I'm not sure why I was thinking about this one but am I the only one that likes the MK3 soundtrack? DLed a dub if the SNES score and I don't think I appreciated this as much as I should have when I was younger.

Additionally, am I the only one that thinks the SNES port of MK3 was good? I mean that doesn't mean much when the underlying game isn't very great, but I thought critics where kind of hard on port.

Yeah, I thought the port was pretty well done actually.

Can't say I've ever liked any of the music in the MK series though.

I remember being very disappointed when MK3 came out for SNES. Of course, we had just gotten a Playstation and that version was spectacular... I was blown away at the time at how close it was to the arcade version. When I later got a Saturn and played its near perfect MKII port, I still liked the SNES feel better though the Saturn port was (stuttery) albeit very close. All in all, I feel Williams did a lousy job with the SNES version (not to mention the sound/hit noises were terrible).

As for the 16-bit ports, I always preferred the Genesis version of MK3/UMK3 though both had the cheapest AI after like two battles (on very easy) so I avoided both. This later became a widely annoying problem with MK home ports.

This. I have fond memories of MK3 but playing it now doesn't work because I'm more aware of how bad the A.I is like you said. I can't believe they made the same game three times and never addressed that.

Edit:

Additionally, yeah, I think the SNES port of MKII is very good. It's not as fast as the Genesis version but it's a pretty great port. Still, while I'm not saying MK3's button link combos made that game "good," the fact there is no combos aside from juggles in MKII hurts it retroactively for me.

The infamously cheap AI stemmed from the Genesis version of MKII. Sure it was iffy in MK1 (only being able to use Sub-Zero's freeze/Scorpion's spear twice before the AI would block it) for Genesis, but it was noticeably worse in II. Actually, it ruined the game for me. Everytime you'd get to the Forest stage (and typically fight Kitana), she would be nearly unbeatable unless you cornered yourself and jump kicked her. Uppercuts would result in getting thrown. Everytime. Not the mention the CPU would never fall for the usual fishy attacks unless you got right up in there (Sub-Zero's iceball, Scorpion's spear).

Man, I could sit here and talk with you and chronicle the blisteringly cheap AI problems for MK games. Odd thing is, they weren't present in UMK3 for Saturn, or MKTrilogy for N64. Different programmers/teams maybe? The worst of it was MKTrilogy for PS/SS -- after the first battle on Very Easy mind you, the AI would rip your shit. Took any skill or fun out of the game for me which was too bad since they were very solid. Anyway, I digress!

This happened in the MKII arcade game, too, but it was Liu Kang. Everything before him was manageable, and from that fight on it was insanely cheap. Miss every uppercut, hit by an air fireball every time you would jump, etc.