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Even in the case of the best possible versions, Mortal Kombat 3 never seemed to fare as well as Mortal Kombat II. After the ethereal, sensational stages in MKII, the everyday stages of MK3, like 'The Bank', 'The Bridge', etc. didn't seem so great (even though you could slam the guy into the upper floor). Mortal Kombat 3 for Sega Master System doesn't seem greater compared to the SMS MKII, any more than the arcade MK3 compared to the arcade MKII. As a matter of fact, MK3 never seemed brilliant on 16-bit systems, either. Okay, enough about this comparison; and on with the review.

The SMS version of this game bears the logos of Sega, Williams Entertainment, Software Creations and, of course, Tec Toy (on the box only) since this game was released only in Brazil. The words on the box are in Portuguese, naturally, but each and every word in the game itself is in English. After the intro screens, which you can skip easily by pressing 'Start', a nicely-done title screen greets the player. If you don't press 'Start' right away, 4 separate screens, each with a few lines of Rayden's words, let you know what the tournament is about.

The character selection is not better than that of MKII. You get Sindel, Sektor, Kabal, Sheeva, an empty icon for Cyber Smoke, (Unmasked) Sub-Zero, Kano, Sonya and Cyrax. They all look good, as does the mighty Shao Kahn, the big boss. Unfortunately, Motaro, the huge Centaur sub-boss, is gone. But, to see the full half of the glass also, this is much, much better than the pirated NES MK3s I saw in Europe, and those didn't have Motaro, either. I don't know if there are any other secret characters to play as, or against, besides Smoke.

Due to the lack of information about this game, moves are hard to find out (Sub-Zero's regular freeze move is the same ol', but the rest are different from the 16-bit moves, more or less). Fatalities are practically impossible to do (Does someone in the house have a list?), and I don't think the Babalities, mentioned on the box, are even present. (Only one fatality was done so far, to me, by Kano -- the eye-laser one.) Maybe the manual provides additional information, but I don't have one, and it is probably in Portuguese anyway.

As for the difficulty, this game has to be approached differently than the previous two. In arcades, MK3 introduced the combos into their Kombat system. But a 8-bit system cannot really replicate these combos; the CPU-controlled opponent is merciless, however. The only way to beat the game is to use jump punches and jump kicks; trying special moves, or even moves on the ground, result in your character getting a royal ass-kicking. (By the way, you can't choose the difficulty level here, unlike in MKII.) A seemingly remarkable, and quite un-American aspect is that you can hurt the opponent while he is down, for an easy victory; not the American way, is it? But, come to think of it, if the opponent had stood up, and your character would have hurt him just the same, that would have been called a combo!... Shao Kahn is not too hard, just don't jump at the same time he does, three times in a round. Also, one fights him on a different stage if one loses the first time and continues.

There are 5 stages ('The Pit 3', 'The Kombat Temple', I think, 'The Bell Tower', 'The Bridge', I think, and 'The Subway') and they lost an awful lot of detail. They are also very dark and 'The Pit 3' (most common stage) doesn't have anything in the background. The characters look all right, though. At the end of the game, Shao Kahn just collapses like a regular opponent, he doesn't explode. Contrary to what the box says, there isn't any more blood than in MKII. The endings are badly edited (only one screen worth of story, and one of the endings even begins with "But...") and shown over a black background, with no picture of the respective character.

I would dare say that the pearl of the SMS MKs is Mortal Kombat II, even though it still misses many characters. And MKII was different from all other versions, unlike MK3, which was based on the Game Gear version. I don't know if they could have improved it, but my feeling is that it was possible. Still, it is a nice fighting game for the SMS, and I am very glad I bought it.

- Swordlord