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THANKS I HATED IT

The sad thing is that you can't even blame this on limitations of hardware. GBA was in fact perfectly capable of handling fighting games, and had solid ports of SF2, SFA3 and GGX. These all had better presentation and gameplay than MKA, and were far more feature complete. It feels like Midway and Virtucraft didn't quite grasp what GBA was capable of and specced the game like it's made for a slightly souped up GBC.

"It's better than 0.0." I remember Electronic Gaming Monthly reviewed this game. They DID give it a 0.0. the first bolded sentence was "No, that score is not a mistake. Yes, this game is that bad."

I didn't expect Pikamee, that took me completely by surprise.

I've only ever read urban legends, but this abomination is real! The sad part is how GBA was more than capable of making this a great port.

The funny thing about Virtucraft's last game, the Samurai Jack one you mention at 19:50, is that it was probably their best and most ambitious game, and a very competent Metroidvania at that.

Back in high school, I worked at a grocery store and during one of my shifts, found three GBA games on the ground outside, probably dropped by some kid. One of the games was Mortal Kombat Advance and I was super hype for it being a big fan of the franchise. When I got home, I excitedly put the cartridge in and powered it on. I played it less than five minutes before I was so irritated at that broken mess that despite finding the game on the ground, I felt I should still get a refund. But I also got The Pinball of the Dead, so I guess there was a silver lining.

I always laugh at how Nightwolf can neutral jump up and completely drain a health bar with a kick in this version.

I remember receiving this game for Christmas in 2001. I had played Mortal Kombat Trilogy on my older brother's PS1 and always craved more, so I was happy to play Mortal Kombat on my GBA. But oooh boy, was this a steaming pile of crap

"Finish him!" - Shao Khan, commanding Matt to perform a fatality on MK Advance.

"The ways to finish off your opponent HAVE DRASTIC GONE DOWN" Heh, I understood that reference.

To go along the trend of "Terrible fighting game on the GBA", I would love an episode on Dragon Ball Z: Taiketsu! Even as a kid, who was obsessed with Dragon Ball, it was obvious to me how bad it was. Grotesquely bad visuals, terrible game feel, and some of the "special moves" characters can do are hilarious. There's a pretty infamous Vegeta special that's pretty hilarous!

Believe it or not, THIS is NOT the worst MK port on a portable system. That honor goes to the MK 4 port on the Game Boy Color. Are ya listening, Matt McMuscles? :)

The game should’ve been a lot better than it turned out. The GBA was more than capable of a good rendition. Even SSF2 Turbo was better than what came out here.

Freddy dragging ketchup to hell to play mk advance was great.

"It's better than 0.0." Hope the poor guy didnt see the score EGM gave it.

Don't forget that it had nearly no random number generator. Almost every game would be identical the order you would fight opponents each time you started a new game after booting the Gameboy up.

I almost bought this instead of deadly alliance. I dodged the equivalent of a bullet.

HELL YEAH, I LOVE THIS GAME! It's so bad that is the only way i can be decent in a fighting game! No, but really, I just find it somehow charming how shitty this game is.

Everytime I watch one of these, or when Matt plays crappy games in general, I admire that there's going to be someone in the comments who say they either owned game when they were young and/or they liked the game. It doesn't matter how bad or obscure the game is. This is the law.

I vaguely recall reading a review for this in a gaming magazine way back in the day, and the reviewer describing the gameplay using the phrase "drunken spaceman physics"

One day I hope MrGstar returns to play MK Advance. I can already tell that would be an absolute channel highlight.

5:21 nice cameo dayo

So glad this series is continuing.

'Drastic go down' Holla, I hear ya.

Looking at the list at 2:53, I recognized one game: The Powerpuff Girls: Bad Mojo Jojo. Was it a bad game? Well, 12 year-old me liked it (which isn’t saying much). I remember the final boss being Mojo Jojo, and he had about three phases. The subway level was the hardest for me since you had to traverse your way back to the entrance before the subway collapsed. That was pretty cool imo. Bad Mojo Jojo was the Blossom version. There was a Bubbles and a Buttercup version of the games. Buttercup had the Gangrene Gang as the final boss, and Bubbles had Fuzzy Lumpkin (I think). Each version had different collectible cards which encouraged players to trade with friends or buy the different versions. Also, you could enter a secret password to fight a Rowdy Ruff Boy.

Mortal Kombat DS was so much better, it was an arcade perfect port of Ultimate 3 with Puzzle Kombat included (Oh you included it, it's my favorite port of UMK3)

I had this shit in my childhood even then I knew it was awful. Could never beat it even on easiest. I thought I'd gotten rid of it only to find last year it'd been lurking in the depths of my cupboards the whole time. So I finally did what child me couldn't do and beat the game all the way through once by spamming special moves. It wasn't satisfying at all but at least the nightmare is over. Stay where you belong MK Advance. In my memories.

I remember my "favorite" technique with this game. Hold the run button, push the AI to the corner, then punch them to death. Worked every time. Lol

The word "Portable" and the term "Fighting Game" usually don't mix very well, I think that even nowadays making a good fighting game in a portable console is an achievement by itself.

Freaking love this series. I usually put it on the moment I see it. Hope to see Pit Fighter from the SNES get judged soon

The only fighting game I ever actually loved on GBA was Tekken Advance.

I remember a cousin of mines had MK Tournament Edition on the GBA and it blew my mind how good it looked and played - - few years later picked up MK for the DS and it was great playing online over the McDonald's Wifi! Good times! And when I got tired of that I pulled out the other MK (mario kart for DS) nostalgia that's 15yrs ago easily!

mk advance was such a letdown, even street fighter and tekken got it right though not perfect . i traded a game for this crap being the huge mk fanboy i am . why are the jump sound effects the girls? endless loop music and terrible controls and sound

I wonder if we'll ever get around to Simpson's Wrestling? It would be a crossover of two McMuscles series'!

I love this show. You know what would be nice? A similar show but ranking poverty fighting games, unknown games that are quite good, there are a lot of hidden gems out there

Me and my good friend both owned this game and at the time we were buzzing that we had MK on the go. I remember many years later we dusted off the old nugget and didnt realise how frickin bad it was 🤣 Nostalgia is a hell of a drug

When I was like 6 my mom’s friend gave this game to me, I was absolutely stoked to have mortal kombat at such a young age. Slowly I realized this game was absolute bullshit, so insanely frustrating even on easy difficulties. The amount of combo spamming the AI would do almost drove me to tears, quickly became my least favorite game to play on the game boy. God watching this video is triggering all those negative memories with the pile of doodoo.

Ketchup guest starring on this episode was a treat. Having two of my favorite people that talk about fighting games together in the same video is awesome

This was my first game boy advanced game I got for my first GBA SP for my 6th birthday. It was a rough time, but back then, we put up with ANYTHING! 🤣

Trilogy is the only definitive way to play MK3 if you ask me.

I recommend Legends of Success Joe for this series. It's absolutely the worst Neo Geo game

I wonder how Mortal Kombat 9, X and 11 would look like if Midway was still around in this very day and age ?

Was just now binging your playlist before I noticed when I refreshed that there was a new video, perfect timing Matt~

At first I thought this was talking about one of the 3D gba MK's as it was my first MK games. Soon as I saw the presentation I was like "oh what in sweet hell"

Funny thing is, I've played the PS1 V1.1 MK:T on the GBA at my school with my friend without any outlets. It used the GBA TV adapter, portable PS1 battery, and connected it using the composite cable. It was a very funny and memorable time, especially without the backlight screen. Watching this gave me a little nostalgia, even if it wasn't this specific game.

Excellent video! I love seeing these wacky versions covered.

Where the hell is Shadow: War of Succession not on here yet? Oh, right, cause it's a 3DO exclusive. Just borrow Jame's 3DO and copy of the game.

5:22 - as if we need more evidence that Matt is deep into the rabbit hole...

...I was *NOT* expecting to see my first brush with the dreaded "Cheap Licensed Game" mentioned on this. I thought the logo looked familiar...The moment you showed and mentioned "Dexter's Lab" is the moment I began to feel an old dread crawl up my spine...

2:57 Holy crap, seeing that GBA Croc game just unlocked SO many memories for me, that's one I *vividly* remember playing back in the day, haha.

I love this series thank you Mr. McMuscles :>

I'm still waiting for an episode on Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout or Dragon Ball Z Taiketsu

I never have time to watch all your videos, but whenever I find time, there’s gotta be some damn Steiner reference 11:18 ! Love it!

19:23 Holy crap, my headphones are actually so good that I heard a phone go off under him talking the music. Money well spent, unlike MK:A at the pawn shop down the street, which is good target practice at best.

The DS version of UMK3 on the other hand was ridiculously well done

Okay. You know what? This is an actual contender.

I remember the EGM review for this, all 0.0s, still remember how fun it was to read them shit talk that game so beautifully.

My dad bought this as a Christmas gift for me the year it came out. I was SO psyched. Everything looked great and even at the character select screen I was thinking "wow this is legit!" Then I got to the gameplay part and five minutes later I was like "I'm never touching this again.".

It absolutely baffles me to no end that they were able to make TWO decent ports of MK5 to the GBA, but somehow messed up a UMK3 port. How is that even possible?

I loved playing MKII on the original Gameboy. From my vague memories of it, it ran pretty smoothly, and had a decent amount of content for such limited hardware. When MK3 was released, I snapped it up, but that was complete night and day to its predecessor. IT just didn't "feel" right... (Just to note, I didn't get a SNES until many years later, after the N64's release, so I didn't have much choice when it came to fighting games)

11:13 Gotta love the Scott Steiner reference 🤣

I dropped my phone under my bed though a tiny gap in the wall while watching this, so the entire time I was struggling to rescue it (I ended up having to move the entire bed to get to it) this video was playing. I think that’s about right in the whole experience.

Ketchup's acting here was really good. Sounded so genuine.

When I was 10 I got very sick and had to go to stay at a hospital for about 2 weeks and my dad got me a brand new gba and this game haha! I remember trying to learn to cheese the ai since it was the only game I had!

You know what funny, how they could have fix the limited buttons for the moves? They could have put in all the basic moves in if they copies the Genesis Batman Forever game 3 button layout. Hold back and kick for a sweep, hold forward and kick for a round house. and for the rapid punches hold forward to do the high rapid punches, and you just need one low kick and a uppercut. and add in a training mode and mini move list that tells the player about the redone moves.

Lolol that subtle insert of "pull over that ass too fat" over shiva.

Interesting video. Looking at some of those early ports then comparing them to something like Mortal Kombat 11 on Switch shows just how far technology's come. For a bad fighting game, I'd suggest The Simpsons Wrestling.

So many P's... "It's called alliteration, and it's art."

I was hoping when you plugged this series in your other video it meant a new one was coming!

My hope is to see "Fight!", an infamous PS4/Switch fighting game, because is probably the worst PS4 fighting game I ever played.

The GBA received amazing ports of DOOM 1 and 2. This was sad to see MK like this.

13:46 "YOU FOUND THE PASSAGE FROM THE TRASH HEAP TO THE SECRET LAB" :D

I love your new persona drawings! Especially the one with the Ryu bandana!

Was that a Steiner Math quote out of nowhere?

The GBA is stronger than the 16-bit consoles so it should've been perfectly capable of handling UMK3. Too bad the Midway higher ups got an incompetent studio to develop that disastrous GBA port.

I was always baffled at the GBAs lack of buttons. And backlight.

5:10 God this was just like a year ago or something, how did Pikamee sound so DIFFERENT back then lol

Matt, thanks for playing these so we don't have to!

Off topic, I really like your fighting game look on your sona. Curious, if you had to choose what kind of fighting style what would it be? Like Ryu?, like Ken? Etc?

11:12 Love the subtle Steiner math reference

Great video but what’s new you always make fantastic content! Keep it up man!

Tekken Advance will always be the king of Gameboy fighting games for me. It's so damn good.

This and Doom where some unfortunate ports I had the displeasure of being my first experience with both games. It wouldn't be another 14 years before I actually got to experience them as intended

This gives me so much appreciation for the SF2 GBA port I had as a kid. I didn't know at all what sf was and how important sf2 was, but that gba port had so much stuff to do, I spent hours on it just being bad, but playing SF 2!

My standard recommendation is Tongue of the Fatman but the perverse idea of doing a Variable Geo retrospective just popped into my head.

The fact that the characters do that social distancing thing before a match reminds me of Art of Fighting where the characters do the exact same social distancing thing when or before it's time to fight.

And yet Tekken Advance absolutely kicks ass.

I got the GBA when it first came out, and as someone who really loved MK1, MK2, MK3, UMK3, I saw MKA and thought: That sounds stupid. Doesn't even have enough buttons for this. I skipped it and got WWF Road to WrestleMania later. Dodged one bullet, and got devastated by another.

6:28 I see you too own a GBA SP XXL. Totally an underrated hardware revision.

i think street fighter alpha 3 was the best gba fighting game

Fighting games on the Game Boy always felt weird to me. Moves in fighting games require multiple button inputs yet there’s only 4 buttons on the GBA.

9:50 I believe that Jax didn't become a giant man, just a giant leg if you try to calculate where his other leg is

Whenever Matt interacts with K&M or Maximiiam Dood it's awesome

I see Pikamee and immediately know who edited this

This game has some awful controls. I played it back in the day I had my gba and everything feels both delayed and non responsive. The specials never come out consistently. It kinda reminds me of street fighter 1

Great video as always. And awesome to see Ketchup here!

lmao the Steiner "drastic gone down" at 11:27

pushin 🅿️