MORTAL KOMBAT: TOURNAMENT EDITION

How many of you out there remember Mortal Monday, the day that the first MORTAL KOMBAT was released on consoles? I sure do! I remember picking up my copy of the Sega Genesis and immediately finding the blood code (A,B,A,C,A,B,B,A if I remember correctly) for the game. As time progressed on and MORTAL KOMBAT spawned numerous sequels, the game began to lose its edge around MORTAL KOMBAT 4. Luckily, the people at Midway revamped the series for MORTAL KOMBAT: DEADLY ALLIACE. And where would a sequel be without a Game Boy Advance version? Well, the GBA version was a success last year, so Midway has designed a "sequel" MORTAL KOMBAT: TOURNAMENT EDITION.

MORTAL KOMBAT: TOURNAMENT EDITION is basically an updated version of last year's DEADLY ALLIANCE. The game runs on the same engine that DEADLY ALLIANCE did, and the gameplay is practically the same. But for one, you'll notice that there are some characters included (a lot actually) that didn't make it into the DEADLY ALLIANCE cut Johnny Cage, Raiden, Reptile, Cyrax, Bo Rai Cho among the new fighters, along with secret characters that have to be unlocked.

Like last year's game, you can switch fighting styles during the round, making it harder on your opponent to know what you are coming at him with. And once again, Test Your Might has returned along with the Kombat Koins. You can earn Kombat Koins by winning matches, and after earning enough, you can go to the Krypt to unlock secret characters and such.

TOURNAMENT EDITION looks exactly like DEADLY ALLIANCE in the graphics department, but this isn't a bad thing. I thought DEADLY ALLIANCE looked great, and it's safe to say that this incarnation does too. The game is played in "3D", allowing players to side-step like in the console versions. The characters, while a bit grainy and hard on the eyes at times, do look very good and the animations are performed admirably.

The main addition in TOURNAMENT EDITION is the in the multiplayer modes. While DEADLY ALLIANCE supported the link cable, the developers really wanted to add something special to this game. Tag Team modes pairs two or four players in a fight, allowing you to jump in and out of battle when your life meter gets low. Tournament Mode puts you in a tournament tree, letting you battle it out to see who the best fighter is. Race to Raiden is kind of weird, where each player is given an order to fighters and the first one to win with Raiden is the winner of the competition. One cool thing about this game is that, for owners of DEADLY ALLIANCE, you can hook up with this game and go head to head with a friend.

Midway really impressed me last year with the Game Boy Advance version of DEADLY ALLIANCE. The game still looks great even though not much has changed, but the gameplay impresses me more now than the graphics. For the gamer on the go, this is the perfect fighting game to pick up. Even if you have DEADLY ALLIANCE, TOURNAMENT EDITION may be worth looking into.