It’s funny how an unauthorized bootleg can be elevated to such greatness that it completely outclasses an official release from Midway. That’s exactly what Vasil did here with this hack, and it’s so good that it makes Mortal Kombat Advance even more of a shameful dumpster fire than it already is.

For reference, MKA was a port of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 for the GBA that was so bad that it was unplayable, and every gaming magazine hated it. With that in mind, it’s hard to imagine the same game running with any modicum of quality on a NES.

Yet here we are; the base game is unsurprisingly mediocre, but the hack completely transforms it into a beastly port of UMK3, crammed with as much of the original game as humanly possible.

Familiar stages are beautifully rendered with lots of gritty details and dark, grungy color pallets. Digitized voice clips make it even harder to believe that it’s running on a NES. The 8-bit renditions of UMK3’s soundtrack are solid as well. Keep your ears open for the theme song from the 1995 movie.

What’s even crazier is that the hack expands the base game’s meager lineup to include UMK3’s entire roster, along with secret characters, and they are gorgeously rendered with fluid animations and impressive levels of detail. Signature moves and fatalities are all there as well. Bonus: select Kitana or unmasked Sub-Zero, and hold Up + Start before the round starts.

My only gripe is that Motaro is the only character that can’t be selected by any conventional means, and I wonder if it’s because of space limitations on the character select screen. If anything, I would have gladly swapped out the Kano-copy Noob Saibot to make room for him.

Overall, this hack is pure gold, doing what Midway failed to do with MKA. Not only is it an astonishingly good demake, It’s also the most robust fighting game that I’ve seen on the NES. Highly recommended.