Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Review

Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 holds up surprisingly well even all of these years later. The MK series has never been known for deep gameplay, and that is no different here, but there is something that is still appealing about buckets of blood and fatalities that makes MK fun and different. One thing that has to be said is that UMK3 is actually a far superior game to the newly released Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. If you are looking for your MK fix, the XBLA UMK3 is the way to go.

Unlike Capcom that gave us the cruddiest version of Street Fighter 2 to start with, Midway has graced the Xbox Live Arcade with arguably the best Mortal Kombat ever. Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 gives you 22 classic characters, a ton of different arenas, and more special moves and finishing moves than ever before. This game is huge and flat out fun.

The gameplay is pretty simple in UMK3. You have high and low punches and kicks, a block button, and a run button. Different button presses result in special moves (such as freezing your opponent in ice or throwing a fireball at them) and you can string moves together to create combos. When you win two rounds, you have the opportunity to finish your opponent with a number of greusome Fatality moves. These special moves as well as the finishing moves are what make Mortal Kombat so appealing. They are bloody, and goofy, but it sure is fun to see.

You can play single-player against the computer as well as multiplayer both on single console as well as on Xbox Live. My one real complaint against UMK3 is that the final boss in single-player, Shao Kahn, is the cheapest, most frustrating, horrible boss ever. That aside, though, the experience is pretty darn good. Online play over Xbox Live is fairly smooth and works well. Your only problem online will be trying to find people that can actually lose gracefully (people like to give negative feedback when they lose these days, beware).

Overall, UMK3 is a fun game that is recommended.