Back in 1995, standing in line watching people battle it out on Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 arcade cabinets, my ultimate wish was to be able to play this at home on my Sega Genesis, since I'd never get to do that with Street Fighter Alpha. If you had told me one day that I'd be playing the game against my friends while they were in their house and I was in mine, not only on a console, but on a handheld unit, I'd probably have never believed you and would have laughed in your face. Nowadays that doesn't seem so spectacular however, and in all fairness, it isn't.

Ultimate Mortal Kombat for the DS hasn't changed a lot - in fact, it remains just as you'd expect. It's Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 as you know and love it - or hate it - complete with all the characters, fatalities, animalities and flaws from the arcade version of over a decade ago. For instance, jumping backwards and kicking still almost always forces your enemy to throw a projectile, while moving back and forth quickly forces the AI to mimic you and not attack at all. But hey, "arcade perfect" is often a good thing in ports, complete with flaws and all, so maybe to some people these things are handy features!

Mortal Kombat became famous in the mid-Nineties for being the only game, at the time, to feature realistic graphics and ultra gore. Blood spewing out of enemies on every strike, ultra fast combos that simply make your enemies explode with the sheer speed, spine-ripping, heart-eating fatalities and more. It's still one of the more fast paced fighters out there, with the most recognizable cast of characters, all with world famous special attacks like Scorpion's "Get Over Here!" spear toss and Sub-Zero's freeze attack, but the graphics these days are a bit laughable; however, it still isn't quite suited for the youngsters out there due to the content and some of the more disturbing fatalities. Using real actors to play the characters is something that has gone out of fashion long ago, but it also remains one of the key ingredients to MK's undeniable charm.

If you've never played MK before then this is the perfect introduction; it's basically one step away from being the be-all-end-all 2D Mortal Kombat game. While MK Trilogy features every character from that era, UMK is no slouch and has an abundance of fighters to select from, including all the classics like Sub-Zero, Scorpion and Liu Kang. You use two types of punches and kicks (low and high) to string combos and perform special attacks, as well as having the ability to run and block. A handy feature on the DS version is that the upper screen is used to display all of your selected character's special moves and finishing attacks, which is probably one of the most useful top screen features to show up on the DS yet. That's good, too, because UMK makes absolutely no use of the touch controls at all.

Included with this package is a port of Puzzle Combat, originally featured in MK: Deception. At its core, Puzzle Kombat is exactly the same in concept as Street Fighter's spin off puzzle game, Puzzle Fighter, except not nearly as fully featured or fun to play. Where Puzzle Fighter has numerous changes in gameplay based on characters selected, Puzzle Kombat's engine is incredibly drab, plain and just not that exciting. The concept is there and it works, but it's just not that fun to play or watch. Characters battle on the upper screen depending on how the fight is going, using chibi versions of many Mortal Kombat: Deception characters (some of which aren't in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3), but it just isn't that impressive after playing Puzzle Fighter for so many years and loving everything about it.

UMK's best feature is the use of the Wi-Fi connection to compete with other players on UMK or Puzzle Kombat. For a handheld game it's definitely a welcome feature and not exactly an expected one - in fact, it's pretty much the only reason to pick this up on DS. Hanging out on your couch and just booting the DS up for a couple of quick fights online can be quite a bit of fun, especially for MK vets. If you don't have a Wi-Fi connection, the game supports local multiplayer as well through multi-cart play and download play, meaning that anybody with a DS can face off against you.

Graphically, UMK holds up pretty well. The game moves fast with little to no slowdown and there seems to be no drop in frame rate either. The same can be said about the sound; it's all there and delivers, from Scorpion's "Get over here!" to the sound of the ceiling crumbling when you uppercut someone through it. All in all UMK holds up from arcade to handheld surprisingly well, but the lack of any touch screen use seriously makes you wonder why this was put on the DS and not on the PSP.

Considering how old Ultimate Mortal Kombat is, it really should have been thrown into a retro Midway pack or at least a collection of classic MK games. Paying for UMK3 yet again just doesn't seem worth it unless you're absolutely dying to have it on the go and play it online through a handheld. If you're looking for a fighting game that uses the DS in innovative ways then you need to look elsewhere, but if you simply want the classic game you know and love to play in the palm of your hand then snap this up and battle away!

Reviewed by Christopher Martin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).