Mortal Kombat: Deception

I recall when Mortal Kombat was first released to home consoles during the era of the SNES and Genesis. Nintendo would not allow the game to show blood and the developers were forced to show “sweatâ€? being beaten off the characters. Sega had no problem with blood and although the game didn’t look as sharp on the Genesis, players preferred to play it there. Despite the countless sequels, I don’t ever remember there being as much buzz about a Mortal Kombat game until now.

Visually Mortal Kombat Deception is very nice looking with the Xbox version looking a bit nicer than its PS2 counterpart. However, besides slightly better graphics, the game looks almost identical on either system.

To me, the heart of a Fighter is not in the graphics though--it is in the gameplay. Using a similar mechanic from the last MK title, players can freely switch between different fighting styles. These three different styles provide you with a different set of moves and you can practice on linking up a ton of combos using any of the three stances. The moves are all very authentic looking and like a good MK title, you will find plenty of blood. Of course, because this is Mortal Kombat, each character, while they have their own look and special moves, plays very similar to each other. Some people hate this, some love it. It is just the way it has always worked in the MK games.

Players will have to be careful to not trigger a death trap that can be found in the levels. There are several spots that can destroy a player and end the round instantly. These are not always in plain sight and may require you to knock the player back to a different portion of the level. If you do find these to become a bit annoying, Midway also has the option to disable the death traps. Besides the new addition of the death traps, the biggest draw of Mortal Kombat are the fatalities. MK Deception two fatalities per character for you to use against your opponent. And they are bigger, badder, and even bloodier than ever before.

Like in previous MK titles, players compete against a computer, or another player. Each character also has a story mode that you can play through against the computer. However, something new to Mortal Kombat Deception is the online play. Players can compete with gamers around the world using Xbox Live. For the most part, each game is virtually lag free and matches are usually pretty easy to find. Players can also compete against others in Puzzle Kombat or Chess Kombat mini games. Puzzle Kombat is a game very similar to Capcom’s Super Puzzle Fighter 2. Puzzle Fighter 2 is still a great game today and this was a blast for me to play.

Once you grow tired of these features, you will need to play through Konquest Mode to begin unlocking secrets from the game. This is a third person Adventure game that is a bit buggy and not as fun to play as other modes in MK Deception. While this mode does teach the player the basics of gameplay, the missions you go on are very boring. Despite this, you have to go through this mode to unlock hidden goodies within the game.

Overall, Mortal Kombat Deception is the best MK title in quite some time. I would like to see Midway spice up the Konquest mode and expect them to do so when the next incarnation of the series appears. For those of you looking for a new fighter, this is definitely a game to consider.