The Final Word game review

Mortal Kombat 3 -- Williams Entertainment

The fate of humanity rests in your hands in Mortal Kombat 3 for the Sony PlayStation. As one of the chosen warriors, you must battle villains from the Outworld in hand-to-hand combat to the death. Choose your destiny with new characters, moves, fatalities, babalities, animalities, secret power codes and more in this direct arcade translation.

Ferrari Man
The PlayStation is coming on with some great translations of arcade titles, and MK3 is no exception. With nearly pixel-perfect graphics and sound, this game is real eye candy. Unfortunately, the CD-ROM load times could use some work. Although the in-between level loads are bearable, the loads during battles with Shang Tsung make him all but worthless. The programmers obviously knew this, as there is an option in the configuration screens to disable his ability to Morph. However, even with CD loads, this game is an excellent arcade translation.

Dr. Otto
"Who needs a new system?" With this version of MK3, we all do.

R.I.P.
Sigh... While I have never been a big Mortal Kombat fan, I have to admit that this is one sharp looking game. Graphics are arcade quality, (as long as you discount the disk loads). Sound is great, and I felt play-control was actually better in this version that in any of its predecessors. If you're a PlayStation owner, check it out... otherwise, my bet is on the Ultra 64 version.

Salamander
Mortal Kombat 3 is a pixel-perfect translation from the arcade. The sound, graphics and gameplay are nearly identical to the coin-op. The game does however suffer one significant failing... CD loads for Shang Tsung's morph are absolutely intolerable! The game comes to a grinding halt and pauses for several seconds every time Shang Tsung morphs. While the game does provide an option to disable morphs, this unquestionably defeats the purpose of playing as Shang Tsung. This problem aside, however, this is an excellent translation.

>>>>> 92.0/100 <<<<<		Ferrari Man	Dr.Otto	R.I.P.	Salamander
Graphics		5.0	5.0	5.0	5.0
Sound		5.0	5.0	5.0	5.0
Gameplay/Control		4.5	4.5	4.5	4.0
Longevity/Playability		4.0	4.0	3.5	4.0
Overall		5.0	5.0	4.5	4.5
Total		23.5	23.5	22.5	22.5

(10/95)