Ancient Chinese thinking dictates that where there is yin, there's yang. Light and dark, good and evil - a balance. So back in the early '90s, when Street Fighter 2 ruled the cutting-edge podium of 2D fighters, a balance was needed. Enter Mortal Kombat - a 2D scrapper that incorporated great visuals, sinister characters and buckets of gore. Rather than balance the Chi, Mortal Kombat blew the competition clear out of the water.

Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance introduced new characters and fighting styles to a relatively Kombat-starved Xbox audience. Deception picks up the blood-soaked baton and continues the series in fine fashion, and beats its little brother into submission with the addition of several great new features. We join the story where Deadly Alliance left off - Raiden is defeated, Shang Tseung and Quan Chi have turned on each other, and Onaga, fearsome Dragon King of the Outworld, has returned to claim power. In short, bad news all round.

At the heart of the title is the classic Kombat mode. Here you fight various opponents, new and old, on your way to facing off with Onaga, who's filling in as the Goro-esque embodiment of evil. The game engine is buffer than ever, with movement faster and smoother than in Alliance. Controls feel more responsive too, resulting in easier, quicker combos. Also, the analogue stick can now be used during combat, which translates into a much more intuitive, less stilted experience. There's a definite graphical improvement over Alliance too - the characters look crisper and move smoother.

The great interaction of combat styles returns, with each character boasting two hand-to-hand methods and a proficiency in one weapons-based discipline. Each style has more distinct advantages than ever, and this plays a huge strategical role in defeating opponents. A quick pull of the Left trigger lets you switch styles. It's immensely satisfying to execute style-branching combos, where kicks and punches are mixed with swipes and slashes in one fatal flurry. These aren't unstoppable however, because Deception is more weighted to defensive play than other MK games, thanks to the great new combo Breakers.

All of these elements combine to produce a much more thoughtful and tactical Mortal match-up than ever before and really go some way to making this one of the most complete scrappers yet. Giving blood may be an honourable activity, but this series has always loved taunting the peace-loving hand-holders, and these fighters could fill an entire hospital's blood quota in one go, letting more claret than a Victorian leech.

The AI opponents are yet again wise to players, who simply perform one or two moves and repeat them to death, so it's vital to learn as many different combos as possible. This'll also stand you in good stead for multiplayer, which is obviously where the action's at in Deception. Brilliantly, Midway has seen fit to include Live play this time round. We'll be reviewing the online side of the game in a future issue, but if it's anything like the normal Versus game, we can expect smooth, responsive bloodletting of the highest calibre.

Another much-trumpeted feature of Deception is Konquest mode. Essentially a massively expanded training mode, players assume the role of a young Shujinko. We follow his quest to retrieve the six kamidogu from the Chaos, Nether, Earth and Outer Realms for the Elder Gods, unwittingly freeing Onaga on the way. Along his travels Shujinko encounters other fighters, who'll either challenge you to fight or train you in their speciality martial arts. Old favourites like Sub Zero, Scorpion, Ermac and Bakara line up with new guys like Kenshi to tutor you their every combo and special move, to then take into Arcade mode and kick serious ass. Wearing the rather shoddy-looking costume of a free-roaming RPG, Konquest mode has nowhere near the visual quality of the main game, with bland environments limited by seemingly endless invisible walls and poor draw distances. What it does offer though, is the chance to take part in a wealth of sub-quests. Recovering the kamidogu doesn't affect the gameplay; it's the numerous hidden items, sub-quests and training that really reward your efforts.

But it's not just a free-roaming adventure that bolsters the main Arcade mode. Puzzle Kombat is an entertaining, colourful Columns/Tetris hybrid featuring two baby brawlers scrapping it out at the bottom of the screen, with the outcome of the duelling dwarves dependent on your block-dropping feats. Successfully defeat your CPU/human adversary, and your pixelated pygmy will comically 'Finish Them' in a hilariously horrible way.

Chess Kombat puts a spine-crushing spin on the board game, where players pick a team from all the usual Arcade mode characters and assign them to pieces such as Grunts (pawns) and Sorcerers (Bishops). Movement is a bit different from the norm, and the board features certain power-up squares. Fate is firmly in your hands, however, when it comes to taking pieces. The action switches to the more familiar fighting perspective and you must fight, Arcade style, to take/retain your piece. The addition of these two games actually adds significant entertainment value as opposed to being merely superfluous mini-games. Played against a friend or over Xbox Live (complete with Optimatch and customisable options), they're brilliant fun.

But let's make no bones about it (although Scorpion would have something to say about that) - Deception is a blood-soaked, gritty fighter through and through. More tactical than its older button-bashing brethren, Midway has produced one of the most complete, technical and accomplished fighting titles ever. A fine addition to the series, and one with more than enough gore-filled gameplay to splatter both lounge and Live arenas for a long while yet. Finish him? You'll be playing this till you do.

1. A significant expansion of Mortal Kombat universe. New additional game modes add a massive amount of entertainment.
2. A faster, smoother game engine, multiple fatalities, new characters and Stage Fatalities all contribute to a more exciting Mortal Kombat experience.
3. New combos, multiple techniques, defensive Breakers and style-branching Kombat - it's the most technically komplete Mortal Kombat to date.
4. The fantastic addition of Xbox Live play over all game modes smashes this straight to the top of the online fighting tree.

1. Konquest mode looks nowhere near as good as the stunning Kombat mode proper, but does provide an invaluable training tool.

A brilliantly brutal, infinitely playable beat-'em-up. The most complete fighting title on Xbox. A credit to the franchise.