Mortal Kombat Advance (2001). Play online

Summary

Mortal Kombat Advance brings classic fighter bloodshed to the Game Boy Advance, repackaging Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 while sprinkling in signature moves from the early trilogy titles. The handheld lets you trade blows, pull off combos, and finish opponents with the notorious Fatalities, all via a re‑engineered four‑button scheme.

Developed by Lancashire‑based Virtucraft, the team built a compression system to squeeze arcade‑quality sprites onto the portable and even added multiplayer via the Game Link Cable. They aimed to capture the look of the arcade cabinet, but the limited screen forced shrunk‑down graphics and a control layout that many later called clumsy.

Critics were unforgiving: Metacritic sat the game at 33/100, with reviewers denouncing its sluggish controls, punishing AI and graphic slowdown. GameSpot crowned it the worst GBA title of 2002, and it still haunts fighting‑game retrospectives as one of the series’ low points.