I have absolutely no skill when it comes to fighting games. I have a terrible memory for special moves, and I never know when to block or attack, so I’m not going to be a good judge for games like this. Mortal Kombat Trilogy is essentially Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 with some characters and stages from Mortal Kombat 2 and 3 added, although the aggression bar that makes you slightly more powerful is new.

I know a game isn’t for me when the character select screen is too difficult. Quite a few characters are just reskins of other characters, and there are no character names whatsoever on the character select screen. I tried to choose Sub Zero, pretty much the only Mortal Kombat character I know, but ended up with someone called Rain. Oh, and there’s a timer in the background so it will select whoever you are on when it runs out.

I did manage to pull off one special move, and there are lots of fancy effects as punches and kicks are made. According to N64 magazine, though, it just simply isn’t as nice looking as the PlayStation version of the game. The N64 version also lacks a bunch of characters.

There are a few multiplayer modes where you can select multiple characters, but there’s not a lot to choose from. In singleplayer, you can fight through four difficulties, each having more fights to get through.

Even setting things to “very easy”, I struggled to get the hang of this game. There’s no practice mode or move lists (that I could find in the confusing menu), other than using player 2 to stand there and do nothing.

Based on the comments from N64 magazine, there’s not much reason for anyone to play this version of the game. I did cheat my way through one of the campaigns to see different levels. I got to play a space invader clone at the end, which I enjoyed more than the main game.

Poor

A game that entertained through its sheer blood-slapped violence. But now it looks a tad weary. Like your Dad at a disco, it think it’s better than us

Tim Weaver, N64 Magazine #4. Review Score: 34%

Remake or Remaster?

This doesn’t need any special treatment, just included in collections.

Official ways to get the game.

The PC version of Mortal Kombat Trilogy is available through GOG.