Mortal Kombat 3

About Mortal Kombat 3

Mortal Kombat 3 (1995) is Midway's third Mortal Kombat, a darker, more modern sequel in which Shao Kahn invades Earthrealm, adding running, chain combos, Animalities and Kombat Kodes.

Mortal Kombat 3 in Depth

Dropping the tournament of earlier games, it has warriors fight the returning Shao Kahn, who has resurrected his bride Sindel and launched an invasion of Earthrealm. A Run button with its own meter lets players dash at opponents, answering fans who felt earlier games favoured defenders; the meter drains when running, only forwards, and when performing combos. Pre-programmed chain combos, or "dial-a-combos", cannot be interrupted once the first hit lands, and some launch opponents into the air for further juggles. A "Choose Your Destiny" screen lets single players pick their difficulty, and some stages are interactive, letting an uppercut send both fighters through the ceiling into a different stage.

Fatalities, Babalities and Friendships all return, joined by Animalities, in which the winner turns into an animal to kill the opponent. To perform one, the winner must first grant Mercy, restoring a sliver of the loser's health in the third round, and then defeat them again. There are new Stage Fatalities in the Subway, the Bell Tower and the Pit 3, and Kombat Kodes, six-symbol codes entered before two-player matches, unlock extra features. The tone is darker, with a muted palette, heavily digitised characters and pre-rendered 3D backgrounds, and the imagery is Western and contemporary: highways, banks and rooftops, three cyborg characters, modern clothes in place of martial arts garb, and electronic music instead of Asian motifs.

Making Mortal Kombat 3

Midway considered making it in 3D but kept the sprite graphics of earlier games, and some returning characters were played by new actors. Released in arcades in 1995 as the sequel to Mortal Kombat II, it won an American Amusement Machine Association Diamond Award for sales alongside Daytona USA and the Neo Geo MVS. Williams Entertainment's Super NES and Genesis versions sold 250,000 copies in their first weekend, and the Mega Drive version became Brazil's best-selling Mega Drive game. It was nominated for the Video Software Dealers Association's 1995 Video Game of the Year, losing to Donkey Kong Country 2. Reviews were generally positive, though critics objected to the absence of several popular characters.