Xbox 360 owners just love playing classic games and developers are doing an excellent job of porting games over with their original characteristics fully intact. Yet another case in point is the release of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 in the Xbox Live Arcade, courtesy of Midway and Digital Eclipse.

While hardcore fans of the series may have bemoaned the supposed downhill slide of recent versions, UMK3 dips into some 1995 mojo and brings back the glory days of the fatality kill, as UMK3 has some of the best visuals of any classic coin-ops that have been brought to XBLA. Part of this has to do with more advanced graphics in the mid-Nineties, but Digital Eclipse have done an excellent job with the remake so that the backdrops for each fight really stand out. The audio is also very good, mixed into surround with both background music and audio effects, which are very, surprisingly, realistic.

If you're somehow unfamiliar with the Mortal Kombat series then you're probably a bit lost by now, so just in case you missed out on the original games, here's the low down. The graphics are very digitized and arcadey - and they simply look phenomenal. The game is so fast-paced that you'll be pounding on the B Button even while your character's leg is coming back down from kicking your opponent in the face a moment ago. The characters are set against a variety of atmospheric backdrops such as Hell, where you are surrounded by lava and standing on a small fighting ground, with many pillars around you, or when in the sand dunes on top of a little outpost in the middle of nowhere, and while fighting you see a robot in the background sinking in the sand.

The action is entirely 2D, so you only need to concern yourself with moving left and right on the screen. When you jump, you do a barrel roll forwards or backwards, so the strongest move without a combo in the game is the jumping kick. You push the analog stick (or D-Pad) in a diagonal right or left (depending on where you opponent is) and hit the B button. If they don't block then you'll hit them around the head or chest, resulting in a good amount of blood spurting out - keep in mind that as with all the games in the series, this is an extremely gory game with blood gushing out all over the place!

To maximize damage however, the combos are just what the butcher ordered! Moves like Liu Kang's fireball and Scorpions long, long spear that comes out of his hand while he's yelling "Get over here!!" are a lot of fun to use. These are almost the most rewarding thing in the game, and they're relatively easy to pull off with the Xbox 360 controller. But by far, the best aspect of any Mortal Kombat game is the Fatalities, where you literally end your opponent with a killing blow, often involving dismemberment, beheading, being burned to a crisp or even the removal of their spine!! These moves are here in all their glory and they're still just as viscerally satisfying as they ever were! The arcade style music that accompanies the bouts and the squelching, bone-crunching sound effects of the combat also really enhance the game's atmosphere.

The single player mode is typical of the original Arcade version of UMK3, with head-to-head, four player two-on-two and eight-player tournament modes. One nice option is that the original codes still work, so players can dial in their favorite codes to enhance the gameplay. Unfortunately though, one thing that made it into this version is the original AI. You remember how it was - the counter moves out of nowhere and attacks to come back from the brink of death to win being were the norm and this makes you wish for a special move allowing your fighter to whip an Xbox 360 Wireless Controller at the CPU character to slice its head off for an instant fatality! If you are going to overcome the 'cheating' though, you will have to earn it.

Although playing through single player can be tedious at times due to the AI and continuations, I much prefer the game be recreated with its original gameplay with any flaws intact. Where UMK3 really makes its mark is the online multiplayer. Hitting Xbox Live opens up a whole new world, as players from around the world gather to face each other. Now you can take your mask off, show your skull and burn people from Mexico, England, Sweden, Canada, Spain, Germany, Los Angeles, New York, or even your own town! This isn't perfect though, as while not encountering it too often (mainly in the menu screens), lag will probably always be present. Unless it slows the game to unplayable levels, my attitude is to just roll with it.

The matchmaking process is a bit different though, as I found it difficult to find matches using the Quick Match feature and I was only able to connect to an actual match one out of every five times. I finally decided to just host a match and quickly realized that this was my best course of action as I was matched up almost immediately in every instance I hosted. My favorite online mode is the Versus Challenger, a four-player option with alternating turns. The winner stays on and the other two challengers can sit back and watch the next match unfold, studying the moves and tendencies of the fighters.

The twelve achievements are attained through a combination of single player and online play. For a game that is best online but still entertaining (and frustrating!) in single player, this balance is welcome. For single player the achievements for combos, Flawless and Match level can be reached by playing smart and using the proper character (Smoke is one of my favorites), while the online ones are a little more difficult to attain, as they actually require some time and a little skill to win 100 matches on Live.

Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 is a classic game that's enjoyable to play both in single player and online multiplayer. With so many fighters, finishing moves and secrets to choose from, the replay value is very high. The few negatives in the lag and matchmaking issues online cannot detract too much from the overall experience, as the online play is the real gen, with the ability to challenge players with different fighting styles and skill levels from around the world taking the replay value through the roof. The addition of a move list and someone (come on Microsoft!) creating an industrial grade wireless joystick would make this game almost perfect - as it is, it's still a worthy addition to your Arcade and a wonderful slice of the nostalgic fighting action of yesteryear.

Reviewed by James Fanciullo for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).