Collection essentials #558 & #559: Mortal Kombat: Deception (GC & Xbox)

Released two years after Deadly Alliance, Deception is a direct sequel with a story that takes place directly after the events of the previous game. And as is the case with many good video game sequels, it delivers a similar kind of experience that Deadly Alliance was going for, only refined and with much more meat on the bones. 

The core combat is largely the same, but with some tweaks. There are now “combo breakers” that a player can use a limited number of times per match which disrupt the opponent’s combo in a situation where you would normally be helpless. Arenas are more interesting now, with some interactive elements and even spots where you can knock an opponent into a completely different area and then continue the fight in that location. There are more characters now, with plenty of new characters, but some fighters from Deadly Alliance are absent for better or worse. Oh, and you can actually use the joystick now instead of being stuck with the d-pad!

One complaint with MK:DA was that characters only had one finishing move, a single fatality. Deception addresses this by not only giving characters two fatalities, but a “hara kiri” as well, in which a losing fighter can commit suicide with style instead of waiting for their opponent to finish them off.

Deception’s biggest strength over MK:DA is arguable with its modes, both improving on old modes and introducing new ones. Konquest returns, and rather than a fairly bland tutorial for each character, it’s now a proper single-player adventure featuring a new character named Shujinko. It features a whole world that you can freely move around in, and a storyline to complete as well as optional stuff and unlockables to find. Interacting with many characters, especially when advancing the story, switches you to a regular fight as seen in other modes. With Mortal Kombat’s interesting world and characters, it made a lot of sense to have a mode like this. However, your mileage may vary with Konquest, as it still has a lot of tutorials and can be boring at times.

Online gaming on the Xbox and PS2 was alive and well by Deception’s release, and the game took full advantage. For the first time in a major Mortal Kombat console release, players could fight against friends and strangers across the world, and that was a big deal. Nowadays, the online servers for those consoles have long since been shut down, unfortunately.

Deception has a couple modes that you wouldn’t expect to see in a fighting game. One is “Chess Kombat”, where you can assign various fighters to play the role of different chess pieces on a board. When attempting to capture an opponent’s piece, a fight happens as in normal game modes, but the character’s stamina and strength will depend on what rank they are (so your “pawn” fighters will be pretty weak, for example). There’s also Puzzle Kombat, a falling-block puzzle game that has nothing to do with any gameplay element of any other mode. There are 12 characters to play as in this mode, and they all have a unique special move that can sometimes be unleashed. 

The PS2 and Xbox releases had a special variant called the “Premium Pack” on the former and the “Kollector’s Edition” for the latter, not sure why the name difference. This release came with a nice cover (or “kover”, I’d like to say) featuring one of the game’s characters. The PS2 version featured Sub-Zero, but the Xbox had variants featuring one of a few different characters. There are a few neat extras with this release, most notably a special bonus disc with some special features for viewing, and a very accurate port of the original arcade version of the first Mortal Kombat. This was exciting for me back in the day since all home ports of the first game up to that point were pretty flawed in one way or another.

Unlike MK:DA, the game was originally announced for the PS2 and Xbox, and not the GameCube. As a GameCube owner, this had me dismayed…but I did want to get one of those other consoles anyway. I went with PS2 since I already wanted it for its RPGs, but I wound up unexpectedly getting an Xbox too before very long. And as it turns out, I wouldn’t have needed to get another console to play Deception as long as I was just a bit patient, as a GameCube version was eventually announced and released early in the following year. The GameCube didn’t have the online capabilities of its competitors, so Deception on GameCube is offline-only. It also didn’t have any kind of special edition with the cool bonuses. But to make up for it, the game has two console-exclusive playable characters, bringing back a couple of old bosses, Goro and Shao Kahn.

Mortal Kombat: Deception is another very nostalgic title for me. It has a unique place in my past, as it was the first big upcoming release that I looked forward to after my family got the internet at home. In early 2004, I joined a Mortal Kombat forum that I spent tons of time on and made new friends on who I could talk about this exciting new game with. I was able to keep track of new announcements for the game like I never before for a game in the past. Strangely, I didn’t think to pre-order the game, so when I went to go get it at the Holyoke Mall, I was at the mercy of whatever was available on the shelf. Thankfully, there was one Kollector’s Edition available, though it was the one featuring Mileena, who would have been my last choice. I was still happy just to have it, though. The GameCube version I wouldn’t get until several years later when GameStop was selling their GameCube stock for cheap. 

As you can imagine, I played lots of Deception when I first got it. I completed Konquest, and I’m pretty sure I unlocked everything, or at least I came pretty close (my original save has since been wiped). I subscribed to Xbox Live for the first time, primarily to play Deception with friends who I had met online leading up to the game’s release. It was rather inconvenient for me to play online, as I couldn’t do so in my bedroom. In order to play, I had to bring the console all the way downstairs, hooking it up to the TV down there and also to the internet modem, playing the console in just the right spot so that the relevant cables could reach each thing. The game sure didn’t disappoint, though the new characters didn’t make a big impression on me.

In terms of modern appeal, Deception is a fun game, though I think it’s best played for people like me who are already invested in the Mortal Kombat universe. The fighting mechanics are still not as free-flowing or deep as you’ll find in the most popular games of the genre. Deception hasn’t been released anytime recently, either, so to get it you’ll need a piece of old hardware. Still, if you love the series, Deception is definitely worth a try. As a series fan myself with lots of nostalgic memories, this one is an easy pick for my collection essentials.