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You don't really care about the plots of beat-'em-ups, do you? No-one does. They always involve every character entering the tournament to get revenge on the big boss for killing their parents/brother/cat. But wait for it, in Mortal Kombat 3 we've got a beat-'em-up with a slightly different plot!

MK3 (as it's known in these parts) involves Shao Kahn and his hordes of evil forcibly trying to conquer Earth for their Outworld realm as well as the greedy Kahn killing everyone on the planet to claim their souls as his own. Most of the human race has been wiped out but the few surviving warriors pack up their weapons and set out to save the world. Add to this Sub-Zero being marked for death by his now robotic ninja clan and Sonya out to recapture Kano and you've got all sorts of chaos. The criss-crossing plot means that you've got the battle of good Earth against bad Outworld people as well as a few revenge stories chucked in for good measure. The way the characters choose to fight is very simple - one-on-one. Not only is it a very honorable way of sorting out your differences, it makes for a great two-player game! Hurrah!

A conversion of the arcade games - which was the sequel to a sequel!

Beat everyone up one at a time to save/destroy the Earth, depending on your choice of character.

There are fourteen regular characters for you to select, with five of them returning from Mortal Kombat 2 (Sang Tsung, Liu Kang, Sub Zero and Kung Lao), two hailing from the original Mortal Kombat (Kano and Sonya) and seven new challengers ready for you to master. You know all about the old fighters so here's the rundown on the new ones...

1. Sindel
   Sindel is the bride of Shao Kahn and has been brought back from the dead. She has the ability to fly as well as spit fireballs and scream her opponents to death.
2. Stryker
   When Shao Kahn invaded Earth, he wiped out Stryker's home city. Being a riot cop, Stryker's got a bid baton and lots of grenades to help him keep the peace.
3. Cyrax
   Cyrax's special advantages include a net to trap his opponents, grenades hidden in his chest and teleport capabilities.
4. Sektor
   Sektor is Cyrax's twin brother. Thankfully their parents decided to dress them in different colours. Sektor's chest plate opens to release missiles, both homing and straight, and he can teleport beneath his opponent and punch them from below.
5. Nightwolf
   The Mortal Kombat American Indian is armed with a glowing axe and spiritual bow and arrow. The best bit about Nightwolf, however, is that you can bounce fireballs back at your opponent including Sub-Zero's ice.
6. Sheeva
   'Big for-armed dragon woman with green blood is the best way to describe Goro's griend Sheeva. She's borrowed the ability to throw fireballs and to jump from a great height onto her opponent.
7. Kabal
   Kabal nearly died at the order of Shao Kahn and has to get revenge with his life-support system still strapped to his back. Kabal can spin his opponents around until they get dizzy, giving him a chance to start a brilliant combo with his sword things. He can also shoot the obligatory fireball and chop his enemy up with spikes.
8. Smoke
   Smoke is a secret playable character who can use Scorpion's harpoon as well as a teleport punch and a great invisibility mode. You'll see his face appear on the select screen occasionally but getting him isn't that easy. Stay tuned to find out.
9. Motaro
   Shao Kahn, like every mad demon lord bloke, needs a bodyguard. Who better than Motaro? Motaro is a member of a race of four-legged dragon thingies and is armed with painful fireballs, the ability to teleport and very big muscles.

First of all, a brief word or warning. When you first play this you'll almost definitely say that it isn't as good as MK2. Keep playing, however, and as you get into it and learn some decent kombos you'll see why we like it so much.

For one, it's way, way faster than MK2, which instantly makes the game more exciting. The kombo system, which at first seems silly, really adds to the game, giving you something else to learn and master other than finishing moves. The graphics and sound are digitised from the arcade so they're a bit fuzzy, but with a game like this you can put up with little quibbles.

The game's been around in the arcades for a good few months now and still not all of the secrets have been found, so this'll keep you going for ages. All in all, it's just another brilliant Mortal Kombat, and probably the best Megadrive beat-'em-up I've ever seen.

It's the same old thing, isn't it? Digitised fighters who move at the same speed as one another, have the same reach, use similar special moves and have the same fatalities.

Well, yes and no. Even though each character is similar to the last, more so than Super Street Fighter II, they all play differently, most notably in the kombo department. As we've come to expect from the Kombat series there are loads of finishing moves (friendships, babalities, animalities, mercies) which have all been improved as well as plenty of funny, rather than gory, fatalities.

The actual game plays better than before but I still prefer SSF2's style of massively different fighters. The secret kodes and things will take you ages to discover but when you do they'll actually improve the game, evening out one-sided battles and the like, to keep your interest in the game for a long time to come.

MK1 had to fight with SF2:SCE for sales, MK2 had SSF2 to worry about, but MK3 has nothing stopping it from being the number one Megadrive beat-'em-up around.

Graphics 91%
P. The characters are highly detailed. N. The digitised backgrounds are a bit grainy.

Animation 80%
P. The character animation has been improved from MK2 but... N. Some of the backgrounds seem a bit static.

Music 75%
P. Good bonging bell music and thumping bass set the mood. N. Probably the weakest area of the game.

Effects 93%
P. Just about every speech and scream sample from the arcade original is included and they aren't bad quality either.

Playability 93%
P. Fast, smooth action - fun to play and learn. N. Takes a while to get into.

Lastability 94%
P. We're still playing MK2, and this one has tons of moves, kombos, kodes and other secret stuff to keep you going for ages.

Overall 93%
Your hard work will be repaid by months of entertainment. The best beat-'em-up for a very long time.