And if you can't tell already, yes. This is an enhanced port of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, hence why this is a follow-up to my MKA review. But does it make-up for the abysmal GBA port like Sonic Classic Collection did with Sonic Genesis? Oh you bet your ass it does!
As you can see from the screenshots here, this game emulates the original Arcade game VERY well. Now I wasn't expecting a perfect Arcade port of UMK3 on the GBA, but MKA could've at least been a fun port, but nnnnnoooooo. They had to rape the A.I. and for whatever reason fuck up the ability to perform combos and special attacks. Not to mention the game was extremely glitchy.
Even though the DS is 10x more powerful than the GBA, they could've released MKA without all the problems I mentioned, but they didn't. Thankfully, this game doesn't have any of these problems. The A.I. is more or less the same as it was in the original Arcade version and you can perform moves and combos easily, which is a HUGE improvement. You might get your ass kicked by Shao Kahn, but I thought he was the exact same way in the original.
They also put the second screen to good use. If you're a novice to the MK games, the command list is right above the game screen (or below depending on the settings). This is good if you wanna perform Fatalities, Brutalities, etc.
Here's the character selection screen and it's just like in the Arcade version. You have every single character from the original UMK3 as well as Ermac, Mileena, and the original Sub-Zero as the hidden characters. Keep in mind that Noob Saibot and Rain were in the console ports back in the day.
Another awesome addition is ability to play online via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. So not only is this a great way to play UMK3 on the go, you can face your friends together and online as well. But DO NOT play with random players because they're so cheap it's not even funny.
This game also comes with a puzzle game called Puzzle Kombat.
In this game, you can play as the following characters: Sub-Zero, Nightwolf, Ermac, Baraka, Sindel, and Scorpion. You can also play as other characters but you have to unlock them in a certain way in the game. They are: Kenshi, Bo Rai Cho, Jade, Kabal, Mileena, and Raiden. But really, it doesn't make much of a difference gameplay-wise because you don't play as the characters. Just the puzzle game. You see them fight, but on the top screen (or bottom screen depending on the settings).
In this puzzle game, you have different colored blocks and your goal is to group together the same colored blocks. Then at some point, the MK medallion in a specific color will drop down and you have to match the corresponding color in order for them to break and avoid filling up everything, much like in Panel De Pon/Puzzle League, Columns and Puyo Puyo. Sometimes a bomb would come down and if it touches a specific color, even if the same colored blocks are separated, all the blocks of that color will explode. Whoever fills up their screen completely with blocks loses the round.
Now you think the characters on top (or bottom) are completely useless, right? Well not really. In some parts of the game, a character will use a special attack in order to prevent you from breaking all the blocks. For example, Sub-Zero might use his freeze attack to freeze all blocks.
After the final round, the winner will perform his or her fatality automatically.
Oh and this game has online play as well.
So even though I mainly play this game for UMK3 (like most people do), Puzzle Kombat is a nice addition to play with on-the-go and it's really fun to play. I think it's similar to the puzzle game in Mortal Kombat: Deception.
All in all, this is an excellent port and I think the now defunct Midway did this as an apology to everyone who bought MKA and was extremely disappointed about it, much like Sega made Sonic Classic Collection as an apology for Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis.
And this definitely makes up for the lack of fighting games on the DS. All we have is this game, Jump Superstars and Jump Ultimate Stars (which are only available in Japan), the Kamen Rider Dragon Knight game (which was ehh compared to the Wii version), and maybe a couple of Dragon Ball Z, Naruto and Bleach games. Other than that, there's so little and so few and far between.
Anyway, I give this game a Gold.
My next blog review will be on Planet Puzzle League, which in my opinion is the one of the greatest puzzle games of all time. Until then, see ya.
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