Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance

"Round 8. Will it ever end?"

*Brief Note*
This review is very long! I have been an admirer of Mortal Kombat (MK from hence forth) for over 10 years now. I'm truly a veteran MK aficionado. Therefore, I wish to be in-depth and comprehensive with any reviews and/or literature regarding the franchise. If you're going to read any of this review, please take the time to read it in its entirety. Please ignore errors and typos, they're undoubtedly plentiful. Thank you.

Author
My handle is MoietyOfTheMatrix. If it's not an obvious indication of my interest in the Matrix films, I don't know what would be. I have been playing video games since the late 1980s. The first video game I ever played was PacMan. Soon after I was introduced to Asteroid, Centipede, and Tempest. Since that time I have sampled a copious variety of games, systems, and accessories. I currently have a mint condition Genesis, Nomad, SNES, N64, Saturn, Playstation, and a Xbox. I love PC video games as well.

Expanded Synopsis
MK: Deadly Alliance (MKDA from hence forth) is Midway's newest installment in the MK family. I have found this reincarnation to be very satisfying, in spite of its apparent flaws. Round 8 refers to the fact that there are seven other MK fighting games.

MK History
With the dawn of every new MK game we have seen the pandemonium, the hype, the enthrallment, and of course, the manifestation of neophyte enthusiasts. Not that every person who hasn't been playing MK since the very first one is pretentious, but I have found many would-be MK fans to be marginally ignorant of its chronology. Below is a list of all of the MK fighting games thus far [I chose to omit the RPGs because I see them as spin offs]. I feel that this also helps to better elucidate the opinions I express in my literal review below.

1992 - MK1 was unleashed onto unsuspecting gamers nationwide. Word of its existence disseminated. Proliferation of the game's fan base grew to unstoppable proportions. MK was destined for prodigious popularity. It sported live action people fighting in a very Asian derived 2D world. It was heavily centered on Asian mythology and martial arts. And the most appealing attribute of them all was MK's level of violence. It was unforgiving in its display of unmerciful and uncensored gore. Each fighter had the same basic moves: high punch, low punch, high kick, low kick, and block. Combining directional movements with these buttons elicited the same basic tactics with each person. Backward movement while pressing high kick resulted in a round house kick no matter who you were playing as. Such simplicity was appealing, and permissible at the time. Two fighters fought in front of beautiful and sometimes animate backgrounds. An anonymous announcer shouted ''Round X: Fight!'' at the start of ever match. The announcer also spoke when a fighter won. By default there could only be 3 rounds maximum. Whomever won two rounds had the privilege of finishing their defeated foe with a Fatality, a gruesome climatic move that would ensure death. They ranged from kicking people off screen, to pulling their heads off, and even setting people on fire! It was a classic from the moment the first arcade machine was plugged in. I was fortunate enough to be a gamer in 92, cognizant enough to understand and appreciate what I played.

1993 - The success of MK1 made the idea of a sequel no longer a possibility, but rather an inevitable reality. Fans demanded it. Even if Midway didn't want to, it would have been foolish of them as a company had they not invested in MK2. Well, they not only invested, but they invested quickly. The second MK was released roughly one year later. Every character got a complete makeover. The button layout and basic moves were exactly the same as MK1, and the simplicity remained intact. The Special Moves of older characters were further elaborated. And each character now had 2 fatalities. We also saw a lot of new faces. With each new face came more stunning moves, endings, and bios. MK2 also saw the creation of Babe-alities and Friendships. These finishing moves allowed one fighter to do something nice for a change. The point behind these was to poke fun at all of the controversy surrounding the game's violent motif. They were basically a form of comic relief. The graphics were richer, the story progressed nicely (though more outside of basic Asian mythology and more into exaggeration), and the game kicked butt - pun intended. MK fans had high expectations for MK2, and for the most part, they were satisfied.

1995 - With MK2's immense level of success, MK3 was a no-brainer. The formula of ''old game + more of what they liked - some stuff they didn't like + more story = success'' was implemented once again. We saw more characters, more blood, and better graphics, and they even added a combo system. The story bulldozed along, and the character developments were easy to swallow. But too many favorite characters were omitted. And some people think the story strayed too far from the simplicity that everyone adored with MK1. MK3 still succeeded, in a sense. Many feel that if they stopped at this point and polished off the story that it would have ended gracefully. But the MK creators went back to the drawing boards. Later on, while MK3 was being developed for the home systems, Midway released Ultimate MK3 as a means of keeping people in the arcades (they were afraid MK3 home versions would distract would-be Arcade spenders). It featured some returning characters, a few new backgrounds, and very little else. Many people, including myself, just think of Ultimate MK3 as MK3 upon its final completion.

1996 - Midway's well had dried up. They were probably sitting in front of their computers with their eyes as blood shot as those of a crack addict, wondering what the heck to do next. Some KFC, a coffee or two and the end result was MK trilogy. MK trilogy was only released on home consoles. They took advantage of the current generation systems and made a compilation game featuring almost every character, move, boss, background, and storyline ever. MK trilogy only appealed to die hard MK enthusiasts. The fun factor was marginal, very marginal. The diminishing marginal utility of MK fans was just about as bad as it was going to get with this game. I played it a few times. Now the CD case is a coaster.

Late 1997 - Mortal Kombat 4 was launched into arcades across the US. MK4 even had a road show. Trucks with the MK4 logo on them traveled across the country just to show people the newest MK game. MK4 took a whole new step up from its predecessors by utilizing new technology in a way MK never had before. The creators realized that the fighting games they had to compete with were all 3D fighting games. If MK wanted to press on, it had to evolve. By this time there were plenty of 3D fighting games, some of which had been in the 3D world for some time. MK became 3D with MK4, and the story took a turn as well. We saw the end of Shao Kahn and the birth of a new villain. The new MK was moderatlely simplified. The game reverted to a morbid, unfriendly, and sinister posture. The basic moves remained, somewhat, with the addition of more combos and even weapons. MK4's success was dismal compared to its younger siblings. Many attribute its failure to its age - the idea of MK was becoming recrementitious in the eyes of many. A lot of people felt that it was time for MK to give up its thrown to a new generation of advanced fighters. Not to mention, a lot of other fighting games at the time were superior (e.g. Tekken 2-3). In September of 1999, Midway released Mortal Kombat Gold. MKG was on the Sega Dreamcast, the most powerful system at the time. It was basically Ultimate MK4. Its success was negligible.

2002 - It had been 5 years since MK4. Ed Boon, now without Tobias by his side, presented to the world a new MK game: MK Deadly Alliance. The 3D technology of MKDA is a couple steps up from MK4, and simplicity is all but forgotten. We see many old faces, many new faces, and a lot a changes. But can one stand atop a mountain with his fists raised high and scream, ''MORTAL KOMBAT,'' without getting booed? Can MKDA restore the faith of those who fell out during the era of MK4?

Improvement [8/10]
MKDA is unarguably better than MK4. From a relative point of view, it's better than all the other MK games in every logical sense. It's 3D, the audio is crisp, the characters are huge, the fighting styles are more authentic, and so on. I didn't give the improvements it made over its predecessors a 10 because while it left them in the dust, it didn't go as far as it could have. You'll see why if you read on.

Story [9/10]
The story has progressed nicely since MK1. There are very few inconsistency, and it's not at all hard to understand. I took away one point because Liu Kang died!! That was cocky.

Graphics as an MK game[10/10]
Smooth frame rate, a lot of polygons, and smooth textures that almost look topographic. Hands down, it is the best MK game yet. I grew up on Gameboy, SNES, and Genesis. Anything nowadays looks awesome to me, no matter how bad it is in the eyes of graphic knit-pickers. The still shots presented during game loading were very well done.

Graphics as a fighter [8/10]
With the last rating in mind, I feel that the game was still lacking. In comparison to other top quality fighters, it just wasn't the best of the bunch.

Graphics as an Xbox game [7/10]
I think that the Xbox version did not utilize the Xbox respectively. All too often it looked like the most advanced N64 game I had ever seen. It was smooth like an Xbox game, but just not as intense. It could have been a lot better.

Audio [9/10]
The anonymous announcer was crisp, coherent, and audible. This cannot be said for the seemingly beef headed announcer of the first game. The only issue I have is with the character's moans, groans, and screams. The same male/female template was slapped onto almost every character. This is a MK tradition, but I have personally never liked it.

Realism/Detail [6/10]
The movements were pretty smooth and human like, especially in the cut scenes. But during the actual game, there were many notable things that detracted from its intricacy. The joints of the characters seemed too fake and bubbly. Close ups revealed seizure like twitches that you can tell weren't intentional. They tried to add realism to the game by making partially destructible backgrounds but why couldn't characters put their weapons away when a match was over (the weapons would literally just disappear from their hands)? The foot prints, remaining blood stains, and injuries that fighters retained all helped add to the game's realism, but they may have been too unpunctual. Many fighting games were already displaying such things. The fighting arenas were nice though, being very detailed with elements you could interact with and see changing as the camera moved.

Controls [9/10]
With MKDA each character has 3 fighting styles. There are no universal moves, per say, but rather unique moves for ever person given their styles. This made controls a bit more challenging to memorize, which I liked.

Features/Gameplay [9/10]
Everything is straightforward. The Arcade option is the same as it has always been. The difficulty levels prove challenging on Maximum, and on Novice are useful for grabbing quick Kurrency. Speaking of kurrency, this game has some neat innovations. You earn money when you fight (MK ala Toughman anyone?). You can also play a Konquest mode where you have to learn how to fight with all of the characters, and you earn money while training. Money can be used in the Krypt. There you can buy images, videos, new characters, character outfits, and more. When you beat the game, endings are stored so that you can view them again without having to play the game.

Replay value [7/10]
It's definitely the best MK game so far, and it has some replay value thanks to having 676 items to buy in the Krypt. The Konquest mode allows you to go through 10 missions using each character, making for a total of 210 missions, but 8 basic missions. But once all that is done, the only replay value lies in genuinely memorizing all of the characters moves, combos, and fatalities. That should take even the best MK players a while. Then you can beat the game using every character. And the unpredictability of fighting friends in 2 player mode will always be present.

Average Rating
8/10

In closing
Many think it all died with MK2, they're often elitists. Many say MKDA is MK4, but to do that only places you in denial. Many say this is the best fighting game ever, but that is being too arrogant. Many loathe the MK franchise all together, they're just jealous of its success. However, it is the offspring of one of the greatest fighting games of all time. With that said, I hope this is the last MK game. Why? Because I would like to see the franchise end on a good note, you know, with an admirable ''good-bye'' as opposed to a ''good riddance.''

Rent Or Buy?
If you're a die hard MK veteran like me, feel free to wait until the price goes down before you buy this one. I borrowed it from a friend, and I'll definitely purchase it when it's below $35. If you just like MK, haven't been a fan that long, or just like fighters in general, then rent it a couple of times on a trial basis.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/29/03, Updated 06/29/03