Created by John Tobias and Ed Boon, the original Mortal Kombat took the arcade world by storm winning several awards and critical acclaim. The home version caused quite a fuss due to its bloody nature and gruesome fatalities. Some versions required a special code to activate the blood and gore whilst others didn't have the blood at all! By the time Mortal Kombat 2 came around there was quite a stir in the media about violence in videogames and Mortal Kombat 2 was the first console game to receive a 15 age rating in Europe. This was the start of videogame censorship in many countries and quite a landmark for gaming. After a few somewhat mediocre sequels Mortal Kombat is back with bucket loads of blood and enough fatalities to make even the most hardened game squirm. The question though is whether or not the latest incarnation, Deadly Alliance captures that original MK magik.

The game starts out with an FMV sequence explaining the plot of this latest offering. Apparently, our old friend Shang Tsung has teamed up with an extremely evil sorcerer, Quan Chi in an effort to dominate the Outworld and Earth Realm. They go to Shao Kahn (the big bad from MK2) and offer allegiance but when he is not expecting they kill him and take is throne. After this the evil duo set off to the Earth Realm to find and defeat the world's champion Liu Kang. Disguised as Liu Kang's good friend Kung Lao, Shang Tsung approaches Kang for a fight. With the help of Quan Chi, Shang Tsung manages to get Liu Kang in a headlock and then breaks his neck. Liu Kang is dead. Outraged by this evil union between Quan Chi and Shang Tsung, Raiden relinquishes his role as Elder God and comes to earth to gather up as many good warriors as possible to stop the crazy bastards before all hell breaks loose in the Earth Realm.

The game has several different modes of play, which I'll get onto very soon but for now I'll talk about the Arcade mode. Upon first playing through the Arcade mode I was very disappointed, there seemed to be very few moves and the characters seemed to be slow. As with most fighting games, MK:DA sees you select a character and battle through a sequence of characters to reach a boss character and defeat. In each fight you must win 2 out of 3 rounds to win then you move onto the next character. In true Mortal Kombat style, at the end of the final round you are given a few seconds to input a button code and pull off a gruesome Fatality move on your opponent. Thankfully, Fatalities are easier to do than in previous MK games due to a new fighting style system. Each character has 3 main styles and a Fatality style which locks the character in place so that you can pull off a Fatality without the character moving around. All Fatalities can now be pulled off at any distance which also makes things much easier. The different Fighting styles are where MK:DA really comes into its own. As I said each character has 3 distinct styles, 2 of which are hand to hand and the 3rd utilizes the characters weapon of choice. Each style has its own strengths, weaknesses and combos so changing between styles can be very advantageous and strategic. Now as I said, I found the Arcade mode to be very boring the first few times through so I figured I'd have a look through the other modes of play.

I tried the Konquest mode next and things took a huge turn for the better. This mode sees you learn how to play the game over around 280 tests. As you complete a test you'll also earn Kurrency which allows you to buy hidden characters, levels and costumes in the Krypt. At first Konquest starts out very simple, explaining the different types of attack and blocks. After the initial tests you get to pick a character of your choice and learn the characters fighting styles, combos and special moves. This is a very rewarding experience and quite fun to boot. You'll soon learn just how much depth there is to the game and you'll also learn about the chosen character's past and motivations. After playing through the Konquest mode with a few characters I found that the Arcade mode was drastically better than before. The game was no longer slow and pulling off combos that change style was great fun. The 2 player mode is as you'd expect however it can be very one-sided if the other player hasn't gone through the Konquest mode to learn the more complicated aspects of the fighting system. Button mashing just doesn't work in this game!

However, the game does still have its flaws. One of my major gripes is the terrible collision detection. There have been so many occasions where I have lost a round to a character simply because they have managed to hit me even though there was a very visible and clear gap. I also have to mention that the game certainly doesn't look that good. Character designs have taken a turn for the worse and the general art design is lacking, especially when compared with Mortal Kombat 2. The backgrounds aren't very inspired and don't look particularly impressive either. Character models are so-so, but when compared with the likes of Dead or Alive 3 or Soul Calibur, they are pretty poor. Animation is ok but not as smooth as you'd expect from a next generation console like Xbox.

MK:DA is a very hit and miss game for me, whilst I really enjoy playing it there is just a lack of quality that I expect from a modern fighter. Also, this doesn't feel completely like Mortal Kombat, something is missing and I can't place what. Fans of the series will probably be disappointed that Liu Kang is not playable and also that many of the games signature moves such as Johnny Cage's "Package Check" and Raiden's Teleport aren't in their anymore. Although I do applaud Midway for the in-depth fighting system I can only hope that the next game in the franchise addresses these issues. I'd say that this game has great potential and with better programmers and artists, the next in the series could be a truly stunning game. The game has all the violence you could ever want, masses blood (probably too much...) and a nifty fighting system. If you can get past the dodgy collision detection and poor graphics then it's a good purchase.