Mortal Kombat: Deception
Mortal Kombat: Deception is a fighting game in the controversial and bloody Mortal Kombat series. Deception was developed and published by Midway for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. A GameCube version was published in January 2005.
Mortal Kombat: Deception precedes Shaolin Monks and follows Deadly Alliance.
Storyline
Template:Spoiler In the final events of Deadly Alliance, Raiden's warriors (Kitana, Kung Lao, Jax, Johnny Cage, and Sonya Blade) lay defeated during their battle against the Tarkatan warriors and ultimately, the Deadly Alliance itself (Shang Tsung and Quan Chi). The Elder Gods had advised Raiden not to interfere, but he defied their wishes; alone he challenged the alliance of Tsung and Quan Chi inside Shang Tsung's palace, in 'Mortal Kombat. He had the upper hand for most of the fight, besting Tsung and Quan Chi, until Tsung absorbed a soul from the Soulnado and knocked him down with a fireball. From there, Quan Chi and Tsung combined their powers to defeat Raiden, with Quan Chi levtating the helpless Thunder God and Tsung using a fireball to strike Raiden down.
With Raiden defeated, the Deadly Alliance turned on each other, with Tsung wanting Quan Chi's amulet. The Deadly Alliance was no more and Tsung found himself facing his one time partner Quan Chi. Despite Tsung's efforts, Quan Chi proved too much for him. When Quan Chi stood alone, a hulking form entered the tomb, and the mummies of the Dragon King's army turned to kneel. In disbelief, Quan Chi looked in shock and in great horror... Onaga, the Dragon King, had returned.
Quan Chi knew what the Dragon King had come for: his amulet. Quan Chi used his powers against Onaga, but he could not stop him. Even with Tsung, and then Raiden, helping him, they could not stop Onaga. Raiden concentrated his godlike essence into a single blast, which destroyed the palace and everything within, but Onaga was unharmed, and possessed the amulet.
Onaga now seeks to use six artifacts called Kamidogu to fuse the realms into the One Being, resulting in the destruction of everything therein. Those fighters not killed in the battle against the Deadly Alliance (Li Mei, Raiden, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Kenshi and Bo' Rai Cho) must now stand against him and his supporters. These include the Tarkatan horde (led by Baraka) and their former allies, who were resurrected by Onaga and are under his control.
In a related story explored in Konquest mode, a young man named Shujinko is tricked into spending his life collecting the Kamidogu for Onaga, who uses the guise of an Elder God. This is, strangely enough, prior to Onaga's resurrection in the body of Reptile. Onaga only reveals his identity and intentions after Shujinko has gathered the Kamidogu. Shujinko, being generally well-intentioned, also opposes Onaga. His lifelong, misguided quest is the reason behind the title "Deception."
New Characters
- Ashrah - a demon searching for redemption by killing demons with a magic sword called Kriss; she seeks to destroy Noob Saibot in order to gain full purification.
- Hotaru - warrior of Order, pledged to serve the Dragon King.
- Dairou - Hotaru's subordinate, hired by Darrius to assassinate him.
- Darrius - Leader of the resistance in Seidou, the realm of Order.
- Havik - a cleric of Chaos who saved Kabal from death; he wishes to consume Onaga's heart and revive Shao Kahn.
- Kira - a cunning and brutal Black Dragon recruit.
- Kobra - A brutal and bloodthirsty Black Dragon recruit.
- Onaga - The Dragon King and former emperor of Outworld.
- Shujinko - An old warrior who was deceived by Onaga when he was a young adolescent.
Returning characters
- Baraka - Leader of the Tarkatan race.
- Bo' Rai Cho - The general of Edenia's army.
- Ermac - A mysterious fighter who assists Liu Kang in his mission.
- Jade- A loyalist to Queen Sindel who agrees to help her save her daughter Kitana, and also seeks to see Tanya dead.
- Kabal - The leader of the new Black Dragon clan.
- Kenshi - The blind swordsman who was saved by Sub-Zero.
- Li Mei - A young warrior saved from the Deadly Alliance by Bo' Rai Cho.
- Liu Kang - Earthrealm's protector, the undisputed Champion of Mortal Kombat, and reanimated zombie.
- Nightwolf - A Native American warrior who acts as the "Sin Eater" of his tribe.
- Mileena - Kitana's evil twin who poses as her to disrupt Edenia's defences.
- Noob-Smoke (The alliance of Noob Saibot and Smoke) - the joint team in which Noob Saibot looks to create an army of Cyber-Demons with Smoke as a template.
- Raiden - The God of Thunder who has become incensed at how mortals have repeatedly endangered Earthrealm.
- Scorpion- The Champion of the Elder Gods who has been sent to Outworld to destroy Onaga.
- Sindel - Queen of Edenia who looks to save Kitana.
- Sub-Zero - The Grandmaster of the Lin Kuei clan who looks for a portal back to Earthrealm.
- Tanya - The traitor of Edenia, who now serves Onaga.
Shao Kahn and Goro are playable characters in the GameCube version.
New to the Series
- MK:D's stages are highly interactive, with multiple levels, breakable boundaries, and instant-death traps. Characters can no longer be slammed against walls (visible or not), however.
- MK:D also has a "Combo Breaker" system which allows players to interrupt combos up to three times per match. This is generally regarded as a welcome change to Deadly Alliance's uninterruptible combos (combos tend to be shorter in this game as well).
- Weapon impalements are no longer in the game, due to the introduction of death traps.
- MK:D's characters have two Fatalities and a Hara-kiri suicide move.
- Characters are more specialized as well, boasting unique (though sometimes held over from Deadly Alliance) throws, finishing poses, and rises after losing one round (e.g., Sub-Zero shoots ice to the floor to lift himself up, etc.). Also, perhaps due to complaints, every non-weapon fighting style includes an uppercut, a trademark of the numbered series (1 through 4), but used only sporadically throughout Deadly Alliance.
- Certain stages also contain their own unique stage weapons often following the stage's theme, that any character can pick up and use.
- Other than the above notes, gameplay remains virtually identical to that in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance.
- MK:D's Konquest Mode allows the player to play Shujinko in an RPG-style format (but with normal Mortal Kombat battles). Konquest mode reveals a great deal of the Mortal Kombat universe's history.
- MK:D's Krypt is smaller than Deadly Alliance's (400 Koffins as opposed to 676). This reduces the number of "filler" Koffins.
- MK:D adds Chess Kombat and Puzzle Kombat game modes. Chess Kombat is similar to classical chess, but uses player-selected characters as pieces, and pieces must engage in Kombat to take a piece (much like the 1980s computer game Archon). Puzzle Kombat is reminiscient of Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, a puzzle game by Capcom.
- MK:D does not contain the Test Your Might or Test Your Sight minigames.
- MK:D continues the dark theme, starting off with a whimper for the forces of good and getting worse. It is the first game in the series to assume that the good guys lost the battle of the previous game.
- The character Noob-Smoke switches character models instead of fighting styles (Noob fights with Monkey style, Smoke with Mit Zu). They are playable after unlocking, and appear in Arcade Mode as sub-bosses. (Note: in the GameCube version, Noob-Smoke is playable without unlocking.)
Trivia
- In the 1996 movie The Cable Guy, the titular character played by Jim Carrey says to another character, while proclaiming what he believed to be the future of the Internet, "[you'll be able to] play Mortal Kombat with your friend in Vietnam!" Eight years later Deception was released, the first Mortal Kombat game to feature online gameplay.
- Due mostly to the inclusion of several cameos in Konquest mode (as well as in the Dark Prison arena), Mortal Kombat: Deception features nearly every single character from the Mortal Kombat series in some form or another, ranging from the well-established (Liu Kang, Sub-Zero, etc.) to the more obscure (Rain, who is a non-playable character in Konquest mode).
- Mortal Kombat: Deception is the first Mortal Kombat game to feature Stage Fatalities (now known as Death Traps) since 1997's Mortal Kombat 4. Since then, Stage Fatalities were not seen. The re-introduction o death traps into MK Deception makes the game far superior than it's Predecessor Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance (which featured only one fatality and no stage fatalities).
- New Characters such as Dairou, Kobra, Kira, Ashrah etc all make their official debut in MK: Deception.
- Is the first Mortal Kombat game to feature two "human" characters as a "sub-boss" rather than the traditional hideous creatures such as the Shokans, Centaurans or Oni. The new "sub-boss" (so to speak) is the tag-team tanderm known as Noob-Smoke
- It is rumoured that such stages like the Dead Pool and the Living Forest were brought back due to fan complaints as they were popular stages in the Mortal Kombat franchaise. The same complaints were also rumoured to be the re-appearence of both Rayden and Liu Kang whom were rumoured to make no appearences in MK: Deception.
- This game obviously follows the light of Mortal Kombat II which is, to this day, said to be the best Mortal Kombat game in the series due to it's blood, gore and graphic violence. Mortal Kombat: Deception, while a new game on it's own, simultaneously tries to mirror the success that Midway had with Mortal Kombat's sequel.
- The Mortal Kombat dragon logo is said to be in refernece to Onaga, whom refers himself as The Dragon King. This has been heavily debated as fans often say that the dragon logo is a symbolic reference to Liu Kang (since his goriest fatality was to morph into a dragon and eat the upper body of his opponent).
- Kitana was supposed to be featured in this game. However, it was decided that the storyline would change and have her "dead" in favour for the reappearence of Jade, whom has not been featured in many Mortal Kombat games.
- Some characters (such as Darrius for example) are said to be play-off's of established Mortal Kombat characters. Darrius, in this sense is said to be a play-off of Jax, whom was the first Mortal Kombat character of different coloured skin. Other characters such as Kira and Kobra are actually hybrids of other characters such as Sonya Blade,Johnny Cage and Kano. Kira for instance has Sonya and Kano's special abilities (plus a fireball of her own, persumably a play-off of
Tanya]]'s fireball in Mortal Kombat 4) while Kobra's moves are identical to the ones Johnny Cage used in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance.