay masterpieces, while people still play Capcom's ten year old Streetfighter games competitively, no one has ever really taken the MK series very seriously, basically because it's hard to. MK games have often suffered from hilariously unbalanced fighters in terms of strengths and special moves, and this is once again something that applies here. There really is no point in a healthy chunk of the cast being there, because most of the play is going to be done through the characters who have made it through all the Mortal Kombats.
However, what MK games have, for the most part, always succeeded in doing was being fun. Post pub-scrapping at it's best. The game was always very good at creating fun fights, with it's over the top gore and moves, like the uppercut that sends people 10 feet in the air, and UMK3 on the Saturn really can't be accused of letting the player down on that level.
What does really decimate the enjoyment the game gives off, is the disgraceful loading times. I swear to god it goes well into minutes waiting for a fight to load, and there is even a lengthy pause between rounds. Should you reach any of the Endurance matches on single player, you should also be ready for a heavy loading time between the change of enemies.
Speaking of the single player game, it has to be said that the AI in this version is at least decent in the normal fights, but against sub-boss Motaro, a pushover in the 16-Bit ports, be ready for some horrendously cheap AI that doesn't even let you off your feet.
The game controls in the Saturn port are pretty much identical to those on the Genesis 6-Button pad:
X:High Punch
Y:Block
Z:High Kick
A:Low Punch
B:Run
C:Low Kick
With the exception of my complaint in every MK about the controls, having to press a button to block in a 2D fighter being absolutely ridiculous, the versions of MK3 also added the similarly comical run button. While most games would use double tapping in the direction, a more sensible method, for some god-unknown reason Midway decided to be different with pretty poor results. While they don't go to the length of making the game unplayable, the run/block buttons do cause some confusion and really could have been done without.
Graphically, the Saturn port is really quite nice. While in no incarnation did MK3 ever look better than the second game, the sprites are still clear, and much less fuzzy than on either 16-Bit Port, and they are also of a larger size, the animation never really was an issue in the other versions, and it isn't here either. The stages are also well presented, and while a lot of them still lack the animation you would expect, especially on the Pit with blue portal stage, but what we have is pretty crisp stages that look quite a bit better than the 16-Bit versions, especially the riverside stage, where in the other versions the water was represented by a solid block of blue, but here it's actually been made to look like water.
The sound in the game is pretty decent, with the same moody music as the previous MK3 games, which really help set the tone of the thing, and the well done voiced sound effects, that while some have went missing in bringing this from the arcade to the Sega, the ones that do remain are over the top and likeable, and also add to the general tone of the game.
There is no doubt in my mind that this is probably the best version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, and possibly even the best home conversion of MK3 full stop, in fact, it almost managed to notch up an extra star on what I scored the Genesis port, however, everything that this game made up for from that port got quickly undone by the terrible loading times which really are horrendous.
If you don't own any version of MK3, this is probably your best bet. If you do own any other incarnation of it, unless this is very cheap, it probably isn't really worth your time. While it is quite a fun game, and certainly not the worst title in the MK series, this is on the Sega Saturn, and if you own one, you have access to so many more much better fighting games, in both two and three dimensions, so this really isn't necessary to pick up unless you are an ardent MK fan.
Three stars and a Recommended for this, the same as the Genesis version, then. While this is the case, I would like to point out that if the loading times weren't so terrible, this came close to being 4 stars.
Related Reviews
Games
Mortal Kombat for Sega Genesis
Mortal Kombat for Super Nintendo
Mortal Kombat 2 for Super Nintendo
Mortal Kombat 2 for Sega Genesis
Mortal Kombat 3 for Sega Genesis
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 for Sega Genesis
Movies
Mortal Kombat
Recommended:
Yes
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