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Mortal Kombat is a worldwide phenomenon, making a revolution
in the fighting game industry until mid 90’s, then it stepped down from the throne,
during its transition into 3D.
only to return with a blast in 2011. Join MKSecrets, and let’s make a review of the history of the title
that changed our childhood, our future, and the world of fighting games forever.
The release of Mortal Kombat II
turned the franchise in one of the most popular franchises in the world!
The 2 released games, set a high quality standard, that the future titles will have
to reach, and even surpass!
After 2 years of development, the arcade version of Mortal Kombat 3
appeared in the spring of 1995!
Created with bigger budget and an even bigger team,
Mortal Kombat 3 had to face the much higher expectations of the fans,
bringing a diverse cast of characters,
crisp graphics
and a new combo system.
After being defeated at the end of the previous game,
Shao Kahn's hunger for the Earth, grows even stronger!
With no more turnaments left,
he resorts to a second plan,
which he began 10000 years ago!
When Queen Sindel,
Kitana’s mother
and Shao Kahn’s wife,
took her own life, the emperor ordered his shadow priests, led by Shang Tsung, to make it possible to
resurrect Sindel’s spirit.
Not on the Outworld,
but on the Earth.
This gives Shao Kahn the right to
step through the dimensional gates, and reclaim his queen,
starting an invasion
at the same time.
Shao Kahn starts consuming one soul after the other.
The God of thunder - shields the souls of the Earth warriors,
who must protect our planet one more time!
Because of several law suits, royalty disputes, and involvement in the
production of other fighting games, several actors from the first two games, do not
return for the third.
Daniel Pessina advertised Blood Storm while dressed as Johnny Cage
and Carlos Pessina
was involved in the production of Tattoo Assassins.
Only a few of the characters from the previous games return.
Half of them, were portrayed by new actors.
A lot of fan favorite characters, do not appear in the game, and the new fighters
did not succeed in filling the void that was left behind.
The game introduces several
new fighters,
resulting in a total of 15 playable characters.
Sindel The resurrected queen
and the key to Kahn's occupation of Earth.
Stryker The character finally appears in the game.
He is the leader of the Riot Control Brigade
and finds himself the lone survivor of a city
once populated by millions.
Cyrax and Sektor, originally codenamed ketchup and mustard
are cybernetic ninjas from the Lin Kuei and are on a mission
to find and kill the renegade Sub-Zero.
Their design was inspired by Science Fiction movies, such as The Predator.
At one point,
Cyrax was named Robocop.
Nightwolf - A Native American.
He uses magic to protect his tribe's sacred land from the invasion!
Sheeva - Sindel's personal protector
and a member of the 4-armed Shokan race.
In Outworld,
the race of Centaurs is the natural enemy of the Shokan!
One of the best stop motion figures was used for this character.
Kabal - A survivor of an attack by Shao Kahn's extermination squads, and scarred for life,
he is now kept alive by artificial respirators,
Originally, the character
was armed with two buzz saws,
instead of tiger hooks.
A trench coat and a back pack
were also part of his design, but were not included, due to technology limitations.
The place of the sub-boss is given to Motaro.
Originally a fighter with two big hammers
he evolved to a member of the Centaur race and the hammers were given to the returning boss character,
Shao Kahn!
To keep the tradition from the previous games,
two hidden fighters were included.
The hidden ninja Smoke,
returns in cybernetic form.
This is the first hidden playable character in the arcade series.
The black ninja Noob Saibot
also returns. This time, he is using Kano's images, due to the lack of ninja fighters in the game.
Mortal Kombat 3 introduced several new features,
never before seen in a fighting game.
One of these features is the dedicated Run button. Its existence affected the whole gameplay
and turned the defensive style of play,
into an offensive and aggressive.
Another new feature are the character specific build in combos
which can be combined with the old school juggles. Some of these
combos end with pop-up which positions the opponent for an easier juggle.
The arenas in Mortal Kombat 3 are more detailed and realistic then they were in the previous game
and are created partially using pre-rendered 3D elements.
Transitions between some of the stages during battles are also possible.
Representing common urban locations, some arenas lack the mystic and
the dark atmosphere, all backgrounds had in the previous game.
Mortal Kombat 3
is the first game of the franchise
that had to face the challenge of the Internet and try its best to keep the hidden stuff secret,
so that fans could enjoy discovering things on their own.
New Versus codes appeared.
They allow the players to change aspects of the game
when facing a human opponent.
Codes were revealed to the fans everywhere, in articles,
TV and magazine commercials, in the home ports and even in the film.
A new mini game
also appears to take the place of the classic Pong from
Mortal Kombat II.
Players must reach 100 battles or enter a versus code
to play another great game from the past,
Galaga.
Starting as a rumour,
a new finishing move was added.
The Animality allows your fighter to
turn into a wild animal, and tear the victim apart.
The creativity and the effort put in this finishing move
is questioned by a lot of fans
even today.
Before the game was released,
an audio file appeared on the Internet and revealed that Johnny Cage was killed by Kintaro.
It remains a mystery, whether this file is official or made by the fans.
To continue the mystery with Cage's absence from the game,
a Johnny Cage Transformations Counter, was added in the menu of the arcade machine.
Revisions 2.0 and 2.1
brought a lot of changes to the game.
Fixes for gameplay issues,
more balance, introduction story and Babalities and Friendships
are only part of the added new things.
Included was also an advertisement for the then upcoming Mortal Kombat
feature film.
And this was not the last update,
the game received...
The home versions tried their best, to come as close to the original game as possible
and even offered playable versions of the boss characters.
However, a lot of additional gameplay issues were present in all of them
with the exception of the PC DOS version.
This port is known to be one of the best home ports,
an arcade Mortal Kombat
has ever received!
More recent releases
in Midway Arcade Treasures, offer an emulated arcade version of the game.
Mortal Kombat 3
Received mixed opinions from the fans.
Some liked the new aggressive way of combat.
Others, preferred the old school style from the previous two games.
The overall better graphics and animation, the more powerful hardware
and the superior sound
did not make up for the missing fan favorite characters,
the poorly developed finishing moves,
and the lost mystic and dark feel of the arenas, leaving the game somehow incomplete.
"Is there going to be a Mortal Kombat 4"
"and will you ever draw the line where you say, it's too violent?"
Ed Boon: "Yes, of course we are going to draw the line."
In the fall of 1995
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 was released.
The game is actually an updated version of Mortal Kombat 3,
but received status of a stand-alone title,
due to the many changes and the additional content.
All fan favorite male and female ninjas return
in this game,
portrayed by new actors.
Three hidden characters can be unlocked
via Ultimate Kombat Kodes. Mileena.
The original Sub-Zero from Mortal Kombat 1. And Ermac.
Ermac is a character based on a rumor
from the days of the original Mortal Kombat.
These are not the only hidden playable characters in the game.
A human version of Smoke was included,
in addition to the robotic character, who is no longer a hidden character.
Human Smoke
is one of the most powerful characters in the game.
Noob Saibot
retains his status as hidden unplayable character.
The fighter is however, heavily updated
and no longer uses Kano’s images.
One of the biggest mysteries in the game, is the ninja fighter Rain.
He appears in a few scenes of the Intro.
Fans speculated that this is a fifth playable character,
and looked for ways to unlock him.
The truth is however,
that Rain was never planned to be a playable character,
and was one of the last moment additions.
The arcade game was ported to Sega Saturn, and despite the release of the
previous titles
for the next generation systems, 16 bit versions were developed.
These versions will be remembered with terrible balance, missing sounds,
removed finishers, and even the sacrifice of Sheeva.
All of this,
because of the limited amount of data,
the cartridges could carry.
There are several additions,
which made the home versions special.
The Edenian ninja Rain, and Noob Saibot
are playable fighters.
The boss characters can be unlocked,
and are playable in versus mode.
And a new finishing move – Brutality,
replace the missing Animality.
Years later,
it was discovered that a ninja fighter, called Chameleon, was planned for
the Genesis version,
but was left in the game unfinished.
Recent releases for PS2,
Xbox Live,
and Arcade Kollection, offer an emulated arcade version of the game.
The release of the two games,
was followed by an enormous wave of merchandising and side project.
Malibu comics released several comic books, based on the franchise.
Several aspects of the original plot were changed,
creating an alternative non canon storyline.
The books ran for 10 months, starting October 1994.
And were canceled
due to low sales, after publishing only 27 issues.
The Mortal Kombat Card Game
was created and released by Brady Games in 1995.
Although based on the franchise,
it does not include the violence seen in the video games.
The release of the two games,
and these two projects, is only a small piece, of everything that happened in the year,
advertised as The Year of Mortal Kombat.
In 1996
a special Wavenet edition
of Mortal Kombat 3, and it's update - Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
were released.
These versions support multiplayer game over T1 connection, allowing two
arcade machines at different locations, to play against each other.
Modifications were built into the games to support online matches and to prevent
people from cheating by using infinite combos.
The Wavenet version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
has Noob Saibot as a hidden playable character.
In this version, the black ninja
even has his signature teleport as a special move.
With their great idea and flawless execution, the Wavenet editions seemed a little
ahead of their time.
The high price, for both operators and players, led to their fast death.
Hated by some, and loved by millions,
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
is one of the most played games of the franchise, and will forever remain in the
hearts of the players.