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Ultimate Mortal Kombat (DS)

• Developer:
• Publisher: Midway
• Genre: Fighting
• Official Website: http://www.umkds.com
• Score: 2 of 5: Strictly Rental

Mortal Kombat is an interesting series. What started as a blatantly violent series intended to provoke government officials with super-realistic visuals and cool characters is now a fairly tame fighter that seems a bit over-the-top and unrealistic. So, with this port of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, Midway is trying to cash in on the era of the series' dominance.

The DS is a favorite target for classic ports. While it's nice to have the games of yesteryear available on-the-go, the tendency has been towards barebones efforts. While Midway included some interesting new elements into this title, most of the game goes neglected and untouched. The most important addition is an online mode. The options are hardly robust, but the entire title, including the added Puzzle Kombat mode, is fully online and the game keeps track of user statistics. There is also a download play mode with a limited character roster. Besides that, though, nothing has changed. The second screen on the DS is usually filled with whatever Midway could think of. The menus use logos to fill the space, and the game takes the second screen as a way to remind players of special attack sequences.

The extra mode, Puzzle Kombat, is simply a copy of Super Puzzle Fighter. However, this mode feels clunky, and the fighter "powers" seem to not affect gameplay much at all. This mode features all the multiplayer options as the main game, but it hardly seems to be worth a player's time on a system with such good options for puzzle games.

Mortal Kombat fans will have fun with the game's multiplayer modes, but there's not much here for anyone else. Most gamers should leave this one on the shelf.

Dec 11, 2007 | 0 comments
Graham Russell