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Review: Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 |
I remember reading an interview with either Ed Boon or John Tobias, shortly after the release of MKII — and I clearly recall them saying how they didn’t want to be like Capcom (releasing upgrades to games) — and that every MK game would be totally new.
So it’s with an sardonically-raised eyebrow that I’m writing about the 4th MK game, a game that isn’t called MK4. Nope, it’s Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3.
MK3 was ill-recieved, and I gave it 70% a few days ago … not the greatest of triumphs I’m sure. Whether UMK3 is what the third game *should* have been, but wasn’t, due to time constraints or whatever I don’t know, and I’m not really that interested. But here we have the “Ultimate” Mortal Kombat 3 … which is pretty much EXACTLY the sort of upgrade Eddy and John-Boy talked so disdainfully about. (Note to self: Capcom fanboyism is showing)“Ultimate” in this case means a couple of returning characters from MKII, a couple of new backgrounds, a gameplay tweak and new move or two, some more secrets and two new ways to play (8-player tournament and a non-tag-team 2-on-2 match.) Ultimate indeed.Reptile, Scorpion, Jade and Kitana are now selectable from the start, Smoke is now instantly selectable (as either human or robot) and the 3 secret characters are Mileena, “Classic” Sub-Zero and, joy, Ermac – another palette-swap ninja.In other words … only the “Kitana” type body is new, and then there are 2 swaps of her (Jade and Mileena) It’s good to have an expanded roster, as they all have their own moves and combos and finishers … it’s just this is the first game for me anyways where the recycled characters start to become a little overwhelming and annoying. All the new characters have their own finishing moves, no change from regular MK3 in the fact they’re still silly and more than a little lame. The “Animalities” (shudder) for the new characters no longer involve big glowing animals, but instead minute realistic-looking ones. They still suck, aren’t funny and are almost totally non-sensical. Why exactly does Scorpion turn into a tiny explosive-egg-laying Penguin? GARGH!
They also added four all-new backgrounds. There are two secret ones but they’re made up of bits of existing ones, and so don’t deserve commentary. The new ones are nothing special – a dull riverside cityscape, a rocky Kahn’s Lair, a desert with Cyrax half-buried in the sand (and if you actually choose Cyrax to play he’s STILL THERE) and Hell. Hell isn’t bad, a pit of fire with columns of skulls which look like those rotating pillars from “Hellraiser” — it’s a shame it also has a lame stage fatality (knock the other guy into the molten liquid … sounds better than it looks)
The other new things are a fourth tower of destiny (difficulty level selection), the reintroduction of endurance rounds and, upon completing the game, a choice of “Shao Kahns’ Treasures”. Depending on the difficulty level you won on, you can pick a “treasure”. These range from your characters’ ending (don’t expect new ending images for the new characters), battles with secret characters, fatality demonstrations and games of Galaga. Woo. Still, it’s an incentive to play on the harder levels, although the already-cheap AI becomes a hideous beast on the later levels.
I mentioned in the MK3 review how a lot of bad decisions were made regarding that particular game engine. And they were pretty shocking; however nothing, nothing can prepare you for what was added to UMK3. Remember the dial-a-combos from 3? Not only are they STILL HERE, but now you can activate them from a jump in. Absolute fucking genius. Jump HP > HP, HP, BLK, LK, LK, HK, LK = absolute crap. As you’d expect the CPU abuses this like hell, breaking the laws the player has to play by, sometimes almost teleporting into a dial-a-combo from another action. Grr. And there are times when the AI just becomes an impenetrable wall of shit. Take Liu Kang. He’ll stand there if you stand there. Air fireball you if you jump and combo you if you run in. And the horrible CPU corner abuse continues (Kitana threw me THREE TIMES in the corner without me being able to move) … it’s clear playtesting was not what it could have been.
A couple of other tweaks have been made – for instance Kabal can no longer active a ground saw after a top spin. A few new moves (Kano’s vertical roll, Stryker’s gun) have been added here and there, nice to have them I guess.
Other than this it’s still MK3. The bosses are the same, the endings and credits the same. It’s fun for a while, much less so against the CPU, and the multiple endings and secrets available might do something for the bi-curious types.
I never played it much in the arcade, and so there are still things I haven’t seen, which is my sole reason for still playing it. If you liked MK3, you probably won’t mind this, and considering it’s free if you use MAME – it’s good enough to kill a couple of hours with.
Unbelievably, despite the ruination of l33t MKII characters, lack of atmosphere, shocking AI and combo abuse — this is not MK’s lowest point … things are going to get worse. O_o
