Back in the 1990s if there was ever a game to bring me back to the arcades, it was Mortal Kombat. When it was released to the home consoles, the decision to purchase a Genesis over an SNES was ratified because all of the then-graphic blood and gore was included. Now that the game is released as it is supposed to be on a Nintendo platform, I can sleep at night.

For those unfamiliar, Mortal Kombat is one of the best fighting games released back when arcades were still big. The series has seen sequel after sequel – some good, some not so good. Ultimate Mortal Kombat, rather than just being a collection of all the MK games instead is one game with everything accessible to you – all the characters and all the finishing moves like Friendship, Babalities and of course Fatalities.

UMK has a plethora of characters to use and instead of trying to be cool and make some silly moves using the stylus, Midway opted to use the top screen as a quick reference for commands – both for the regular in game fight and for the fatalities, which is extremely helpful. Some may see the top screen as a waste, especially in those levels where Liu Kang does an uppercut and knocks his opponent up a level, but showing the commands actually are more helpful, even for this experienced MK player.

Ultimate Mortal Kombat was developed by Other Ocean Interactive, the same group who made UMK for Xbox Live Arcade. They’ve done a great job porting the game to the handheld as they were very smart about changing the controls to make it work better on the DS. Most of the moves are still familiar but done in such a way that you can avoid diagonals (thankfully) on the d-pad. In order to perform certain moves you must press and hold a button for a specific period of time (usually three seconds), which is rather difficult and allows your opponent to whip you.

In the Mortal Kombat part of the game, there really isn’t anything new here in the single player mode – you choose your ‘destiny’ (difficulty level) and just start beating up opponents in a best of three fights tournament. Each time you win, you move ‘up’ to the next opponent. If you lose, you can keep trying until you beat that particular character. Although there’s not a whole lot of new, there is a whole lot of fun. These games from the 1990s look right at home on the DS…the screen brightness is great and the resolution is perfect for a handheld. All of the sounds you remember are there as well – what MK game would be complete unless you heard “Finish HIM!” at the end. Of course, nothing is more satisfying than pulling off a fatality. The game is rated M, but the violence is more cartoony these days than realistic.

UMK supports the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection and I came away very impressed. As with all DS games, the cartridge “pairs” itself with your console and then you can attempt a ranked match or a friends match (friend codes are of course required to do this). You are given a rating rather than a ranking (i.e. higher is better). I was able to do a ranked match within seconds and the game played flawlessly – no lag whatsoever. In fact the games were so good; it was easy to play for 30 minutes with multiple opponents. The game also supports single card download play – although the number of characters and options are reduced, it’s a nice feature to include.

In addition to the Ultimate Mortal Kombat game, Midway has also thrown in a second game on the same cartridge – Puzzle Kombat. If you recall, there’s a Street Fighter puzzle game, so I suppose the MK people thought they better do one as well. If you liked the Street Fighter puzzle game, you’ll probably like this one as they are somewhat similar in gameplay with special power blocks and so forth. While the puzzle game is an acquired taste and not really something I was excited about, it’s still a nice touch to make the game a complete package (especially compared to Live Arcade where each game – Street Fighter and Puzzle Fighter are sold separately).

There is definitely value to be had in Midway’s Ultimate Mortal Kombat for the Nintendo DS. While it doesn’t bring anything new to the table, the tried and true gameplay works very nicely on the handheld and is a great pick up and play game for those times when you’re waiting for the bus to pick you up or have 15 to 30 minutes to kill.