Mortal Kombat Trilogy is a 1996 fighting game released by Midway as the second and final update to Mortal Kombat 3 (the first being Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3) for the PlayStation, Nintendo 64, Sega Saturn and PCs. Further versions were also released for the Game.com and R-Zone. It features a similar basic gameplay system and the same story as Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, but adds characters and stages restored from Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat II. New additions to the game included the "Aggressor" bar and the Brutality mechanic. The game was met with mixed to positive reviews upon release.

Gameplay

thumb|left|[[Raiden (Mortal Kombat)|Raiden from MKI battles the MKT version of Johnny Cage in MKIIs armory stage. The HUD is the same as from MK3/UMK3, while the Aggressor bar is exclusive to MKT.

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Mortal Kombat Trilogy introduces the "Aggressor" bar, which fills as the combatants fight (twice as much if the opponent is blocking). Once the bar is filled, it grants the character fast movement and greater attack damage for a short period of time.

Many characters gained additional special moves. Some were simple edits of existing moves (such as Stryker throwing two grenades instead of one), while others were unused animations never implemented in their intended previous games. These special moves included MK1 Kano's Knife Spin move, MKII Kung Lao's Air Torpedo, Goro's Spinning Punch move, Raiden's Lightning that shoots from behind the opponent, and Baraka's Blade Spin move. Additionally, Shao Kahn gained a throw and grab-and-punch move, and Motaro gained a proper throw move. Sub-Zero's famous "Spine Rip" Fatality reappears in the game but is completely censored, as the screen blacks out with only the "Fatality" text visible. This was due to avoid having to re-animate the fatality for this game.

Trilogy introduces the "Brutality" finishing move, which consists of repeatedly attacking the opponent until they explode. It was incorporated into the Mega Drive/Genesis and SNES ports of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, which were released the same month as Trilogy. All of the arenas that featured a Stage Fatality are featured in this game, except for the one in the Pit II, for similar reasons to the "Spine Rip" Fatality.

All of the battle arenas that were featured in MKII, MK3, and UMK3 are available in MKT, but only four backgrounds from the original Mortal Kombat are featured (Courtyard, Goro's Lair, the Pit, and the Pit Bottom). The PC, PlayStation, and Sega Saturn versions lack the Hidden Portal and Noob's Dorfen stages from MK3, while the Nintendo 64 version lacks Kahn's Arena and the Bank from MKII and MK3, respectively (though they were present in the beta version of the game).

Characters

thumb|left|Character select screen from the CD versions of the game

Along with the Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 roster, including those who were originally hidden and specific console exclusives in previous iterations, Trilogy adds Raiden and Baraka exactly as they appeared in Mortal Kombat II, with added running animations especially created for Mortal Kombat Trilogy. The actors of both characters were Carlos Pesina as Raiden (except for one sprite, which was portrayed by Sal Divita, who portrayed Sektor, Cyrax, Cyborg Smoke and Nightwolf), and Richard Divizio as Baraka (who also portrayed Kano and Kabal, including Noob Saibot only in MK3), respectively. Johnny Cage was also added to the roster, this time portrayed by Chris Alexander (replacing Daniel Pesina, Carlos' brother, who was legally at odds with Midway), making him the only non-secret character exclusive to this version of the game. He kept his moves from MKII except for the Split Punch, which was excluded since none of the characters from MK3/UMK3 had graphics for getting hit in the groin. Bosses Goro, Kintaro, Motaro and Shao Kahn are also playable characters from the start (except for the Nintendo 64 version, where only Motaro and Shao Kahn are included and must be unlocked prior to the start of a match in a fashion similar to Human Smoke on selected stage backgrounds). The PC, PlayStation and Saturn versions also contain alternate versions of Jax, Kung Lao, Kano and Raiden as they appeared in the first two titles. Unlike in Mortal Kombat II, MK1 Raiden, MK1 Kano, MK2 Jax, and MK2 Kung Lao in this game did not get proper running animations and simply utilize a sped-up version of their walk animation when they try to run.

Two new secret characters appear as well, depending on the version of the game. Most versions have Chameleon, a semi-transparent ninja who rapidly switches between all the other male ninjas (Classic Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Noob Saibot, Human Smoke, Rain, Reptile, and Ermac) during combat, portrayed by John Turk (who also portrayed unmasked Sub-Zero and Shang Tsung). This character is playable by performing a special button combination. The Nintendo 64 version replaced him with a female character named Khameleon, who switches between the female ninjas instead (Kitana, Mileena, and Jade), portrayed by Becky Gable.

Development

Actors Ho Sung Pak (Liu Kang), Philip Ahn (Shang Tsung), Elizabeth Malecki (Sonya Blade), Katalin Zamiar (Kitana/Mileena/Jade) and Daniel Pesina (Johnny Cage and Scorpion/Sub-Zero/Reptile/Smoke) all left Midway prior to the production of the game due to royalty disputes, and so their respective roles were played by new actors. Initially publisher Williams Entertainment stated that Johnny Cage would not be included in the game at all due to the dispute with Pesina. Carlos Pesina's original sprites were used for Raiden's gameplay, but Sal Divita's image was used for his versus screen picture.

Most of the background music tracks from MKII and MK3 remained intact, especially for the CD-ROM versions of the game. In all versions of the game, many of the tracks do not match their respective arenas when compared to their original arcade counterparts. In all versions of MKT, none of the music from the original Mortal Kombat game is used. All of the CD-ROM games read the background music directly from the CD, providing high-quality CD sound, but all of the music loops are used when "Finish Him/Her" appears. All of the music taken from MK3 on the CD-ROM MKT games is noticeably slowed down in both speed and pitch. When these particular songs were converted to MKT Red Book CD-DA quality, they were downsampled without resampling them to maintain the original tempo and pitch in the PC, PlayStation, and Saturn versions.

Release

PlayStation

This version was developed by Avalanche Software. There are at least three public revisions of this game for the PlayStation; the final version is the North American Greatest Hits and European Platinum edition. With each revision, aspects of the gameplay were refined, producing gameplay closer to that of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 for the arcade. Many of the infinite combos and bugs found in the game only existed in earlier revisions. Shang Tsung never appears anywhere within the "Choose Your Destiny" towers, probably because of the loading delays when morphing in the PlayStation version (there are options to completely turn off morphs or let the system load two additional characters into memory when playing as Shang Tsung, thus eliminating the long loading delays when morphing). The only time the CPU ever controls Tsung is during the attract mode.

After beating the PlayStation version of the game, the final message in the credits says "MK4 coming in 1997". This version of the game exhibits a number of bugs when played on a PlayStation 2 or PlayStation 3 console which causes the game to freeze at certain points.

Nintendo 64

The Nintendo 64 port is based on the Windows PC and PlayStation versions of Mortal Kombat 3 and the Sega Saturn version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, and was developed by Williams Entertainment's San Diego development division, Leland Interactive Media. This edition includes 3-on-3 simultaneous battles as an exclusive feature. In this version, like in the arcade, the player begins the game with four credits, but after playing a two-player match, the player earns an extra credit, while in the CD-ROM versions anyone can play for free. Free Play must be unlocked on the N64 version, which also has a more cohesive "Supreme Demonstration" feature (which shows every Fatality, Babality, Friendship, Animality, and Brutality for every character) than the PS or Saturn versions (as the latter versions needed to load the Fatalities and thus cannot show every one in the allotted time). This version only uses music from MK3 and is of considerably lower quality than the CD versions. However, all ending tunes and music loops used during the "Finish Him/Her" sequences are intact, unlike in the CD-ROM versions. For some MK3/UMK3 backgrounds, the incorrect background track is used compared to one used for arcade UMK3.

Due to cartridge limitations, only 30 characters are included, instead of the 37 featured in the other console versions. The N64 port lacks Goro and Kintaro; the classic versions of Jax, Kung Lao, Kano, and Raiden; as well as the unmasked Sub-Zero (however, the masked Sub-Zero can perform both Sub-Zeros' special moves).

In this version, there are two secret menus, because not all the playable characters are unlocked from the start. Motaro and Shao Kahn can each perform a Fatality exclusive to this port. They also have an aggressor meter, unlike in other versions.

Game.com

A version of the game was released as a launch title for the Game.com handheld console. The game includes a multiplayer mode, accessible only with the compete.com game link cable (to link two Game.com consoles together). Only 13 characters (Cyrax, Ermac, Jade, Mileena, Sektor, Kitana, Motaro, Nightwolf, Noob Saibot, Raiden, Rain, Reptile and Shao Kahn) and 10 Kombat Zones are present in this version, though early screenshots showed a different assortment of characters. In addition, each character only has two special moves and four finishing moves: one Fatality, Babality, Friendship, and Brutality, each of which has the same command for every character.

Reception

The game's critical reception has varied considerably, depending on the platform and publication. Brazilian magazine SuperGamePower gave the Nintendo 64 version 4.8 out of 5, and regarded it as the best Mortal Kombat game. French magazine Super Power gave the N64 game 91%, favoring it over the PlayStation version. The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly all gave the Nintendo 64 version their recommendation, citing the impressive amount of content and absence of load times, though Dan Hsu and Crispin Boyer found the graphics disappointing given the capabilities of the console. Both Boyer and Shawn Smith said the game had converted them to the Mortal Kombat fandom.

Jeff Gerstmann of GameSpot contradicted GamePro, saying that the music is normal for a non-CD game and it is the sound effects (which GamePro described as "arcade-perfect") that sound muffled. And while he complimented the Nintendo 64 version's large selection of play modes, he said it is conspicuously missing frames of animation from the arcade games, and that the characters left out of this version are "favorites". but was honored in Nintendo Power Awards '96, coming second in the category "Best Tournament Fighting Game".

Reviewing the PlayStation version, GamePro criticized the overly difficult opponent AI and the unbalanced nature of the playable boss characters, and said the music tracks "sound like a 45 record played at 33 RPM." They nonetheless concluded it to be "a must for any fighting gamer's library", due to the responsive controls and large amount of content. Though Electronic Gaming Monthly never reviewed the PlayStation version of Mortal Kombat Trilogy, they ran a four-page feature comparing it to the Nintendo 64 version. Shawn Smith picked the Nintendo 64 version as the one to buy, saying that the major bugs in the PlayStation version outweigh the Nintendo 64 version's various shortcomings. The other three members of the review team all voted for the PlayStation version, particularly citing the additional characters and the lower price ($49.99 as compared to $69.99 for the Nintendo 64 version).

The Saturn version arrived nearly a year (over a year in some countries) after the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 versions and received comparatively little attention. Sega Saturn Magazine said the long wait for the conversion was baffling (since the game's 2D visuals fall within the Saturn's specialty and no new content had been created for the Saturn version) and damaging (since superior 2D Saturn fighters had since come out and home versions of Mortal Kombat 4 were on the horizon, making Mortal Kombat Trilogy both graphically and stylistically outdated). GamePro printed a warning to "think twice before purchasing this version of MK Trilogy" in a reader response section after they learned that Midway had deliberately omitted the animations for some fatalities in order to ship the game on time.

Released at a time when the Nintendo 64's popularity was burgeoning and there were few competing games for the system, the Nintendo 64 version of Mortal Kombat Trilogy saw impressive sales figures. According to a later IGN retrospective, Mortal Kombat Trilogy "offered something no fan could ignore: It brought every character from the series into the fold, along with most of the levels, making for one massive game that had enough to please everyone. Sure, some of the balance went out the window with the massive cast, but it was a small price to pay to make the Mortal Kombat family whole again, and it gave fans the closure they needed for Midway to move on to Mortal Kombat 4."

Notes

References

  • Mortal Kombat Trilogy at Mortal Kombat Online