A lot of the fatalities in MK3 and UMK3 are bad, but most of them are actually just the next logical step from MK2, which were ridiculously cartoony and fun.

I think there was a definite change in focus for MK3 which is why the fatalities ended up being disliked by looky lews. I mean, look at how many custom frames were created to fit Fatalities in MK2. Kung Lao's had split, Baraka's impale, Jax's arm rip, the Pit 2, JCs torso rip (used by reptile also), the Inflation fatalities, there were a lot of cases where custom frames were created for each and every character to fit a few or sometimes just one fatality, plus the more often used ones like the flaming skeleton.

Then you get to MK3 and that just isn't the same. There is the gaping mouth/skin pull frames for everyone used by Sheeva's skin rip, Kano's skeleton pull, and Smoke's drop the bomb fatalities. The head inflate used by Kabal's fatality and one of the Female ninjas in ultimate, and I think just about everything else is either the burning skeleton or chunks flying apart that do not require any added animation and certainly no animation made custom for each character. They did not spend the resources on fatalities that they had, and the result was a game with fantastic gameplay. And now MKD is nothing but resources spent on non-gameplay items. No wonder it sucks.

Kabal's and Jax's from MK3. Like, i mean c'mon. Seriously, c'mon.

Every fatality after MK II was just bad, except for Quan Chi's Leg Rip in MK 4 (besides that he's worthless).