Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance

Can Deadly Alliance break the curse of unspeakably, soul-crushingly, bile-producingly horrible handheld MK ports?

Over the years, handheld ports of Mortal Kombat games have ranged from absolutely abysmal to merely embarrassing?so Deadly Alliance deserves special mention for even displaying a level of competence. The sound is great with good voice samples and surprisingly potent smacking sounds, and the tight controls retain an impressive amount of 12 characters? moves, stances, and fatalities. And just like in its console big brother, there?s tons of stuff to unlock?even if here it?s mostly character palette swaps.

The most unfortunate thing about the GBA Deadly Alliance is the decision to ape the console versions? 3D gameplay when it really wasn?t necessary?the arenas are blocky Mode 7 messes that do impossible Escher things wherever the floor meets the background, the characters have been pixelated to make them ?scale,? and your characters? blood stains look more like stylish mosaic tile than bodily fluid. You can?t help but wonder if the game could have been even better if they had decided to slightly re-design the gameplay for 2D. 5.0 for ambition, at any rate.

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