Mortal Kombat Trilogy
System: Nintendo 64
Publisher: Midway
Developer: Williams
Released: 1996
Genre: 2-D Fighting
Capabilities: None

The Game

Most of the characters and hidden characters from Mortal Kombat 1, 2, 3, and Ultimate MK 3, are here, using the fighting engine that debuted in MK 3. This is the 3rd game released for the N64, about a month after the N64's launch, is it worthy of a purchase, or just some rehashed Mortal Kombat game? Well, let's get onto the review and find out.

Graphics

This game goes down as the first 2-D game for N64, when this game was released in 1996 when all Mortal Kombat games were in 2-D back then. Oh well, the 2D sprites look great back then and are extremely well detailed to the tiniest part from Baraka's blades, to the ninja masks. The backgrounds look great and all the classic ones from all the old Mortal Kombat games are here like the Pit and Goro's Lair from the first Mortal Kombat, to the Kombat Tomb in Mortal Kombat 2 and the woods from Mortal Kombat 3, some backgrounds are even slightly altered, showing off a 3-D type of look.

Even though this all looks great, nothing is really improved from Mortal Kombat 3, because the sprites are the exact same one's from Mortal Kombat 3, but some fighters that weren't in that game like Johnny Cage were given a new make over, and it is in 2-D, and you think that right after the release of a powerful system that can easily handle 3-D graphics wouldn't come out with a 2-D game. A lot of people may argue that this game looks pretty old because of the 2-D graphics, but remember, this game is in a way, a ‘collection’ of kombatants of the 4 previous Mortal Kombat games, and it was only the 3rd game released on the n64, so it is an exception.

Sound

The Mortal Kombat games always feature great music and voice samples. We got all the great background music here again. There's old samples from MK 3 and UMK 3, plus some new samples as well, all the samples fit the game great and get you set to duke it out in Mortal Kombat. The voice sample are hilarious from this game! All the fighters got all there own sets of voices from ''ugh'' to ''Aiiiii-yi-yi-yi-ya!'' of Liu Kang doing his bicycle kick. And all the classic announcer commentary is here too from ''Finish Him'' and even the wacky ''Toasty'' guy in the bottom right hand corner of the screen.

Game play

You got over 20 fighters to choose from in this game including all the old favorites like Liu Kang, Johnny Cage, Sonya Blade, and Kano to the newbies like Kabal, Cyrax, and Sektor. There are lots of modes to play from, like 3 different ladders of the quest mode from Novice to Master, and there's also a tournament mode where 8 kombatants compete in a WWF King of the Ring style elimination tournament where if you win you get a goodie like either fighting a super hard endurance match, or getting an ending screen for a set of characters. You should be familiar with the Mortal Kombat controls, you do button combinations to pull off moves, as you do moves your ''Aggression'' meter builds up and once ''Aggression'' is spelled out, your character will leave shadows and all his attacks will be really powerful. There's also a ''run'' button which speeds your character up a certain distance across the screen. And of course Midway wouldn't leave us empty handed without and of the finishing moves like fatalities, babalities, frienships, and animalities, I think that's it for all the finishing moves.

But this engine for fighting is kinda complex, and I prefer the one used in Mortal Kombat 2 over all the other one's because it's much easier to handle. Also the Run button and Aggression meter seem utterly useless. And there's too many moves to remember for each fighter, from projectiles attacks to there 5 or 6 finishing moves, so you'll be pausing the game forever to look up how to do moves. And the combos also seem pretty useless for this game as well. So the game engine is alright overall, but flawed quit a bit.

Replay Value

Midway would never release a game without a plethora of codes, you got millions of codes in this game, from Kombat Kodes entered at the match up screen, to accessing the boss and hidden characters. The Tournament mode is really great and all the goodies you get from winning it are kind of cool. And all the loads of finishing moves will appeal to all the Mortal Kombat fans. And the fact that so many fighters make returns will draw interest from old Mortal Kombat fans too. And the game is really fun to play in 2 player mode, but once you beat the game in single player mode, and unless you got a friend to play against, you'll probably get bored of this game within a week or two.

In Brief

+: Lots and lots of codes and secrets, really fun to play against a friend, tournament mode is a nice addition

-: The fighting engine for this game is pretty flawed, playing solo isn’t the greatest and gets boring after a while

The Final Ratings Rundown

Graphics: 7.1
Sound: 8.4
Game play: 6.7
Replay Value: 6.5

Overall: 7.1

Rounded to fit GameFAQs score: 7

Final Analysis

Let me just get this straight, this game is for Mortal Kombat fans only, and maybe for fans of other 2-D games like Street Fighter, and The King of Fighters and and so on. If you're a Mortal Kombat fanatic, then go buy this game now, you can probably pick it up new for about $10. But if you're a fan of fighters, or just love bloody gore then you might wanna give this game a rent.