"Mortal Kombat 3" was originally considered to be made using 3D graphics, before reverting to sprite graphics of the previous games. Its overall style was envisioned differently from in the previous "Mortal Kombat" games. Instead of the heavily-Oriental themes of "Mortal Kombat" and "Mortal Kombat II", the theme of "MK3" is more Western-contemporary. The game's stages are set in modern locations (such as urban highways, churches, and bank rooftops), three of the characters are cyborgs, and traditional character designs (such as Sub-Zero's or Kano's) have been dropped or modified in favor of modern replacements. This change is also reflected in the soundtrack, in which all Oriental motifs have been dropped in favor of modern instrumentation.