Mortal Kombat III

[Melf]

It's hard to believe they've made as many Mortal Kombat games as they have, and the series seems as popular as ever. One of the most anticipated installments was Mortal Kombat III, which was released on a whole slew of consoles. The Genesis version held its own, and offered gamers another reason to piss off legislators. Read the full review for all the gory details.

[16bitter]

I took issue with this:

"The combo system worked similarly to the one featured in Killer Instinct, which popularized the concept of combo's, or moves that when used consecutively, would create devastating attacks.

Now, if any game popularized combos, by way of actually creating the system, it was Street Fighter II rather than KI. Also, there were combos in all the MK games, two of which saw release before KI.

In a stricter sense, MK3's system feels somewhat close to KI due to the new run feature which seemed at times to create more pre-set button presses rather than a mixture of move selections with timing.

I'd also add that MK3 to me seemed lacking in creativity compared to II. The fatalities outright suck compared to the majority in II, and the addition of the new animalities was plain pathetic. The game was loaded with secrets, but if my memory serves the only secret battle was with Smoke.

I actually had as much or more fun playing Galaga.

[Melf]

I was thinking about the combo thing too, but I think he's right. SF II created the combo system, but KI was the game that took it over the top and made it a mainstay of the genre.

[Mel]

I was thinking about the combo thing too, but I think he's right. SF II created the combo system, but KI was the game that took it over the top and made it a mainstay of the genre.

Not only did it take it over the top, it also kept count of hits. Yes combo's were possible in SF2, and MK, BUT Ki kept count, gave out bonus points and took the combo thing to another level. If I remember right, KI took 2 and 3 hit combo's from SF2, and MK, and turned into 7, 10 and 15 hit combo's while promoting and praising the combo's.

MK started doing this at MK3, and I believe (not sure) that SF started doing this with the Alpha series.

[Mel]

Shit, I still have the phrase "Hyper Combo" stuck in mhead.... i hated KI.

[Melf]

CO-CO-CO-COMMMMMBO BREAKER!!!!

[16bitter]

I was thinking about the combo thing too, but I think he's right. SF II created the combo system, but KI was the game that took it over the top and made it a mainstay of the genre.

Not only did it take it over the top, it also kept count of hits. Yes combo's were possible in SF2, and MK, BUT Ki kept count, gave out bonus points and took the combo thing to another level. If I remember right, KI took 2 and 3 hit combo's from SF2, and MK, and turned into 7, 10 and 15 hit combo's while promoting and praising the combo's.

You could get far more than three hitters in the original SFII. And Super Street Fighter II introduced the combo counter, not KI.

Also, as far as crazy combos, X-MEN:COTA came out around the same time as KI.

I'd still argue that SFII made combos a mainstay. It's not as if KI popularized the term in fighting games -- combos were already well known after a few months of SFII's release, and it was a far bigger game than KI ever was.

[16bitter]

Did anybody else have less fun with MK3 at home than the arcade? I played the hell out of it while being stuck at various bowling alleys on the weekends with my grandfather, but at home, while it was fun to screw around with a bit, it got lost in the shuffle of the PS's launch for me.

Also, I never did have friends that could play fighting games for shit.

[Mel]

MK3 did get lost in the Generational shuffle. As for KI vs SFII, must be a regional thing. Besides, Im not going to sit here and defend a game I so terribly hate.

Also, Melf, I dont think you used the Genesis screenshots. There's stuff there that I never saw in the Genesis version, like the place to enter codes like the psone verison.

[Mel]

I have won the argument.

In 1994 came Super Street Fighter II Turbo, which was originally released in the arcade & later on the 3DO (but wasn't released for either the SNES or Sega Genesis), featured enhanced speed & difficulty. It also featured a new character, Akuma, who had not only inherited all of Ryu and Ken's special moves, but could also produce a fireball in the air, and could perform a very powerful super move called the Shun Goku Satsu (literally means Instant Hell Murder a.k.a. The Raging Demon). It was also the first game in the series to have super combos. The game was released in the Street Fighter Collection sets for the Sega Saturn and PlayStation. It was released later for the Sega Dreamcast with an online matching service feature, but only in Japan. In 2001, a graphically simplified version of the game was released for the Game Boy Advance under the title Super Street Fighter II Turbo: Revival.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_Fighter

Wasn't even available for home consoles I definately know that Super Street Fighter for snes and genesis only added new characters.

Released the same year as killer instinct, 1994.
In the Arcades.

Killer Instinct made it the SNES in '95.

This is the first arcade game to use a hard disk drive for mass storage. ... Killer Instinct was the first game to feature the 'auto-combos'.

http://www.arcade-history.com/histor...detail&id=1280

However, I must agree, that Street Fighter was the best of all the Fighting franchises of the '90s. I don't really care for the Super SF2 characters, but the original (in particular Ryu) cast is the best. If they wouldn't have kept Ryu in the Future incarnations of SF, and the Capcom vs series, there is a very good chance I would have abandoned 2d gaming entirely. =)

[Drixxel]

Also, Melf, I dont think you used the Genesis screenshots. There's stuff there that I never saw in the Genesis version, like the place to enter codes like the psone verison.

That code enterin' versus screen is definately in Genesis MKIII. Start up a two player match and let it caress your retinas.

..as for this maddening combo scuffle.. yes, the existance of the combo dates at least as far back as the 1991 release of Street Fighter II, and as such the hardcore fighter crowd was very aware of combo magic via SFII well before the release of Killer Instinct in 1994. Still.. name association.. when Street Fighter II floats up in your consciousness, do you immediately think quarter circle forward + punch, or do you think of a long string of button taps? A huge part of Killer Instinct's game design was built around these preprogrammed endurance runs of buttonslapping, and while "the combo" had been around for easily three years previous, Killer Instinct really made it an unforgettable term for the mainstream gamer. Up until KI, I would imagine that the average fighting game player's understanding of a combo was probably closer to a two-in-one rather than a true multi-hit combo. And yes, X-Men: COTA was rather outrageous in the combo department, but Killer Instinct seemed to be 1994's primary fighter sensation.

Anyways.. yeah. Combos became a pretty big deal, however they were popularized.

MKIII: I like playing as Kabal!!!..

[j_factor]

I have never, ever heard of KI being referred to as popularizing the concept of combos. That's pretty left-field, IMO. Virtually every mention-worthy fighting game features combos, that's long been a staple of the genre.

And if any game "stepped up" combos, it's Samurai Shodown.

[16bitter]

Super Combos aren't the same as combos -- they're just super moves which charge up. Street Fighter II CREATED the combo system. This is a fact of arcade history. Everything that followed sprang from that game in the one on one fighting genre.

What Super added were new characters, slower speed (yay :P), an extra or updated move for the original characters and text that told the player how many hits they got on a given combo. This was 1993, six months before Super Turbo and about a year before KI.

KI's combos though were different from SFII's in that they were far more pre-programmed by button pressing. Obviously SF has the more subtle and nuanced gameplay as far as combos, IMO, as well as being the creator of the term and gameplay feature.

[Mel]

Super Combos aren't the same as combos -- they're just super moves which charge up. Street Fighter II CREATED the combo system. This is a fact of arcade history. Everything that followed sprang from that game in the one on one fighting genre.

What Super added were new characters, slower speed (yay :P), an extra or updated move for the original characters and text that told the player how many hits they got on a given combo. This was 1993, six months before Super Turbo and about a year before KI.

KI's combos though were different from SFII's in that they were far more pre-programmed by button pressing. Obviously SF has the more subtle and nuanced gameplay as far as combos, IMO, as well as being the creator of the term and gameplay feature.

Umm I just played the home conversion of super. it doesn't keep track of combo hits, thats what i've been trying to tell you.

[Mel]

When I was a kid, we called combo's "Being a cheap bastard". We didn't start calling them combo's until after '94 or '95. Origins, unknown.