It's a joyous feeling to observe all the happiness generated by the Mortal Kombat series. Games needed a healthy dose of blood and gore, after all. MK3, an exclusive 32-Bit offering on the PlayStation, is nearly an exact duplicate of the arcade edition. This fighter retains the killer 2-D essence from that original coin-op, along with the brilliantly made 2-D sprites made from the digitization of real-life actors. All kombatants appear just as realistic as ever with higher definition and ultra lifelike gore. Little has been done to remedy the jerkiness present in these digitized characters, however, and the combat just lacks the smooth control of SF2 as well as the fancy-shmancy polygonal "cool factor" a la Toshinden.

---

The fate of the earth is on the line in one-player story mode. Leap into the tournament play, and pick Expert Mode for a real thrill, to take on some huge and mightily impressive foes. All fatalities, babalities, stage fatalities, friendships, and even the oddball animalities are present and accounted for. Not to mention, well over 100 special moves in all! The music and all sound effects are arcade perfect. All grunts, kicks, punches, and special attacks, as well as the narrator himself, sound flawless. Aside from somewhat sloppy motion and an eternally hard-to-memorize list of moves and fatalities, MK3 is a superb fighter on PS-X.

Printed in Issue #30, October 1995