Mortal Kombat Advance

The game allows players to use various combo moves, as well as fatalities at the end of the fight. Due to the Game Boy Advance having fewer buttons than the arcade cabinets the games originally appeared on, the designers had to modify how Mortal Kombat Advance controlled. Upon release, Mortal Kombat Advance received highly negative reviews from critics for its lackluster controls, low-quality graphics, and poorly programmed artificial intelligence for computer-controlled opponents. It was named the worst game of 2002 by GameSpot and one of the worst games of all time by GamesRadar+.

• Title — Mortal Kombat Advance • Developer — Virtucraft • Publisher — Midway • Series — Mortal Kombat • Platforms — Game Boy Advance • Genre — Fighting • Modes — Single-player

Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Mortal Kombat Advance is based on Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, and allows players to control one of multiple playable characters in one-on-one fights against either computer-controlled or player-controlled opponents. The objective is to completely deplete the opponent's health bar, while preventing them from depleting the player character's health bar. This can be accomplished using both simple attacks as well as combo techniques, which are done using button command combinations. A character must defeat the opponent at least twice in order to win the match. Players are then given either "Finish Him" or "Finish Her" prompts, at which point they may either attack them normally or perform a button combo to initiate a Fatality, which ends the fight in a more brutal way.

Mortal Kombat Advance was developed by Virtucraft, a Lancashire-based freelance development studio formed to develop Game Boy Color games and later Game Boy Advance games. Publisher Midway Games had approached Virtucraft in the past to discuss working together, though Virtucraft was either too busy or, when they were not, Midway had no games for them to develop. The timing eventually lined up, allowing Virtucraft to begin development on Mortal Kombat Advance. The designers began work on implementing multiplayer via the Game Link Cable early on in development. When redesigning the combat for the Game Boy Advance, the developers had to modify the control system due to the Game Boy Advance's more limited button count. They worked with Midway in order to try to get it right. The game was designed as an amalgamation of the best parts of the first three Mortal Kombat games as well as Mortal Kombat Trilogy, though it is primarily a version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. When designing the graphics, they were largely able to make the game look identical to the arcade versions, though graphics had to be shrunken down. They developed a compression system that was meant to allow to store a large number of animations without sacrificing animation or visual quality. Before Mortal Kombat Advance was revealed, series creator Ed Boon asked on his personal website which Mortal Kombat characters people would like to see, and which game they would like to see on the Game Boy Advance. When revealed, it was slated for a December 2001 release date. It was released on December 12, 2001. The game was re-released as part of the Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection compilation in 2025.