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The loudest cabinet in the arcade. Rare's 1994 fighter had pre-rendered graphics and a double health bar, but what everyone remembers is the announcer roaring "C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER!" — the line a whole generation learned to yell at each other.
The first Mortal Kombat in 3D, the last one to hit arcades—and the first where you could pull a weapon mid-fight. Polygonal fatalities were the playground whisper of 1997.
SNK's answer to a dream: the arcade in your home. The Neo Geo's home console ran hardware identical to its arcade cabinets, so you got arcade-perfect games with zero compromises — for $649.99, plus cartridges that cost upward of $200. The rich kid down the street had one. You didn't.
Four buttons, one per limb, and a family that settles everything with an Iron Fist tournament. Namco's 3D fighter went from the arcade to every PlayStation household, and Tekken 3 — with King, Paul, and a thousand sibling grudge matches — became the fighting game of the late '90s.
The definitive version of Mortal Kombat 3 — the one with all the ninjas back in it. Owner's memory is the Sega Genesis port: the run button, the fatalities, and everybody on the roster.