Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (Xbox 360)

CNET editors' rating: 4.0 stars Excellent
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Gamespot editors' review

• Reviewed by: Jeff Gerstmann
• Reviewed on: 10/23/2006
• Released on: 10/21/2006

In the early 90s, before first-person shooters became the competitive genre of choice for video games and the rise of the Internet removed most of our reasons to actually leave the house, you used to have to go outside to find good video game competition. And when you got out to those arcades, the genre of choice was the fighting game. The halcyon days of arcades are way behind us now, and the 2D fighting game has all but gone with them. The burgeoning retrogaming movement, combined with the power of the Internet, offers a lot of potential for the fighting genre, but there haven't been very many fighting games with online play at all, and those that do have it usually haven't worked very well. Now, Midway and the emulation wizards at Digital Eclipse are taking another crack at 2D fighting on the Xbox 360 with the release of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, the last 2D Mortal Kombat game to hit arcades. It's a terrific version of the arcade original, and on top of that, the online actually works really well.

MK3's run button dramatically changed the feel of the game.

OK, it works really well most of the time, anyway. Occasionally you're going to get matched up with some guy in some back corner of the world where their idea of high-speed Internet access is a fancy telegraph or something. Those matches lag quite a bit and aren't much fun. But having played hundreds of matches online, we found those fights to be the exception rather than the rule. The timing and gameplay of the original game have been duplicated faithfully here, and all of that same timing and gameplay seems to work just about perfectly online when you're on a decent, consumer-grade broadband connection and playing against a similarly outfitted opponent. That right there--a fully functional online version of UMK3 with minimal hassles--should probably be enough to justify the game's $10 price tag.

Let's back up for a moment, though. In case you aren't familiar with the series, Mortal Kombat is the "other" fighting series that rose to prominence in the wake of Street Fighter II and went on to become a ridiculously huge phenomenon, spawning the sort of merchandising and moviemaking insanity that's usually reserved for kid-friendly stuff like Pokémon these days. The game originally went for a more realistic look, including gruesome fatalities that could be used to rub in a victory at the end of a fight. Ripping heads off and pulling out still-beating hearts in MK1 gave way to more ridiculous finishers over time, such as friendships, babalities, and animalities. But the game had a lot to offer the genre beyond mere shock value. MK had a block button, which instantly made it feel completely different than every other fighting game out there at the time. The game also had a unique look thanks to the use of digitized actors.

The Xbox 360 version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 is an accurate rendition of the original arcade machine, which, surprisingly, hasn't been done before. Other Midway classic compilations have often botched the MK games, but you won't be bogged down with between-fight load times, and things like Shang Tsung's morphing abilities also work just fine, with no hitches. About the only thing you'll notice is that occasionally the music pauses for a moment if you end a fight without doing a finishing move. But, overall, the sound is actually better than it was in the arcade version. The developers must have gone back to the original source files for all of the music and sound effects, because there's a clarity to them that simply isn't in the original game. There's some great music in UMK3, and it's nice to be able to hear it at full fidelity.

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