"Mortal Kombat Trilogy" Bit Off More Than It Could Chew

 

People who grew up in the 1990s would know some of the technical limitations. Who can remember the SLOW LOADING times of fifth generation consoles? I only had the first PlayStation and I'm glad it broke. It's because I don't want to relive the slow loading times -- even when I do miss plenty of good games there! Mortal Kombat Trilogy was one such game that bit off more than it could chew. It tried to compile the previous three games into one monster game. How did it fare thee well? Well, let's dig into the technicalities and get back to the memory lane!

On paper, Mortal Kombat Trilogy was a cool game. Having almost every character from the first three games was cool. However, the game relied too much on sprites and VERY LIMITED MEMORY. One may notice the following technical limitations with the CD version:

• Shang Tsung's morphs would cause the game to have slow loading times. (Better turn it off)
• MK2 Jax and MK2 Kung Lao only have ONE FATALITY. Midway could've edited sprites for every character BUT that might take a lot of extra space. 
• The Pit II Fatality isn't available. Again, Midway could've made unique sprites but I don't think they would fit either!

Those involved in fan games managed to add them in. The reason is because they've got more advanced hardware and software to do it. The 1990s had all the painful limits. Who remembers VCDs being split into more than one disc? Who can remember PSX games that had several discs? Mortal Kombat Trilogy was bound to such limits!

Theoretically, it would be possible to do this with the Pit II stage. This simple animation I made lacks shadows and I'm no professional animator either. It was understandable that Johnny Cage's nut punch was excluded. However, one could think of the TIME CONSTRANTS as well as the MEMORY constraints. Making this animation for the Pit II fatality for EVERY CHARACTER is possible. However, it would probably eat up so much space. That's unless if Midway decided to remove some stages from Mortal Kombat 3. Theoretically, they could've added the Pit Bottom to the Pit II. The real problem may be that editing softwares weren't as powerful back then. That's why the fanmade games can take more. PC processors during the 1990s weren't as powerful either! 

The problems with Mortal Kombat Trilogy that made gameplay all too frustrating:

• AI is really broken beyond belief. I've cheated a lot because of that!
• Rain and Noob aren't boss characters BUT they're broken AF.
• Freezing happens a lot such as doing Rain's second fatality AND with Goro. Talk about having fun then boom -- FREEZE!
• Playing as the bosses against human opponents is... D*MN UNFAIR!
• Motaro is indeed the most broken opponent ever!
• Shao Kahn can be a lot more frustrating than he was in Mortal Kombat (2011). 

It's possible that NetherRealm Studios revisited the game several times. Sure, there's a lot of Mortal Kombat II influence in the final run. However, the limitations of the fifth-generation systems were fixed almost Up to Eleven in the sixth-generation systems and BEYOND. They would've wanted to fix them and rubbed on people's faces that could've done but never did.

These are some things that may have been influenced if ever Mortal Kombat Trilogy was revisited:

• NetherRealm Studios may have already programmed Motaro. However, several test plays done may have said, "This is D*MN BROKEN!" Motaro's cameos in the Story Mode proves that they could include Motaro. However, Motaro would practically be TOO MUCH so he was rightfully removed.
• Babalities were revisted and thought, "Well, we gotta make babalities more humiliating!" Mortal Kombat had copied Killer Instinct (sadly, the franchise is STAGNANT AGAIN) for the nth time. This time, Babalities have become the new Humiliation as the age-reduced infants make a fool out of themselves.
• Shang Tsung could load fighter data faster than before. Boss Shang Tsung could morph into ANY PLAYABLE CHARACTER but not (thankfully) Shang Tsung. Boss Shang Tsung may have been a letter that, "We could've made Shang Tsung morph into anyone BUT that would break gameplay if you could do it!" Really funny that Chameleon was never made into an NPC!
• Shao Kahn was given his Mortal Kombat II moveset while given new hammer moves. Presumably, a lot of these moves were intended earlier on but dropped due to memory constraints.
• The secret battles were either fun to find or not. Hidden Noob was easy to access but he was tricky. I even had to Google how to outsmart Hidden Noob! Hidden Reptile's battle had a reference to the first game on how to get him -- except one needed to do the Stage Fatality. Hidden Jade was a pain to get and using Beginner was my only luck. Hidden Smoke is my least favorite since I love feeding the trees!
• There were probably more plans to add the Living Forest fatality into Mortal Kombat Trilogy. I blame system limitations for why it never happened. Meanwhile, I find it inexcusable that Mortal Kombat Deception never made it into a Death Trap. Thankfully, Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks somewhat rectified that error. Feeding those corpses to the trees is pure sadism
• The Pit II was later merged with the Pit I. It's possible that the Midway crew wanted to integrate the Pit I fatality to the Pit II. The idea was probably rejected and we had Pit II with NO stage fatality. Part of me still wishes both Pit stages existed. But as said, I doubt people would like the hard concrete floor over the spikes. 
• Some stages were later merged. For example, The Street and The Bridge were merged into one. Some stages like the Bank and the Kombat Tomb weren't included. The Warrior Shrine was removed in favor of Shang Tsung's Garden. 
• Some moves were added to the boss characters that weren't in the Midway era. Kintaro did an air throw animation unlike in Mortal Kombat II. Kintaro lost his ability to grab people in the air in Mortal Kombat Trilogy. Goro later regained his stomp which he lost in Mortal Kombat Trilogy. 
  
• Quite interestingly, Shao Kahn's explosion combines the death animation of Onaga and Mortal Kombat II. Adding an animation where the Kombatant does a combo to the defeated tyrant is a huge improvement. 

The game was a huge mistake. But this huge mistake may have been used to develop that badly-needed solid reboot!