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April 14th, 2014 
Carl Williams 
Mortal Kombat was one of those titles that set a lot of arcades on fire. From the realistic, digitized, graphics to the over the top blood and gore, gamers were hooked. Mortal Kombat 3 continued that delivery. Gamers were flocking to the machines where ever possible, usually passing the latest Street Fighter II variation to do so. As Midway continued to hone the overall game with each release the MK franchise came close to the competition.
Continuing pursuit of perfection
Die hard Mortal Kombat fans loved the first two titles in this franchise. Mortal Kombat was mainly popular for the fatalities and Mortal Kombat II was more of the same. For the fighting game enthusiast both of those games were missing something that separated the Street Fighter II series. Combos.
Mortal Kombat 3 brings the combos
This was the first Mortal Kombat to actually offer real combos. Sure the second entry had some basic combos but they were “eh” at best. Judging by sales, fans didn’t mind. Another interesting addition to the proceedings in Mortal Kombat 3 was the ability to peruse multi-level battle fields. This was also seen in Capcom’s take on Marvel’s mutants in X-Men: Children of the Atom. X-Men only had this multi level battle arena on a couple of levels. Mortal Kombat 3 had it on many levels expanding the battlefield quite a bit.
More -alities than you can count
Fatalities, Babalities and many other *alities returned in MK 3, along with a new deadlier addition- the Animality. Remember how Lui Kang could change into a dragon in MK 2? Now all of the characters have such a finishing move available. “Level fatalities” similar to that of the Pit in MK 1 and the slime level of MK 2 are back.
Kombat Kodes were also introduced in Mortal Kombat 3. These codes would allowed two player battles to take on some slight changes if input correctly.
Finish him!
MK 3 would have to wait for the update to Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 to become interesting for many gamers. Even the vanilla version is still a viable version. While not perfect, Mortal Kombat 3 was proof that Midway Games was interested in continuing the series in better directions. They also continued to improve upon the gore factor with each new entry.
Since this is an arcade game it would be hard to ship and store and play so why not hit eBay or Amazon for one of the home versions? Can’t get enough Mortal Kombat? We have your back.
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Going back to the day that I played the first one with my father in the arcade….! I picked sub zero and he picked scorpion as he pointed out what digitization was. I was naturally used to street fighter as I was only 11 years old at best, so I threw all of my street fighter skills at my dad and won. To my surprise when the screen said “Finish Him” for the first time I attempted the “Shoryuken” from Street Fighter (the uppercut that never worked while playing) I ripped Scorpions head off spin and all….! Needless to say from that moment on I was hooked.
Fast forward all the way to the third iteration, but not quite “Ultimate” and by now I’ve been cutting school to get to Wizards Arcade on 8 mile here in M.I. playing with some of the best from the state. Same place I cut my teeth on part II as that game was so amazing as well…. The combo system was a definite welcome as I was playing Killer Instinct for some time at that moment.
Amazing how just thinking of a “video game” can take you back to a certain moment in life….
Great articles as always! Keep me coming.
Awesome story! I had a similar experience with my mom when MK 2 hit the SNES. I put the minimum down to pre-order a copy and brought it home thinking I would be the only one to really play it. My mom played it more than me. lol
She would watch me play the computer because she couldn’t get the guys to do their finishing moves. I bought a strategy guide so I could do all of the finishers for her. While I was away in Marine Boot at San Diego a couple of years later she would send me Polaroid pictures of her playing and doing her first fatality (she did it with Jax and ripped off the arms of an opponent). She was proud.
Hearing the stories of our readers is the most fun part of these articles. I love writing them and hearing back from readers and their experiences. Thanks for posting!