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Best portable MK experience on a Nintendo system so far.... but still not great

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 28 / 30
Date: November 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Ultimate Mortal Kombat is a Nintendo DS port of the arcade game, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. It also includes the Puzzle Kombat mode featured in some of the more recent titles, and online Wi-Fi play.

Essentially, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, of which the main portion of this game is a port of, was a "special edition" of sorts of Mortal Kombat 3. It added in some new levels and threw in some extra characters, mostly from earlier games. Also introduced were an additional pillar of difficulty, and the Endurance levels, not seen since the original MK. The game more or less stayed true to the Mortal Kombat 3 game play style.

Puzzle Kombat is a Tetris-esque puzzler that uses Mortal Kombat characters. You're given blocks that you must destroy using special bricks. As you progress, you'll gain power - which can be used to execute a special move that varies from character to character.

This package is a mixed bag. It's better than any other Mortal Kombat game ever released for a portable Nintendo System, but it still needs its share of refinement.

THE GOOD:

-An excellent port.
I had my doubts about Nintendo being able to scale this one down for the small screen, and have the game still work well. But they pretty much shattered my doubts. This is a more-or-less true port. It looks just like the arcade - FAR superior to that old Super Nintendo version! Things are a bit scaled down, obviously, but I have few complaints as far as this being a port goes.

-Plenty of characters, and a few secret ones.
The Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 roster, essentially, has all the characters from Mortal Kombat 3, but it also throws in a few old favorites, mostly the palette-swap Lin Kuei ninjas. There are also some hidden characters you can unlock with codes.

-An on-screen move list. FINALLY!
This is something that the old consular Mortal Kombat games were sorely missing. Now, I don't have to refer to a print-out or a players guide to figure out how to do moves or fatalities. It's great to have this feature, particularly in a port of one of the older games.

-Puzzle Kombat featured as an extra mode.
I'm glad they didn't just give us a bare bones Ultimate port, and threw in this nifty little bonus mode. It makes the overall package a little more desirable. Fans of the series who also like puzzle games - this mode is for you.

-Online Wi-Fi play!
This is another thing that Mortal Kombat has desperately been in need of. Finally, even if you don't have someone local to play with, you can find a fan somewhere else in the world, and challenge them to a fight.

THE BAD:

-Why port Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 to the DS when Mortal Kombat Trilogy is a far superior game?
I can't believe they did this! The DS is as powerful as the Nintendo 64, which played host to a version of Trilogy. Trilogy had nearly ALL of the old characters and levels, plus some new ones, and a new type of Fatality - the Brutality. Why port Ultimate instead of the far-superior Trilogy!? It boggles my mind.

-Lacks replay value.
The amount of characters here just isn't anything worth writing home about. Even with the secret characters, there are considerably less characters than in Trilogy, which this should have been a port of to begin with. There's nothing of interest outside the game. Even though the game tries not to be a bare bones port, that's ultimately what it is.

-Puzzle Kombat isn't particularly interesting.
I like the fact that they tried to go above making this a bare bones port, but let's be realistic - this is a second-rate Tetris-style puzzler, the likes of which game makers have been churning out for the last two decades. Most of the fans who buy this game are here to play some serious MK, not a lackluster puzzle game.

-Horrible, cheap artificial intelligence.
One of the biggest problems here. Playing against the computer isn't even fun. The comp will basically cheese you to death by any means necessary, always blocking your attacks and hitting you with godlike combos. This is one of the game's fatal flaws.

-Less Fatality time than ever before.
You've got one chance to enter the motion, and even then you have to rush. If you screw up the first time, too bad. I don't know what the programmers were smoking when they decided to lessen an already-short time increment.

-Move lists DISAPPEAR FROM THE SCREEN if you pause.
Having the move lists on the other screen is a great idea, in case you want to check your moves. But if you pause the game, they disappear. You heard me right. The one time you actually will have your eyes leave the action screen to check the moves, they won't be there. You won't want to do periodic glances during the fight either - the cheap comp will stomp you if you don't pay attention.

-Characters are the Mortal Kombat 3 versions, and no older versions are available.
Again, another problem that would have been almost completely remedied if this had been a Trilogy port. This version of Kung Lao, for instance, sucks in comparison to his Mortal Kombat 2 counterpart.

-Inevitable lag in online battles.
This is more a technical aspect than anything else but it's still worth addressing. While not as bad as some DS titles, it's still just bad enough that it will throw your timing off when trying to pull off those all-important special moves.

-Extra characters in the main mode must be unlocked with CODES.
Why didn't the programmers just have some "game accomplishment" way of doing this. It would have made the game experience far more rewarding. Instead you'll inevitably have to go to an online FAQ to figure out how to do it.

OVERALL:

Overall, good as this game is, there just isn't a whole lot here to recommend it. It's easily the best portable Nintendo version of Mortal Kombat ever released - and the only one I can honestly say I don't hate. But this should have been a port of Mortal Kombat Trilogy. Period. And it suffers immensely from that, not to mention its share of other flaws. I can't quite recommend it on a large-scale level, but MK die-hards who have longed for a decent portable game on a Nintendo system will be pleased at long last.

Marginal thumbs down.

Ultimate Mortal Kombat...........

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: November 16, 2007
Author: Amazon User

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.

UMK Impresses, but lacks in some areas.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: November 13, 2007
Author: Amazon User

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!

Do they even have game-testers anymore?

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: July 24, 2008
Author: Amazon User

When I was growing up I was a huge Mortal Kombat junkie. Mortal kombat 2 really broke so many barriers as far as one-on-one fighting games go, and I remember spending countless hours learning fatalities and mastering my skills with all of the characters. I'd be at the arcade too plugging quarters away to check out the latest mortal kombat installments and couldn't wait for them to be released to a gaming system.

So after buying a DS I was pretty stoked to see this game and figured I knew what I was buying with all the experience I had with mortal kombat games. I must have spent about 45 minutes playing this game and havent touched it since. It's just so frustrating to go out of your way and spend 30 dollars on a brand-name that you trust only to be let down by some foolish programmers choices. Fatalities have always intrigued me and I love performing them, and when I was younger I remember performing all of them with general ease, but with this? FORGET ABOUT IT... You have about a millisecond to perform a fatality (which is listed on the screen which should be very convenient) but the chances of actually executing them are darn near impossible. It's just so aggravating when you SWEAR you're hitting the right combination of buttons and nothing happens...

Just such a huge letdown that I can't pick this game up, thrash on some FAIR FIGHTING computer enemies (not one's that don't even let you fight normally and use the special moves the game itself created, because the enemies are in this robot WIN mode), rip some heads off and be done with it... Except I'm left with a game I want to throw against the wall because the programmers were too busy eating cheetos than actually making a user friendly game.

I haven't played this as a 2-player game but I imagine it's WAY fun that way... But if you're a 1-player gamer like me please please please don't waste your money like I did.

And the puzzle game? Pfff... What a bleak attempt to make a fun addition... not only is the puzzle game boring, they topped it off with automatic fatalities that are worthlessly recycled guts and gore that gets old very very fast - ugh... I hate getting ripped off!!! Just the chance you take sometimes...

Ultimate MK3 on the DS

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: November 20, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Ultimate Mortal Kombat marks the debut of Midway's flagship fighting series on the DS, and is by far the best portable excursion the Mortal Kombat series has seen yet. Ultimate Mortal Kombat consists of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 and Puzzle Kombat, which you may remember as a little bonus mini-game from the somewhat more recent Mortal Kombat: Deception. Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 is pretty much spot on from the version we all remember, albeit shrunk down. Whichever one of the screens you choose to fight on, the opposite screen lists special moves and fatalities, which is a nice little bonus in itself. Puzzle Kombat is a little bit of fun for what it is, and is a nice bonus game, but the real meat and potatoes of Ultimate Mortal Kombat comes from the game's Wi-Fi connectibility options. Single player mode can get old after a while thanks to the steep difficulty curve, but the game's multiplayer options more than make up for that. Because of the game being shrunk down, there are noticable graphical glitches, but otherwise, Ultimate Mortal Kombat is a blast. The controls tightly fit the DS, and the sound effects are kept true as well. All in all, if you're a DS owner and Mortal Kombat fan who likes taking advantage of the DS' Wi-Fi capabilities, Ultimate Mortal Kombat is more than worth picking up.

True Masterpiece of Ultimate Mortal Kombat

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: November 27, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Being original and traditional, I have grown up with mortal kombat. I have seen all the mortal kombat games that exists even during the early 1990s. This is it, this is the one game that is the best. People who aren't very familiar with doing 6,7,8+ combo moves very fast may come to dislike it and feel that the level of difficulty is too much to bear. At first, it was kind of hard to get back to classic fast hitting button arcade mode, but now, believe it or not, I have come to believe that I am the master the mortal kombat. You can tell that the game is programmed to predict your moves as you advance into subsequent rounds. The bonus puzzle kombat and the online WIFI capability is what really reawakens mortal kombat. The toughest master level is the best. You get unlimited trials and credits but beating master level really reminded me of my enjoyment in the old days. The graphics look nice in 2-D. I hate to say it, but 3-D looks kind of ugly, slow, and unsophisticated. In the harder of the two master levels, you get to face three opponents. Mataro may fires 6 or more fireballs at you. Fatalities must be done super fast. You have to know it by heart. Jade can be quite challenging if you have already beat two or three opponents on a consecutive basis. Other than that, I would say everything else is fair game. It's about knowing all possible moves by heart and truly knowing how to fight like a true warrior.

Great DS game for online play

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 10, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game because I was looking for another game for DS that would utilize the wireless online play feature of the DS. This is the classic Mortal Combat fighting game. I was only a minor fan of the game when it was originally in arcades. As far as I can tell the DS version of the game is complete. I also bought this game partly because it was the only M rated game I have found for DS. It has all the characters from the original game and all the blood and gore and fatalities from the original game. I was also pleasantly surprised by the high quality of the graphics in sub menus for the game and the audio in the DS version might be better than the original game. The dual screen feature of the game is utilized too with the top screen displaying the combo moves for a particular character and the bottom screen displaying the fighting. Unfortunately, I am terrible at this game and the only time I tried out the online play I was beaten almost instantly. The DS game has a second mini game built in that I have grown to really like. The second game is a puzzle game similar to Tetris with blocks that fall from the top and build up. The twist is that this is a fighting puzzle game. One screen shows Mortal Combat characters fighting. The bottom screen shows the puzzle game. As you win at the puzzle game the character wins at the fight as well.

MK is great

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 05, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Sure Ultimate MK is an awesome game when it was released on SNES.....this Nintendo double dipping is stupid. It's nice to have this gem on hand held though.

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