In the PlayStation version, the four bosses: Goro, Kintaro, Motaro and Shao Kahn are all playable as well. Unlike in Mortal Kombat III and UMK3, where playing as Motaro and Shao Kahn required a cheat code to unlock them both. Baraka, Raiden and Johnny Cage are also included, since they was excluded in UMK3. I do this review, not just because I'm a huge fan of the MK series, but also I am looking forward to the new Mortal Kombat game coming this April.
Plot. After a defeat in the second tournament, Shao Kahn concocts a 10,000 year old plan. His plan is to revive Queen Sindel, and then conquer the Earthrealm. He is successful as his dark priests revive her on the Earthrealm, and the portal to the Outworld starts to link to the Earthrealm, causing all the people to die and their souls to be taken by Shao Kahn himself. Only a few souls are spared, those of the warriors who fought in the first two tournaments of Mortal Kombat, except that Johnny Cage, was caught by Shao Kahn's right hand centaur, Motaro, and died in battle. Now, the remaining warriors along with the reigning champion Liu Kang, must save the Earth before Shao Kahn begins his evil conquest.
Concept. The concept remains the same as the previous games. In the PlayStation, Sega Saturn and PC version of the game, contain the alternate versions of Jax, Raiden, Kung Lao, and Kano as they appeared in the first or second games, as they were only actors who returned as special characters in the game. The actors who played the other characters in the first two games could not return due to royalty disputes. A new character named Chameleon is also introduced, he has the abilities of all the ninjas in the game such as: Scorpion, Classic Sub Zero, Ermac, Rain, Reptile, Human Smoke, and Noob Saibot.
Design. Like MK3 and UMK3, all characters are sprite rendered, except that Johnny Cage has a new sprite and a new actor to play him. Stages from all three games return for this game, which is real good. Almost every battle arena from the first two games were back, including The Living Forest, Kombat Tomb, and so on. Sometimes when characters were uppercutted, they were taken to different stages as well. In the Nintendo 64 version, when players uppercutted opponents from Goro's Lair, they were then taken to The Armory and then to the Kombat Tomb.
Rantings. For one thing, this game is pretty mediocre and repetitive from the MK3 universe. The controls in the Nintendo 64 version are very excruciating as you have to use yellow buttons and playing with the Joystick and buttons can be very uncomfortable to tell the truth. Also, the game has one too many glitches and the brutal difficulty will have players breaking their controllers in anger, or unleashing their inner Mike Tyson against the wall.
Good Aspects. The great thing about this game is that they brought back characters from MK2 and MK1 such as Raiden, Johnny Cage, Ninja Smoke, and so on. In the Nintendo 64 version you can play a 3-on-3 Kombat, and it is more fun to play with friends and family. It's replay value is moderately high.
Overall. Mortal Kombat Trilogy is better than UMK3, but in fact, the problem with this game is the glitches and brutal difficulty. This game gets a 7.7 out of 10.