I think they saw the cash cow that Mortal Kombat 1 was and decided to ramp it up. They went a little too far. I'm fine with a challenge but when the game can do things you can't, it's not a fair fight. I'm glad Mortal Kombat 4 wasn't like this.
Yea like jade running at you and then glowing at the same time, I’ve even seen my friend double teleport stomped by sheeva and it said two hit combo! It was straight up cheap
It’s like why does EVERY single character have to have a projectile? That’s what I didn’t like about UMK3, you couldn’t beat the AI straight up, you have to cheese them.
@@KillerArcadeGames You're only meant to have like 1.5 minutes on any arcade game, no matter the game or the popularity, they want you paying or gone quickly.
I remember the robots and ninjas pretty much all having this one loop you could do of their special moves that the CPU would fall for. Like for sektor, it was missile missile teleport uppercut, and for Cyrax it was net, bomb, uppercut. The game forced you to just play like you were an AI. That Smoke combo is EXACTLY WHAT I DID back in the day.
Yup the classic A.I strategy, it works perfectly for Scorpion, Cyber Smoke, Human Smoke, Ermac, Kung Lao which you can use his teleport into air punch into Kung Lao’s beautiful 7-Hit Combo. I remember people at the arcades being in Awe when I would easily pull off Kung Lao’s teleport into air punch and 7-hit combo. It’s kinda difficult trying to use characters without a teleport against the A.I, it’s a bunch of the same jumping back and pressing either punches or kicks in air to bait the A.I to launch their projectiles and then they run toward you and you sweep them as they run at you and trying to sweep the A.I again after the first sweep causes the A.I to jump backwards, which gives you a window to try and bait it again or use a projectile of your own or specific special attacks. It’s basically a chess match of baiting the A.I.
The Move with Smoke using the teleport punch is easier to do by jumping back, forward, forward HK, LK. This allows you to perform the move while doing the backward jump kick to make the enemy throw the projectile and then follow up with the teleport punch while they are open for attack.
I learned this about 20 years ago to make quarters last longer 😅 teleport, run forward, low punches, spear, 5hit combo (HP,HP,LK,HK,LP). But certain characters (i.e.Jade, mileena, kitana, sindel) "fast fall" and you cant low punch them. for the Notorious Montaro Battle i use HP, HP, LP between jumping forward with HP. Lk has a lot of priority and is useful but once youre close HP chains into a combo even when blocked, grounding you and allowing you to complete a simple 3 hit combo which is important bcuz the final hit of a combo ha "knock down" or block stun which creates a vital moment to jump into a punch again. AND, im 95 % sure you can just press hp and lp together over and over again while front flipping. Making this a very noob friendly strategy. Overall, its important to keep in mind AI does not always react and the programers have also added AI to react to you repeating the same successful moves so it may take a little bit to find the right hit boxes but theyre defintely there. And just extra, If i remember correctly you use the the LK/ throw combo to set up a front flip kick teleport combo. the bounce animation of the throw allows time to begin another front flip and show a kick by the time the AI stands up. it is triggered to counter but miss due to spacing/timing. Which is risky but can easily add 70% damage to AI stupidity. Also, at the beginning of the Round the distance is similar enough to be worth an attempt but it can be countered by certain characters depending on their high kick but considering this combo does 70% dmg risking a HK is worth knowing who you can just direspect off the the bat.
Great video. Grew up obsessed with the game. So many memories as a kid with my older brother literally praying the game wasn’t already taken at the local video store. AI was my rival as a kid. Manipulated it with Cyrax. Dominated it with Jade because I remember thinking I wanted to use her better than the AI lol. Her agility, her 7/8 hit combo, her projectile deflect, great hit boxes against most characters, great downward projectile to trick AI. I had even learned all character’s brutalities at one point. So fun. Thanks for this!
I remember playing this game at the arcade. On my side I was cheesing the game with Cyrax, you just wait for your opponent to be in lunging distance and you throw the net and unleash your combo, repeat until you win. The AI never blocks the net at that range, so it's very easy to execute.
Thank you very much for your advice, sir, but i was talking about how to beat the AI with klassic jax, i hope the strategy that you've mentioned above work the same with klassic jax also, i hope so
I’m glad someone said it. I beat mk2 last weekend on stream by using the dance of death technique that I discovered, don’t know if anyone else knows it. Drop their health a little them be a little back from them, hold down and low kick over and over until the timer runs out, they just keep sweeping thin air until they die.
There is another way with getting your opponent's energy down quicker with smoke. First do the teleport uppercut (F,F,LK), then follow it up with a roundhouse kick while they are in the air, do the spear move and last but not least do smoke's assigned combo.
I just wanted to say thanks. You're probably not the first to figure this out, but you're the first to upload this, hence YOU'RE THE ONE WHO TAUGHT US ALL. I'm 40...I've never in my life beat this game without cheats until watching your video. No wonder they left him as a hidden character on MK3 😂
Being very fast and using reptile and using the force ball works well. Mixing the moves helps trick the A.I opponent too. I have the arcade 1up with all three. It's fun but hard. I've only beaten the first mk.
Interesting video. I played Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 on an Arcade1up machine in a retro pub two weeks ago and yesterday as well. Only my 3rd or 4th time on an arcade machine and I played a bit of these on the PC in the 1990s otherwise primarily play MK4,10 and 11. The keys were a bit too spread out to what I was used to and on an aging machine the joystick didn't always work well but I managed to beat the game! using the following tricks: 1. Initial part of arcade ladder - Either Kung Lao and his punch combo or Scorpion and his Kick Combos or Liu Kang would do. 2. Endurance - on the machine I played this was too quick. Only with Scorpion could I beat it and he beat it every time. They stay unblocked for his spear. 3. Motaro - this was an interesting fight. He moved much faster on the machine I played and the usual strategy of running up to him and doing the combo that people say was tough. However I beat him a few times using jump punches extended into the punch combo of Kung Lao and once Scorpion. 4. Shao Kahn - his AI was very different from PC MK3 and from the UMK3 AI's shown in videos and he was very tough almost with no exploits working. Also in the arcade only Nightwolf, Smoke and Cyber Ninjas and Kitana could jump over him with ease. 5. Beating Shao - two weeks ago I only won one round against him, but this time I finally beat him with Liu Kang. You had to take a hit if needed then spam low fireball and he may get hit or will do an upwards shoulder charge. A. Continue spamming low fireball until he misses in such a way that he is floating exactly on top of Liu kang and not even a little in front and then you switch from the low fireball to the uppercut. B. Timing was very critical and using the joystick shifting between low fireball and uppercut took some practice to hone. C. You also need to ensure he doesn't push you to the corner. It took a few attempts, initially he would only lose one round then in the third he was brutal but eventually this worked. But interesting overall, it was more about the tricks rather than the fluency of later games but it had more soul and arcade appeal than later games.
Same thing occurs if you jump forward with any kick at the start of the jump. The AI will try to land a hook but if you're fast enough with fw fw lk is a 100% hit. There's a couple more granted hits by the AI
Nice video! I wasn’t sure if this was well known tactic. I posted a message about it on your MK2 video too. One thing I found is that if you teleport punch and they block it and uppercut, don’t jump away, just back up and they usually just walk after you, sometimes run, just have block ready
Nice dude! Yeah this is the thing about all of the Classic arcade MK's. They cheat you so much, but they have weaknesses you can exploit. People tend to think about fighting games reactively, like you should study all of the moves you can do and react on the fly. MK AI is not like that, to beat it you must understand its weaknesses and exploit them. It's almost like its more of a puzzle game than a fighting game, each of these games have varying degrees of "solutions" to their AI. When you approach it as such it becomes all about discovery and problem solving, a very different experience than what you would expect from a fighting game.
@@mikerude5073 only if you are cheesing it in a "simple way". For example if all you plan to do is repeatedly jump kick the AI to death, sure. But if you know the AI falls for a jump kick then you can combo that jump kick into say... Ermac's tele slam. Then that can be combo'd into two punches and a fireball. All of a sudden a simple "cheese" becomes a world of possibilities.
@@gsimon123 There's a reason why the Dark Souls games cause such an uproar among the casual gaming crowd lol ... they are more less "inspired" by this oldschool game design/difficulty style.
the cpu walks faster than you cracked me up. i definitely remember that in the arcade and thinking... why can't i get any distance from them lol. so cheap!
I saw this technique in 1998 at arcade, but they used combo HP,HP,LK,HK,LP after hook rope. Saying that MK games have AI is like saying that mouse trap is concious. It's more like system of triggers, you can make enemy to not do anything at all through the match, just wait till he's calm/keeping idle distance from you, then move towards him so he will move back, stop, move backwards, so he'll follow you few steps, you can do this till timer reach 0 - this was actually used in arcades to prolong your gameplay after beating tower, pick a fight with Ermac and win second round by letting time to run out.
Supreme Demonstration can ONLY be picked after an 8 player tournament run, unlike the home port of the Sega Genesis OR the Nintendo DS port, which in the later is possible due to the removal of the Galaga minigame by beating the hardest tower (well, at least on the Treasures screen, I dunno if it's in the game as I haven't tried the 100 vs matches or the Kombat Code).
Man your arcade vids are cool af especially the MK stuff. I just recently beat umk3 with smoke myself but I like to use his human form... And yes umk3 AI is wack af lol I had a hard time with shao kahn
Whoa didn't realize there was a 2nd challenge after Kahn on the master tower tho. I have my A1up set to very easy difficulty and played on 1st tower. I spammed my way through shao kahn by block back step, jump forward duck (kahn swings & misses) uppercut him and repeat. Idk worked for me. Nice video man!!!
There's all kinds of things to choose from the "reward" screen after you beat it lol. Most are just a painful butt kicking by the AI again haha. This game is frustrating but its still a good one, I think it would have been so much better if they had just made it more fair. I don't mind losing if I'm unskilled, I hate losing if I'm being cheated. That Kahn uppercut trick works great, I used that one in the past. Thanks for watching Frankie!
The AI is definitely broken on all these MK games and reacts faster to your moves than any human could. RIP if you try to throw a projectile at Jade. She’ll do that “flashy” projectile run through then hit you with a 7 hit combo. That made me rage back in the day! Great video and play through!
you can also do this without looking, you just control their distance by walking forward, the AI will move back, then once you have them controlled...you jump back, kick in mid-air, listen for the projectile sound, then do the teleport move.
i played this at the arcade when i was a kid at a summer camp on a college campus' union and won in front of like 50 people. people kept feeding me quarters when i lost because i was so close but ended up winning and i was celebrated like i won a championship
The amount of quarters I pumped into this machine when I was younger was enough for me to purchase a few cabinets. Of course this wasn't on playing the AI/single player (which I've beaten more times then I can count) but it was the two player competition that was awesome and I was well known in the arcades nearby at the time. It wasn't as great as when MK II came out, which I also rocked, but Ultimate was a much needed upgrade to MK3. Killer Instinct was also my jam. I miss arcades, or even two player couch play on consoles where you had a physical body(s) there next to you to play with.
Thanks! It’s good to know people do this for speed runs. I’m probably not good enough to speed run this game though. I did a speed run of Killer Instinct, I think the time was 7:23.
@@KillerArcadeGames yeah it's pretty much optimizing damage off of the teleport, so you're already halfway there. Heres a link to the vid. ua-cam.com/video/c7OwfwcG2oA/v-deo.html You would probably like this guy's MK Meta series. Goes over some of the MK games and how the gameplay evolved over time.
That tactic you used during the main game didn't work on Noob Saibot because in UMK3 he doesn't have any projectile moves. He actually doesn't have any special moves at all. They gave him special moves in the consol versions and in MKT but the arcade version didn't.
You aren't wrong but you aren't completely right too. There's most definitely ways to defeat the cpu without using the same 1 or 2 moves but every other way involves luring and baiting so you might as well use 1 or 2 moves. Ermac and Rain have arguably the best moveset to maintain a significant juggle/combo and are both prime examples of how the game was intended to be played.
one word.......SMOKE. I can MOW through this game at the hardest level with Smoke. Jumping and timing the teleport punch differently always works. The icing on the cake is then harpooning and doing his combo - teleport, lather, rinse, repeat.🙂
Chris, I’ve got a couple older videos for this game with some good strategies and a couple short ones that show you how to control the computer with anyone.
Cyrax was GOATED… even the computer couldn’t beat me…throw a far bomb, then the net… they will counter with their projectile, it will hit, but the net catches them,,, roundhouse to the bomb, which knocks them to you for an uppercut…. 66 percent damage…OR a close bomb, net, far bomb… the net pulls them to the close bomb, time it right so you can hit the roundhouse the same time the close bomb hits, hit em to the far bomb, back to your uppercut…that’s damage in the 80’s “… the “RAX” was a PROBLEM in the late 90’s
That works on the PC and Console version of Mk3, but in the Arcade Version of UMK3 you had to use other tactics to beat him and he was much tougher to face. Don't know if this will also work on the PC or Console version of UMK3
Jade was the devil if i remember right, i remember trying to beat her and she slams me 3 times in a row with her suplex move. Then she will land a 20 hit combo and chop my head off.
I figured that combo out back when I played it on Nitendo 64. 😂It’s something I discovered because I used to play as smoke all the time. But it’s not something I did on arcades or ultimate. Whenever my brothers frustrated me I’d pick smoke and do this to them. They’d get tired real quick
My older brother beat this game against the IA a couple of time with a lot of characters whithout using cheats or abusing the IA weak points, it took him more than 2 years. It's was really hard and I barely could beat a few of them in hard withot using this treacks (like using rain, smoke, scorpion, etc, easy way to win)
The easy way to beat Motaro, is just walk backwards qnd wait till he sends you a energy ball, after that he will jump forward, you jump forward and hit him with a combo. Repeat till you win. Great video BTW.
What don't people understand practice makes perfect when you fall down you get back up that's how you get good at these games people today know nothing
That's how I did Ultimate MK3 - Cyber Smoke spamming teleport punch followed up by a Trident spear combo. Never really followed up the teleport spear with an air throw, Smoke has a pretty easy combo that is followed up with a knock back kick (think it's a 5 hit). I did UMK3 on the N64. The old MK titles were very grubby. Good vid.
I found that when the game is a little easier I actually play more of it and find it more enjoyable. Even on Very Easy after 2-3 wins the game gets progressively very difficult which was a turn off for me. The first 3 MK games had this same issue but the first one was a little easier two and Three got ridiculous.
People who have never played the Classic MK games have no idea what we had to go up against back in that day. It really doesn't matter how good you are against human players, against the AI you HAVE to cheese to win, because they shamelessly read your inputs and can do things the player simply cannot do. The funny thing is, the classic MK AI's are simultaneously really hard AND really dumb. Their input reading locks them into patterns the player can abuse in order to get them stuck in loops the way you do in this video. It's kind of a shame, since there really isn't a way to play classic MK 'properly' in single player (yes, even the easiest difficulty ramps up to the maximum by the late stages of the arcade ladder.) But then Midway were never known for making their games 'fair.' Ludicrously cheap bullshit from the CPU opponent was a staple of basically every single game they made up until the shift to Netherrealm Studios. Even the PS2 Mortal Kombat games would hand you your ass if you played too well, since they had a kind of almost rubberband AI to them that would get harder and harder the better you played, and conversely get stupider and stupider if you did really badly. Whenever the AI became impossible for me I used to intentionally lose three rounds in a row not even touching the controller, and the AI would become so colossally stupid it would just stand there walking back and forth and occasionally throwing a punch. I guess since their games are mainstream these days they had to cut back on the bullshit and actually program AIs that played (mostly) fair.
True that. Now that the competitive and online scene is better and they have to publish frame data they cannot have a cheap AI. In the old days the AI had input recognition, it was pre-programmed to randomly get harder and make you repeat fights, plus only the AI had access to wake-ups, get-ups and breakers. You could use tricks to beat it and it wasn't as fluent as levelling up your techniques in later games but I guess it had a bit of a charm and soul. Even today mortal kombat arcade games are quite popular in retro arcades, even amongst non-gamers who don't even realise the games are thirty years old. So in summary I guess the original trilogy was more about the communal experience and hype.
Use noob saibot first. Cloud move, 5 hit kick teleport grab then run throw and repeat. You'll make it all the way to endurance. Once you die in endurance use rains thunder over and over to get to Motaro. Same move on Motaro. Jump kick worked for me. Sharp Kahn havent beaten yet. 😆
Ok everyone, beat UMK3 Sunday. The computer AI is much easier on hardest mode. Sounds crazy but its true. Find a person you like and get there moves down pat. Figure out a series of combos you like with that player using their special moves and you'll get to Motaro no problem. Jump kick Motaro all the way to Kahn. Once youre on Kahn youre gonna have to find a special move that gets Kahn everytime. Once you do exploit it and win
The arcade AI will almost always throw a projectile after the first 3 backflips.. Ermac is pretty good at exploiting the AI too once you learn its moveset
Hello there, I'm trying to beat MK Trilogy with Jax Mk2(the Klassic Jax) with one gameplay without losing, but again, the AI in this game is very hard, even if you put it on very easy, & actually, it becomes harder when I reach the 4th opponent(in general), I don't know if you have any strategy to show us how to beat the 4th opponent & above till the Boss with Klassic Jax with one credit gameplay??!, please?
MK3 - Sektor Vanilla jump back every round then jump forward low kick... Teleport uppercut low kick jump low kick then upper cut again only strategy that I found works
It seems to me that the AI eventually just counters almost everything you do. The AI can also spam projectiles but you can only throw one and wait a second before you can toss another. The AI walls faster than you too. It’s annoying.
My trick for beating UMK3 is to pick sindel and suck 'em in with scream, then do her kombo [HK, HP, HP, LP, HK] and then okizeme the filth out of them with scream, rinse repeat. I like your trick with smoke though. Your channel has great content. Been subbed for a while [ I got the mkII arcade1up cabinet.]
There is absolutely NO shame in exploiting the AI to win in these older fighting games. The AI rarely plays fair anyway. Back in the day I was able to find exploits in MK2 and vanilla MK3, but UMK3 is SO unfairly difficult (blatant input-reading, increased damage, constant rushdown, throwing you in the middle of your moves) that it was no fun and I never played it enough to find one. Kudos on figuring it out. This strategy could probably be adapted for some other characters as well (maybe Sektor and Scorpion)
I Agree, the game cheats and it is a random pause to let you win at times. Play most of the series years ago in the arcade. At least you can go to your Garage there and get away from the wife for a time. Lucky you! Great Video, looking forward to more.
With an uppercut you can do the same teleporting move before they hit the ground and get control over their movement again, making it a true unblockable combo. Worked for trilogy at least.
I did choose the hardest one, unless it wasn't showing me another tower? I Googled it after playing this one and it said the only way to see it was by playing an 8 player tournament. I don't remember that being the case though. If I wanted to see it that badly, I'll just do the EJB menu lol.
Killer Arcade Games that might be right but I could have sworn that I watched a play through of it on the hardest tower and difficulty and they were able to get it I can bet the hardest tower but never been able to do that and the hardest difficulty anyway love the channel and your tips
You can usually weed out the kids or young adults whenever they say why can you beat it with skill? Why spam?....we'll than you clearly haven't played or weren't growing up in the '90s...the developers of mortal kombat made sure however much skill you think might had learned means absolutely nothing in the end because the game will cheat and humiliate you. So unfortunately, these are the only ways, that I know of and I've played it over 28 year's now. I'm surprised I don't see you trying the roundhouse kicks whenever they jump towards you especially on mk2. So, If you time it right. You'll get them more than half the time. It works. Add it to You're game. Cool video. I'd personally go with Emrac, sub-zero, smoke, and cyrax.
Never ever found umk3 tough when you played mk2 and seen how the ai was in that game nothing else comes close to how unfair and how you where cheated out of your money
@@KillerArcadeGames hope they help, but I am thinking about buying an arcade 1up not sure yet. I own an original mk3 cabinet still in great shape but it has reset issue now look into that hopefully resolve it.
If I see Jade as my next opponent, I just quit.
hahahah! Good call!
yup!
Sams
Yet when you play as Jade you realize her moveset and combos are difficult to execute
I agree
So interesting to make a game that is super appealing, but ridiculously hard because the real customer for Midway was the arcades, not the players!
I think they saw the cash cow that Mortal Kombat 1 was and decided to ramp it up. They went a little too far. I'm fine with a challenge but when the game can do things you can't, it's not a fair fight. I'm glad Mortal Kombat 4 wasn't like this.
Yea like jade running at you and then glowing at the same time, I’ve even seen my friend double teleport stomped by sheeva and it said two hit combo! It was straight up cheap
It’s like why does EVERY single character have to have a projectile? That’s what I didn’t like about UMK3, you couldn’t beat the AI straight up, you have to cheese them.
@@KillerArcadeGames You're only meant to have like 1.5 minutes on any arcade game, no matter the game or the popularity, they want you paying or gone quickly.
I remember the robots and ninjas pretty much all having this one loop you could do of their special moves that the CPU would fall for. Like for sektor, it was missile missile teleport uppercut, and for Cyrax it was net, bomb, uppercut. The game forced you to just play like you were an AI. That Smoke combo is EXACTLY WHAT I DID back in the day.
Yup the classic A.I strategy, it works perfectly for Scorpion, Cyber Smoke, Human Smoke, Ermac, Kung Lao which you can use his teleport into air punch into Kung Lao’s beautiful 7-Hit Combo.
I remember people at the arcades being in Awe when I would easily pull off Kung Lao’s teleport into air punch and 7-hit combo.
It’s kinda difficult trying to use characters without a teleport against the A.I, it’s a bunch of the same jumping back and pressing either punches or kicks in air to bait the A.I to launch their projectiles and then they run toward you and you sweep them as they run at you and trying to sweep the A.I again after the first sweep causes the A.I to jump backwards, which gives you a window to try and bait it again or use a projectile of your own or specific special attacks.
It’s basically a chess match of baiting the A.I.
The Move with Smoke using the teleport punch is easier to do by jumping back, forward, forward HK, LK. This allows you to perform the move while doing the backward jump kick to make the enemy throw the projectile and then follow up with the teleport punch while they are open for attack.
I learned this about 20 years ago to make quarters last longer 😅
teleport, run forward, low punches, spear, 5hit combo (HP,HP,LK,HK,LP). But certain characters (i.e.Jade, mileena, kitana, sindel) "fast fall" and you cant low punch them.
for the Notorious Montaro Battle i use HP, HP, LP between jumping forward with HP. Lk has a lot of priority and is useful but once youre close HP chains into a combo even when blocked, grounding you and allowing you to complete a simple 3 hit combo which is important bcuz the final hit of a combo ha "knock down" or block stun which creates a vital moment to jump into a punch again. AND, im 95 % sure you can just press hp and lp together over and over again while front flipping. Making this a very noob friendly strategy.
Overall, its important to keep in mind AI does not always react and the programers have also added AI to react to you repeating the same successful moves so it may take a little bit to find the right hit boxes but theyre defintely there.
And just extra, If i remember correctly you use the the LK/ throw combo to set up a front flip kick teleport combo. the bounce animation of the throw allows time to begin another front flip and show a kick by the time the AI stands up. it is triggered to counter but miss due to spacing/timing. Which is risky but can easily add 70% damage to AI stupidity.
Also, at the beginning of the
Round the distance is similar enough to be worth an attempt but it can be countered by certain characters depending on their high kick but considering this combo does 70% dmg risking a HK is worth knowing who you can just direspect off the the bat.
Use HP, HP, LK, HK, LP as your combo after the spear.
You totally have to cheese the ai to beat it I couldn't even beat the first one without cheesing goro
Great video. Grew up obsessed with the game. So many memories as a kid with my older brother literally praying the game wasn’t already taken at the local video store. AI was my rival as a kid. Manipulated it with Cyrax. Dominated it with Jade because I remember thinking I wanted to use her better than the AI lol. Her agility, her 7/8 hit combo, her projectile deflect, great hit boxes against most characters, great downward projectile to trick AI. I had even learned all character’s brutalities at one point. So fun. Thanks for this!
I remember playing this game at the arcade. On my side I was cheesing the game with Cyrax, you just wait for your opponent to be in lunging distance and you throw the net and unleash your combo, repeat until you win. The AI never blocks the net at that range, so it's very easy to execute.
Thank you very much for your advice, sir, but i was talking about how to beat the AI with klassic jax, i hope the strategy that you've mentioned above work the same with klassic jax also, i hope so
@@hanimereih1699thank you very much sir, but i never replied to you about anything about Jax...
Ty very much sir for both of yal acting sassy 💁♀️ and hellaciously ZESTY ALL AT THE SAME TIME! 🏳️🌈 I stand NOT with yals 🩸 line 😮
I’m glad someone said it. I beat mk2 last weekend on stream by using the dance of death technique that I discovered, don’t know if anyone else knows it. Drop their health a little them be a little back from them, hold down and low kick over and over until the timer runs out, they just keep sweeping thin air until they die.
I found this trick way back in the day when this game was still in arcades. I managed to impress a room full of people by beating this blindfolded.
Hahahaha and they think you're an expert at god level
Dude you're superb keep going man thanks for the video
I wish I Woulda known this trick back in 7th grade, I woulda been so cool
There is another way with getting your opponent's energy down quicker with smoke. First do the teleport uppercut (F,F,LK), then follow it up with a roundhouse kick while they are in the air, do the spear move and last but not least do smoke's assigned combo.
Truth
I just wanted to say thanks. You're probably not the first to figure this out, but you're the first to upload this, hence YOU'RE THE ONE WHO TAUGHT US ALL. I'm 40...I've never in my life beat this game without cheats until watching your video. No wonder they left him as a hidden character on MK3 😂
Being very fast and using reptile and using the force ball works well. Mixing the moves helps trick the A.I opponent too. I have the arcade 1up with all three. It's fun but hard. I've only beaten the first mk.
I'll try that, I'm bored of playing with Smoke now.
Interesting video. I played Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 on an Arcade1up machine in a retro pub two weeks ago and yesterday as well. Only my 3rd or 4th time on an arcade machine and I played a bit of these on the PC in the 1990s otherwise primarily play MK4,10 and 11. The keys were a bit too spread out to what I was used to and on an aging machine the joystick didn't always work well but I managed to beat the game! using the following tricks:
1. Initial part of arcade ladder - Either Kung Lao and his punch combo or Scorpion and his Kick Combos or Liu Kang would do.
2. Endurance - on the machine I played this was too quick. Only with Scorpion could I beat it and he beat it every time. They stay unblocked for his spear.
3. Motaro - this was an interesting fight. He moved much faster on the machine I played and the usual strategy of running up to him and doing the combo that people say was tough. However I beat him a few times using jump punches extended into the punch combo of Kung Lao and once Scorpion.
4. Shao Kahn - his AI was very different from PC MK3 and from the UMK3 AI's shown in videos and he was very tough almost with no exploits working. Also in the arcade only Nightwolf, Smoke and Cyber Ninjas and Kitana could jump over him with ease.
5. Beating Shao - two weeks ago I only won one round against him, but this time I finally beat him with Liu Kang. You had to take a hit if needed then spam low fireball and he may get hit or will do an upwards shoulder charge.
A. Continue spamming low fireball until he misses in such a way that he is floating exactly on top of Liu kang and not even a little in front and then you switch from the low fireball to the uppercut.
B. Timing was very critical and using the joystick shifting between low fireball and uppercut took some practice to hone.
C. You also need to ensure he doesn't push you to the corner. It took a few attempts, initially he would only lose one round then in the third he was brutal but eventually this worked.
But interesting overall, it was more about the tricks rather than the fluency of later games but it had more soul and arcade appeal than later games.
Same thing occurs if you jump forward with any kick at the start of the jump. The AI will try to land a hook but if you're fast enough with fw fw lk is a 100% hit. There's a couple more granted hits by the AI
You could do the same thing with cyrax green net and an uppercut
I found this out as a kid and It always worked! never tried it on anything after the first tower, though....
Nice video! I wasn’t sure if this was well known tactic. I posted a message about it on your MK2 video too. One thing I found is that if you teleport punch and they block it and uppercut, don’t jump away, just back up and they usually just walk after you, sometimes run, just have block ready
Thanks for this, I didn't have an exit strategy for this one haha.
Nice dude! Yeah this is the thing about all of the Classic arcade MK's. They cheat you so much, but they have weaknesses you can exploit. People tend to think about fighting games reactively, like you should study all of the moves you can do and react on the fly. MK AI is not like that, to beat it you must understand its weaknesses and exploit them. It's almost like its more of a puzzle game than a fighting game, each of these games have varying degrees of "solutions" to their AI. When you approach it as such it becomes all about discovery and problem solving, a very different experience than what you would expect from a fighting game.
A puzzle game is a great description for this game haha. I need to learn several different tricks so I actually look like I know what I'm doing.
What sucks about having to cheese games, is that isn't fun.
@@mikerude5073 only if you are cheesing it in a "simple way". For example if all you plan to do is repeatedly jump kick the AI to death, sure. But if you know the AI falls for a jump kick then you can combo that jump kick into say... Ermac's tele slam. Then that can be combo'd into two punches and a fireball. All of a sudden a simple "cheese" becomes a world of possibilities.
It's essentially the exact same trick of Dark Souls and Elden Ring but arguably not even as hard.
@@gsimon123 There's a reason why the Dark Souls games cause such an uproar among the casual gaming crowd lol ... they are more less "inspired" by this oldschool game design/difficulty style.
the cpu walks faster than you cracked me up. i definitely remember that in the arcade and thinking... why can't i get any distance from them lol. so cheap!
I saw this technique in 1998 at arcade, but they used combo HP,HP,LK,HK,LP after hook rope. Saying that MK games have AI is like saying that mouse trap is concious. It's more like system of triggers, you can make enemy to not do anything at all through the match, just wait till he's calm/keeping idle distance from you, then move towards him so he will move back, stop, move backwards, so he'll follow you few steps, you can do this till timer reach 0 - this was actually used in arcades to prolong your gameplay after beating tower, pick a fight with Ermac and win second round by letting time to run out.
Supreme Demonstration can ONLY be picked after an 8 player tournament run, unlike the home port of the Sega Genesis OR the Nintendo DS port, which in the later is possible due to the removal of the Galaga minigame by beating the hardest tower (well, at least on the Treasures screen, I dunno if it's in the game as I haven't tried the 100 vs matches or the Kombat Code).
Man your arcade vids are cool af especially the MK stuff. I just recently beat umk3 with smoke myself but I like to use his human form...
And yes umk3 AI is wack af lol
I had a hard time with shao kahn
Whoa didn't realize there was a 2nd challenge after Kahn on the master tower tho. I have my A1up set to very easy difficulty and played on 1st tower. I spammed my way through shao kahn by block back step, jump forward duck (kahn swings & misses) uppercut him and repeat. Idk worked for me. Nice video man!!!
There's all kinds of things to choose from the "reward" screen after you beat it lol. Most are just a painful butt kicking by the AI again haha. This game is frustrating but its still a good one, I think it would have been so much better if they had just made it more fair. I don't mind losing if I'm unskilled, I hate losing if I'm being cheated. That Kahn uppercut trick works great, I used that one in the past. Thanks for watching Frankie!
I remember Jade taking an ungodly amount of quarters from me.. It would take like 7 or 8 tries before it was even remotely possible to beat her
Jade's AI is like she was copied from MK2. She's was a total pain and I hated fighting her.
The AI is definitely broken on all these MK games and reacts faster to your moves than any human could. RIP if you try to throw a projectile at Jade. She’ll do that “flashy” projectile run through then hit you with a 7 hit combo. That made me rage back in the day! Great video and play through!
The OG series for sure I feel the 3D ushered in a more manageable difficulty AI were you could beat the game while still having fun.
it's input reading, the ai cheats.
On the E challenge Jade and Scorpion was a nightmare duo.
you can also do this without looking, you just control their distance by walking forward, the AI will move back, then once you have them controlled...you jump back, kick in mid-air, listen for the projectile sound, then do the teleport move.
i played this at the arcade when i was a kid at a summer camp on a college campus' union and won in front of like 50 people. people kept feeding me quarters when i lost because i was so close but ended up winning and i was celebrated like i won a championship
I love how motaro was way harder then khan with the strats xD
Kahn is never that difficult. Kintaro and Motaro are both tougher lol.
The amount of quarters I pumped into this machine when I was younger was enough for me to purchase a few cabinets. Of course this wasn't on playing the AI/single player (which I've beaten more times then I can count) but it was the two player competition that was awesome and I was well known in the arcades nearby at the time. It wasn't as great as when MK II came out, which I also rocked, but Ultimate was a much needed upgrade to MK3. Killer Instinct was also my jam. I miss arcades, or even two player couch play on consoles where you had a physical body(s) there next to you to play with.
The relief of seeing her as your first opponent one cannot describe
cool vid. I actually learned this when watching something about UMK3 speedrunning. It's cool you figured it out on your own!
Thanks! It’s good to know people do this for speed runs. I’m probably not good enough to speed run this game though. I did a speed run of Killer Instinct, I think the time was 7:23.
@@KillerArcadeGames yeah it's pretty much optimizing damage off of the teleport, so you're already halfway there. Heres a link to the vid.
ua-cam.com/video/c7OwfwcG2oA/v-deo.html
You would probably like this guy's MK Meta series. Goes over some of the MK games and how the gameplay evolved over time.
I'll check it out!
wow dude you took on shao kahn like a boss !
The sound design in MK3 is outstanding. The bass is amazing!
That tactic you used during the main game didn't work on Noob Saibot because in UMK3 he doesn't have any projectile moves. He actually doesn't have any special moves at all. They gave him special moves in the consol versions and in MKT but the arcade version didn't.
You aren't wrong but you aren't completely right too. There's most definitely ways to defeat the cpu without using the same 1 or 2 moves but every other way involves luring and baiting so you might as well use 1 or 2 moves. Ermac and Rain have arguably the best moveset to maintain a significant juggle/combo and are both prime examples of how the game was intended to be played.
one word.......SMOKE. I can MOW through this game at the hardest level with Smoke. Jumping and timing the teleport punch differently always works. The icing on the cake is then harpooning and doing his combo - teleport, lather, rinse, repeat.🙂
Great video dude 💪
Thanks!
Thank You so much for your video! It helped me to beat Mortal Kombat Trilogy as Smoke!
Glad I could help!
Chris, I’ve got a couple older videos for this game with some good strategies and a couple short ones that show you how to control the computer with anyone.
I'll have a look at them, thanks Michael.
Cyrax was GOATED… even the computer couldn’t beat me…throw a far bomb, then the net… they will counter with their projectile, it will hit, but the net catches them,,, roundhouse to the bomb, which knocks them to you for an uppercut…. 66 percent damage…OR a close bomb, net, far bomb… the net pulls them to the close bomb, time it right so you can hit the roundhouse the same time the close bomb hits, hit em to the far bomb, back to your uppercut…that’s damage in the 80’s “… the “RAX” was a PROBLEM in the late 90’s
for shao khan I loved to do the uppercut spam, if you run at him and uppercut as he's getting up he can't block it
That works on the PC and Console version of Mk3, but in the Arcade Version of UMK3 you had to use other tactics to beat him and he was much tougher to face. Don't know if this will also work on the PC or Console version of UMK3
Jade was the devil if i remember right, i remember trying to beat her and she slams me 3 times in a row with her suplex move. Then she will land a 20 hit combo and chop my head off.
I figured that combo out back when I played it on Nitendo 64. 😂It’s something I discovered because I used to play as smoke all the time. But it’s not something I did on arcades or ultimate. Whenever my brothers frustrated me I’d pick smoke and do this to them. They’d get tired real quick
Maaaan youre smooth with these tactics
Thanks!
My older brother beat this game against the IA a couple of time with a lot of characters whithout using cheats or abusing the IA weak points, it took him more than 2 years. It's was really hard and I barely could beat a few of them in hard withot using this treacks (like using rain, smoke, scorpion, etc, easy way to win)
The easy way to beat Motaro, is just walk backwards qnd wait till he sends you a energy ball, after that he will jump forward, you jump forward and hit him with a combo. Repeat till you win. Great video BTW.
I kill on Sega Genesis noon saibot all the way. at least I used to. I love smoke too.
Dude you gotta catch them in the air and throw them down after you teleport, then harpoon, and roundhouse/uppercut
What don't people understand practice makes perfect when you fall down you get back up that's how you get good at these games people today know nothing
That's how I did Ultimate MK3 - Cyber Smoke spamming teleport punch followed up by a Trident spear combo.
Never really followed up the teleport spear with an air throw, Smoke has a pretty easy combo that is followed up with a knock back kick (think it's a 5 hit).
I did UMK3 on the N64.
The old MK titles were very grubby.
Good vid.
You definitely don’t suck, just found these thank you for sharing!!
Cyrax cakes UMK3 like it's nothing
I naturally liked Smoke without Scorpion for the inaugural Mortal Kombat 3 . He definitely was the computer basher for me.
Great video man 👍
We did same strat 20+years ago in arcades :p
I remember in the arcade as a teen beating the game with Smoke up to the last boss then putting a code in to change to classic Smoke to win lol
Good video man
Thanks Logan!
Hard work, hard work. Just leave your job and focus all your time on a 90s arcade game.
motaro goes down if you use the smokes teleport hit skill midway jump just before he fires that power ball beam thingy
I found that when the game is a little easier I actually play more of it and find it more enjoyable. Even on Very Easy after 2-3 wins the game gets progressively very difficult which was a turn off for me. The first 3 MK games had this same issue but the first one was a little easier two and Three got ridiculous.
I used to use old sub-zero to the last boss, then switch to robot smoke to finish the game. Old sub zero had a great combo to shred life.
Um3 was really the ultimate mk experience.
People who have never played the Classic MK games have no idea what we had to go up against back in that day. It really doesn't matter how good you are against human players, against the AI you HAVE to cheese to win, because they shamelessly read your inputs and can do things the player simply cannot do. The funny thing is, the classic MK AI's are simultaneously really hard AND really dumb. Their input reading locks them into patterns the player can abuse in order to get them stuck in loops the way you do in this video.
It's kind of a shame, since there really isn't a way to play classic MK 'properly' in single player (yes, even the easiest difficulty ramps up to the maximum by the late stages of the arcade ladder.) But then Midway were never known for making their games 'fair.' Ludicrously cheap bullshit from the CPU opponent was a staple of basically every single game they made up until the shift to Netherrealm Studios.
Even the PS2 Mortal Kombat games would hand you your ass if you played too well, since they had a kind of almost rubberband AI to them that would get harder and harder the better you played, and conversely get stupider and stupider if you did really badly. Whenever the AI became impossible for me I used to intentionally lose three rounds in a row not even touching the controller, and the AI would become so colossally stupid it would just stand there walking back and forth and occasionally throwing a punch.
I guess since their games are mainstream these days they had to cut back on the bullshit and actually program AIs that played (mostly) fair.
True that. Now that the competitive and online scene is better and they have to publish frame data they cannot have a cheap AI. In the old days the AI had input recognition, it was pre-programmed to randomly get harder and make you repeat fights, plus only the AI had access to wake-ups, get-ups and breakers.
You could use tricks to beat it and it wasn't as fluent as levelling up your techniques in later games but I guess it had a bit of a charm and soul. Even today mortal kombat arcade games are quite popular in retro arcades, even amongst non-gamers who don't even realise the games are thirty years old.
So in summary I guess the original trilogy was more about the communal experience and hype.
I credit noob saibot for winning the game, cloud move combo lk4x, about 3 patterns of this and it defeats all
nice video, it's weird that they allowed this "bug" to finish the game,. It is a big "bug" inside the "IA". umk3 would need a 1.3 revision.
Use noob saibot first. Cloud move, 5 hit kick teleport grab then run throw and repeat. You'll make it all the way to endurance. Once you die in endurance use rains thunder over and over to get to Motaro. Same move on Motaro. Jump kick worked for me. Sharp Kahn havent beaten yet. 😆
Ok everyone, beat UMK3 Sunday. The computer AI is much easier on hardest mode. Sounds crazy but its true. Find a person you like and get there moves down pat. Figure out a series of combos you like with that player using their special moves and you'll get to Motaro no problem. Jump kick Motaro all the way to Kahn. Once youre on Kahn youre gonna have to find a special move that gets Kahn everytime. Once you do exploit it and win
Noob Saibot isn't playable in most UMK3 arcade revisions, though. So that isn't an option for most players.
even on the easy mode still hard to beat
I never could see a discernible difference between very easy and very hard. At one time I thought maybe they had intentionally swapped them.
That's because it only starts off easier, but gradually the characters become the same difficulty as any other difficulty mode
Thanks. Good tips.
No problem!
You can also jump forward with a kick on all male opponents, and they always get kicked, for female opponents they just run passes you and hit you
The arcade AI will almost always throw a projectile after the first 3 backflips.. Ermac is pretty good at exploiting the AI too once you learn its moveset
great video my friend
Thank you!
Jade sent me to this video..
Haha evil Jade
Hello there, I'm trying to beat MK Trilogy with Jax Mk2(the Klassic Jax) with one gameplay without losing, but again, the AI in this game is very hard, even if you put it on very easy, & actually, it becomes harder when I reach the 4th opponent(in general), I don't know if you have any strategy to show us how to beat the 4th opponent & above till the Boss with Klassic Jax with one credit gameplay??!, please?
MK3 - Sektor Vanilla jump back every round then jump forward low kick... Teleport uppercut low kick jump low kick then upper cut again only strategy that I found works
I want to see someone beat it without spamming any moves.
& i thought i was the only 1 that knew how to use smoke when it gets rough
If I am correct the Ai ajust to the moves and inputs u do. This game gets really hard without a trick like this and even then XD
It seems to me that the AI eventually just counters almost everything you do. The AI can also spam projectiles but you can only throw one and wait a second before you can toss another. The AI walls faster than you too. It’s annoying.
This game was truly not hard to beat. I wish I could stream on how to beat it
Record it with your phone and put it on UA-cam. That’s pretty much what I do, just with multiple cameras and some editing lol
My trick for beating UMK3 is to pick sindel and suck 'em in with scream, then do her kombo [HK, HP, HP, LP, HK] and then okizeme the filth out of them with scream, rinse repeat.
I like your trick with smoke though. Your channel has great content. Been subbed for a while [ I got the mkII arcade1up cabinet.]
There is absolutely NO shame in exploiting the AI to win in these older fighting games. The AI rarely plays fair anyway. Back in the day I was able to find exploits in MK2 and vanilla MK3, but UMK3 is SO unfairly difficult (blatant input-reading, increased damage, constant rushdown, throwing you in the middle of your moves) that it was no fun and I never played it enough to find one. Kudos on figuring it out. This strategy could probably be adapted for some other characters as well (maybe Sektor and Scorpion)
I wish my sticks worked properly. Can’t do any horizontal special moves
Are they stock sticks?
Yea. It must be the gate. But I also can feel a difference in the springs from p2. I’ll get sanwa or something better eventually
When Motoro jumps at you close range just HK.
I used to just run the game with Cyrax and then lose to shao Kahn and then pick whichever character’s ending I wanted to see after that.
really wanna know how to beat it lmao...a,b,b,a,b,b,a,b,b,a at start menu
You know you can unlock human smoke right✔✔
I Agree, the game cheats and it is a random pause to let you win at times. Play most of the series years ago in the arcade. At least you can go to your Garage there and get away from the wife for a time. Lucky you! Great Video, looking forward to more.
With an uppercut you can do the same teleporting move before they hit the ground and get control over their movement again, making it a true unblockable combo. Worked for trilogy at least.
I think you have to play hardest tower on the hardest difficulty to get supreme demonstration
I did choose the hardest one, unless it wasn't showing me another tower? I Googled it after playing this one and it said the only way to see it was by playing an 8 player tournament. I don't remember that being the case though. If I wanted to see it that badly, I'll just do the EJB menu lol.
Killer Arcade Games that might be right but I could have sworn that I watched a play through of it on the hardest tower and difficulty and they were able to get it I can bet the hardest tower but never been able to do that and the hardest difficulty anyway love the channel and your tips
Jade was the worst she'd use her cloak and charge at the same time and just keep throwing me like a ragdoll no matter what I tried
I didn't know smoke could teleport like sektor in this game...
that AI isn't "kind of rigged"; it reads your button inputs in order to make you spent more money.
You can usually weed out the kids or young adults whenever they say why can you beat it with skill? Why spam?....we'll than you clearly haven't played or weren't growing up in the '90s...the developers of mortal kombat made sure however much skill you think might had learned means absolutely nothing in the end because the game will cheat and humiliate you. So unfortunately, these are the only ways, that I know of and I've played it over 28 year's now. I'm surprised I don't see you trying the roundhouse kicks whenever they jump towards you especially on mk2. So, If you time it right. You'll get them more than half the time. It works. Add it to You're game. Cool video. I'd personally go with Emrac, sub-zero, smoke, and cyrax.
I would be curious to know how you paused the game
I'm running MAME here so you just have to press "P" on the keyboard to pause.
Never ever found umk3 tough when you played mk2 and seen how the ai was in that game nothing else comes close to how unfair and how you where cheated out of your money
Mk 3 is a bit more nice than mk2 because you can choose your difficulty but when jade shows up it’s just luck 🍀
are you playing on arcade1up? I have several videos as well vs bosses`
I am but its been converted to MAME with a PC and has Happ controls like the arcade cabinet. I'll check it out!
@@KillerArcadeGames hope they help, but I am thinking about buying an arcade 1up not sure yet. I own an original mk3 cabinet still in great shape but it has reset issue now look into that hopefully resolve it.