Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3

Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
	Logo of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3; Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 select screen
Developer(s)	Midway (Arcade), Avalanche Software (SNES, Genesis, Saturn)
Publisher(s)	Midway
Platform(s)	Arcade, Super NES, Sega Megadrive, Sega Saturn, Xbox 360, Playstation 2 (Comes with special edition of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon.)
Release	1995/2006
Genre(s)	Versus Fighting
Mode(s)	Up to 2 players simultaneously, 8 players alternating for Tournament Mode (2 at a time)
Arcade system	Midway Wolf Unit hardware; Sound CPU: ADSP2150; Midway Digital Compression System (DCS) - Amplified Mono; Latest Game Version : Revision 1.2

Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 is a fighting game in the Mortal Kombat series, released in arcades in 1995. It is an update of Mortal Kombat 3 and was later updated into Mortal Kombat Trilogy. Midway has also released an online version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 for the Xbox Live Arcade on the Xbox 360. The game was released to the marketplace in North America accidentally on October 19 2006. It was then taken off, before being released officially on October 20 2006. The game was released in Europe on October 21st. An near arcade perfect-version of UMK3 also shipped with the premium versions of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon for the PS2.

Taglines:

The ULTIMATE fighting game! (home versions)
The fight of your life...

Game System

Gameplay was identical to MK3 but introduced a few new elements. Two new tournament modes were introduced. One was entitled 2-on-2 kombat mode which was similar to an Endurance match but with humans on both sides. There was also a new 8 player tournament kombat. "Chain combos" could be started by using a jump punch (vertical or angled) or a vertical jump kick which created more comboing opportunities. Some characters were given extra combos and some combos were even damage reduced. Combos that knock opponents in the air would no longer send your opponent to the level above in multi layered levels. Only regular uppercuts would allow for this.

Some characters were given completely new moves. Stryker now has a "rapid fire gun" special move and his grenades have been given a significant delay. Kano's cannonball move could be performed in two ways, one would make you move straight ahead like in MK3 and the other moved diagnally. Liu Kang and Sonya have new combos which can knock opponents in the air, leading to more combo possibilities.

Some character moves were altered a bit, in most cases to balance the gameplay. Stryker's grenades were given a significant delay which reduces his bombardment abilities. Kabal could not perform his ground saw move after a spin. This makes little difference though as any moves performed on someone after the ground saw can be blocked. Sub-Zero was toned down a bit as he can no longer create an ice clone next to the opponent to freeze him on the spot. If he tries, the statue will not form. Smoke's spear is disabled after 4 comboed hits. Also worth noting, the spear actually comes out of the compartment on his chest, whereas in MK3 it was actually summoned from behind him. When Shang Tsung juggles an opponent with his fireball, there is now a minimum of two other hits needed before another fireball can be performed. Performing a roundhouse when your opponent is in the corner pushes your character out of the corner. Sonya's MK3 Friendship, which had her waving her arms back-and-forth in a silly manner, is removed. Now she simply does her victory pose and a row of flowers grow out of the ground. Other notable alterations include: Cyrax's air throw adds to the "combo meter", Sheeva's ground throw activates damage protection, performing Liu Kang's bicycle kick special drains the run meter, Jax's projectiles have a longer recovery time, and both Sektor and Robot Smoke's Teleport Punch can now home in on their target better than the previous game.

File:Umk3-1.png

Stryker's new "riot gun" special move

Additionally several miscellaneous features were added and changed to UMK3. The original red portal background used for the "Choose Your Destiny" screen is now replaced with a blue portal and an extra "Master" difficulty is added as well. In the additional "Master" difficulty setting, "Endurance Matches" return, in which the player can face as many as three opponents in a given round . These were not seen since the first Mortal Kombat. Shao Kahn's Lost Treasures are introduced when you beat the game or complete a 8-player tournament. These Lost Treasures are selectable prizes, some are extra fights, others lead to various cutscenes or other things. The smallest alterations to the game include character announcements when Shang Tsung transforms and the "Toasty!" sound is now played during the game's end credits, when Dan Forden's image is shown.

Some elements from MK3 were subsequently removed for this update to free up ROM space. The only bios featured are for Kitana, Jade, Scorpion, and Reptile (the ninja characters who weren't featured in the original MK3 and don't have to be unlocked via Ultimate Kombat Kode in this game). All of the bios and the full body portrait of each character from MK3 are removed. The bios that are featured use their versus screen portrait with text on a background of the battleplan/portal. Like the bios, all of the character endings show your character's versus screen picture accompanied by text, instead of using original art as MK3 did (A spelling mistake, however, in Sindel's ending is corrected). The storyline pictures and accompanying text have been removed (beginning with "These are the words of Raiden" and explaining the plan to conquer Earth and the Tournament warriors' struggle). Finally, The Bank, the only stage missing from MK3, was removed completely from the game.

Characters and cast

UMK3 has all of the Mortal Kombat 3 fighters plus all of the ninja characters left out from Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat II:

Jade (Becky Gable)
Kitana (Becky Gable)
Scorpion (John Turk)
Smoke, robot form (Sal Divita). Formerly only accessible via a secret code in MK3, Smoke became a normal playable character in UMK3.
Reptile (John Turk)

The following characters were hidden unlockable characters:

Mileena (Becky Gable) - Unlocked by Ultimate Kombat Kode.
Classic Sub-Zero (John Turk) - Unlocked by Ultimate Kombat Kode.
Ermac (John Turk) - Unlocked by Ultimate Kombat Kode.
Human Smoke (John Turk) - Unlocked by holding a special button combination after choosing Smoke.

Hidden opponents:

Noob Saibot (John Turk) - Although he was featured in the original MK3, he is no longer the palette swap of Kano but once again of a ninja. Like before, he is fought via Kombat Kode. Some machines known as Wavenet machines which were mostly placed throughout the Chicago area had a hidden code to play as Noob Saibot.
Rain (John Turk) - Featured in the games opening montage, he is a fake hidden character that is not found in the arcade game.

Arenas

Including all of the original backgrounds from Mortal Kombat 3, minus The Bank (which was removed), UMK3 includes several new backgrounds:

Scorpion's Lair (Hell): This stage also contains a new pit fatality, where the opponent is uppercutted into a river of lava.
Jade's Desert : In a reference to his MK3 ending, Cyrax is seen stuck waist-deep in sand in the background. He will still be there even if he is in use.
Kahn's Kave
River Kombat
Scislac Busorez (Blue Portal): A combination of the background from the UMK3 "Choose Your Destiny" screen, The Pit 3 bridge, and the mountains and bridge from The Pit II in MKII. This stage is added to the permanent level cycle when Mileena, Classic Sub-Zero, and Ermac are unlocked. When unscrambled, "Scislac Busorez" spells out "Classic Sub-Zero."
Noob's Dorfen: An obvious knock-off of The Balcony stage, can now be played using a Kombat Kode unlike having to fight Noob to see it in MK3. When unscrambled, "Noob's Dorfen" spells out "Boon's Forden."
Smoke's Portal (Hidden Portal) - A combination of the background image featured in the Choose your destiny screen and the Pit 3 bridge, this stage is only accessible when the player is fighting CPU Smoke via Kombat Kode.

Before reaching any of the original MK3 backgrounds in 1 or 2-player mode, the game must cycle through all of the UMK3 exclusive backgrounds twice. Jade's Desert also serves as a placeholder where The Bank stage used to appear once the player reaches the original MK3 level cycle. The background music used for The Bank is also incorrectly played on Jade's Desert during the MK3 level cycle.

Layers

The following displays the Kombat Zones where a character can be uppercutted into different backgrounds.

The Subway → The Street
The Soul Chamber → The Balcony
Scorpion's Lair → Kahn's Kave

Storyline

Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 is assumed to be the same as the Mortal Kombat 3 story, except with more added characters. Mortal Kombat Trilogy later overrides the UMK3 story.

Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wave Net

Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wave Net was a rare network version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. It was tested only in the Chicago and San Francisco areas so many people outside this area were not aware of its existance during its release. One outlet that stocked it still has the T1 line used for it installed. This version included extras that were available even in local play. It ran over a T1 line that was directly connected back to Midway HQ in Chicago.

One of the reasons this version wasn't widely adopted was the rarity and cost of T1 lines at the time. The game was released before alternative broadband access was available. At the time, a T1 was the only guaranteed way to get broadband into an arcade, but the game didn't utilize the full bandwidth of the T1. Midway subsidized the cost of the line during the tests to make it more attractive to the arcade owners.

It is highly unlikely that any WAVENet test games were ever released to the public after the infrastructure was dismantled, and so there are no known ROM images of games designed for it.

Significant Ports

Like most Mortal Kombat games of its time, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 made its debut in the arcade. It was ported to many home consoles, some were more faithful ports than others.

Sega Saturn

This is one of the most faithful ports of the game. In fact it actually expanded upon the arcade version in a few ways. "The Bank" level that was present in MK3 but was missing from UMK3 returns. Shang Tsung was given a morph for the Robot Smoke, this was not possible in the arcades. The secret characters can be unlocked via a secret options screen, eliminating the need to enter three separate Ultimate Kombat Kodes to unlock them. This is much faster, especially since you cannot save unlocked characters. The Ultimate Kombat Kodes (to unlock the secret characters) were shortened to have six slots instead of ten (probably in order to be performed with only one control) but this method is still slower than entering one code to access the secret options screen.

There were a few deviations from the arcade version that didn't necessarily improve upon the game. There are a few new Kombat Kodes, unfortunately a couple codes from the arcade do not work any longer. Noob Saibot is a shadow Kano as in Mortal Kombat 3, not a black ninja as in the arcade version of UMK3. Since the arcade intro is missing, Rain does not appear in the game, yet the message kombat kode "Rain can be found in the Graveyard" is still there. When watching the Supreme Demonstration it would take almost 30 minutes to complete the whole demonstration. The Saturn would read the CD data to load each Finishing move. This would lead the game to stop (or load) the Finishing move. However, when doing it on an animated stage, the animation would still move, but the fighters would stop.

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

File:UMK3SuperNES.PNG

The limitations of the Super NES port lead to many changes in this port. Despite the limitations of the hardware there were a few improvements. Brutalities are introduced, a new form of Fatality which allows the player to attack their opponent with a series of kicks and punches which result in the victim exploding. Rain and Noob Saibot are made playable characters for the first time. Mileena, Ermac and Classic Sub-Zero are playable without any need of codes. Motaro and Shao Kahn are unlockable characters for two player fights, although only one player can choose a boss. An exclusive Easter egg was present that allowed access to three separate cheat menus. You could drastically alter gameplay, access hidden content, view the ending, among many other things.

Many sacrifices were made, however, to fit everything on the SNES cartridge. All Animalities were removed, reducing the number of available finishing moves. The announcer no longer announces the characters names. Most of the levels from MK3 are missing. Sheeva has been removed, although launching the "tournament" 8 -vs- 8 mode by holding the L+R buttons and pressing start on the title screen, and then selecting random characters by pressing up+start will in some cases select the icon for the endurance matches (a large E), which actually represents Sheeva. The graphics data for this character is removed meaning that she is effectively invisible, but her moves can be performed and she is incredibly fast and very glitchy. Using her normally causes the game to crash after so many moves. Shao Kahn's treasure chest has only 10 boxes instead of 12. The portal stage from MK3 (where you fight Robot Smoke) is present, but the graphics have been replaced with the UMK choose your destiny BG. The music that is played in this stage is the same as in MK3. This stage is accessible through a Pro Action Replay code. Sonya's Friendship from Mortal Kombat 3 is used as opposed to her Friendship from the arcade version of UMK3. Ermac's Fatality is altered. Rain and Noob Saibot were given Babalities, Brutalities and Stage Fatalities, but had no regular fatalities or other finishing moves. Scorpion's Hellraiser fatality is different. He just takes the opponent back into the Hell stage where they just catch on fire and explode. Kitana's kiss of death only inflates heads..the same effect as Kabal's air pump fatality.

Mega Drive/Genesis

File:UMK3Genesis.PNG

Due to the limitations of the systems hardware, this port was inferior graphics- and sound-wise to the Super NES port. It did however have exclusives in comparison to the arcade. Again, like the Super NES port, Rain and Noob Saibot are made playable characters along with bosses Motaro and Shao Kahn. Mileena, Ermac and Classic Sub-Zero are playable without any need of codes. Brutalities are also included in this version. Shang Tsung can morph into Robot Smoke, Noob Saibot, and Rain which is not possible in the arcades. This version contained a rendition of Pong entitled MK4 which is the same as the one that appeared in the Genesis port of Mortal Kombat 3.

Some sacrifices were made with this port however. Animalities and Mercies were removed, reducing the number of finshing moves greatly. Shao Kahn's treasure chest has only 10 boxes instead of 12. The announcer no longer announces the characters names. Most of the MK3 levels are missing which include the Balcony and Street so uppercutting in the Subway and Soul Chamber does not take you to the level above. Although the Bell Tower has been removed, the stage fatality is still in the code and executable. Another leftover from MK3 that wasn't totally deleted was left over code data for the 'Endurance Mode' which is still accessible through a Pro Action Replay code. Sheeva has been removed, although you can still listen to her sound clips in the sound test. Sonya's Friendship from Mortal Kombat 3 is used as opposed to her Friendship from the arcade version of UMK3. Scorpion's Hellraiser fatality is different. He just takes the opponent back into the Hell stage where they just catch on fire and explode. Kitana's kiss of death only inflates heads..same effect as Kabal's air pump fatality. Rain and Noob were given a Brutality but no other finishing moves. Human Smoke has Scorpion's combos rather than his own.

Xbox 360 (Xbox Live Arcade)

This was essentially an emulation, rather than a port, so there were few changes made from the arcade original. Xbox Live online VERSUS support was added. Online leaderboards were created to keep track of all time network stats and friends. (Wavenet had something like this). The screen size was adjustable for anything between 4:3 and 16:9 TV's. Unlockable Achievements were also included. GameSpot's "Best and Worst of 2006" named the XBox Live Arcade version of UMK3 as the best fighting game of the year.

Mortal Kombat Advance

File:MKAGBA.png

Mortal Kombat Advance is the name given to the Game Boy Advance port of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. The game was panned by critics and fans alike. Some players complained that the CPU difficulty had increased dramatically from UMK3, with computer opponents executing excessively long and difficult combos. Electronic Gaming Monthly editor Dan Hsu gave it the first "0" rating in the magazine's history. It currently has a rank of 34% at Game Rankings.

The character roster is the same as its 16-bit counterparts. The Game Boy Advance version features two less buttons than were used in UMK3, which resulted in many special move button sequences being consolidated or changed. The violence in this game was toned down due to a younger fan base using the Game Boy Advance (though the game is still rated M for Mature). Blood is seen less in this version of the game. Each character (except for Noob Saibot and the bosses) has one Fatality and one Friendship. Three hidden characters can be used by completing any tower other than Novice. The hidden characters are Shao Kahn (Grand Master), Motaro (Master), Human Smoke (Warrior).

Mortal Kombat: Armageddon

On all "Premium Edition" copies of the PS2 version of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, a near arcade-perfect version of the game is included on the first disc. This version is markedly slower than the arcade version, with some moves and multi-hit combos working less efficiently than in the original. Additionally, when unlocking Ermac, Mileena and classic Sub-Zero with Kombat Kodes on the VS. screen, they do not remain unlocked after the game is reset.

Glitches

A bug in the CPU AI can be utilized to easily beat the game, even on Master difficulty. While backflipping away from an opponent, if the player performs a jumpkick, the CPU will always throw a projectile. This leaves the CPU vulnerable to attacks such as Smoke's teleport-uppercut, which can easily lead into a devastating (up to around 40% damage) combo.
Another bug in the CPU AI was introduced in this MK3 update. If the player walks back-and-forth, not getting too close to the CPU opponent and not walking too far away from it, the CPU will mimic the player's walking movements the entire round and never attack. This gameplay flaw remained and was not corrected for Mortal Kombat Trilogy.
Yet another bug, perform an uppercut combo with Sindel in any pit level bringing the opponent to FINISH HIM/HER and then jump in close to them and perform a pit finishing move before they get up and she will perform the move, completely missing them. You'll hear the finishing music and the enemy will get up and sway as they would in the finishing move section, but you will still get the fatality credit despite not having actually killed your opponent.
In the Sega Genesis version, while playing as Kabal, if you hold HP and press Forward+Forward+Down+Forward as a Fatality his head will pop off and if you press other buttons, a glitchy Kano will appear.
In the arcade version there is a bug which allows the player to replay the game an almost infinite amount of times on just one credit. After beating Kahn, the player must choose the fight with ermac prize and perform a mercy on Ermac (Players must beat Ermac in the 1st round and lose the second, perform mercy on the 3rd). The game would then start over. Effectively allowing the player to play forever should they repeat the same process upon defeating Kahn again.
When the player unlocks Ermac, Classic Sub-Zero, and Mileena, the Character Select Screen gets a color glitch. This also happens to the Choose Your Destiny screen too. However, when resetting the game, the Select Screen and Choose Your Destiny screen are normal, but only for one time.
Due to emulation problems on the Armageddon version of UMK3, when using Human Smoke, his body will sometimes disappear and then reappear, the problem is solved after a few seconds after the first fight.

Trivia

In the arcade version of UMK3, Human Smoke and Noob Saibot both have versus screen images, however, they are only used during attract mode.
One of the most popular Mortal Kombat game hacks on the web, known as Ultimate Mortal Kombat Trilogy, was created using the Genesis version of UMK3 as a template; the hack includes every version of every character up to Mortal Kombat Trilogy, all of which gain new special moves and finishers, among other additions. The hack, however, requires a specialized version of the Gens emulator, and a patch that updates the rom and fixes certain bugs in it, making it difficult to run.

External links