Over the last few years,Nintendo Switch Onlinehas gradually become a service truly worth subscribing to. Back when it first came out, the $20 price tag of Nintendo Switch Online still seemed fair, but it didn’t feel like fans were getting too much for their money, with NSO’s online functionality being temperamental at best and just a handful of NES and SNES games to play via emulation. Flashing forward almost six years, Nintendo Switch Online has become a service worthy of fans' time, attention, and money, bringing not just NES and SNES games to the mix, but also Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, and N64 games as well - albeit withSwitch Online’s Expansion Pack.
Much like the previous consoles on Nintendo Switch Online, theGame Boy and Game Boy Advance librariesare still being gradually expanded, with new titles coming to the service on a fairly regular basis. While the current Switch Online Game Boy line-up is genuinely great, with classics likeMetroid 2,Zelda: Link’s Awakening, andSuper Mario Land 2on there, it could always be better, and there’s one strangeMortal Kombatentry that would make for a fascinating addition.
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Mortal Kombat Advance Would Be a Wild Pick for Nintendo Switch Online
Released in December 2001 for the Game Boy Advance,Mortal Kombat Advanceisa port ofUltimate Mortal Kombat 3, which in itself is an updated version of the 1995 original version ofMortal Kombat 3. Generally speaking,Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3is widely considered to be one of the better entries in franchise history, improving on its predecessors in a few subtle ways and including a wealth of content that both long-time fans and newcomers can enjoy. On paper,Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3is the perfect game to port to a handheld device, but that is just on paper.
Mortal Kombat Advanceis widely considered to be one of, if not the worst entry inthe entireMortal Kombatfranchise. On its initial release back in 2001,Mortal Kombat Advancereceived universal criticism for a bevy of reasons. The biggest issue withMortal Kombat Advanceis its control scheme, with the Game Boy Advance’s four-button layout simply not offering enough flexibility forMortal Kombat 3’s action. A slew of technical issues also plagued the port, along with a frankly unfair difficulty curve that led to some of its stages being nearly impossible to beat.
By all accounts,Mortal Kombat Advanceis a truly awful video game. But that only adds to its allure all these years later. For the vast majority ofMortal Kombatfans,Mortal Kombat Advanceis just some infamously terrible, far-off port that they’ve never tried for themselves, likely due to the fact that it’s oddly expensive to own nowadays, much like a lot of the GBA’s library. MostMortal Kombatfans have never had the chance to see the disaster that isMortal Kombat Advanceup close, andNintendo Switch Onlinecould finally change that.
In the entertainment industry, the phrase “so bad it’s good” often gets stapled onto projects so inherently broken that they become a fascinating oddity to observe. Movies likeThe RoomorThe Happeningare often hailed as some of the most critically disappointing movies of all time, but fans adore them due to their absurdity. The gaming landscape doesn’t have too many “so bad it’s good” games, butMortal Kombat Advancehas the chance to be one now. 22 years removed from its release date, fans might be willing to giveMortal Kombat Advanceanother chance, even if it is just to laugh at its incompetence. It might not be a hit for the same reasons as the rest ofNintendo Switch Online’s library, butMortal Kombat Advancewould certainly entice curious fans.
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