Mortal Kombat Trilogy

Finally its here! I've been waiting years for a PC port that doesn't use DOSBox. Now my MK collection is komplete!

I've been playing for a while and was having a blast, because this version has great input parity with the PSX version. All my 20 years old muscle memory did apply immediately. However, upon entering an Animality finisher, the game just dropped the enemy on the floor and gave me the Animality jingle. I thought the game was buggy, but as it turns out, the PC version is cut.

Don't get me wrong, MK Trilogy is an excellent game full of content: every single character from the arcade games preceding it is included, and the gameplay has been further refined compared to MK3 and Ultimate MK3. In addition, while the UI and menu aren't ideal, the PC port featured here on GOG is quite serviceable as well, though due to having been ported from the Playstation, it doesn't look quite as sharp as the arcade version. Rather, the main issue with MK Trilogy is the singleplayer. While the arcade games have always been difficult, Trilogy ramps this up to a level where the only way to get through it is by cheesing the AI. In and of itself, that isn't much of a problem, but you could do the same in the DOS port of MK3, whose singleplayer is essentially the same, although with a more manageable AI and arcade-level graphics. Of course, MK3 has a much smaller roster, but since only a select few characters have the cheese capabilities required to conquer the singleplayer, much of Trilogy's roster is wasted for singleplayer anyway. Obviously, none of this matters for multiplayer, and this is where Trilogy shines. Setting up two players is easy, XInput controllers are supported natively, and the game plays beautifully. For those only interested in singleplayer, however, I'd rather get the DOS port of MK3, which is offered in a bundle with MK1 and MK2 for a fraction of the price of Trilogy here on GOG.

What can I say? The most complete MK3 port released, and one of my favourites. Not exactly like the one on PS1, but the closest you can get. A gem you should play without thinking it twice.

Now that the original trilogy are part of the GOG preservation - they run a lot better! Sadly, the 4 stars is you cannot plug a controller, & play outright. Other than that, I sure hope GOG can fix this in the future or maybe we'll get the remastered versions later this year onto their platform. Also, wouldn't hurt to add this to their preservation program as well! & please donate to the GOG preservation program upon purchase - this'll ensure classic titles/new will get updated & preserved forever