Mortal Kombat Trilogy

• Release Date: 1997
• Genre: Fighting
• Style: 2D Fighting
• Similar Games: Marvel Super Heroes (Sega Saturn), Mortal Kombat II (Sega Saturn), Primal Rage (Sega Saturn), Street Fighter Alpha 2 (Sega Saturn), Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (Sega Saturn)

Roots & Influences

Mortal Kombat was one of the first fighting games to give Street Fighter major competition. By adding blood and fatalities Midway was able to find a new audience as well as taking away some of the Street Fighter fans.

Mortal Kombat Trilogy combines the first three games in the series: Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II, and Mortal Kombat 3.

Review: Overall

To me, Mortal Kombat has always been like those trashy daytime talk shows; it's not very good nor does it have any redeeming qualities, yet you can't help throw a few passing glances at it. The main attraction has always been the gore, excessive violence, and fatalities. Sure, with sequel after sequel they put more players in the game and beef up the special moves, but other than that, it's still the same 2D fighter that features digitized characters on blue-screen backgrounds. So in comes Mortal Kombat Trilogy.

What it does is combine all three Mortal Kombat games onto one shiny CD-ROM. This is fine and dandy, and is actually a nice idea, but did the developers do anything to alleviate the tediousness and lack of growth this series has failed to achieve? The answer is no.

One of the main problems that has always plagued Mortal Kombat is that the characters aren't balanced. With Mortal Kombat Trilogy, this is no different. Sure, you have a choice of 32 characters, but half of them are far superior to others and some can barely do anything against the computer AI. Some characters feature moves that you cannot block or counter, and some do not have these kinds of moves. In order to make a successful fighting game, the characters need to be balanced and everyone needs some sort of counter-attack for the most powerful fighters' moves. Games in this series have never had this and this is why serious fighting game fans don't take it seriously.

Also, the AI is both extremely dumb yet insanely difficult at the same time. You can sometimes beat the computer using the same move over and over again, yet other times the computer will act out and block the move you're trying to do before you do it. It's almost as if it was programmed to do so. Maybe "incredibly cheap" would be a better description.

There are some nice things about Mortal Kombat Trilogy, though. Even though it probably doesn't matter which one you use in the long run, there is a wealth of characters to choose from. Also, there are some classic levels to be seen in this game, as well as some new ones. And in this respect, it does a good job of blending all three Mortal Kombat games together. But the fact of the matter is that this series has failed to evolve. The digitized fighters still animate badly, the backgrounds look the same as they always have, the AI is as cheap as ever and the lack of strategy is still persistent. So the bottom line is that if you like Mortal Kombat, you will get a kick out of Mortal Kombat Trilogy. But to those who value decent gameplay and strategy over a poorly animated and unbalanced gorefest, look elsewhere.

Review: Enjoyment

While it is fun to see all the fatalities, the new special moves (i.e. babalities and animalities) wear thin fairly quickly. Also because of the frustratingly cheap and poorly programmed AI, the game isn't that much fun to play.

Review: Graphics

Though some of the backgrounds are nicely rendered and drawn, the digitized characters are still laughable. Most of them are wearing silly costumes and they animate badly.

Review: Sound

Repetitive sound effects do nothing to warrant a pleasurable listening experience.

Review: Replay Value

There's really nothing new in {*Mortal Kombat Trilogy} to warrant extensive play. Though the inclusion of all 32 characters from the series and all of the old fighting levels is sure to please die-hard fans, most will become bored fairly quickly. The two-player mode is equally dull.

Review: Documentation

The manual tells you how to pull off a few moves for each character and how the general play of the game is executed.

Production Credits

mortal kombat trilogy