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Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 is a 2D fighting game developed and released by Midway on November 1995 for arcades.
It is a direct update to Mortal Kombat 3 (Game), adding new characters (all of which are the return of masked ninjas), arenas, special moves, and game modes (including an 8-player tournament mode and 2-on-2 team matches), while tweaking gameplay mechanics and character balancing. It is regarded as the most competitive game in the Mortal Kombat (Franchise) franchise (prior to its 2011 reboot). A special version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 was later released for consoles (known as Mortal Kombat Trilogy (Game)).
In order to free up space on the game's memory, the screens detailing the game's story, as well as all of the biographies and picture endings for the original characters, have been removed. Regardless, the game's story is no different from Mortal Kombat 3 (involving Outworld (Location) emperor Shao Kahn's invasion of Earthrealm).
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 is built off of Mortal Kombat 3 and retains most of its gameplay mechanics. There are four attack buttons (High Punch, High Kick, Low Punch, and Low Kick) and dedicated Block and Run buttons. Players have a "Run Meter", which limits their ability to run forward, and "chain combos", in which players can perform pre-programmed combos (by linking normal attacks together) that ends with an attack that sends the opponent flying. The combos are known for not necessarily requiring the user to be 100% accurate on the timing of the button presses, allowing the player to basically press all the buttons in the combo quickly and the combo would essentially play itself out. Each character has new special moves, chain combos, and gameplay balances.
Fatalities, Friendships, Babalities, Mercy (Concept), and Animalities return from Mortal Kombat 3. However, the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis versions sacrificed Mercy and Animalities for a new type of finishing move: Brutalities. Brutalities are long, complex combo strings that, when performed successfully, end with the victim exploding into a shower of blood and body parts. Brutalities require the player to enter the first ten button presses in the combo, and the game takes over from there, depicting the character beating the other character faster and faster until they explode.
The game also marks the return of the Endurance Match (originally in Mortal Kombat (Game)), in which the player must defeat two opponents consecutively instead of one to win a round. The "Choose Your Destiny" screen reflects this, adding one Endurance Matches to each "tower". Additionally, there is a "Master II" difficulty, adding another Endurance Match to the "tower" while making the game more difficult.
More "Kombat Kodes", six-digit codes that are entered cooperatively on the versus screen, have been added, including the ability to change the stage to whatever both players feel like playing. There are now three "Ultimate Kombat Kodes", ten-digit codes that are entered during the Game Over (Concept) screen, with three new characters to unlock. The Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection (Game) removed Kombat Kodes from the online component in the game.
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 also includes three gameplay modes, each requiring a different amount of credits to start:
New to Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 is the concept of Shao Kahn's Lost Treasures, in which completing the game gives the player a choice between a group of bonuses ranging from battling secret characters to watching a demonstration of each Fatality in the game. These groups are restricted by the difficulty the game was completed on. 8-Player Tournament mode also gives the player access to Shao Kahn's Lost Treasures at the end.
Novice Difficulty and higher
Warrior Difficulty and higher
Master Difficulty and higher
Master II Difficulty
The game includes 19 playable starting characters, two unplayable bosses, four playable secret characters, and one unplayable secret opponent. All of the playable characters (including the previously-hidden Smoke (Character)) from Mortal Kombat 3 (Game), along with Kitana (Character), Reptile (Character), Jade (Character), and Scorpion (Character) from Mortal Kombat II, are the default starting characters in the game. Through new "Ultimate Kombat Kodes", Mileena, a masked Sub-Zero, and a new ninja character (Ermac) are unlockable as playable characters. A pre-indoctrinated version of Smoke, known as Human Smoke, is playable by holding a special button combination when choosing the robotic Smoke.
Noob Saibot is still a hidden, unplayable opponent. However, because of the inclusion of masked male ninjas, he is no longer a palette swap of Kano (Character) (except in the Sega Saturn version). Featured in the game's opening gameplay montage is Rain (Character), a dark purple palette swap of the male ninjas that serves as nothing more as a fake hidden character for stirring up rumors. Noob Saibot and Rain, as well as the three unlockable characters, are starting characters in the Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, and Game Boy Advance versions.
| Character | Description (Additional Notes) | Actor |
|---|---|---|
Kitana
| ||
Reptile
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Sonya
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Jax
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Nightwolf
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Jade
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Scorpion
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Kano
| ||
Mileena
(Secret character in all but the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis versions)||Becky Gable (Person) | ||
Ermac
(Secret character in all but the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis versions)||John Turk (Person) | ||
Sub-Zero, masked version
(He is featured twice. Once as a masked ninja, the other without a mask. The masked version is a secret character in all but the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis versions)||John Turk (Person) | ||
Sektor
| ||
Sindel
| ||
Kurtis Stryker
| ||
Cyrax
| ||
Kung Lao
| ||
Kabal
| ||
Sheeva
(Not available in the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis versions)||Stop-motion miniature | ||
Shang Tsung
| ||
Liu Kang
| ||
Smoke
(He is featured in both a robotic form and human form. His human form is unlockable.)||Sal Divita | ||
Motaro
(He is featured as a boss character and is only playable in the Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, and Game Boy Advance versions)||Stop-motion miniature | ||
Shao Kahn
(Only playable in the Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, and Game Boy Advance versions)||Brian Glynn (Person) | ||
Noob Saibot
(only playable in the Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Game Boy Advance, and special Wave Net arcade versions)||John Turk (Person) |
There are five new arenas in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3: Scislac Busorez (an anagram for "Classic Subzero"), Scorpion's Lair, Jade's Desert, Kahn's Kave, and The Riverfront. The Bank (Location) and Hidden Portal from Mortal Kombat 3 are removed. Noob Saibot's Dorfen and The Church, despite not being in the arena rotation, are now playable via new Kombat Kodes, which allow the players to fight in any stage they choose. This brings the total number of stages to 16. The level rotation works a bit differently, as the first five stages loop once before moving on to the Mortal Kombat 3 stages. The Balcony is always the stage played when facing Motaro. The Pit 3 is always the stage featured when fighting against Shao Kahn. Noob Saibot's Dorfen is always the stage featured when facing Noob Saibot. Scislac Busorez is always the stage featured when fighting Mileena, Ermac. or masked Sub-Zero.
Scorpion's Lair includes both a Stage Fatality (in which the player uppercuts the opponent to the lava behind them), and a mid-match stage transition to Kahn's Kave. The Subway and The Soul Chamber still transition to The Street and The Balcony. The Subway, The Bell Tower, and The Pit 3 all still have their Stage Fatalities.
The game was released for the Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, and Sega Saturn in 1996. It never appeared on the Sony PlayStation due to Sega (Company) buying exclusive rights to release it on 32-bit CD-based consoles (as a response to Sony buying exclusive rights to release Mortal Kombat 3 on 32-bit CD-based consoles a year before). To get around this, a rare, special add-on peripheral for the PlayStation was made that upgraded copies of Mortal Kombat 3 to Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. The game was later infamously ported to the Game Boy Advance (Platform) on December 12, 2001 under the name "Mortal Kombat Advance". It is considered one of the worst fighting games of all time. An arcade-perfect port of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 was later released on November 11, 2007 for the Nintendo DS (Platform) under the name "Ultimate Mortal Kombat", which also included online multiplayer via Wi-Fi and a port of Puzzle Kombat from Mortal Kombat: Deception. Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 was also bundled in special "Premium Edition" copies of the PlayStation 2 (Platform) version of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. The game was also loosely ported to the iPhone (Platform) and iPad (Platform) by EA Mobile (Company) on December 16, 2010. (Restricting the character count to 6 starter characters and 2 hidden characters, while remaking all assets in 3D)
An online-enabled version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 was released on the Xbox 360 (Platform) via Xbox Live Arcade for 800 Microsoft Points ($10) on October 20, 2006, days before its intended Wednesday release. This version included 12 achievements worth 200 Gamerscore, ranging from performing certain finishing moves (online or offline) to completing the single-player campaign. The Achievements are notorious for having strange point values, such as 12. This version also includes online leaderboards, adjustable screen sizes (with support for widescreen and standard televisions), and an online mode similar to the "Quarter Match" mode on the Xbox Live Arcade version of Super Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting. This version was granted "Arcade Hits" status due to high sales, reducing its price by half. However, in February 2010, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 was removed from the Xbox Live Marketplace due to Midway losing the game's publishing rights. The standalone version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 never returned to Xbox 360 under new publisher, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Instead, a new release titled Mortal Kombat: Arcade Kollection was released on August 31, 2011 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and later on February 1, 2012 for Games for Windows Live. This new release featured another online-enabled version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, as well as online-enabled versions of Mortal Kombat II and the original Mortal Kombat.
A version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 was released for iOS in December, 2010 by EA. Rather than using digitized sprites of filmed actors, all the characters are rendered in 3D. Although the moves and buttons from the original game are included, a simpler set of buttons and moves were created to make play easier using the touch screen. The new layout has a "special" button, which is usually mapped to a character's signature special move. As an example, instead of back-back-low punch for Scorpion (Character)'s spear, the player just has to hit the "special" button. Also instead of high and low punch and high and low kick, there are just punch and kick buttons. Fatalities are also included, along with babalities, friendships, brutalities, and animalities. While the arenas are the same as in previous versions of the game, they are also newly designed for the iOS version. Uppercutting opponents into other stages is still possible, as well as stage specific fatalities.
Playable characters include:
Four modes are available:
Extras:
Achievements: