The first three Mortal Kombat games are hard

[Lin Kuei93]

The first three mortal Kombat games on snes and sega genesis are hard to beat even in very easy mode. I recently played the snes version of mortal Kombat 3 and found it hard even on very easy to beat. I was able to beat Mortal Kombat Deception, Mortal Kombat Armageddon, Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe, Mortal Kombat 9, Mortal Kombat X and Mortal Kombat 11 on hard and medium and unlock character endings.

 

[Juxtapose]

The first three mortal Kombat games on snes and sega genesis are hard to beat even in very easy mode. I recently played the snes version of mortal Kombat 3 and found it hard even on very easy to beat. I was able to beat Mortal Kombat Deception, Mortal Kombat Armageddon, Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe, Mortal Kombat 9, Mortal Kombat X and Mortal Kombat 11 on hard and medium and unlock character endings.

The console versions of the original trilogy are still based on the arcade versions, which means they get very hard quickly as they're designed to have you pumping quarters (or continues) to progress.

You generally have to learn how to cheeze the AI.

The SNES version of Mortal Kombat (1992) also has really bad input lag.

 

[Arqwart]

I feel like "Hard" is a misnomer here. There's little to no regular fighting skill involved with beating the early games' AI because all they do is input read you. They WILL throw you out of 90% of your hits, air to air you instantly on a jump, projectile you at a distance when you press a button, jump out of your attacks, etc.

As Juxtapose said, it's all about learning how to cheese their cheating AI to your advantage. Using UMK3 as an example, the first two fights on any tower are usually pretty bearable, difficulty and tower size be damned. The instant you hit character 3 and on, the cheating begins and ramps up FAST. The difficulty settings just make them cheat slightly less often.

 

[Marinjuana]

Lots of jump kicks, sweeps

MK3/UMK3 figure out your character's best combo string and jump in punch into that string a bunch

 

[Art Lean]

This video is a fantastic breakdown examining just how MK2's AI cheats:

 

[Juxtapose]

This video is a fantastic breakdown examining just how MK2's AI cheats:

Great video.

I always found the Mortal Kombat II AI the hardest, followed by Mortal Kombat 3, then Mortal Kombat (1992).

For Mortal Kombat 3 back on my Super Nintendo, I found disabling throws made a world of difference.

 

[Lin Kuei93]

The console versions of the original trilogy are still based on the arcade versions, which means they get very hard quickly as they're designed to have you pumping quarters (or continues) to progress.

You generally have to learn how to cheeze the AI.

The SNES version of Mortal Kombat (1992) also has really bad input lag.

True it makes sense.

 

[Lin Kuei93]

I feel like "Hard" is a misnomer here. There's little to no regular fighting skill involved with beating the early games' AI because all they do is input read you. They WILL throw you out of 90% of your hits, air to air you instantly on a jump, projectile you at a distance when you press a button, jump out of your attacks, etc.

As Juxtapose said, it's all about learning how to cheese their cheating AI to your advantage. Using UMK3 as an example, the first two fights on any tower are usually pretty bearable, difficulty and tower size be damned. The instant you hit character 3 and on, the cheating begins and ramps up FAST. The difficulty settings just make them cheat slightly less often.

That’s how all the old fighting games on old retro consoles like snes, sega genesis and NES were like cheesing the cheating AI.

 

[Lin Kuei93]

Great video.

I always found the Mortal Kombat II AI the hardest, followed by Mortal Kombat 3, then Mortal Kombat (1992).

For Mortal Kombat 3 back on my Super Nintendo, I found disabling throws made a world of difference.

All SNES, Sega Genesis and NES games along with other old games in the 90s and 80s were hard. Games started getting easier around the 2000s with PS2 and Xbox.

 

[Juggs]

They’re hard but the AI is easily exploitable. Like in UMK3, if you jump back and do a JK, the AI will almost always throw a projectile. So if you pick Sektor or Robot Smoke, you can cancel the jump back JK into their Teleport Punch. This was more effective with Robot Smoke since it led to a higher damaging combo. Then with Motaro, all you have to do is constantly do neutral jumps into jumping attack combo starters. This doesn’t work 100% of the time and you still need to time it properly and what not. For Shao Kahn, there’s several different ways to beat him. Shao Kahn in UMK3 is actually the most fun MK boss to fight imo.

But yeah, it’s all about manipulating the input reading AI in these games.