Mortal Kombat: Deception

"It will konsume you!"

I've been a Mortal Kombat fan ever since I was about 6 years old. I remember my brother buying the game and then we would go play it for hours and hours. It has been a long time since I've played a Mortal Kombat game and I feel that is still the best fighter game around! Whether you are a long time fan of the series or have never played a single MK you will love this game. It has four different game modes to choose from (some are better than others) and literally hundreds of unlockables! So lets get down to the basics.

Arcade Mode: 10/10. Absolutely flawless! This is why Mortal Kombat is such a great game. The combat system is beautiful; you can pull off amazing combos and several special moves (each depending on which character you choose). Each character has three different fighting styles including one weapon style. The styles consist of different martial arts and look great. You can even link each style with a little practice. There are five different difficulty levels to choose from so whether you are a noob or a veteran there is a setting for you. If you have a friend to play with it's even better! It's just so great to be able to school your friend (or computer) and then pull off a fatality just to rub it in their face. This is also the first online mortal kombat which I'm sure would make Deception even better (I don't have online so I can't comment too much on this however). Deception also introduces Hara-Kiri's allowing you to kill yourself before your opponent gets the chance. So if you are playing online or against a friend and they want the pleasure of finishing you off, don't give them a chance. After you have lost the match, just put in a easy combination to perform a Hara-Kiri. Your character will then do a finish themselves off.

Chess Mode: 8/10. I used to play chess a lot in my younger days so naturally this mode appeals to me. At the beginning of the game you choose your pieces (who you want your king and pawns and other pieces to be). The pieces don't move exactly like a regular chess game, but that's actually a pretty good thing. Instead of simply taking your opponents space by landing on it, you fight for the square. The amount of life you start out with depends on the type of piece. I would give this mode a 10 but the loading can be a bit of a drag. It has to load from the chess board, to the fight, and back to the board again. This just gets on my nerves a little bit but it is still a very fun mode.

Puzzle Mode: 7/10. This is a mode where you play a game similar to Tetris and little deformed characters duke it out on the bottom of your screen. It's pretty fun, and once again there are many different difficulty levels to adjust the computer AI. I haven't really played this mode much simply because the other two modes listed above are so fun. You play the best of three rounds and at the end you get to see a stage fatality, depending where you are playing. I haven't had the privilege to play against a friend on this mode but I'm sure it's even better then against the computer.

Konquest: 5/10. Sadly, if you don't have a GameShark or something like that you will have to play this mode. Konquest is a story mode with the main character (Shujinko) training to be a warrior and fight in the Mortal Kombat tournament. Basically it takes you on a repetitive journey that can ruin the game for someone (obviously not me seeing as I gave the game a 9). However if you are new to the MK series it serves as a tutorial for the game. The reason you need to play this mode is that it is the only way to unlock a lot of the characters. Along your journey you will find keys and coins of different colors. The keys will unlock several features in the krypt (the area where you get your unlockables) and so will the coins. There are hundreds of graves to choose from so it can be annoying if you want a specific character.

If you take the average of all my scores it would appear I should have given this game about a 7. The reason I still give it a 9 is that the modes that I like are so great that it more then makes up for the less fun modes. Whether you are a long time fan or have never played a Mortal Kombat game I think you should pick this one up today.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/07/05