You could, I guess, call this game Mortal Kombat 3.5. Still Mortal Kombat 3. Same graphics. Same characters. Minor tweaks. Toned-down overkill that ruined both Sub-Zero and Kabal. And a few new additions.
Most prominent: the return of Kitana, Reptile, and Scorpion. Also, MK2's hidden female, Jade, now playable. Midway demoted Smoke from unlockable character to standard character, and introduced three brand new Ultimate Kombat Kodes that will unleash Mileena, Ermac, and Classic Sub-Zero. And lastly, Human Smoke playable via button input.
With the new characters come new Fatalities, Friendships, Animalities -- fatalities that mark a slight improvement over the existing MK3 Fatalities. Kitana's kiss of death now stretches her victims out before they explode (bleh), Reptile eats more than his prey's head (eh), Mileena spits nails (riiiiiight), and (my favorite) Scorpion summons his defeated opponent to the netherrealm where his clan goes to town as the screen fades to black.
The new characters sport far superior animalities to the rest of the cast. No longer tinted bright inappropriate colors, they take on a more a distinct (and desperately needed) comedic edge. Kitana transforms into a bunny and goes Monty Python on 'em. Scorpion changes to a penguin and drops an explosive egg. Reptile? Changes into a chimp. Jade? A cat that kills in an appropriate cartoony fashion. Unfortunately, all the previous animalities remain unchanged.
Kitana, Scorpion, Reptile, Mileena, and Classic Sub-Zero unfortunately do not gain much (if anything) in the way of additional moves. Unlike Kung Lao and Liu Kang, however, at least their old moves have not deteriorated. Scorpion's spear, Classic Sub-Zero's ground ice, and Kitana's fanwave have not lost their edge.
New to the series, the red ninja Ermac (rumored to be running around inside MK1) makes his debut appearance with an interesting telekinetic slam move that leads into juggles (and also one of his Fatalities.) From there, the originality and inspiration ends, as the rest of his arsenal is either typical, ripped from Scorpion, or non-existent (more on that later.) Ultimate MK3 adds a few additional venues that dramatically expands the MK3 world -- a netherrealm stage, a desert stage, a throne room for Kahn. Midway axed the bank stage, and the game didn't lose anything with its departure.
Endurance matches make their return, which I would welcome except UMK3 has juiced up the AI in perhaps the most irritating way known to man. It's like fighting an IF/THEN statement. Midway has programmed all of the counter-attacks into the game, and the CPU just waits for the moment the player pushes the button before unleashing the appropriate counter attack (God help you if you fight Jade before an Endurance match on Master.) The AI actually ruins the entire one player gaming experience as it makes the game impossible to beat with someone other than Smoke.
Push forward on the joystick the CPU automatically moves away. Push back, the CPU follows you. Try a jump kick, and the CPU likes to jump straight up and make a perfectly timed attack to take you out of the air. Jump back and get a taste of a projectile. Run in and get thrown. Try a combo as they stand up? Get thrown.
I repeat, the AI ruins this game's one player experience.
Aside from the AI, Ultimate MK3 suffers from some other serious flaws including: the fact that the game is incomplete. Ermac, Classic Sub-Zero, and Human Smoke all lack the full assortment of finishing moves. And while Ermac and Classic Sub-Zero at least have one special move to set them apart from existing characters, Human Smoke plays virtually identical to Scorpion. In a game with so much emphasis on special moves and finishing moves, for these reasons, Ermac, Classic Sub-Zero, and Human Smoke do not feel like full fledged characters, nor do they feel like they belong (I mean, two Sub-Zeros in one game?)
Other negative points of lesser concern: the bios for the original MK3 cast has vanished, and now only the 4 standard UMK3 additions remain (Kitana, Jade, Scorpion, Reptile). Midway also scrapped the endings that featured unique images in favor of text beside the Versus screen image. The "words of Raiden" attract screen has curiously disappeared as well as the storyline explaining Kahn's invasion. These are not game play related, but they're nice extras to have.
In terms of gameplay, Ultimate MK3 more or less is the game MK3 should have been. But, Midway, did you have to cannibalize MK3's extras to get there?
