The graphics and sound are identical, although you do have the option to stretch the dimensions of the game into widescreen. This is better than slowdown that ruins the timing of combos and special moves, and a necessary evil, I suppose.

Lag is an issue, though most of the time the game doesn't slow down instead, it pauses for a second or two, interrupting the flow of the match.

Multiplayer and Xbox Live is where this game really shines as your friends don't cheat, and all those hours of memorizing move lists and fatalities finally pays off. The 360 does add a bit, most notable online play and leaderboards. This has been a problem for, like, ever with Mortal Kombat. We+have+a+love-hate+relationship+with+UMK3. Still, you're too angry at the CPU to enjoy it. Switch characters enough and continue enough times and you'll beat the game, watch Shao Kahn explode in a green fireball and enjoy the final scene of your character. After continuing enough times, you'll get to the boss characters, the biggest cheaters of them all: Shao Kahn and Motaro. You get the sense that the computer cheats, and it's a terrible, hollow feeling that eats away at your stomach like an acid spit-ball from Reptile. After pumping in a few more quarters and losing terribly again and again, the AI will let up on you and give you an easy victory. Then, feeling confident, the next opponent guesses your every move, reacting to projectiles and jumps and combos faster than any human could ever do. The rubber band AI allows you to win a match and in a fashion that's usually way too easy. That's mostly because it's a quarter-stealer.

Now on Xbox Live Arcade, UMK3 is a decent game, a faithful port of a fun yet flawed game that longtime fans will love. In Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, that wonderful sense of discovery came with special moves like projectiles, then with combos for each character, then, of course, fatalities, and then babalities, friendships, brutalities, animalities and mercy - you could play this game for months and still not know it all. The gameplay has always been solid enough for a two-dimensional fighter, but it was the sense of discovering special moves that kept us coming back for more. The Mortal Kombat franchise has a lot of things going for it over the years.

Ultimate mortal kombat 3 game