flash-hammer's Full Review: Mortal Kombat Trilogy for Nintendo 64
Mortal Kombat Trilogy was a game I always wanted for the PlayStation, but at the time being an N64 owner I had to settle for the cartridge based port. I had often looked at the back of the PSX, and saw that the mighty Goro was playable, as was Shao Kahn, as a Mortal Kombat devotee, I simply had to get my hands on this. I finally came accross it really cheap in Spain, which meant I couldn't read the instructions, but hell I knew MK well enough to figure out the controls, and I had the internet if I ran into any major issues.
For those unaware, the Mortal Kombat series of videogames are 1-on-1 fighting games where the idea is to empty your opponent's energy bar using a variety of attacks before they do the same to you. There are a vast number of characters on offer, each with their own special moves and combo attacks, and of course there is a 2-Player Versus option, because a fighter wouldn't be complete without one.
Mortal Kombat Trilogy is basically no more than an upgraded version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, which was basically no more than a minor upgrade on regular Mortal Kombat 3. The game still uses the much maligned 'Dial-a-Combo' system, where players tap buttons in the correct order, much like dialing on a telephone, to perform combos, leading to much frustration for players who spent a lot of time creating strategies and learning complex combos to have them undone by lucky button mashing.
This also means that it implements possibly the silliest waste of a button in fighter history, the 'Run' button,as well as hilariously over the top gore caused by even the slightest punch. Naturally the game's trademark 'Fatality' system is still in place,where upon victory you are given limited time to perform a correct button combination to off your opponent in spectacular fashion, when you consider that so many people hated the gameplay of MK3, you have to wonder why Midway stuck with it for so long, and while I was fairly lenient to the other games using the 3 engine, the 64 port of MKT really does leave a lot to be desired in terms of gameplay.
First of all, we have around 30 playable characters, which sounds impressive on paper, but 7 of them are the Ninja sprite recoloured,and 4 the female ninja, not to mention the 3-Cyber Ninjas. The collision detection is simply woeful, with hits from halfway accross the screen connecting, and some moves just never connect. While it is possible to get a laugh on multiplayer, it's usually at how bad the game is, with it's many times rehashed engine and dated looks, not to mention the comical nature of fights where you can kill opponents without touching them.
And the game is lucky it has humour on its side in multiplay, because single player is a disgrace, with the cheapest AI you will ever see stacked against you. You could make the game's lifespan longer by making good AI Midway, not just cheating and having the computer always have priority, and you losing the advantage of the comedy hit detection while it takes full advantage of it.
Graphically, the game is pretty mixed. The sprites are a lot larger are clearer than any previous home port of a Mortal Kombat, but on the downside they are terrible in terms of animation, and the fact Midway has opted to use the MK2 sprites of Baraka and Raiden and expected them to gel with MK3 sprites without any work is a farce. Strangely Johnny Cage gets a new sprite, and fans of the character will wish they had just used the old one. The stages come from the first 3 MK games, and are all nice enough to look at in their full glory after becoming adjusted to the 16-Bit port's scaled down versions.
The sound in the game is pretty terrible. The game opts for mostly MK3 music, and the worst selection of it. We have that horrible sort of dance remix of the character's grunts, which themselves are muffled and painful on the ears.It's times likes these Im thankful for the Mute button and CD players.
The controls are where the game goes beyond the point of no return though. The 64 pad isn't a controller I've ever been fond of, and for fighting games it is pretty useless. The fact that MKT's controls do lay out nicely enough on it did give me some hope, but the response times are crap, and neither the D-Pad or analoge stick is any good for this sort of thing, not to mention the problems caused by the fact that A and B are so much bigger than the C Buttons, which doesn't sound like an issue, but it doesn't feel right.
When it comes down to it, I really fail to see any need for anyone to want a copy of Mortal Kombat Trilogy for the N64. I never did play the Saturn or PlayStation ports, and while they may have a better roster, I suppose I should mention that the N64 port, being on cartridge, doesn't suffer from having to put up with loading times.
MKT isn't the worst fighting game ever, in fact, compared to a lot of the bile that passes for fighting games on the N64, it isn't that bad, but it still doesn't do enough for me to even consider giving it any more than 2 stars, and it certainly isn't recommended.
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