Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 adds characters and stages to MK3, the franchise peak on SNES. Essential for 90s versus fans.
Your verdict
Category
Fighting2 players16+
Description
Enhanced version of Mortal Kombat 3 with additional characters including Scorpion and Kitana. Published by Williams, released in North America in 1996. More characters including veterans absent from MK3, enriched arenas and battle and kumite modes. North American NTSC release.
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 review
4/5
Art direction
★★★★★
"Striking"
4/5
Music
★★★★★
"Excellent"
2/5
Story
★★★★★
"Classic"
The revision mainly widens the roster: reinstated fighters, ninjas declined in several colours, extra arenas brought back from earlier instalments. The digitised rendering is unchanged, but the variety of settings, from a temple to a rooftop by way of a ruined ballroom, gives this version a visual richness the previous one lacked.
The soundtrack reuses the third instalment's stock and adds the themes attached to the restored arenas, giving a markedly more varied whole: industrial rock for the urban settings, percussion and choirs for the older places. The mix still lets the shouts and announcements through, and those remain half the sonic identity of the series.
The North American NTSC edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, the series' apex on the console with its expanded roster and enriched arenas, this version trades on the US market where 90s versus keeps steady demand. A well-distributed mainstream title, the bare cart stays common: value concentrates on the graded sealed and the complete-in-box with un-warped cardboard, formats where condition rules. A fan and MK-completist object, its price rests on preserved packaging rather than usage rarity.
A questionable morality
Billed as the most serious of martial-arts tournaments, the game saves its real reward for the moment the opponent wavers: a spectacular execution, triggered by a precise input. You drill the move like a dance step, proud to nail it cleanly, happily forgetting that this fine choreography celebrates nothing other than finishing off a beaten foe.
Is Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 still worth playing in 2026?
The Super Nintendo version of Midway's arcade entry, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 offers a large roster, chained combos, bloody Fatalities and the Run system specific to this episode. The fidelity to the arcade gameplay and the wealth of content make it one of the trilogy's peaks on the machine. The digitisations age and some cuts compared to the arcade show. An excellent fighting game for fans of snappy 16 bit versus fighting and of the Mortal Kombat saga.
