The best Mortal Kombat ever?

It has been quite some time since Ed Boon and John Tobias unleashed the Mortal Kombat series onto the world. They have overcome many obstacles to please their fans, including consumer-rating boards, keeping ideas fresh, and moving into the 3D world of fighting. Well it has been 12 years and minus one John Tobias and the Mortal Kombat, series is back to the prime status they once enjoyed in the early 90's. Sure, the popularity may not be the fever pitch it was back in their heyday, but the game still sells by the millions and fans will continue to line up as long as the series does not begin to age again. The newest MK title to hit shelves comes in the form of Mortal Kombat: Deception. It is the second attempt on the next generation consoles for Ed Boon and his diligent team, and their efforts are paying off in spades. Not only did they add more of what the fans asked for when playing Deadly Alliance, but they went way above and beyond the call of duty when supplying fans with more characters, moves, modes, and it is all online too boot (with the exception of the GameCube version)! If you've never been a fan of the combo driven series, no great amount of options will change your mind, but fans just may be in for the best Mortal Kombat since part 2... if not ever!

Visuals this year are top notch and continue to explore the deep and complex world of the MK universe. The character models are extremely detailed, move fluidly even with all the fighting style variances and changes on the fly, and the backdrops supply some very cool multi tiered new levels, as well as reliving some old favorites from older versions of MK. The blood is back and flows like sweet wine... buckets and buckets of sweet wine. There is indeed no limit that team Boon feels could not be reached. The team continues to find new ways to shock their audience with new and far more brutal fatalities. With larger levels, stage fatalities, great looking and unique player models, ultra violent content, and a load of extra hidden goodies for fans of the series, this is the best-looking Mortal Kombat to date. Audio is just as excellent, as the sound effect thump so hard you feel them in your chest. Each punch, kick, and weapon sound has a distinctive impact of sound. The music is still the same somber, dark and moody variety fit just for this series. Once major gripe that must be addressed is the voice acting during Konqest mode; It is absolutely atrocious! If testers had a taste of the lack of talent coming from the voice-over crew for this mode and they did not ask for just subtitles, it should be a documented fact that these testers have no ears. Sure, the Konquest mode is basically a one time through affair, but to endure this voice acting for 4-10 hours is asking a lot from fans. Otherwise, all the other sound effect fit the game and does a more than adequate job in providing mood and sound effects.

Game play is where the series hits the love/hate relationship between fighting fans. I am not going to get into the haters, as there is no convincing them otherwise no matter what argument you may present to them. If you are not a fan of the MK style of fighting, then by all means stop reading this article, as you opinion will not change. For the rest of us who adore the series, you can rest assured that this game plays just as fluidly, deep, and with many complex combos that will have you mastering that one favorite of yours to take on all comers. For the unfamiliar, the MK series works off a set of combination button presses that result in some killer combos. As like last year, the MK series has branched off into adding more depth in the form of fighting styles. Each character has three such fighting styles, which are unique to each character, two fighting and one weapon style. The depth comes in the form that you can switch back and forth to any fighting styles on the fly. This not only keeps your opponent on their toes, but also throws a bit of diversity in the mix. The key to being successful is waiting for your opponent to make a mistake or leave themselves open. Added this year to the mix is a combo breaker that will help players who are helpless against the barrage of combination punches that string repeatedly. The CPU A.I. has gotten the juice to feel much more like a human player than in previous versions. You will find that the CPU will react to combos, moves, and techniques and even seems that they learn your tendencies, which will make things much more difficult as the game progresses. What hasn't been looked into as of yet is a way to counter those damn juggles. If you find a character who can string a combination of juggle hits on you, it is near impossible to defend against it. With that minor quibble out of the way, which is one that fans are used to by now, devotees to the MK series will find the game play in this Deceptions a step above Deadly Alliance, with just enough new additions that will give hope for sequels to come.

Mortal Kombat Deception has the most replay value of any MK game before it. You obviously have your combat mode that acts like an arcade mode. You play against the CPU or human, but against the CPU, you will move along the tier of enemies until you defeat the final boss. You are then treated to character endings and credits. Added to the series this year is a slew of new modes that will keep players busy for quite sometime. You have the Konquest Mode that puts you in the story of a young man who wants to be like his famed heroes from the Mortal Kombat tournaments. You will progress though this story, meeting people, training, collecting items, and finding unlockables. This mode is a fun little single player adventure mode that will keep players busy for a few hours and allows them a different way to find the goodies hidden in the game. Next, you have once of the coolest additions added to a fighting game in quite some time. Chess Kombat replicates the old Battle Chess series from my childhood. You choose your pieces that will be represented by fighters of your choice. The object is to get to the champion, or king, piece and win the game. That catch here is that even though you may have out-witted your opponent on the chessboard, you must still take that piece in true Mortal Kombat style. Lastly, the Boon team has added a game mode that is also a classic replication, but has no one-on-one fighting of any kind. In Puzzle Kombat, you play a Tetris or Super Puzzle Fighter knockoff title as characters of your choice duel on the bottom of your screen. The fighting that goes on below has no real significance on your game, but the animations and goings on are cool... and they are animated in the big head anime variety as well. What makes MK Deception so phenomenal is that all of these modes, with the exclusion of Konquest, can be played online against people all over! With MK finally online, the old feeling of competitive one-on-one play is back, but now in the privacy of your own home instead of a sweaty arcade hall. Now it is time for all you so-called Mortal Kombat champions to put up or shut up.

This is what fans have been waiting for. This is the definitive Mortal Kombat title. You have more fatalities, self-fatalities (hara-kiri), stage fatalities, more characters, four deep modes of play, unlockable Krypt items, and online play. My curiosity peaks to see how Ed Boon and his team can top this, which is easily one of the best MK games ever created... if not the best.