Gaming Target - GameCube: Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance

Written by Tim McGrew on January 23, 2003

Full Review: It's much better than Mortal Kombat 4 so fans of the series can rejoice!

It wasn't too long ago when fans of fighting games were cramming into arcades to try their hand at the latest 2D offerings from the likes of Capcom and Neo Geo. Their Street Fighter and Fatal Fury offerings were vying for an audience that was brimming with excitement over each new release. However, what no one expected to see was a new entry into the battlefield. An entry that took motion capture technology and threw it into the mix with a rather decent fighting engine and of course, an excessive amount of blood and gore that had not really been seen in the arcade before. Players would literally smash each other with upper cuts and blood would spew forth from their bodies as they landed on sharp spikes at the bottom of a deep pit. That game of course, is Mortal Kombat.

With each fighting game evolving further and further, the creators of MK decided to revamp the series and add in a slew of features for its fans including several different murderous fatalities for each character, babalities, and the always humorous friendship finishers. However, once all these extras had been added into the game along with a huge cast of characters and a great fighting engine, what could the developers do to top themselves next? With that question asked, the developers tweaked out an all new game with an all new combo system and called it Mortal Kombat 3. MK3 seemed to play on a lot of the same old gameplay features of its brethren, but worse yet, the fans began to grow tired of the series and in a desperate effort to capitalize on the booming 3D fighting genre, Mortal Kombat 4 was released and the series was finally shunned.

Despite the series' popularity and its movies, figures, and subsequent TV shows, the franchise tapered off and disappeared from the gaming radar after the release of two lackluster single player action spin-offs. Today, the developers have gone ahead and completely reworked the fighting engine for the game and the story which branched off into all that nifty merchandise. The result of starting fresh and bringing back a lot of what made the series great in the first place is, for the most part, responsible for this great fighting package.

The game is still 3D like Mortal Kombat 4 and each character has a weapon of some sort as well, but that's where the likenesses stop and the genuinely fun gameplay begins. In this installment, players can switch between three real world martial arts fighting styles per character with two of them in the hand to hand area and the third using their original weapon. Some of their special moves have nothing to do with the fighting styles, but they are trademarks of the series and can't be done away with lightly. For example, Sub Zero returns to the tournament complete with his freezing special attack, but gone is his slide attack. Little details such as these may pain some of the fans of the original games, but newcomers to the series won't miss them and this game is obviously geared towards them since it's very loosely based on the original 4 games in the fighting series.

Regardless, the fighting style of the game is its biggest feature and it's what makes the game so interesting. In MK3, players could tap the run button and jump into a five or six hit combo dealing an awesome amount of damage, but in MK:DA, players instead switch fighting styles on the fly and chain moves together from each style to destroy their opponents. It's not uncommon for players to smash into their enemies with three hits from one style, two from the next, and finish it off with a huge slash or downward strike from their respective weapons. Of course it takes a bit of skill to pull of these combos, but for the most part the game is fairly easy to pick up and get into.

With each character returning to the tournament from the original games, there is an all new one as well and this level of change is uncommon in the original series. However, it's just what the franchise needed to get a crop of new fans interested in the series once again. Some of the characters also manage to be very likeable with a sortie of movements that are original and realistic at the same time. One particular character, Bo Rai Cho, has the ability to vomit on the floor causing the same effect as Sub Zero's ground freeze and although this may repulse some players, it creates a wholly original character that is such a huge departure from so many typical fighting games. This originality shows up again and again with all the new characters, but I don't want to give too much away about them since they are a huge part of the fun of this series. I do promise that the moves and backgrounds will be more than enough to interest new and old fans alike.

Not only do the characters play with original flare, but they also look very nice along with the entire graphical package. Blood flies about all over the place just as it did in the earlier games and it remains on the floor until the fight is over. There are literally gallons and gallons of blood that ooze from your opponent with each blow and skewer. One of the more interesting blood effects is actually related to the gameplay and results from a move that skewers your opponent with your bladed weapon. You'll lose the weapon for the duration of the round, but damage will continue to be inflicted so long as the blade is inserted. Of course, your opponent can kill you before they die, but with a little bit of caution, it's an easy victory. Plus, with each blow dealt, real time damage can be seen on your characters faces and limbs. There's no way to slice off a limb in the middle of battle like in the violent Time Killers, but that's what finishing moves are for.

In classic MK fashion, finishing moves are present for each character and each of them has one finishing move that effectively renders the opponent dead after two successful round wins. At the end of the second round, the words УFINISH HIM!Ф will appear on the screen and it'll be your job to enter a combination of buttons to slay your opponent in some grotesque fashion. One example would be Scorpion's finishing move which shows him tossing a spear through his opponents head and removing it and his head clean from his body. The gore is incredibly high and detailed in these scenes, but for the most part, they are just a satisfactory way to end an otherwise difficult battle and a comical way to end the match, since some of the finishing moves are more hilarious then gruesome. These moments are hardly a show of the game's graphical engine which is more accurately seen in its detailed real time lighting and original stage design.

The sound effects in the game are typical Mortal Kombat fare with standard grunts and yells that would typically come after being belted with a hard upper cut or cut down with a huge blade. The music is also typical to the Mortal Kombat tradition and none of the tracks are particularly noteworthy nor are they even noticeable during the battles. Regardless, the audio package is fitting to the game and shines when it needs to, particularly during the gruesome death scenes.

In terms of extras, the game is jam packed with them. The test your might mini games are back along with a number of different variations such as test your sight and others. Also included in the game is a secret menu where MK currency can be earned to buy different secrets. Some of them are pictures of the developers, character art, Kata movies with certain characters, and all new unlockable characters and new stages. The more currency you earn by simply playing the game, the more secrets you can unlock and the amount of unlockable material is absolutely massive. However, most people won't return for the secrets, but rather for the smooth fighting engine instead, which I am pleased to say, does not disappoint.