If you started Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, you'd be booted to an emulated version of the arcade running on the lower screen of the Nintendo DS. Small visual sacrifices have to be made mainly due to the Nintendo DS system's lesser resolution, so the graphics have a bit of "shimmering" going on as the development team resizes the higher resolution arcade on the lower resolution LCD screen. But beyond that, the game looks, plays, and sounds spot-on to the arcade original, and works extremely well using the standard D-pad and button configuration - the Nintendo DS matches the amount of buttons of the arcade game: high and low punch, high and low kick, block and run, all mapped to a button on the handheld system. All the blood, violence, and fatalities are in there, which admittedly, aren't nearly as shocking as they were back in the day thanks to years of designers one-upping the gore in their own games.

Local multiplayer is a simple matter of hosting a game and letting someone join, or joining a game that someone else is hosting. You'll get a full experience if both players have a cartridge, but the developers managed to squeeze in single cartridge multiplayer where you'll get a taste of the two player combat. The sacrifices in this Download Play option are that you'll only get to fight in one arena, and only four characters (including Scorpion, Jade, and Liu Kang) are playable. In our playtest, local wireless mode was absolutely flawless with no sacrifice in speed.

The real test will be the online multiplayer, and this was the only mode we didn't get a chance to try out due to its early-in-development status. But when it's available you'll be able to hop online using the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service and link up with friends via Friend Code, or random players via a rival system. It'll track your wins and losses in an extensive ranking system.