Mortal Kombat Trilogy

Overview

Mortal Kombat Trilogy is a 2D fighting game developed by Midway (in conjunction with Avalanche) and published by Williams (later by Midway, GT Interactive, and SoftBank) for the Sony PlayStation on October 10, 1996 and the Nintendo 64 on November 11, 1996.

A special version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 made for fifth-generation consoles, Mortal Kombat Trilogy adds characters and backgrounds from Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II, and Mortal Kombat 3 while adding playable bosses and a new super meter (known as the "Aggressor" bar) to temporarily power up each player's fighters for a short time. Both PS1 and N64 versions differ in content, with some characters and stages only appearing on some versions.

The PlayStation version was later ported to the Sega Saturn (on August 8, 1997) and PC (both MS-DOS and Windows on August 31, 1997) by Point of View. It was also loosely ported to the R-Zone and Game.Com.

Gameplay

Built upon the game engine in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, Mortal Kombat Trilogy include some new additions. Several characters have new special moves (including the bosses, which are now playable for the first time in the series). The devastating Brutality finishing move returns from the Genesis and SNES ports of UMK3, in which players can deliver a long and powerful combo that results in a gratuitous explosion of gibs.

Exclusive to this game is the "Aggressor" bar, which is a super meter for each player that builds up as they land both successful and blocked hits on their opponent. Once the bar fills up for a player, their character moves faster and deals more damage for a short period of time before the bar resets.

The Nintendo 64 version includes a new exclusive game mode, 3-on-3 Kombat, which plays exactly like 2-on-2 Kombat (only with three fighters each instead of two). The Nintendo 64 version also includes additional bonuses to Shao Kahn's Lost Treasures.

Characters

The character roster for Mortal Kombat 3 builds upon Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (including its console-exclusive additions), adding characters and appearances from previous Mortal Kombat games while making all boss characters playable.

The PlayStation, PC, and Sega Saturn versions of the game include the full roster (with the exception of Khameleon) bringing its total roster to 37. The Nintendo 64 version of the game includes Khameleon as a secret character, but leaves out Chameleon, all alternate appearances, unmasked Sub-Zero, Goro, and Kintaro, bringing its total roster to 30.

Johnny Cage is the only character in the game to receive an entirely new set of digitized graphics. Some characters received new graphics, primarily due to missing animations. The two new characters, Chameleon and Khameleon, are simply based on the male and female ninja bases from UMK3.

• Johnny Cage (new actor, based on his MK2 appearance)
• Noob Saibot
• Baraka (MK2 version)
• Cyrax
• Sonya
• Raiden (known in the game as Rayden, MK2 version, has a secret MK1 version in PS1/SAT/PC versions only)
• Rain
• Shang Tsung
• Kitana
• Kano (has a secret MK1 version in PS1/SAT/PC versions only)
• Scorpion
• Sub-Zero (both masked and un-masked versions, un-masked version in PS1/SAT/PC versions only)
• Smoke (both human and robot versions, human version requires cheat code in N64 version)
• Reptile
• Jax (has a secret MK2 version in PS1/SAT/PC versions only)
• Mileena
• Sektor
• Liu Kang
• Jade
• Sheeva
• Kung Lao (has a secret MK2 version in PS1/SAT/PC versions only)
• Nightwolf
• Sindel
• Ermac
• Stryker
• Kabal
• Goro (MK1 version, PS1/SAT/PC version only)
• Shao Kahn (final boss, requires cheat code in N64 version)
• Motaro (boss, requires cheat code in N64 version)
• Kintaro (MK2 version, PS1/SAT/PC version only)
• Chameleon (secret character, PS1/SAT/PC version only)
• Khameleon (secret character, N64 version only)

The mobile Game.com port includes only 13 playable characters: Cyrax, Ermac, Jade, Mileena, Sektor, Kitana, Motaro, Nightwolf, Noob Saibot, Raiden, Reptile, and Shao Kahn.