Publisher - Midway Home Entertainment
Developer - Midway Home Entertaonment
Platform - N64
Type - Fighting
Score - 5/10

Mortal Kombat is the first (and only so far) disappointing game for the N64.

First of all, the sound is abysmal. Not only is the music a cheap attempt to imitate the Mortal Kombat movie's soundtrack, the quality is poor and the volume is too low. The Sound effects also pale in comparison to the original Street Fighter 2 for Super Nintendo. Either this game was rushed to the store shelves or the programmers don't give a damn about audio.

As far as graphics, MKT is an almost perfect port of the Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 arcade game. This would be a good thing except for the fact that there was a loss in character detail from MK2 to MK3. The backgrounds are adequate, but have a 16 bit feel to them. The special moves look flat and bland and the "shadows" cast by the characters in aggressor mode have too few frames, looking almost silly. Thankfully, slowdowns due to drawing are few and mostly negligible.

Also, this version of Mortal Kombat doesn't give you both Sub Zeros. That's a minor point, as all the Sub Zero special attack moves are intact, but Sub Zero loyalists may be miffed.

The controls are tight and well orchestrated, but the execution of combos is difficult and annoying. If you play the game, either turn autocombos on or turn them off completely.

The overall presentation of the game is very weak, but is it fun? Is it better than its 16 bit predecessors? Well, MKT gives you auto combos, multiple tournament selections, and more secret codes than you can shake a stick (or other convenient stick-like object) at. It still ain't enough to save this cart.

So I was wondering, how could a crappy game like this be made for N64? Well, don't point any fingers at Nintendo. This is actually a pretty good port of the Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 arcade game- the problem is the MK game itself. Mortal Kombat was the hottest thing since sliced bread when it came out, but that was a while ago. The game is showing signs of age when compared to Virtua Fighter, Tekken, and Street Fighter Alpha 2. The tired fighter has been "jazzed" up with a weak combo system and an annoying run button. If you check your local arcade (if you still got 'em) you'll find people lining up to play Killer Instinct, Soul Edge, or ANY SNK/NeoGeo game before they'll drop a quarter in the MK3 machine.

So what's the final word? Only get this game if you're an INCREDIBLY die-hard Mortal Kombat fan. Hell- even if you are a die-hard fan, rent this game before you pay big bucks to take it home on a permanent basis.