The Playstation version of Mortal Kombat Trilogy was developed and published by Midway Games (in North America and Europe) in 1996 for the North American and European market and in 1998 for the Japanese market.
Shang Tsung playthrough
Shang Tsung is identical to his Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 forms when as himself. However, he gains many new morphs and is able to morph into the whole cast (bosses included) except Chameleon and Human Smoke. Although no explanation is given for Chameleon (other that it was intentional in order to make the character even more secret), it is often assumed that Shang’s inability to morph into Human Smoke is an oversight that might have roots back in UMK3 and all its port, has it been the only character (beside the bosses) he could not morph into and was not directly selectable on the character select screen. However, In the Nintendo 64 version of MKT, you can morph into him.
Another fact unique to Shang is an option menu dedicated to him. Because of the RAM of the PlayStation, each time Shang morph into a character, the game will load its data, and will do the same when he morphs back, making long waiting time in a single round. To remedy this, the option menu offers three options: Prevent Shang from morphing, morph only into character loaded in the data and morph into anybody. By default, the second option is on, causing him to morph into his opponents in an instant. This also includes character in endurance matches that you’re not fighting yet, as they are already in the PlayStation’s RAM. Shang is notable for being the only character that is never fought in any tower. Although no reason was given by the developer, it mostly has to do with his morph mechanism, because the same happen in the PlayStation port of Mortal Kombat 3.
On a side note, if you morph into bosses during the “Finish him/her” sequence and you have the 1 button fatality cheat on, the bosses can attempt to do their fatality which doesn’t exist at all, leading to various strange effect or game freezes. Babality is the only one working, since it is a universal move that is shared by every character. The “Finish him/her” sequence will not appear if you defeat Shang Tsung while he is morphed into any bosses.
Shang Tsung primary move is Fireballs (that can be shot as a volley of 1, 2 or 3) and his Triple Rising Fireballs move. The latter can be used to perform juggling combo and can be repeated another time. His Fireballs can also protect him from jump kick. He has three combos that all ends up with a roundhouse, dealing moderate damage.
Against the CPU, Shang Tsung as himself can have a hard time, because his Triple Ground Fireballs can be easily avoided. Because of the delay, he will most likely get countered. His most reliable move is to do combo with a starting jump punch or neutral kick or shoot three Fireballs after knocking his opponent from far (such as with a roundhouse kick when his opponent is airborne).
However, with his ability to morph, Shang Tsung will morph into his opponent from time to time, using their respective strategy and giving Tsung’s more versatility in his move set.
TAS tools were used in this playthrough.