Ultimate Mortal Kombat

Mortal Kombat is a game that we all know and love, and have been doing so for over ten years. This franchise is one of, if not the most successful fighting series of all time. Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 had revolutionized the series in a huge way. It’s by far the most popular title out of the series. It’s been in many arcades around the globe, has been ported many many times (including this game).

After the last dreaded UMK Port on a Nintendo Handheld(Mortal Kombat Advance), it is hard for us to hold true to any MK game realeased to a Nintendo Handheld console. Especially a game of the same strucutre as this one. But we just have to break through the mold and try this one out, and I am pretty sure you will be impressed with what you experience!

From the very beginning of loading UMK you will notice the game asking you to create a profile, which is an extremely useful feature, especially if you have alot of MK fans in your house like me. After this you will be able to choose to play UMK or Puzzle Kombat. You can also edit your options by pressing the “y” button on the main menu.

WHEN CHOOSING UMK OR PUZZLE KOMBAT FROM THE MAIN MENU: You will be transferred to a very simple title screen which shows “single player” “Local Wireless” “Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection” and “UMK3 Records” From there on out you can play the arcade version of the game, go online with a local buddy, or play worldwide against people of your rank or just random players. You can also just check your current stats from a single player standpoint and a Multiplayer standpoint.

The Pros of UMK:

+Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3-If this were any other “Classic MK game” ported to the DS such as MK1 OR MK2 I probably wouldn’t have bought it.

+Wi-Fi Capabilities-of course this would have to be a pro! What is better than playing a complete stranger in one of the most grusome fighting games ever invented?

+Records/Leader Boards-I think this is a great Idea. I love the fact that UMK allows you to create a profile to keep track of your progress whether it is online or in single player mode.

+Puzzle Kombat-I beleive puzzle Kombat gave the game its little extra “kick.” It is a very fun addition to an already great game.

+Special Moves shown on screen-I thought it was a brilliant Idea to show the Special Moves plus the Fatalities, Animalities etc. on one of the screens. It really helps alot!

+Unlockables-Not only do you get to unlock extra characters but you also get unlock different items and stories for the characters. I think that is a pretty neat feature.

The Cons Of UMK:

-Difficulty of game: Personally I do not remember UMK being this tough. I could barely beat the game on Novice Mode and I found that very disturbing. It really got bad after awhile and I gave up.

-Online Connect lags: The online connection does lag quite a bit, and I noticed it in quite a few of my online matches. I thought it was just me at first, but I played it over wirless hotspot, I found out that it was the game itself.

-Many Bugs: Even though this is an almost perfect port, it still has many bugs to work out. There is this strange flash sometimes on the screen when it needs to switch to another location. Also when you fight shao Kahn at the end of single player there is barely enough time between the first and second rounds to re-cooperate for the next battle.

-Not enough time to do Fatalities: You seriously have once and only one try to do a fatality. They give you about 3 seconds before your opponent falls to the ground.

-Controls: The controls are very nice, but sometimes they are not responsive. Sometimes you jump straight in the air when you want to flip, which is extremely repetitive by the way. And this also allows you to not do fatalities properly alot of the times.

OVERALL RATINGS:

PRESENTATION OF GAME: B-
GRAPHICS OF GAME: B
SOUND OF GAME: C
GAMEPLAY OF GAME: C+
LASTING APPEAL OF GAME: B+

OVERALL SCORE = B. 4/5 STARS.

Like I said before this is a great port of a great classic game! It is so much better than the Mortal Kombat Advance port, and is the first attempt at a MK game on the DS. I really look foward to what Midway is going to bring to the table with MK in the future!

Considering I came into MK with Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, you can imagine how happy I was to hear that it was picked to be the first MK game on the Nintendo DS. Sure, Mortal Kombat Trilogy would’ve been loads better but I learned my Kombat skill with ‘Ultimate’. After the atrocious Mortal Kombat Advance, I almost gave up hope on any 2-D Mortal Kombat game on a handheld. Thankfully, Midway & Other Ocean came to save the day with Ultimate Mortal Kombat.

My verdict? Well, I can certainly say it’s a proper 2-D Mortal Kombat. This game doesn’t suffer from the bugs(if you want to call it that) that Mortal Kombat Advance did. The speed and gameplay are almost arcade perfect. To make things even better, they threw in Puzzle Kombat (which most of you will recognize as the puzzle game included in Mortal Kombat Deception) as well as making it possible to play both games on the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection.

The bottom screen, if you’re looking for any new innovation on how to play the game, is only used to show a moves list for your character(which is a pretty smart thing if you’re not a MK vet) and to play Puzzle Kombat with your stylus…which is a bit of a downer, I know.

Mortal Kombat fans will love this trip down memory lane,I know I did, & Mortal Kombat Noobs will definitely get a history lesson.

Mortal Kombat was no stranger to portable handheld conversions, but unfortunately, those versions of the Mortal Kombat games usually turn out to be pretty crappy. Every once and a while, there would be a good Mortal Kombat on the go. For example, we’ve got Mortal Kombat 2 on Game Boy, and Deadly Alliance on Game Boy Advance. And now we have an arcade-perfect port of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 on the Nintendo DS.

When I said arcade-perfect, I MEANT it. This DS version is almost exactly as it was in the arcades! The fighting gameplay is superb, and the graphics are brilliantly digitized and pretty awesome to look at. The sounds/music are great, too, complete with realistic punching/kicking/whatever sounds and a rad soundtrack. To make things even better, you can play this game with anyone in the world via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection to test your skills to the max!

But there was something that just didn’t quite appeal to me. Is it just me, or is the game REALLY hard? Heck, I couldn’t even beat the game on Novice Mode, considering Shao Kahn (the last fighter) would never give me a chance to beat up on him. I’m sure the game is actually possible to beat, but still….You’d expect the game to be pretty forgiving on lower difficulty modes. In this case, I just feel slight differences that helped me progress. Either that, or Shao Kahn is the same in every difficulty mode. At least the game isn’t flat-out impossible like Mortal Kombat Advance.

Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 certainly is a pretty great fighting game, but it sure does seem a bit small when comparing it to other DS titles on the shelf. So Midway made a great decision: Tack on Puzzle Kombat, the puzzler spin-off to Mortal Kombat!

Puzzle Kombat is a pretty good puzzle game. Through the MK elements displayed onscreen (like the fighters), clearing blocks and creating combos help make the game feel like a Mortal Kombat game. Of course, this is more similar to Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo, but hey! This game is cool and fun! And it helps add to the value of this DS cartridge. I just wish Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 wasn’t so difficult on here…