Mortal Kombat 3: Why?

[BiggerBoo]

This might be the beer. But. Hear me out, like you hear a cat meowing at the window:

Is this NOT, like, the worst god damned Mortal Kombat ever made? And was the series ever that great to begin with? I mean, I feel like when you put it next to Street Fighter II, it's basically only good for the shock/camp value. Right? Am I crazy? I was totally never into this series, for some reason.

[j_factor]

What does this have to do with classic computers?

[BiggerBoo]

Ahhhh...the chagrin. It's my first day. Lol

[ssjlance]

I can't say I disagree too much, 3 was the worst minus what little I played of the series after 4. And yeah, the series as a whole pales in comparison to Street Fighter II, but MKII is a pretty damn good fighter in its own right. And the first wasn't terrible.

[Chadt74]

Once the series went to dail-a-combos it kinda lost the luster for me. MKII was a very good fighter 2D fighter and on par (IMHO) with Street fighter 2.

[old_skoolin_jim]

Once the series went to dail-a-combos it kinda lost the luster for me. MKII was a very good fighter 2D fighter and on par (IMHO) with Street fighter 2.

I Agree with, 100%!

[megasdkirby]

For me, MK3 sucked ass, as well as it's "sequel", UMK3.

Many blame MK4 for "killing" the series, but I feel MK3 was the culprit. It was extremely corny, unfairly hard (I mean really, how can the second enemy be ten times harder than the first?), that it pretty much killed the game for me.

MK4 was corny, but it was miles playable than MK3 was for me.

What's worse is that it seems Midway did not learn, as MK Trilogy is pretty much on the same boat as MK3.

MK1 is a classic. MK2 as well.

I feel MK3 was more of a speed test and button smasher than the rest of the series.

[RCM]

MK and MKII are great fun. Like a lot of media, those who appreciate them most were experiencing them when they were most relevant; in this case, back in the early ‘90s. While MK3 certainly started the series’ sad descent, Ultimate MK3 was an improvement and probably the last game in the series I really enjoyed. However, I also played a bit of MK4 in arcades and especially on N64. I wouldn’t mind seeing a 2D reboot of the series, but doubt that’ll happen at this point.

[AB Positive]

Just had this conversation with a friend of mine at the local tavern. MK3 was pretty much god-awful. Dial-a-combos ruined a lot of the ingenuity of figuring out what you could do with the engine. Instead it was "This combo goes HK-HK-LK-LP-LP... yay!". Like "My first Mortal Kombat" almost.

<tangent>

Interestingly, I found Dark Alliance a decent time waster of a game. Certainly not worth full price back in the day, but I worked at Gamestop at the time and could 'rent' titles from the store. Kept me busy for a couple of days... but I must ask - what the hell were they smoking in regards to their "Breast physics"? People harp on DOA... but boobs REALLY don't move like Dark Alliances' do.

</tangent>


So yeah. MK3 sucks donkey balls.

[The Shawn]

So yeah. MK3 sucks donkey balls.


*Me performs Sheeva Skin Rip on AB Positive

[Arkhan]

I've been asking "why" in regards to mortal combat since the first one.


I guess that is what happens when your first fighting game is SF2 for SNES.

[kupomogli]

The Mortal Kombat fighting series just sucks period. The series is only popular due to the fact that it came out when fighting games weren't too popular yet. Like everyone else, I remember when I was at the arcades waiting there to play MK2 when they got the machine. Atleast a dozen or more people around it and at the time I thought the game was awesome.

Some MK fans are still addicted to the crappy releases that the MK teams release. Older MK fans stopped playing when the series got really bad at MK4. Now days nearly any fighter that you pick up that comes out is better than a MK game.

[Arkhan]

I thought all of them had jerky controls, lame characters for the most part (with really cheese costumes), and the only redeeming qualities were the gore and the levels themselves.

[evilernLe]

I also hated MK3. It was extremely unbalanced and the single player was just unfair.

Additionally, I really enjoyed MK4... I thought that was a good game besides the camp value of it all.

[megasdkirby]

Older MK fans stopped playing when the series got really bad at MK4.

Which is unfortunate, because MK4 really wasn't that bad. It was MK3 that pretty much almost destroyed the franchise (well, not destroyed, but pretty much ruined), as I remember many criticizing it for many negative aspects it contained. It was "popular" only because of the fad back then, but I bet it MK4 was MK3 back then, things would have been different.

I remember MK3 getting "meh" reviews when it was released. And I recall, when the game got released, dozens of "used" copies a few days after the home console version was released.

For me, Mk3 is far the crappiest and the worse in the main series.

[Orion Pimpdaddy]

I liked the robots in MKIII, but that's about it. The first MK on the Genesis is very special to me, and I love MKII on the SNES. They were very simple to pick up and play, and the atmosphere was dark and bloody. The atmosphere of the third game just didn't feel the same. Plus, I got tired of the opponents performing combos on me.

[megasdkirby]

Plus, I got tired of the opponents performing combos on me.

This is what pisses me off the most: the difficulty.

You start the game, and the first opponent has adequate difficulty. You defeat him/her, then you prepare for the second opponent. Why in the HELL is the second opponent at least 10 times difficult than the first!?

Something is not right. It's totally unbalanced, specially on the console ports.

Really, what the hell? O_O

[The Shawn]

Older fans did not desert the game after MK4 (Which truly did suck). UMK 3 kicked all kinds of ass at the arcade IMHO. I remember playing it for hours on end when it came out and I'm in my late 30's now. Also when the Home port of it came out on the genny I had it reserved to rent at Blockbuster and never brought it back! I remember staring at the screen with my son at the time thinking "Wow Awesome graphics!"LOL

Also thouroughly enjoyed Deadly Alliance,Deception,Shaolin Monks and Armegedon.

Sub Zero Mythologies wasn't bad either on the 64 at the time.

MK Vs. DC is not a bad fighter, but I really don't consider anything rated T a TRUE MK game. So it stands out as a 'spoofy' kind of game to me.

The only real crap shoots of the franchise were Special Forces and MK 4.


It pains me to hear people shit all over the series when at the time MK came out there was no-other fighting game like it. Where to hell else were you gonna rip someones head/spine clean off? Street Fighter? pfft...

Kids

[scooterb23]

I still play Street Fighter II. I haven't touched a Mortal Kombat in 10 years.

Ripping out a spine is meaningless when the game that you play to get to that point is below sub-par.

[The Shawn]

........

[The Shawn]

I still play Street Fighter II. I haven't touched a Mortal Kombat in 10 years.

Ripping out a spine is meaningless when the game that you play to get to that point is below sub-par.


The Spine Rip is from the First MK game. Hardly "below sub-par" as far as standards in VG's when the arcade cab came out at the time in 1992.

[Az]

and the atmosphere was dark and bloody. The atmosphere of the third game just didn't feel the same.

Exactly. Many refer to the first MK game being like an "old kung-fu movie", which I would agree, To me, it's got tons of atmosphere, and the second one took it and added added a bit of horror to it.

The 3rd resembles a Sci-Fi channel movie. Gameplay mechanics aside; the characters and backgrounds are lame, all violence is treated as a joke, and the music is just too upbeat and corny.

[Zapf]

edit: oh this was already covered, my bad

[ubersaurus]

MK3 was a disaster, but Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 is far and away the best game in the MK series. This isn't even opinion; anyone who has put any time into the games will agree. MK1 and 2 both play pretty stiffly, and they're both broke as shit once players start getting the hang of the game, but UMK3 - by sheer accident - rises above simply being gory to being actually a solid, balanced, and unique fighting game.

I suppose to get to that high point though, they had to go through the pains of MK3.

[kupomogli]

Sub Zero Mythologies wasn't bad either on the 64 at the time

At the time I still liked the MK series a lot and Castlevania was one of my favorite series(it's my favorite series actually.)

Mortal Kombat Mythologies and Castlevania Symphony of the Night came out at the exact same time. I really wanted both and a story based game involving my favorite MK character almost got me to choose that over SotN. I chose SotN.

Later on played MK Mythologies and am really glad of my initial choice. SotN may not be my favorite CV title, nor even my favorite exploration CV title, but it's a great game and the first time playing it is probably one of my best gaming experiences. It was such a unique experience and take on the CV series.

[Kitsune Sniper]

MK1 was fine, and beatable.

After MK2 came out the difficulty spiked, hard, after two or three fights. The AI cheats a lot.

Basically only MK1 exists for me.

[megasdkirby]

After MK2 came out the difficulty spiked, hard, after two or three fights. The AI cheats a lot.

Basically only MK1 exists for me.

I agree. Why did the game designers decide that after the first fight, the others will be ridiculously hard? And it gets worse with the last two bosses, mainly the one before the main boss. I found Kitaro to be harder than Shao Kahn, Motaro to be harder than Shao Kahn...and the list goes on.

The first one has a charm that no other in the series can beat.

[Baloo]

I used to be a big, big Mortal Kombat fan, but I always preferred 1 and 2 to 3. Ultimate 3 was decent, but 3 was pretty bad. Mortal Kombat 4 wasn't too good either, but I did very much enjoy Deadly Alliance, Deception, and Shaolin Monks. I thought they were all pretty solid games.

After Deception came out though and I pretty much played the hell out of it and got just about all the unlockables in the conquest mode, I found Street Fighter and now play that. Mortal Kombat was great back then, but now it's just kind of eh to me.

Now, just give me Street Fighter III 3rd Strike or Street Fighter Alpha 3 and I'm happy. But I think I'll still play Mortal Kombat 2 over Street Fighter 2. Street Fighter 2 to me is just too sluggish.

Mortal Kombat 2 is still a decent game though, no doubt about it.

[thom_m]

I fail to see how the MK series was that worse than SFII back in the day; I actually was glad that, after all the SF ripoffs, somebody decided to implement a different look and control system on a fighter, for a change. The game got me hooked since time the first time I played MKI on the arcade, both for the visuals and for the game itslef (even though I sucked and it).

On the MK3 issue itself: while I agree with Orion when he says that MKIII actually changed the atmosphere of the game, I didn't feel that the dial-a-combo thing (which I also suck at) and the running button ruined the fun. I do admit, however, that didn't make the game more fun than the others, either; they always felt more like a tweaking than a revolution on the game mechanics to me. That, and UMK3 fixed the real bad issues about MK3 (including the Scorpion' absence - what were they thinking?!).

So I don' t think the whole MK3 "series" sucks at all; in fact, my friends and I have really exciting MK Trilogy (the Ultimante UMK3! LOL) nigths at my place from time to time, and we all have a blast.

[BiggerBoo]

I've been asking "why" in regards to mortal combat since the first one.


I guess that is what happens when your first fighting game is SF2 for SNES.

I'm pretty much in the same boat, in that I never owned or had any desire to play them, even when they were relevant. I was totally not into the characters. Aside from Scorpion and Sub-Zero, they all looked to me like rejected Live Action TMNT baddies...oy. My best buddy as a kid loved MK2, and I can see why, but I always preferred SFII, or even Killer Instinct, and I'm pretty sure that deep down, he did too.

EDIT: Thanks for movin' the thread...felt pretty nubbish for that one. :P

[DevilRy]

lol yeah I'd say 100% of Mortal Kombat's appeal to me is the camp value. Every once in a while I'll throw it in, do a few fatalities for nostalgic amusement, then turn it off before I start to think about how many quarters I wasted at the arcade on that game as a teenager. Also, the franchise is beyond corny if you include the movies in your assessment of the series.

[Gavica]

The best mortal kombat game was Mortal Kombat 2 on sega 32X which was the best port of the game.

[megasdkirby]

The best mortal kombat game was Mortal Kombat 2 on sega 32X which was the best port of the game.

I really liked that port. It was even better than the Sega Saturn's port, which was way too easy.

[Arkhan]

The Spine Rip is from the First MK game. Hardly "below sub-par" as far as standards in VG's when the arcade cab came out at the time in 1992.

Street Fighter 2 came out before MK1. Explain to me why MK had jerky controls and gameplay in comparison to SF2 which was very smooth and responsive.


I think the game play is definitely subpar. The graphics and atmosphere were nice though. Had that not been the case the game would've been a giant pile of crap.

Like Pit Fighter.

[The Shawn]

Street Fighter 2 came out before MK1. Explain to me why MK had jerky controls and gameplay in comparison to SF2 which was very smooth and responsive.


I think the game play is definitely subpar. The graphics and atmosphere were nice though. Had that not been the case the game would've been a giant pile of crap.

Like Pit Fighter.



Because you suck at video games and should jump out of a very tall building to prove your ultimate worth?

I dunno, I got nothing.Other then Jesus hates you.

[retroman]

why so much hate for 3...it wasnt that bad....no baraka though....that sucked..

[Hari Seldon]

I've been asking "why" in regards to mortal combat since the first one.


I guess that is what happens when your first fighting game is SF2 for SNES.

It was all about the blood and fatalities. The game is alright I guess but without those it wouldn't had the success it had.

[Enigmus]

The best mortal kombat game was Mortal Kombat 2 on sega 32X which was the best port of the game.

I wonder if anyone here's played the supposed PSX release before.
Still, MK3 sucks for another reason- the repetitive overclocking of the CPU opponents.

I started with MK2 on a copy of Midway Arcade Treasures 2, and tried playing MK3 with Jax (my favorite character in MK2.) Guess who my opponent is? Jax. I start playing. and right off the bat was about what seemed like 137 body throws, 87 wave punches and a seni-truck full of Gotchas.

Needless to say, I never want to play it again when it's an uneven, rushed-feeling combofest. Yet I'm still able to play MK Trilogy. Hmm, weird.

Also, I sorta like Pit Fighter from time to time. Just putting that out there.

[onReload]

I generally refer to MK3 as encompassing MK3, UMK3, and MKT...on any console.

Complaining about difficulty in a game that is largely designed for versus-mode play doesn't make any sense to me...and sorry, not to do the whole "look how good I am," thing, but even without reading a snippet of a guide, the A.I. of the whole series is fairly easy to exploit after awhile. However, I don't like how sometimes it appeared that changing the difficulty setting DIDN'T WORK in certain versions. Sometimes, I do want an easy little run-through of a fighting game.

I understand why a lot of people don't like MK3; the story was tighter between MK1 and 2 (and shit really hits the fan in MK4 and afterward, eugh...) and MK3 brought in some really bad character design choices - Stryker is a fun character to play, but for a cop, his uniform is pretty awful. Matter of fact, his uniform is awful without any context whatsoever. Shang Tsung (played by John Turk, who was also Unmasked Sub-Zero) had a HORRIBLE wig, Shao Khan is awesome, but having him twice in a row is just...lazy. Sindel looks like an aging Elvira...I could go on. MK2 was also smartly set in parts of Outworld, with some creepy looking stages (Dead Pool, The Armory), with MK3 on Earth, it just felt silly. Some of the stages were cool (The Tower, for one, and the multi-leveled stages were fun for a while), but some were kind of lame, like The Street...Also, they later included The Pit II, but it has no stage fatality, as they would have to get every character (in proper costume, i.e. metal arms Jax does not equal regular MK2 Jax) to mocap that silly top-down falling animation...and I guess they were too lazy to do that.

While I do like a lot of the aesthetic changes (the way the human ninjas look, Kano with a real costume, the robots, the newer ninjas and moves, a combo counter, etc), some of it was pretty damn ugly. Animalities were lazily designed, with not much animation to many of them (and many of them look like glow-in-the-dark stickers, along with other moves that randomly cause glow (Nightwolf's reflector, Kabal's spike wheel summoning move, Kung Lao's dumb hat throw)...To be honest, my problem with the MK Team and why the series went to shit is their laziness...I feel this is epitomized in MK: Armageddon, but I won't write all about that here as it's too long a rant. The contradiction in the MK3 series is that they skimped on some things, but really put in a lot of work in making the characters play uniquely, adding in new finishers and moves, and tried to up the speed of gameplay - something the SF2 series got right, eventually.

The gameplay is admittedly different, but not worse, really; I think it's subject to opinion...I like the dial-a-combo system, and it's not crucial to winning a match, it's just an easy way to pick up the game and already have some damage options more creative than an uppercut - UMK3 is considered the most tournament-feasible of the whole series, and was recently played in two US Street Fighter IV-centric tournaments..in a nutshell, you have to mix up the preset combos with specials or uppercuts to really maximize damage. The Aggressor system in MKT is pretty lame. Trilogy also sports some really dumb infinites and glitches, but it's loveable for its huge amount of characters and moves; it's kind of like a love letter to fans of MK3...and not so much fans of the first two games, though they include Kano with an unused move, MK2-style Kung Lao/Jax/Raiden...

Comparing any fighting game to SF2 is always going to be problematic...In a way, SF2 was the mold for all fighting games to come, but at the same time, you can't expect everything to stay the same way. It is possible to appreciate both things. After growing up with MK, then learning SF more recently, I think I just really dug the atmosphere and story behind MK, (which is why, to me, Deception's simple RPG and Shaolin Monks are easily the best things they've done with the series in a decade or so) versus the innovative gameplay mechanics in SF (Third Strike is one of my favorite games of all time...it's very hard to get bored of playing it, for me.)

Let us also remember that UMK3 is considered the most tournament feasible MK game, and it is also one of the few times the MK people went back and redid an MK game. I don't see this a coincidence; it took many tries to get each Street Fighter subseries correct, though we all have our own opinions on "the best" version...some iterations are considered a step backwards in many fighting game series.

In short: Different is not worse.

[whoisKeel]

I thought MK2 was cool back in the day, and it was the first fighter i played that you could juggle, which I thought was freaking awesome at the time. I like MK2, but it's not sf2t or anything even close to that playability. Why does every character have the same normals?

MK1, sure I bought into it at the time, but play it now, it's a mess.

I was pretty turned off by MK3, so I never game UMK3 much thought...was I wrong?


...and...remember that sweeping, over and over, and over...and over!andover will beat the cpu...just sweep!!! Man the AI always sucked on MK

[Steven]

1 was fun for the novelty aspect. There was simply nothing like it. 2 I thought of as a LEGITIMATELY good fighting game.

3 yeah... it went downhill from that. Whoever talked about the kung fu (1) atmosphere, then mixed in with some horror (2) but weird sci-fi for MK3 was dead on. Perfectly stated.

I still play MKII on SNES once in a while. What a game. What a port.

[kupomogli]

Also, I sorta like Pit Fighter from time to time. Just putting that out there.

I don't mind Pit Fighter either. I don't get why people bash its gameplay yet look at Final Fight, Streets of Rage, or any side scrolling beat em up that people praise to no end. Though some say Genesis version is good and SNES version sucks. I've only played the Genesis version at a friends.

Also about UMK3, it's not the dial in combos because that was just one way to do combos. UMK3 was dial in combos but more of a custom set of combos than the very limited MK2 was. It's the amount of characters that was the problem. You had about 50-75% of them which were good, but then others that just sucked, dial in combos or not.

Now me. Like I said previously, the entire series sucks to me, but people are praising MK2? I don't see what people get about MK2. I honestly think UMK3 is much better than the second. If you've ever watched a MK2 combo video, you'll see that most of the MK2 combos have to be set up in specific situations. You're rarely going to get someone against the wall in 90% of the combos in the game so why even bother praising that the game has comboing in it when you have to go out of your way to set it up?

[BiggerBoo]

onReload raises some valid points w/r/t SF2 kind of being in a different league from the MK series - I guess what I was trying to address was my general observation that its popularity (at least in the circles I've incorporated myself in) was a little heavy for something I had never felt too strongly about at all. All my life, my friends have forced me to play round after round of MK because it's "the best," and yada yada - perhaps I was just mixing with the wrong crowd. :P

[DigitalSpace]

Mortal Kombat Gold: Why?

Fixed.

[onReload]

If anything, the whole "which is better" debate just goes to show that MK had a strong presence in the fighting game scene in its heyday; it's not easy to compete with Street Fighter. people still do it nowadays with Guilty Gear (or BlazBlue I suppose) and The King of Fighters...and both of those series are great, I've been getting into KoF recently, but I prefer Street Fighter at the end of the day.

Also LOL at the post above me.

[Arkhan]

Because you suck at video games and should jump out of a very tall building to prove your ultimate worth?

I dunno, I got nothing.Other then Jesus hates you.

So, because I don't like Mortal Kombat, I immediately suck at all video games and should kill myself?

I think any credibility you had in this debate was just demolished with that post.

Way to go, slugger.

Next time try a real argument.

[Gabriel]

This might be the beer. But. Hear me out, like you hear a cat meowing at the window:

Is this NOT, like, the worst god damned Mortal Kombat ever made? And was the series ever that great to begin with? I mean, I feel like when you put it next to Street Fighter II, it's basically only good for the shock/camp value. Right? Am I crazy? I was totally never into this series, for some reason.

No. MK3 isn't the worst. It's undeniable that it was a predecessor to the series dipping into absolute unplayable crap territory with MK4, but MK3 and it's family of games were pretty good.

From my perspective, SF2 is not a good game. I'd only play it in order to remind myself how much better fighting games like Tekken, Soul Calibur, and even the 3D MKs are. But I'd play MK3 today without reservation.

That said, MK3 is not my favorite of the MK series. The classic MK games which top my playlist are MK2 and MK Trilogy for the PS1. MK Trilogy is more or less UMK3 super turbo edition.

[Arkhan]

saying SF2 is not a good game is like saying oxygen is not a good thing to breathe.

[AbnormalMapping]

Street Fighter 2 came out before MK1. Explain to me why MK had jerky controls and gameplay in comparison to SF2 which was very smooth and responsive.


Released after, started before. Same as the original Fatal Fury.

Sure, the first MK is an easy joke now, since it animates like a bad Monty Python skit with a Skittles bag of color coded ninja palette swaps added on top and plays like a newly discovered Chinese pirate Famicom cart...

But MK2 is the real deal. Don't believe me? Tell it to the creative mind behind Guilty Gear, aka 1 of the 2 Japanese people who knows what it is. Though I've since lost the magazine ( Was it Hardcore Gamer? Play? God, I'm going senile at 34) , in at least one interview he talks about his fond college memories of playing the American import.

The other Japanese gamer who we know for certain is aware of the series? Yoshinori Ono.

Pick up the current issue of EGM to find out his thoughts.

[dnehthend]

I loved UMK3 and MKT, MK4 definitely killed it

MK3 just felt like a beta of UMK3 to me, even more so because every arcade that had it swapped as soon as they could.

[kupomogli]

So, because I don't like Mortal Kombat, I immediately suck at all video games

We know you're good at Hydlide. ^_^.

[Zapf]

saying SF2 is not a good game is like saying oxygen is not a good thing to breathe.

Much like with mortal kombat (or even just mk3 if we are limiting ourselves to versions within a particular game), it depends on the revision.

[onReload]

MK4 was fairly fun to play, but it was pretty ugly and the bosses / new plots weren't interesting at all. The voice of Shao Khan was naturally deep and classic in MK2 and 3, to the point where it didn't matter that he never wore pants...but then they started using pitch-shifting for the boss/announcer from MK4 into the 3D MKs. To be honest though, I think some of the fatalities in MK4 are better (in concept and gore factor) than a lot of the ones found in Deadly Alliance and Deception.

I forget which version of MK4 had random camera movements for me during Fatalities...sometimes I'd end up with a swinging/quick turning camera on a Fatality that didn't need one, like Quan Chi's leg beating, so it was impossible to tell what was even going on. Amusing, but a pretty horrid oversight.

MK4 is also redeemed by its impossibly hilarious ending cinematics.

overall, i feel that MK4 is more bad comic book writing and LAZINESS, especially with that Maximum Damage crap. Make an engine that doesn't allow for 100% life combos, don't have the characters fall backwards like idiots while the words MAXIMUM DAMAGE pop up.

[CelticJobber]

I always thought MK3 was the weak link in the series. The graphics were more cartoony than MK2, the fatalities weren't as cool, the Animalities were lame, the music mostly sucked, and the new characters were pretty sub-par.

But from most of the things I've read online (this thread excluded), I assumed MK3 and especially it's upgrade MK Trilogy were thought of as the best MK titles.

MK2 was the best of the series, but I honestly liked (and still like) most of the Mortal Kombat games.

And I like Street Fighter games a little less, but it's still one of my favorite series as well.

[MagicMajenta]

MK and MK 2 were pretty close to SF 2 gameplay wise and that's what people remember when those games were at their peak. But then MK3 went in a whole different tangent all together with the dial a combo which made it closer to the Killer Instinct games. Here's something interesting, apparently MK3 went out shortly after Killer Instinct so it makes you wonder if Boon and Tobias were influenced with the Killer Instinct game engine and went that route with MK3 away from the SF2ish MK and MK2.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_Instinct
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortal_Kombat_3

[Arkhan]

Released after, started before. Same as the original Fatal Fury.

Sure, the first MK is an easy joke now, since it animates like a bad Monty Python skit with a Skittles bag of color coded ninja palette swaps added on top and plays like a newly discovered Chinese pirate Famicom cart...

But MK2 is the real deal. Don't believe me? Tell it to the creative mind behind Guilty Gear, aka 1 of the 2 Japanese people who knows what it is. Though I've since lost the magazine ( Was it Hardcore Gamer? Play? God, I'm going senile at 34) , in at least one interview he talks about his fond college memories of playing the American import.

The other Japanese gamer who we know for certain is aware of the series? Yoshinori Ono.

Pick up the current issue of EGM to find out his thoughts.

So? Just because some important Japanese gaming people are aware of the game doesn't make it an excellent game, lol. Sure it is better than MK1, but it's still herky jerky and has corny looking characters. The scenery looks awesome though.

The outfits people had on in the game just looked doofy.

I mean I have fond memories playing alot of garbage games growing up, with or without friends.

[j_factor]

This thread has been an interesting read. The differentiation that people are making between the MK titles kind of blows me away. To me, the first three games plus UMK3 and Trilogy all play the same, with each new version offering incremental additions.

[Emuaust]

To me I love the atmosphere of the MK games and the versus a human opponent but the earlier games of the series are truely a broken mess of game design. Mortal Kombat 1 is really quite beatable and isnt too unbalanced but for some reason the dev team decided that MKII had to be harder and in a shitty attempt to rob you of as much money/credits as possible made the AI very hard, this increased even more so with MK3.

For the people that say arguing about the difficulty of the single player side of a fighter doesnt make any sense to you then Im happy you always have had friends on hand to play a fighting game when you feel like it, for the rest of us, single player at least lets us play when we feel like it without having someone in the room with us. Single player is a valid point and a neat little trick to truely see how broken the AI in MK3/UMK3 is is to, in any version, play the single player until you hit someone like jade in the 2nd or 3rd match and on the d-pad/arcade stick tap left then right to make your character walk back and forwards, you will notice the ai mimmicks you perfectly. This shows the AI responds exactly to your controller inputs and at the time the game seemed hard but now in this age it looks cheap and shitty, even more so when you compare it to the brilliant Street Fighter II.

All this bitching may make me appear a MK hater but I do love the games none the less with a PSX and MK trilogy being set up in my store for some great multiplayer matches between staff, we love it, but trruely the games are only beatable in single player if you use glitches in the AI and I mean I have to question if that takes any real skill?

Mortal Kombat 4/Gold I did quite like and havent understood the hate for it, I love the cheesy FMV endings and the lovely rip off you leg and beat you to death with it Fatality style. To me though they really got MK:Deception right, i loved having to play through konquest to unlock stuff, it really adds longevity to a fighter for those of us with a lack of 2nd players to battle with.

MK vs DC I really have a love hate relationship with as the team finally got rid of the stupid branch styles and mess of a fighting system that MK games had had for the previous few incarnations and went almost back to a UMK3 control and feel, something I truely loved, the problem is that there was nothing I liked about the rest of the game, all they gave us was a very barebones fighter and after being accustomed to the extras the few previous games had in them I felt like I was being given half a game, giving a really shortchanged feel to it.

[Baloo]

MK vs DC I really have a love hate relationship with as the team finally got rid of the stupid branch styles and mess of a fighting system that MK games had had for the previous few incarnations and went almost back to a UMK3 control and feel, something I truely loved, the problem is that there was nothing I liked about the rest of the game, all they gave us was a very barebones fighter and after being accustomed to the extras the few previous games had in them I felt like I was being given half a game, giving a really shortchanged feel to it.

Now see, I really liked the multiple fighting styles of Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance and Deception, they made the game really good.

I just played MKvsDC and hated it because of how much they changed up. I couldn't pick it up and play it, they changed literally everything around, even the special moves. And the special moves weren't mapped propertly. For example, Liu Kang's Flying Kick mapped to the High Punch button? It's confusing if anything. And the controls felt very stiff in comparison to the previous 3D Mortal Kombat games.

Deception was much better in my opinion. Great cast, good story, good Konquest mode, neat stages, overall great presentation. And the gameplay was solid to boot, being more balanced than Deadly Alliance was by taking out that impale bullshit that made characters like Sub-Zero and Shang Tsung broken.


I wonder if anyone here's played the supposed PSX release before.


Seeing as how they mucked up the Saturn port of Mortal Kombat II and made it inferior to the 32x port by leaving out a bunch of sounds, I doubt the PSX one is that good. And to boot it's a Japan-only exclusive that's very expensive. According to this Youtube video:


Just some gameplay footage from the Sega Saturn port of Mortal Kombat II. There's nothing entirely remarkable about it. This port of MKII is actually very similar to the rare PlayStation version, but the Saturn version has more accurate music, better load times, some sound differences, and unfortunately a lack of some announcer voices (Specifically, Shao Kahn announcing the names of the victor). The music during the menu and at the battle plan screen is pretty awesome.

[Az]

This port of MKII is actually very similar to the rare PlayStation version, but the Saturn version has more accurate music, better load times, some sound differences, and unfortunately a lack of some announcer voices (Specifically, Shao Kahn announcing the names of the victor). The music during the menu and at the battle plan screen is pretty awesome.

I don't remember any music differences between the two, although from what short amount I played the Saturn version I noticed it had a few jarring mid-fight loads that the PS version did not have. The PS version was definitely the more polished of the two, although that isn't really much of a compliment.

I own both so if there are any specifics I could help with just let me know.

[Poofta!]

I have always thought that MK3 was the beginning of the end for MK. Sure it wasnt the worst of the series (I think MK4 and the spinoffs took that crown) but it was so goddamn stupid, hard and corny that I knew then that the series will never recover.

MK is a great game and MK2 is downright awesome. I think they are among the best fighters of the 16-bit era (arcades including).

Street Fighter has better owners, they were [somewhat] smarter with the franchise, and were making enough money from other properties and investments to prevent the destruction of SF (but it wasnt for their lack of trying haha, I hate all the Alphas, EXs and all the SF IIIs)


Once the series went to dail-a-combos it kinda lost the luster for me. MKII was a very good fighter 2D fighter and on par (IMHO) with Street fighter 2.

agreed.

all my friends back then played and tried to master both games.

[Poofta!]

Exactly. Many refer to the first MK game being like an "old kung-fu movie", which I would agree, To me, it's got tons of atmosphere, and the second one took it and added added a bit of horror to it.

The 3rd resembles a Sci-Fi channel movie. Gameplay mechanics aside; the characters and backgrounds are lame, all violence is treated as a joke, and the music is just too upbeat and corny.

wow, i never thought of that! i have to agree though, good call!

[ConsoleAddict]

Mortal Kombat 3 is an example of a company thinking that they can do no wrong and half-assing their effort simply because their devoted MK disciples were going to play this in the arcades and buy the home versions regardless of quality.

At least in MK and MKII, two-player games were fair. With unblockable combos in MKIII, it just made the game frustrating for those players who weren't as adept to doing dial-a-combos. I think they didn't need the new -alities, some of the characters were silly (like Stryker and his outfit, couldn't they have sprung more money on his costume?) and there wasn't that same spirit to the game that the first two had.

I don't know why people still play MK games or why they are still making them. They always seem more limited than SF games. I hear they are making yet another game and they are even thinking of making it AO.

For the record, I loved MKII on SNES. I never played the Sega 32X version so I can't comment on how nice it is but the SNES was arcade-perfect. I couldn't see anything missing from that game. I tried to get into MK3 on the PSX, even bought it, but the fire wasn't there.

[The Shawn]

So, because I don't like Mortal Kombat, I immediately suck at all video games and should kill myself?

I think any credibility you had in this debate was just demolished with that post.

Way to go, slugger.

Next time try a real argument.

The Humor-get it.

[onReload]

I was under the impression that SF2: World Warrior came out in '91, then Champion Edition came out several months before MK1, in '92.

[The Shawn]

I was under the impression that SF2: World Warrior came out in '91, then Champion Edition came out several months before MK1, in '92.


Hmmnn. It seems I was mistaken.

MK 1 - October 1992
SF championship - April 1992

I DO however know for a fact that there was a region thing going on, as the first Street Fighter Arcade unit that I ever got to play was in 94 or so... well after MK 2 arcade was released. No arcade in MY area seemed to have them anyway's. And I think the one I played was the Japanese Hyper edition at that.

[ubersaurus]

Heh, MK was huge around here back in the day. I've heard stories of the major fighting game arcade in the area, Wizzards, having several MK2 machines when that game came out, and having people on them for the bulk of the day. SF2 had it's fans, but man, when we'd hold game nights and run Hyper Fighting on SNES, you'd only get a few people playing. Put in MK2, and the room just played that for hours. Dunno about MK3, but I know UMK was pretty popular as well. Hell, I think I've seen some old tournament footage from a couple years ago of Michigan people running that game at a major tourney that happened to have a machine.

I realize that Midway wanted to make a game that was pointedly NOT a Street Fighter II clone, and although it wasn't amazing at first, they eventually put together a really good experience with Ultimate. It's just a shame they took the series into 3D... I know it still sold well, but the gameplay has never recovered.

[The Shawn]

Heh, MK was huge around here back in the day. I've heard stories of the major fighting game arcade in the area, Wizzards, having several MK2 machines when that game came out, and having people on them for the bulk of the day. SF2 had it's fans, but man, when we'd hold game nights and run Hyper Fighting on SNES, you'd only get a few people playing. Put in MK2, and the room just played that for hours. Dunno about MK3, but I know UMK was pretty popular as well. Hell, I think I've seen some old tournament footage from a couple years ago of Michigan people running that game at a major tourney that happened to have a machine.

I realize that Midway wanted to make a game that was pointedly NOT a Street Fighter II clone, and although it wasn't amazing at first, they eventually put together a really good experience with Ultimate. It's just a shame they took the series into 3D... I know it still sold well, but the gameplay has never recovered.

Hell, I remember when the 7-11 down the street from my job got an MK 2 cabinet, I'd get out at 11PM and put my quarters on the cab just to get a place in line, you had to keep winning to hold the cab! Got so much buisiness into that dumpy little store that the employees started giving us free hot dogs and slurpies.

Bunch of neighborhood total strangers who played our own tourneys every night, sometimes there would be 20 of us in the store at a time, good times.

[tentencanidae]

I wholeheartedly agree with you. MKII was the best one. The mechanics were decent, and the graphics had a major overhaul. By the time 3 came out though, it was already obsolete. Street Fighter series is a far superior fighting game.

It was fun being a teen, and memorizing codes for fatalaties and such, but again, I agree that it was just campy.

[jonebone]

I dunno, I own all of the MK games from Sega/SNES up through N64/PSX and have played most of the PS2 / Xbox ones also. I actually enjoyed MK3 for the most part, as it was the only MK I owned as a child (how bizarre I know). The robots were cool (Cyrax bombs / Sektor's net) and the animalities / friendships / babalities were interesting... though they grew old fairly fast I'll admit.

Even though I personally enjoy the MK series more than SF, I do concede that SF probably had better mechanics. But MK just always seemed more "fun" IMO. There is no SF equivalent to the feeling you get from a well-timed uppercut in MK, especially when the dude pops up and says "Toasty!" Plus I find the MK characters to be a little more interesting. Sub-Zero is definitely my all-time favorite.

And was MK4 really that bad? I don't have that many memories of it (haven't played it in YEARS), but I remember the weapons being a fairly cool add-in. It's just that the other two fighting stances were pretty stupid...

[MagicMajenta]

I realize that Midway wanted to make a game that was pointedly NOT a Street Fighter II clone, .

You have to give Midway a lot of credit for that. They saw that there could be a lot of money to be made from fighting games just seeing the money SF2 was raking in. But at the same time they wanted to come up with their own original fighting game and not just a copycat and for the most part they succeeded unlike some companies who have made a living out of "Street Fighter II clones" ahem SNK. Don't get me wrong SNK is great. They just decided to go the tried and tested route that was already trodden by SF 2. Midway tried to explore different avenues on the fighting game genre and they will always be remembered for their original concepts like their fatalities, animalities, babalities, etc. Yes the series went downhill , but MK and MK2 will always be fighting classics. And nobody can take that away from them.

[Zapf]

At least in MK and MKII, two-player games were fair.

uhhh most high level mkII I see ends up like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPUILts3Q38

I don't even know where you are going with "fair". Dial a combo style mechanics doesn't really mean much - the tekken series has had a similar mechanic throughout its life and its one of the better fg's out there.

[j_factor]

You have to give Midway a lot of credit for that. They saw that there could be a lot of money to be made from fighting games just seeing the money SF2 was raking in. But at the same time they wanted to come up with their own original fighting game and not just a copycat and for the most part they succeeded unlike some companies who have made a living out of "Street Fighter II clones" ahem SNK. Don't get me wrong SNK is great. They just decided to go the tried and tested route that was already trodden by SF 2.

I'd just like to point out that Fatal Fury came out the same year as SF2. Not sure of the exact release dates but it seems unlikely that SNK was jumping on a bandwagon.

[MagicMajenta]

uhhh most high level mkII I see ends up like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPUILts3Q38

I don't even know where you are going with "fair". Dial a combo style mechanics doesn't really mean much - the tekken series has had a similar mechanic throughout its life and its one of the better fg's out there.

OMG!!! Projectile heaven. Those two didn't even want to get near each other. You can count the number of times when they actually got in close toward the end.

[kedawa]

As soon as they added the run button I lost interest.
I find MKII to be the most fun casual fighting game of its time, but it falls apart at a higher skill level.
I'd love to see a HD remake of MKII.