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Tournament Edition offers even more thrills. Last year, I said Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance for the consoles was great. The handheld version was just as awesome. This remixed game offers even more thrills.
Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance was a very solid fighter that reminded people of MK's glory days. The game wasn’t the powerhouse the console versions are, but for GBA competition, it was great. It matched, topped, and destroyed other handheld fighters available in terms of size, graphics and unlockables. More importantly, it was clear from the very beginning that Midway had finally done it right after the embarrassing Mortal Kombat Advance they previously released. Midway is redeeming themselves even more with this great pseudo-sequel.
New in this version are Nitara, Cyrax, Mavado, Reptile, Hsu Hao, Drahmin, Bo Rai Cho, Johnny Kage, Raiden and Sareena. The old cast isn’t found but there are a few characters to unlock that are different colors of previous characters. The stats from the previous game have been enhanced so you can see your progress in the new modes such as Tag and Survival. Owners of the Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance can link up to with MK:TE; but only play with Scorpion, Quan Chi, and Shang Tsung since those are the only shared characters.
This is, without a doubt, the best multiplayer game on the GBA. Midway really went out of their way with it. First off, if you link this version to a MKDA game, you’ll unlock characters. In multiplayer, you can fight someone one-on-one. Another mode is Tag Mode where you can tag in and out with a buddy, although only two players fight at a time. Tournament Mode is a… tournament. There’s an Arcade mode that simulates four people at an arcade taking turns playing, very cool stuff. Finally, Race to Raiden has players beating opponents and with each victory changing their character until they finally become Raiden. Whoever does so first, wins.
Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition is probably the nicest looking fighter for the Game Boy Advance. Since it uses resized sprites, the game doesn't look breathtaking, but still better than other handheld fighters. If Midway had made the game specifically for the GBA, the game would most likely look better. That's too much work though and what is here is good enough. You can barely notice some character's body parts, though. With that in mind, MK: TE does things a little better, a little smoother than other games and puts it above the pack. There were several animations cut from the characters, but they were mostly flash and show animations. The actual moves look very good and convincing. Besides the characters, the levels look very good. Since the series has gone 3D, you'll find some 3D elements here. The environments are able to rotate and scale in order to match some of the characters' movements. As you walk the backgrounds move and provide a believable 3D movement. There are a few levels that are a bit bland but most will surprise you in terms of how many things were included. You'll treasure moments like this and luckily there are plenty in the game. The game should really be applauded; it accomplished a lot of things on the GBA. It isn’t a surprise that this game uses the awesome foundation of Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance (GBA).
Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition has some of the clearest sounds heard out of the GBA's tiny speaker. There are repeated voice samples but it isn’t really a problem since the voices surprisingly fit every person in the game. Trademarks to each character weren't neglected. The announcer sounds very clear and crisp. You can understand everything he says, even if it isn't a whole lot. The background music fits the game very well. If you have some headphones, hook them up to fully experience the game's sounds.
Last year, Midway made the best handheld fighting game ever. When Deadly Revenge (now Tournament Edition) was announced I really wasn’t expecting much but this is pretty much a brand new game, it just uses the same engine. This is definitely recommended for handheld fighting fans and even more so for Mortal Kombat fans.
To read the review for the original, Click Here! -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Sep 14, 2003
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