Ranking the Mortal Kombat 3 Ports
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- čas přidán 30. 06. 2024
- Here's the "final" Mortal Kombat ranking video.
0:00 Intro and Brief History
1:54 The Playstation Port
3:46 The Super Nintendo Port
4:55 The Genesis Port
6:24 The MS-DOS Port
7:18 The 8-Bit Ports
9:11 The Rankings
10:53 How MK3 caused the Beginning of the End for Mortal Kombat
15:48 Outro
The SNES footage was recorded with real hardware, The rest of the footage is recorded from Retroarch. - Zábava
![Making of - Mortal Kombat 3 (high quality) [MK3 Into The Outworld - Behind the Scenes]](/img/n.gif)
I couldn’t even really play MK3 until the ports came out because MK mania was so insane at that time the machines in my area had lines for weeks. There was no question what game you were at the arcade to play. It was 100% badass and the fluidity, sound, and new fatalities blew people away.
Where I live, the game was no problem to play, lines were pretty much non-existent. Hell I even got to try one of the early revisions of the game, where repeatedly doing Cyrax's net throw would start making the screen flash green, eventually causing the game to crash and reset.
Begining of the end?! I'd call it the peak! Combos were a literal game changer, most of the missing characters had more than adequate replacements, just figuring out who to use for them took a bit of experimenting.
@@emmanueloverratedtmosphere and music are debatable.
The atmosphere wasn't necessarily worse. Just different. MKII was more mysterious. MK3, more post-apocalyptic and isolated.
Music was also different. But MK3 has some all-time classics like Kahn's Tower, Soul Chamber and, perhaps the more iconic ones: Subway and The Temple. (Probably the two most iconic soundtracks of the original trilogy.)
@@emmanueloverrated if there is a metric to judge the music by, and that metric determines MKII to be objectively better, then I'll have to concede. I don't know enough about music to determine that.
(I still like MK3's music better, though. 😁 But I'm willing to admit it can just be personal preference.)
This right here! The gameplay finally started to actually become a focus. They perfected it in UMK3 for me; still my personal favorite to this day!
I just bought it on genesis and played it today! Forget mk1 (2023) lol I also bought mortal kombat 4 my favorite along with 3 and 2
After 30 years the franchise is still going strong.
UMK 3 on xbox 360 was mind blowing. Matchmaking and replaying this game with buddies!?? Bring. It. Back
PS3 was better and had more responsive control gameplay
I remember the Ps1 version was very close to the Arcade just the loading screen was blah but still a great version 😀😀
The extended loading screen was great for entering the Kombat codes. We always put in unlimited run gauge.
@@PistNRodssmart!!!!
I wished it was released on PS2 so it would load the screen quick to the game
Ps1 is the best port...
The PS1 version was identical to the arcade save for the loading times.
The transition to 3D killed it for me. Limited polygon counts were fine for new IP like Tekken/Virtua Fighter but not so much for legacy sprite franchises MK and Street Fighter.
Yeah mk4 was a tough pill to swallow. Even back then I thought it looked like shit.
MK4 was garbage, but Deadly Alliance & Deception were pretty darn good for 3D Era.
The best during that time though was Shaolin Monks. Great frickin' game!
Bro Street fighter EX series was great and fun with unique Akira characters and had fun combos too.
It was painful, but required transition. Now look at modern MK, it is photorealistic. But I understand you, MK4 was just awful in comparison to sprite-based versions
I grew up with the MS-DOS port and I can confirm, it truly was the most arcade-like port, great reviews!!
The PC version was the 2nd version I played after the SNES and was the firsr version I beat. It was excellent and controlled super tightly!
I had the DOS CD port of mortal Kombats 1 to 3 and they were all amazing
Some amazing new facts (for me) here like some advertisement of MK3 for the SNES using the graveyard stage. It's kind of strange actually how as a kid or teen I got to see the PC version of MK3 and saw the graveyard stage but while I owned the SNES version it never occurred to me to ask "Where the heck is the graveyard on my game?"
Squeezing all they did on the 16 bit versions was impressive, but they needed another 4-8 megs to avoid having to compress the voices so much. They especially needed the extra memory for UMK3. I gladly would've paid an extra 10-15 $ for a higher quality version
Great video! Although I respectfully disagree; this wasn't the start of the decline. MK3 was just incomplete and the combo system wasn't worked out yet. UMK3 is the peak of the original series for me to this day, as it fixes a lot and it's still the competitive standard.
💯💯💯 Agree. The combo system/RUN button were welcome additions. I love MK Trilogy too.
@@MrBronx61 Trilogy is also great! As time goes on, I prefer the N64 version (competitively). I grew up with a Sega Saturn, so I have some niche experience with said versions of MKII, UMK3, and MKT respectively!
But they are the same, how are they different? They only added extra characters
@@ole7492 The gameplay mechanics and programming were tightened up BIG TIME for UMK3. They totally nerfed Kabal; he was insane in vanilla MK3 lol.
I agree regarding MK3 being the start if the decline. Boon and Tobias spent more effort of the hype and marketing and because of this they cut corners on the actual game itself. They should held back release for 6 months so we could get all the ninjas back, particularly Scorpion. But even after getting used to the new roster and enjoying the run mechanic, I then saw the fatalities which felt like a step down from the previous 2 games. Every one felt the same, everyone explodes into 5 rib cages, 3 skulls etc or gets burned. Whenever I do a spot of retro gaming I play the 2nd game the most, that was the peak of classic MK.
I lived through mk1 through 3 era and I definitely agree that mk2 was the peak. I personally dislike almost ALL of mk3’s finishers. If I play classic its usually mk2, if I play modern its mk9 hands down.
Dude you totally just explained exactly how I've always felt about MK3. It was so hyped and I always thought it felt very sterile. All the fun of the first two games was gone.
I wouldn’t say the cut corners. None of the stuff in ultimate was originally planned.
They just misunderstood what fans wanted.
They thought fans wanted a big, sarcastic spectacle with a more combo focused gameplay system.
The funny thing is that most MK fans at the time didnt care about the gameplay at all. The roster, fatalities, and atmosphere are all anyone cared about back then.
Great job on ranking every port release of a great game. Great video and everything 👍
I got my ps1 on launch day specifically for this game. I remember my buddy down the street introduced me to Game FAQs on the “internet” to find the smoke character unlock code. Blew my 12 year old mind 🤯
This was the game that made me pay attention to the PS1. Seeing the PS1 playing in stores after spending all week playing the SNES version really made it clear to me that the new generation had arrived.
when I was kid i was offered to get Mk2 or MK3 for the Genesis , i had no idea about the existence of MK3 in that time and i was like..." damm i want both but ok i guess MK3 because...had to be better than 2, i was really impressed when a magazine shown as preview MK3 for the arcade and i already had the game for the Genesis .... yeah those years we used to have arcade machines way after the release date..... good video
Great vid! I really enjoyed it.
I was the Genesis kid in the neighborhood and I remember I often rented MK3. Other kids used to rent the SNES version, but we actually played the Genesis version more. We felt it was faster, with better gameplay. The 6 button controller also helped a lot. The lack of color in the CRT TVs wasn't that obvious, to be fair.
Great reviews, BTW!
The difference in MK3 between Genesis and SNES Isn't that huge like in MK2.
The genesis version sucked awful
@@cliffchampion5501damn y'all need put some respect on sega genesis y'all disrespect it too much
@@cliffchampion5501it sucked the wind out of the snes version you mean. Because it was not a repeat of mk2. The genesis version was alot more exciting to play than the snes mk3.
Like MKII, there are two versions of Mortal Kombat 3 on Super NES which most people doesn't know about. Version 1.0 doesn't feature the red Portal stage whereas version 1.1 does but you will only get access to the red Portal stage if you play 8-Man Tournament Mode vs. kombat kode or if you fought Smoke through vs. kombat kode.
The Genesis version doesn't have more content than the SNES version (same characters and levels) and has worse graphics and audio.
He may have been referring to UMK3 where somehow the Genesis version had 4 more backgrounds (Church, Soul Chamber, Bank & Subway) than the SNES, even though they used the same size carts. I wonder if the backgrounds are actually in the game still but Avalanche Software screwed up somehow & didn't double check to make sure they were available to be viewed. It just doesn't make any sense & I've never heard a good explanation as to why that happened being both MK3 ports had almost exactly the same content & the same size cart. And yes, music, many sound effects & graphics were better on SNES. I've played both & both play great
The voice samples in the genesis version of MK3 sound much better than the muffled SNES version, but I agree with you on the music being worse in the Genesis version.
Playing the Snes Version way more then any other version, i was impressed with the Responsiveness of the Genesis Version when i played that at a friends house. Felt alot faster then the Snes
Yes, the snes version is better with graphics and sound but gameplay, the most important thing, lacks in comparison with the Genesis one. After I played the Genesis one I couldn't get back to the Snes one, it feels too sluggish.
@@karlimo4034 Not sure where you guys find the Genesis one plays better, I own both 16 bit ports, combos come off feeling slower, animations still happening after all the button inputs were put in, while on the SNES, CPU controlled Liu Kang would fly through his 7 hit combo like lightning, and player done inputs for the combs would sync up with the combo, and end once the inputs were finished, with 0 lag.
@@Bloodreign1 Are you playing on CRT or led TV?
did u play 1 or 2 3???
@@Rednblack900 3 as stated in the video
The big problem with the MS-DOS version was not having a good controller to play it with.
Now, of course, with MAME we can just run the arcade version with a USB arcade stick plugged in and it's just like having a machine in your house.
Gratz man
Almost 1000 subs
When UMK3 came out it kind of made MK3 pointless. UMK3 is what MK3 should have been in the first place.
Excellent video and insight on classic mk series. Thumbs up
The combo system was implemented so Mortal Kombat could compete against games like Killer Instinct. The fast paced hyper combo system in fighting games was an exciting trend at that time.
Couldn't get enough of Killer Instinct when it released. Loved playing MK3 and Ultimate in the arcades. I miss the old Midway.
I played pretty much all console versions of this game. With the 16-Bit versions I prefer MK3 on SNES. I just couldn’t stomach the bad graphics and scratchy sounds of the SEGA Genesis port.
The PlayStation version was extremely close to the Arcade. But the load times can be a bit much at times. The portable (and 8-Bit) versions were… pure diarrhea 🤮.
The Genesis version had more responsive controls probably because of the weak processor in the snes.
@@yearight5303 stop it lol. The SNES version of Mortal Kombat 3 was every bit as fast and responsive as the Genesis/Mega-Drive version. The unresponsive controls and gameplay effect mostly the SNES version of MK1.
I love SEGA’s system, but some fans go too far to try to give it a win against the SNES smh.
Bro Snes was slow just like all the EA sports games Genesis was faster and better
@@stanleyford2575 please stop, at the realize of the SNES yes… some games weren’t as fast. But very quickly developers were able to take advantage of the system to speed it up.
And games were every bit as fast with better graphics and sound. And EA barely made games for the SNES lol.
@@yearight5303 Dude, combos come out slow as hell on the Genesis port, to the point that for at least 1 to 2 seconds after the inputs are done, the combo is still going through the animations at slow speed, while the SNES version's combos kept up with button inputs, and were done lightning fast. I own both 16 bit ports, and the PS1 port, the Genesis version is laggy in the controls department, and the sound is absolutely atrocious. It's only saving grace for a Genesis MK, Probe didn't do it, and Sculptured Software fit in much more vocal effects than MK 1 and MK2 had combined.
I had SNES. The long PS1 loadtimes and missing Shang Tsung transformations would be a dealbreaker for me.
The Dos port looks amazing! I had no idea the backgrounds were supposed to be animated, or that Kabal's dash looked so colorful and crisp
Change the speed of this video to 1.5x. You're welcome.
what an interesting topic 👏
Let me ask? If I play the ps1 version on the Ps3, will the load time be a problem on the ps3 too?
There is also MK3 for Windows, which is somehow based on an early PS1 builds. PAL and NTSC MK3 PS1 have few changes here and there between them. And the releases from Midway Arcade Treasures differs. I personally think Master System was better than Game Gear, although both ports were bad. R-Zone and handheld vrt-x could be mentioned, but I understand it's difficult to get footage of that. Great vid nevertheless.
To be completely honest, I forgot the R-zone ports existed. I might make a video on the midway arcade treasures ports at some point.
Didn't Nintendo 64 have a version? I am almost sure.
@@Rzapp06 Now I understand why they had to make an update called 'Mortal Kombat Trilogy'. MK Trilogy had the classic fighters back. I think Trilogy was on Playstation 1 and Nintendo 64.
Only Trilogy was on N64.
Good job
The loadings on Playstation cannot be treated as a problems of early days of PSX. Characters animations do take some space (around 1MB per character) and they have to be loaded to memory every time + background + sound from a CD, PSX can only read at 300kb/s (2X speed). Filling whole PSX's memory from CD takes around 10s and PSX have only 2MB of RAM + 1MB Video RAM + 512kb sound RAM, there is no room to keep additional characters in RAM, they have to be loaded, that is why Shang Tsungs morphs will always be interrupted by loadings, on the old consoles and arcades, cart is not a storage media, but actually a part of memory like a RAM, but read only (ROM), thus character data is accessible instantly.
When it comes to MS DOS, all characters are loaded into memory only if you have 16MB of RAM, if you have 8MB, there are loadings during Shang Tsung morphings and when performing some fatalities, although, they are not as annoying as on PSX as transfer from a hard disk is noticably faster (around 1MB/s, depends on PC's speed, controller and drive).
Great Review! Loved every bit of this video I had no idea there was a better version then the PS1 version called the Ms Dos I was under the impression PS1 was the best port of Mk3 you could have played
We rented the snes and genesis versions of MK3 all the time until we bought the SNES version lol I still remember the promo poster at the video store just before the release of the game back in 1995.
MK3 on PS1 was a mind blowing thing back in the day! PS1 played it just like the arcade, maybe even better!
Tnx alot i have mk3 when i was kid on genesis and i love i play it alot ❤❤❤
There’s one thing the SNES port did better than the original Arcade port: consistent blood color dripping sounds.
Nice! Thank you!
I had the Pro Fighter X for the SNES so i naturally rented it once and made a backup rom copy for myself on floppy disk, lol
Just stumbled on this video and you had me at “good ol’ Kurtis Stryker” on how bad he is lol
Umk3 original release on Xbox live arcade was the best, it’s such a shame it’s no longer available
I enjoyed your view on mk3. I know with ultimate mk3 the Genesis version had several stages more than the snes version.
Back in 96 I got an MSDOS/Windows 95 disk. I still have it. While I can no longer play it, you can actually listen to the music. 🤣
I really love MK2 but MK3 has a special place in my heart. Not the Ultimate version. Specifically the Standard MK3.
Why U prefer mk3 standar version? Just curiosity
@@Blo0dAnhell Nostalgia. It has a special place in my heart because I had it on Super Nintendo.
What in your opinion is the very best over all UMK3 experience without a PC ?
Best MK game. It was dark, bold, and experimental
The ugliest of the sounds and graphics for the Genesis was enough to put it behind SNES. But fair enough.
when looking at mk2 on the genesis compared to mk3, mk3 is a miracle.
Williams OWNED Acclaim, it was in-house but seems to be different because of corporate shuffling of the game and arcade/pinball divisions
Ms dos version is a really well made version 😀😀
The problem was, no one gathers around a PC monitor with their friends to play. Which is the main draw of a fighting game to play with other people. And online match making support was non-existent then.
@@PistNRodsback in the 90s and even early 2000 it wasn't that uncommon to do exactly that.
@@PistNRods Yeah to bad 😞
Had the PC port back in the day. Tbh, I had much more fun playing vanilla MK3's towers than UMK3, mostly because Jade was annoying to fight against.
i pretty much agree with ur ranking...i m still missing any mk3 version...i own md and ps3 umk3 and n64 mk trilogy though!
Fun fact. There was two PC versions. The original was DOS.. they eventually released a version with DOS and Windows. The Windows variant was more like the PSX version. Both versions were included on the CD.
UMKIII on Sega Saturn was very good and nearly an exact replica of the arcade.
As a kid I always felt like the Genesis was "bootleg" compared to the SNES versions of games
PS1 port was amazing to have at the time of release. All arcade ports in the past were way scaled down because of the 16bit snes and Genesis hardware. PS1 was a giant leap, and it released really soon after it hit arcades. We didn’t have to wait the 1yr plus to get it home. Needless to say, my friends and I played the shit outta it. And basically whenever we went to the arcade, we beat just about everyone with ease because we’d been playing at home.
Did you say the MS-DOS port came out a year later or the Windows version did? I got the MS-DOS version on Mortal Friday. It was Arcade perfect. The CD-ROM had all of the arcade music and if you put in another CD, it would play the music on it. I was in 6th grade and used the Power Rangers The Movie Soundtrack.... a lot.
The MS-DOS version was released on Mortal Friday. The windows version was released later. I got the release date wrong on the MS-DOS version. Good catch👍🏻
Which features was the SNES version lacking? I'm confused!!
The SNES version was only missing the graveyard stage. Everything else was still intact besides the graveyard stage.
@@Rzapp06 Thanks for the reply! I'm then confused why you prefer the Genesis version, which also doesn't have the graveyard stage!
I still remember riding home from Blockbuster in Mom's van on a crisp October Saturday with the SNES port of MK3 in my quivering hands. I was so excited I could barely stand it. Hoo boy that didn't last long after I actually put it in my SNES and played it. Went right back to the far superior SNES port of MKII after that.
Didnt care much once MK started doing the dial a combo thing, dont like that stuff, so after MK2 i kinda checked out
I was a genesis kid so I had all 3 of the genesis ports of mk 1 2 and 3. I still prefer the genesis ost of mk1 and mk2 and 3 hold up pretty well compared to arcade
The SNES version blows the genesis version out of the water.
None of the mK3 ports retained similar sprite sizes to the arcade version.
Genesis and SNES ports positions are swapped in my opinion.
MK3 on PC is the best. Yr95, all I was thinking about back then was MK3 and Wrestlemania.
Mk3 was one of the very few games available when it launched lol
I bought it then
And ps 1
$1200 when said and done
Had so much fun ☺️
hmm.. PS1 retailed for 299 at launch and MK3 was 49.99, maybe 59.99. Even adjusted for inflation that's nowhere near $1,200
Mortal Kombat 3 was released officialy for Master System in Brazil by TECTOY (SEGA representative in Brazil).
5th grade me was so confused as to why Cyrax was orange in the selection screen of sega. Even though I had it, I had a Gameboy as well. I spent many hours away from home. It took me forever go figure out sonyas bike kick. All in all, I'm still down with it.
I never knew it was other versions cause when I was a kid I got this for ps1 I didnt get any gamebooks back then
My most fun memories playing umk3 on Super Nintendo noob saibot Jade and Cyber Smoke where my favs 😊
The Genesis port is my favorite, but I've come to really like the Master System version released in Brazil. It's a port of the Game Gear version, but still. The Master System ports of MK 1-3 are highly underrated.
Poor stryker getting called out like that he’s my favorite next to kabal in this one, and was the first person I beat this game with
Ms-Dos port kick ass
What are you talking about beginning of the end? Mk9, mk10 and mk11 have all been great but I still prefer mk1-trilogy are my favs
Not here to flame. Just a little thing I noticed while watching. The blood looks different in each game. For example, when you showed the MS DOS version, the blood is upside down after an uppercut. The SNES version the blood animation is the wrong direction for one of the blood trails. The PS version is guilty of this too. It is funny how this was a little bug in every version.
I always thought II was the best 2d game and 3 was fun but over inflated. The fatalities got silly with too many bones flying through the air if you blew someone up. Very nice video. I liked your video on II as well, but I think Snes had the best II port.
The 2011 Mortal Kombat is a reboot... But they're making Mortal Kombat 1 that got announced this year as the sequel to Mortal Kombat 11, oh well by the time this video came out we didn't know yet what's the next Mortal Kombat going to be hehe
“Accurate to the arcade version” is subjective. Having better graphics and sound, to me, is more accurate to arcade, Genesis graphics and sound always paled in comparison to SNES. To each their own.
Mk 2 on gameboy used a lot of ninja's and female fighters which all use the same animations. So data usage was minimal. Mk3's cast was much diverse so they could not do that. They had to use more data for all the different animations. So that is why 3 on gameboy was a bit crappier than 2. A lot of people don't seem to understand that this is the case why. However mk 3 on snes is much better than genesis. Don't forget genesis has less voices so they did not fit everything from the arcade on one genesis cart
Mortal Kombat 4 Was not a dud. It was one of the last successful fighting games.
MK3 is a perfect game for that time
Who is the best 1.2.3??? I played 1 i think and 2 i dont remeber
What about the saturn version?
Ah okay you got me ha
Yea like 1 and 2 better than 3 and sub zero did look weird without the mask,they replace the ninjas for robots.i think 1239 and 11 my favorite 5
Terrel .. plain Mortal Kombat 3 was not good because of some key classic fighters. Mortal Kombat Trilogy had all fighters from 1-3. That was the version to get not plain MK3. I think Trilogy came out in 1996 on Playstation and Nintendo 64.
@@misterlexx2721 yep
Ultimate MK on DS is the best port of MK 3 in my opinion.
Some say it's trash because the ninjas are absent, false and false. Especially that latter take on the game. Sub-Zero, Cyrax, and Sektor, anyone? Anywho, it is my fave of the original trilogy.
Where’s the arcade1up version?
I didn’t include the arcade1up version since it’s a direct port of the arcade version.
MK3 was dope!
There is a ps2 version as well. It was part of those arcade treasure collection
That is not a port, it is emulation of the arcade game.
How old are you? 20?
Long Live Cyber Smoke
we could use a remake of mk1/2/3 as some kind of anniversary edition with mk11 grapics and fight system
As inferior as it is to MK2 I loved the SNES port for its music and its accuracy. My favorite version currently though is the Playstation version for its precision to the arcade version. I LOVE vanilla MK3.
That was 64 bits of graphics. It had to be.
6:38 it's actually because the game can fit into ram
youd think with that extra 6 months would have gave them the time to make the ports better then what came out the snes ver was the best of all
I still to this day don’t care for MK3, it’s the weakest of the 3 in my opinion. I did like Stryker and of course a riot officers were out because look what the hell was going on! Chaos! I hate the running and combos, I could never get them right. MK 2 all the way.
Arcade version is definitely stereo sound
MK3 the beginning of the end….. MK12 has something to say about that opinion
Genesis version which you had to play on the 3ßbutton controlelr with worse music and worse graphics? HOW INSANE MUST A PERSON BE TO PREFER THAT!