Mortal Kombat Trilogy by GT Interactive

Overview

Are you looking for fast-and-furious arcade-style fighting? Do you like bloodshed? Need to let out some serious aggression? Do you get a kick out of multiple flying dismembered limbs? Do you like bloodshed? Enjoy frustration? Well, step right up: we’ve got the game for you. Did I mention bloodshed?

This game, like all others in the series, is really not about the storyline, as any Mortal Kombat fan will tell you. This appears to me to be a translation of Mortal Kombat 3 Ultimate from the arcade. It contains virtually everything from the first three old games in the series plus some new surprises. There are thirty-two immediately playable characters, including the boss characters, and five hidden ones. A new “Aggressor” mode allows your character to become even stronger and fiercer. There are also lots of new moves that are not available in the arcade version.

Gameplay, Controls, Interface

The movement and control responses are quite nice. It will do what you want it to do, when you want to do it, assuming you know how to do it. Half the fun, or part of the problem (depending on how you view it) is learning the moves. If you’ve played any Mortal Kombat (or other arcade-style fighters) in the past, you shouldn’t have problems figuring out at least a few special moves. To start you out, there are a few listed in the manual (one for each character, to be exact). Since this is a sequel, most (if not all) of the moves are the same from the previous arcade games. You’ll definitely want to have an arcade stick or gamepad. Although I do have an arcade stick, I tried it with the keyboard also and was quite surprised that I was still able to pull off a few moves.

The best part of this game is the multiplayer feature, because most human competitors probably can’t execute combos nearly as quickly as the computer. This is also a really good way to learn to execute combos and get used to the general movements of each character with the timer disabled. This two-player game can either be played with both players on the same system or through an IPX network. It cannot, however, be played over the Internet or through a modem, which was a bit disappointing. The biggest downfall of the game is its so-called difficulty levels. The skill levels are “Very Easy,” “Easy,” “Medium,” “Hard,” and “Very Hard.” They would have been better named “Good Luck,” “Yeah, right,” “What just happened?,” “I don’t think so,” and “Why Bother?”. When you play this game, regardless of the difficulty level, the only way to stay alive is to perform one combo after another. At the very least, you do have unlimited continues so you can enjoy your frustration for hours on end without having to start over completely. The combos for each player can be turned on, off (which will help beginners when playing the computer), or to “Auto,” which will allow you to execute a combo just by hitting the first button in the series. This can be extremely useful in playing the computer even though it does detract from the thrill of pulling it off by yourself. You’ll have to reset your desired game options every time you load the game, as the control configuration is the only option setting that is saved. There are three types of tournaments available: “Mortal Kombat,” “2 on 2 Kombat,” and “8 Player Kombat.” “Mortal Kombat” has a best two of three rounds format. “2 on 2 Kombat” is also played best two of three, with each player using up to 2 characters per round. “8 Player Kombat” is a pro sports playoff-type hierarchy, starting with 8 characters that fight one round each. The winner continues until only one remains standing. “Mortal Kombat” mode is one- or two-player. Both “2 on 2” and “8 Player” are two-player-only games.

Graphics

The graphics are a direct translation from the arcade. They are clean and crisp, with a lot of details and background animation. I ran into a problem when switching between full screen and running in a window. The colors would go haywire until the image on the screen changed or the screen refreshed. If you are running in anything greater than 16-bit color, you’ll get a warning message when you load the game that tells you the game functions best in 15- or 16-bit color. Despite the annoying message, the game functioned quite nicely except in the “Screen 2X” mode, which was extremely choppy on my 233MMX with 4 MB Diamond Stealth card.

Audio

Much like the graphics, the audio is the same as the arcade, with all the screams, “Excellents,” and “Finish Hims” intact. The CD is not required in the drive to play unless you want to hear music during the game. I also tried playing with another music CD in the drive, and that worked too (with interesting results). While the game is running (even if it is minimized), you will not be able to hear any other Windows sounds until you exit the game completely.

System Requirements

Minimum for Windows 95: Pentium 90MHz, 16 MB RAM, 2X CD-ROM drive (CD must be in drive to hear music), 85 MB hard drive space, PCI graphics card w/ 1 MB RAM.
Minimum for DOS 6.0 or higher: Pentium 90MHz, 8 MB RAM, 2x CD-ROM drive (CD must be in drive to hear music), 85 MB hard drive space, VGA graphics card.
Recommended: Pentium 133MHz or higher, 16 MB or more RAM, 2 MB RAM on video card, SoundBlaster or 100 percent compatible card, Gravis PC GamePad Pro, Sidewinder Joypad (if in Windows 95).
Undocumented: DirectX is required to run the game. It is included on the CD, but needs to be installed separately from the game itself. The option to install DirectX appears on the Autorun screen. Be sure you have DirectX installed before installing the game itself.
Reviewer’s Recommendations: Do not even try to play this game with the keyboard—be sure you have a good, strong old arcade-style joystick or gamepad with at least 6 different buttons that can take a beating.

Documentation

As Shao Khan says when you first load the game: “Excellent,” “Superb,” “Well done.” The 45-page manual is well written and complete, despite not telling you special moves and that DirectX needs to be installed first. Although the manual may seem to be a bit thick for this type of game, the last 20 pages are warrior profiles (including one special move for each) and game credits. For those of you who are less exploratory, you can pick up all the special moves, fatalities, pit fatalities, brutalities, babalities, animalities and friendships from GT Interactive’s old web site.

Bottom Line

This game is definitely for you arcade-fighting junkies. I found this game to be pretty difficult, although I’m sure I can attribute a good portion of this to my own inadequacies while playing. There are some annoying tidbits, such as the 16-bit color message popping up when loading, waiting for the initial credits to finish before being able to play the game, and having to reset your options each time you load the game. When you get past the initial annoyances and get your options set up, this old game will have wonderful but tough arcade-style fighting action and is a must-have for Mortal Kombat fans.

Download MK Trilogy

There is a 5 in 1 pack released by AIO which can be downloaded via torrent from Thepiratebay or as rar archive from Rapidshare:

Mortal_Kombat_AIO_by_RT.part1.rar
Mortal_Kombat_AIO_by_RT.part2.rar
Mortal_Kombat_AIO_by_RT.part3.rar
Rar pass: www.2baksa.net