Midway Games has annouced today that Mortal Kombat Advance has been shipped for the Nintendo Gameboy Advance. Check back here soon for our new MK Advance section along with some other surprises.

Click on over to Midway.com as they have just posted a small link to "Mortal Kombat" towards the top of the page. This link brings up a pop-up window with a short flash clip stating that Mortal Kombat will be coming to next generation consoles Fall 2002. Then you can sign up for breaking updates by providing your email address and birth date. Notice nowhere do you see a "5". Maybe Midway is sticking to its original name afterall.

If anyone is interested IGN Pocket released an interview with the guys over at Virtucraft, developer of Mortal Kombat Advance, about their part in the conversion of UMK3 for the Nintendo Gameboy Advance. Here are some highlights:

IGNpocket: Why did you choose to go with Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 in bringing the series to the handheld? Why not MK Trilogy, or even a version of Mortal Kombat 4?

Brian Beuken: The GBA is essentially a 2D system and we wanted to produce the an amalgam of best of the 2D games. Its not a straight port of UMK3, rather it takes the best bits from Mortal Kombat 1, 2, 3, and Trilogy and crunches them all together.

Midway.com has updated today with a section dedicated to Mortal Kombat Advance which has 4 additional screenshots from the game. The following is taken from the site:

- More than 20 characters to select from, including bosses and hidden characters
- Discover all of the combos, fatalities and friendships
- Master your technique in single player Mortal Kombat
- Use the Game Boy® Advance Game Link® Cable to battle your friends in 1-on-1 and 2-on-2 Kombat

Pocket IGN has finally come through with twelve screenshots of the upcoming Mortal Kombat Advance! All returning characters from  Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 seem to have made the return except Sheeva. Everything from Fatalities to Friendships are intact making this the largest Mortal Kombat handheld port ever created. Support for two players will be available via a link cable.  MK Advance, developed by Virtucraft, is set to be released December 30, 2001. All shots below are courtesy of IGN.