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Information About

Mortal Kombat Trilogy




  Developer Point Of View, Inc
  Publisher Midway
  Series '' Mortal Kombat ''
  Released 1996
  Genre Fighting
  Modes Up to 2 players simultaneously
  Ratings : M (Mature) (Realistic Violence, Realistic Blood and Gore)
  Platforms Nintendo 64 , PC , PlayStation , Saturn , Gamecom




''Mortal Kombat Trilogy'' is a Fighting Game developed and produced by Midway . The name is somewhat misleading, as it is not a collection containing three separate games. Instead, it is a compilation of content from the previous titles based primarily upon the gameplay mechanics of '' Mortal Kombat 3 '' and '' Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 ''. It follows the same story as ''Mortal Kombat 3'' but contains all the characters and most of the stages from '' Mortal Kombat '', '' Mortal Kombat II '', ''Mortal Kombat 3'', and ''Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3''.


NEW TO THE SERIES

  • ''Mortal Kombat Trilogy'' introduces the Aggressor bar, which fills as the combatants fight. When the bar fills, the character becomes much faster and stronger for a short period of time.

  • A finishing move known as a Brutality is featured in this game. This finishing move requires the player to perform an 11 button combo which causes their opponent to explode. Brutalities were also added to the Genesis and SNES ports of ''UMK3''.

  • Many of ''Mortal Kombat Trilogy'' characters have brand new special moves and finishing moves. Several have unused special moves never implemented in previous games. They make their first official appearance in ''Mortal Kombat Trilogy''. These special moves include ''MK1'' Kano's Spinning Blade move, ''MK2'' Kung Lao's Air Torpedo, Goro's Spinning Punch move and Baraka's Blade Spin move. Shao Kahn also has a throw move and a grab and punch move that is exclusive to this game.

  • The spelling mistake in Jade's ending ("Komabt", seen in the arcade version) is corrected.

  • In the PlayStation version, when playing Shang Tsung the console now loads two additional characters into memory, eliminating the long loading delays of ''MK3'' and ''UMK3'' when morphing.



Nintendo 64 exclusive content

  • 3-on-3 simultaneous battles.

  • Motaro and Shao Kahn are given Fatalities to perform in the Nintendo 64 version, either as computer-controlled or regularly controlled characters.

  • The female character Khameleon , replacing Chameleon .



Game.com port

The game was also a launch release for the Game.com handheld console. Only thirteen characters and ten kombat zones remain in this version. In addition, each character has only two special moves and four finishing moves. The finishing moves that were kept for the game were one fatality, babality, friendship, and brutality. Every character except the bosses have finishers, although Noob Saibot does not have a fatality. The game includes multiplayer mode, accessible only with the compete.com game link cable.

These are the characters that appear in the game:


Screenshots of early releases included Smoke, Scorpion, Classic Sub-Zero, Human Smoke, Goro, and Kintaro as characters, while Nightwolf and Raiden were not present. These two were probably added to include characters that were not palette swaps.


CHARACTERS

Every character that has ever appeared in a ''Mortal Kombat'' game prior to ''Mortal Kombat Trilogy'' appears in this game. Along with the ''Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3'' roster, ''Mortal Kombat Trilogy'' adds Baraka , and Raiden as they appeared in '' Mortal Kombat II ''. In addition to both characters gaining one new special move each, both characters have brand new sprites for running and standing falls (these animation types weren't introduced until ''MK3''/''UMK3''). A new version of Johnny Cage played by a new actor was also introduced as well. He retains all of his regular moves from ''MKII'' except for the Split Punch, which had to be excluded since none of the characters from ''MK3''/''UMK3'' had "reaction" sprites for this particular move. Bosses Motaro and Shao Kahn , are also now Playable .

The Playstation and Sega Saturn versions also contain alternate versions of Jax , Kung Lao , Kano , and Raiden as they appeared the first two games (being the only characters not to change actors during the actual trilogy). New frames were also created for ''MK1'' Kano to replace the old frames used for his victory stance and heart rip fatality by modifying Kano's ''Mortal Kombat 3'' sprites. Bosses Goro and Kintaro are also now Playable . A new Secret Character appears, as well. This character, known as Chameleon , rapidly switches between all the male Ninja s (Classic Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Noob Saibot, Human Smoke, Rain, Reptile, and Ermac) during combat. He is similar to the original '' Mortal Kombat's '' version of Reptile , but Chameleon changes his color, not just his stance. This character is playable by performing a special button combination.

The Nintendo 64 version, due to limitations of cartridge space, lacks the classic versions of Jax, Kung Lao, Kano, and Raiden, as well as Goro and Kintaro. In addition, many frames of animation had to be cut from each character in the game. Also, Motaro and Shao Kahn are not selectable at the main screen. Cheat codes have to be entered to gain access to them. The N64 version also combines the two Sub-Zero s into one convenient Palette Swap ped version. The "combined" Sub-Zero doesn't just combine both character's special moves, but also their storylines. He has the unmasked Sub-Zero's bio (without the line "The ninja returns unmasked"), and the classic Sub-Zero's ending. Chameleon is replaced with the secret character Khameleon , a grey female ninja, and is present as both a secret opponent and a playable character. While she, too, switches her move sets (making her considerably weaker), she has a cohesive backstory, unlike her male counterpart.

The N64 version of the game, like ''MK3'' and ''UMK3'', provides the player with an "Ultimate Kombat Kode" screen after a single player game is over where a 6 digit code can be entered to unlock Human Smoke and Khameleon for normal play. The code remained undocumented until April 26, 2007 when it was posted by a user named "Proto K" on a ROM hacking forum board (Acmlm's board II).http://xkeeper.shacknet.nu:5/board/thread.php?id=966 When used "FROM THIS POINT ON.... SMOKE AND KHAMELEON ARE AT YOUR CONTROL" appears and they both become selectable at the character select screen. Both characters, however, could be unlocked through other cheat codes as well. Despite the other means of unlocking the two characters, this "UKK" is currently one of the most elusive cheats ever in ''Mortal Kombat'' history.


New actors

  • , being fired by Midway sometime after the release of ''Mortal Kombat II''. His new sprites are that of Chris Alexander. In addition, new sprites were created to show ''MK2'' Raiden and Baraka running and falling from a standing position.

  • is the actor for the sprites used during gameplay. Sal Divita is used for the Versus screen picture.

  • is the actor for the sprites used during gameplay.



KOMBAT ZONES

Almost every battle arena that has been featured in '' Mortal Kombat II '', ''Mortal Kombat 3'', and ''Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3'' makes an appearance in this game. The PC , PlayStation , and Sega Saturn versions only lack the Hidden Portal and Noob Saibot's Dorfen from ''MK3'', while the N64 version lacks Kahn's Arena and The Bank from ''MK2'' and ''MK3'', respectively. Only a handful of backgrounds from the first ''Mortal Kombat'' make it into this game such as the Courtyard, Goro's Lair, the Pit, and the Pit Bottom. Palace Gates, Warrior Shrine and Throne Room were not used.

The N64 game also includes a new level: the Star Bridge, which is basically the Pit II background with a star-filled sky. Some older backgrounds are also "enhanced" with extra Graphics and added animation. Some examples of this are The Portal, which now includes a temple-like building on each side of the stage, and the N64's Kahn's Kave, which has animated clouds and a glowing floor added to it. Kahn's Arena no longer has the sprites of Kano and Sonya in the background. Living Forest also no longer has sprites of Smoke and Jade emerging in the background as they are playable characters of ''Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3''. The N64's Lost Bridge also has Hornbuckle and Blaze appear at random in its background. The N64's Graveyard stage has more random names on the gravestones near the front. As well as the original Midway design team of ''MK3'', names of the team at Williams Entertainment were added. The date of death on the stones was changed, from April 1 1995 to September 30 1996 . In the N64 version, the Dead Pool stage is not identical to the arcade version of ''Mortal Kombat II'', but is the Dead Pool stage from the SNES version of MK2. The PlayStation, PC, and Saturn versions of the Dead Pool is that of the arcade MK2. In the PC arenas of ''Mortal Kombat II'': The Dead Pool, Wasteland, The Armory and The Portal have no animations.

All of the levels that featured a Stage Fatality made it into this game except for the stage fatality featured in The Pit II. Because of the practical impossibility of filming new, extra animations with Actor s for the non-''Mortal Kombat II'' character sprites for the Pit II's overhead fall, they simply left the fatality out entirely.


Layers

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

  • The Subway → The Street

  • The Bank → The Rooftop

  • The Soul Chamber → The Balcony

  • Scorpion's Lair → Kahn's Kave

  • Goro's Lair → The Armory → Kombat Tomb (N64 version only)



AUDIO

Most of the background music tracks remain intact from ''MKII'' and ''MK3'', especially for the CD-ROM versions of the game, but in all versions of the game, many of the songs are not played with their correct levels. In all versions of ''MKT'', none of the music appears from the original ''Mortal Kombat'' game. All of the CD-ROM games read the background music directly from CD disk providing high quality CD sound. Unfortunately, they lack all song endings as well as all of the music loops used during the "Finish Him/Her" screen. Oddly enough, all of the music taken from ''MK3'' on the CD-ROM ''MKT'' games is noticeably slowed down in both speed and pitch for unknown reasons.

The N64 version only uses music from ''MK3'' and it is played through the system's internal synth, resulting in considerably lower quality than the CD versions. However, all song endings and music loops used during the "Finish Him/Her" screen are intact unlike the CD-ROM versions.


STORYLINE

''Mortal Kombat Trilogy'' is the same storyline as ''Mortal Kombat 3'', which follows ''Mortal Kombat II'' and precedes '' Mortal Kombat 4 ''. The introduction to ''Mortal Kombat Trilogy'' is stated as follows:




VERSIONS AND REVISIONS

  • There were at least three public revisions of this game for the PlayStation. With each revision, aspects of the gameplay were refined, producing gameplay closer to ''Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3'' for the Arcade. The final version was the Greatest Hits edition. Many of the infinites and bugs found in the game only existed in earlier revisions.

  • There were at least two public revisions of this game for the Nintendo 64. There was little difference between them.

  • There were at least two public revisions of this game for the PC. The PC version is a direct port of the PlayStation version. The Final version (indicated by the word 'final' next to the version number in the about dialog box) has gameplay identical to the Greatest Hits PlayStation version. The Windows revision, however, became unplayable following Windows 2000 and subsequent variants (the game would crash frequently). There is an unofficial patch available (updating the game to version 1.1) that removes the code where the game interfaces with your hardware, thus eliminating the bugs. You can find this patch here .

  • A beta version was revealed on a trailer. The beta uses UMK3 menus as the structure of the game. This would later change in version 1.0, and 1.1.




TRIVIA

  • This was the first (and only, up till '''') game to feature all the "ninjas" in one game.

  • After beating the PlayStation version of the game, the final message in the credits says "MK4 coming in 1997".

  • The PlayStation and Saturn versions of the game only have twelve boxes for the Kahn's Treasure Cave screen at the end of the tournament, whereas the N64 version has twenty-four to pick from. The N64 version also has a more cohesive "Supreme Demonstration" feature (which shows every Fatality, Babality, Friendship, Animality, and Brutality for every character) than the PS1 or Saturn versions as the latter versions needed to load the fatalities and cannot show every one in the allotted time.

  • In the PlayStation version, Rain's fighting stance is the same as most ninjas (except Reptile), while in the Nintendo 64 version his stance is the same as Reptile's.

  • In the N64 version, like in the arcade, the player has four credits from the start. However, after playing a 2-player match, the player gets an extra credit, while in the CD-ROM versions, anyone can play for free. Free Play does exist in the N64 version, but it can be unlocked using a somewhat difficult button combination.

  • In the Game.com version, each finishing move has the same command for every character.



REFERENCES






EXTERNAL LINKS