Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance

"Blood Bath Dance"

When you think about Mortal Kombat, the first thing that generally comes to mind is a plethora of senseless violence and bloody gore. Not to disappoint the Kombat fans that have been playing the series for ten years, Deadly Alliance has come with a basket of blood, guts, fighting and fatalities abound. Though the game has taken a huge step forward in the past decade, you’ll find that the new look and feel is something that both veterans and newcomers to the series can enjoy. With new gaming modes and plenty of things that you can unlock throughout the game, there is plenty here to tide gamers over until another installment comes along.

The X-Box version of Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance is a game that features some impressive visuals in the three-dimensional fighting arena. You’ll see that the game has plenty going for it in all areas, except that the control set-up is a little harder to work with than you might expect. If you can get through that little problem, then the rest of the game is a piece of cake. As with the other two versions of this title, it is exactly the same in the way that it plays, looks, and sounds, though the handling is widely different that you would find in the Play Station 2 version and the Game Cube version respectively.

This Week On Days Of Our Shaolin Lives…

The story that you find here in Deadly Alliance is pretty much what you would expect from the Kombat Crew in which Quan Chi and Shang Tsung have come to an agreement that will satisfy them both. With Quan Chi’s discovery of a tomb that houses a grand, invincible army and Shang Tsung’s ability to give the army life through the use of souls, the Deadly Alliance has been formed. In order to start this Alliance out and head for world Domination, Both Quan Chi and Shang Tsung must first take out the two most powerful warriors in both the Earth and Outworld Realm.

With the assassination of Shao Kahn and the murder of Liu Kang, Tsung and Chi have nothing to stand in their way for world domination other than the warriors brought together by the Thunder God, Raiden. With warriors from both factions, good and evil fighting in the tournament, it remains to be seen just who will come out on top to defeat the Deadly Alliance. Fighters from slaves to the military are fighting in this tournament where old scores are settled and new threats are now coming to the surface.

Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting…

The game play that you find in Deadly Alliance is about as diverse as the characters and the fighting styles that you come across while you play through the game. In the previous Mortal Kombat games, you had but one fighting style and some special moves to work with. In this installment of Mortal Kombat, you now have specific fighting styles that are directly linked to each character. With over twenty characters to choose from, you’ll be able to fighting with traditional martial arts styles such as Karate and Tae Kwon Do and more interesting but perfectly functional styles such as Crab and Dragon styles.

As with most fighting games today, you have the ability to change all sorts of options as you start playing through the title. From the options menu, you can change the time, the amount of blood and gore that you have flying all over the place and also the amount of matches it takes before you get into the smaller mini games that allow you to earn Kurrency. Another cool feature that Deadly Alliance offers up to the table is the ability to create your own player profile so that you and you alone can use and view whatever it is that you find in the game and buy with the collected Kurrency.

The Krypt is what will catch most gamers and keep them glued to the game for at least a coupe of weeks depending on the amount of playing that you do. For the most part, there are six hundred and seventy six coffins inside the Krypt that allow you to buy things such as fighting arenas and more characters to work with in the game. All of the coffins have a certain numerical value that must be met with a specific amount of kurrency before it can be obtained. While a small portion of the items inside the Krypt are useful, the rest of what you find will be simple bonuses that allow you to see other facets of the game and its production.

Another interesting feature that you have to work with is the Konquest Mode in which you can select a specific character and learn not only the attacks and combinations that are prominent throughout the game, but also how to master the character. Each passing stage delves deeper into the back story of how each character is called into the game and not only that, you can learn how to use the character effectively through the style switching that is needed in later stages of the game. As you progress, you also earn kurrency to use in the Krypt, making for a double reward.

Control is something that you’re going to have to learn to use all over again with the change style button being a new feature to the game. The attack buttons of old that came in the form of high and low kicks and punches has been replaced with a much more intensive interface that is more like Tekken with specific buttons. While this might seem a little daunting at first, the most difficult factor that you have to work with is actually getting the more advanced combinations to complete through the style changes. Once you’ve mastered that, the control and even the fatalities are a breeze to master and use.

The X-Box version of the game has a few things in the control scheme that take some getting used to and if you’re using the first generation X-Box controller, then you’ll find that the button placement can get in the way of some of the higher hitting combinations. Button placement on the controller can have a little play on the way that you hit your enemies, especially when you’re playing the game on a higher difficulty. The directional pad is a little off and you’ll find that using the analog doesn’t really help matters either. If you can get the button configuration the way that you want it, then you might find that practice will make perfect and you might find that the game has plenty of options when switching through the fighting styles.

Egads! Your Face is Leaking!

If you were looking for more blood and more violence, you really can’t get much better than this. Blood literally rains to the floor and you’ll find that the game has plenty of gore and special effects that will keep you staring at the screen for a good deal of time. From the special attacks that seem to literally blaze across the screen to the ultra-violent and outlandish fatalities that you’ll find, Deadly Alliance has plenty going for it. The characters are smooth and move near realistically, and the action is both fast and seamless.

Arenas and effects are all detailed with motion going on not only in the fight, but in the background as well. The wind blows and the rain falls, with some stages having more going on in the background to catch your eye than just the fight. Other smaller details that are given to the game are the footsteps that are left once you’ve beaten on your opponent enough to spill blood and then track it as you advance or retreat across the stage. Further into the visuals, you’ll be able to see visual damage on the face of yourself and your opponent once you’ve laid the smack down with a vicious combination.

Sing Me a Song..

The audio that you find is a cross between rock and dance beats that has some good sounding bass lines and a near catchy tunes. However, some of the stages that the music appears on seems to be misplaced, and you might find that some of the more cryptic and darker areas of the game just have a tune that is too upbeat to really make sense. The announcer with the dark voice is back again, and it almost sounds like the announcer from the second Mortal Kombat with some added depth. The character screams and weapons attacks all chime and roar through a good stereo setup, while small voice clips with a couple of the characters is a little comical and breaks the simple thud and blood spilling sounds.

MORTAL KOMBAT!

Deadly Alliance is a pretty impressive entry into the Mortal Kombat series but seems to have some problems when it comes to the amount of true secrets there are to find. While the fighting that you have is fast and furious and the challenge in the arcade mode is interesting, Deadly Alliance has just enough to keep it in the ranks, but not enough to make it a flawless game. With plenty of small items to find and some interesting extras that are found throughout, Deadly Alliance is a game that can keep you busy during vacations and the weekends, but nothing that can’t be topped by other fighting games on the market.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/03/03, Updated 02/03/03