deadly alliance

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My favorite video game of all time is Mortal Kombat. Something about the characters, violence, lore, and overall atmosphere that the game brings is just so satisfying to me. It was also the first video I ever played at 2 years old which was the original game on Sega Genesis back in 1993. From Fatalities to special moves, stages, and rocking industrial techno music, Mortal Kombat is one of the best, and longest-running, video game franchises of all time. That’s not to say the game went through some ups and downs. I have listed every main Mortal Kombat game from worst to best. I didn’t include various ports as they varied by quality, and discluded any handheld version as they were just dumbed down ports of larger games. I will also list the most superior port or version of that game as every port varied wildly due to various hardware limitations.

16. Mortal Kombat: Special Forces – 2000

Is this really a surprise? Only beating out Mythologies by a fraction, Special Forces was a 3D action game disaster created by co-creator John Tobias and putting a damper in any future Mortal Kombat spin-offs. The game was near unplayable with awful graphics, terrible controls, a lame story, and nothing to really do with Mortal Kombat itself. It’s worth a play just to see how far down Mortal Kombat got, but this is by far its lowest point, but not the lowest timeframe.

15. Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero – 1997

Not much better than Special Forces, but at least the game was somewhat playable and felt more like Mortal Kombat. a 2D side-scrolling platformer, you play as Sub-Zero and run into awful live-action cut-scenes (the N64 version was spared of those) terrible controls, and boring gameplay. This game is probably not even worth touching unless you’re just curious.

Best Version: PlayStation

14. Mortal Kombat Gold – 1999

A direct port of MK4 and Dreamcast exclusive, Gold was too little too late with Soul Calibur and various other fighters pushing the genre into the next generation. It was clunky, tiring, old, and just didn’t feel right on the system this late in the game. It’s very playable, and MK4 fans will enjoy newcomers like Cyrax and Mileena, but it’s probably the worst game in the main fighting series.

13. Mortal Kombat: Armageddon – 2006

While being the next-generation MK Trilogy of sorts, Armageddon was a lazy cop-out for keeping the series at its yearly releases and was the end of this generation of 3D MK games. It featured every single MK character ever made up to Deception and shoved them all in the two-style martial arts that this trilogy of MK titles gave us. By this point, MK was really going downhill and fatigue was setting in with a bloated disc full of weird mini-games and cheap generic Kreate-A-Fatality that was more complicated and irritating than ever. Press certain button combos to create the same gory move for every character and just string them together as quick as you can, yeah what a waste. A few years of development and this could have been a game to remember. The Kreate-A-Fighter mode was the only new and original part. Mortal Kombat Kart racing was awful with shallow race tracks and no thought put into it, the Konquest mode was much better than Deception’s but was still a weird thing to even exist. Overall, it’s very playable and fun, but it’s just the most generic MK game ever made.

Best Version: Xbox

12. Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance – 2002

Deadly Alliance shot the series into the next generation with brand new fighters and an all-new realistic martial arts approach to the game. With a story mode that’s really just a giant training mode, a fun Krypt area to unlock extras, and two awesome Fatalities per character, it only beats out Armageddon due to the originality within the game. The new characters are great and mostly untouched throughout the later games, however, the graphics were dated and everyone looked like plastic dolls with blood that looks like Jell-O. It was still gory and fun, but far from the greatness, the 2D games offered.

Best Version: Xbox

11. Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe – 2008

This threw fans for a loop as MK mashed with DC to create a weird and forced fighting game no one asked for. The biggest hit was the Teen rating with the DC character performing “Heroic Brutalities” as they never kill and the MK character performing the most basic “Fatalities” that felt more like Wile E. Coyote ACME stunts. The fighting core was a slight departure from the previous games with a 2D plane and seemed pretty solid, but there was something off about the whole game. It’s decent, and quite playable, but very forgettable.

Best Version: PlayStation 3

10. Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks – 2005

Shaolin Monks would be the last MK spin-off and actually did it right. Created by another development team, Monks lets you play as Liu-Kang and Kung-Lao with an over-the-top 3D brawler that is set in the MKII storyline. Using assets from that game such as stages and characters and even lore, the game recreated the MK experience with a fantastic fighting system that was fluid and even more fun with a second player. There were many secrets and the game is highly replayable. The only issue was the game was only 4 hours long, had awful voice acting, and a stupid story. Other than that, this is a must-play for MK fans.

Best Version: Xbox

9. Mortal Kombat 4 – 1997

This was the biggest turning point for the entire series. The game went forward into 3D forever and the result was some weird clunky stuff, but it was fast-paced and violent and somehow just worked. Not many games did 3D fighting very well at the time and the great roster and some of the best Fatalities in the series make for an awesome fighting game. The use of weapons was introduced for the first time as well.

Best Version: PlayStation

8. Mortal Kombat 3 – 1995

MK3 had a lot riding on it at this point in time as it had big shoes to fill after MKII. The game was darker, more realistic, and added some mechanics such as running, Brutalities, and a secret code menu. MK3 also had some of the most memorable characters the series will see such as Sheeva, Kabal, and Smoke. The problem was the combos were so difficult to pull off a lot of people were turned off that the game relied on this system, not to mention the cheap ass AI.

Best Version: PlayStation

7. Mortal Kombat – 1992

The original is far down the list due to the fact that so many games in the series improved upon it, but it’s higher than others due to the originality and the fact that it has a one-of-a-kind atmosphere that no other game in the series nailed. The original roster and Test-Your-Might combined with the Fatalities and simple moves make this one of the best video games ever created. There’s quite a story behind this game and the fact the ESRB was created because this game says a lot. It’s a very simple and basic game, but it holds a huge piece of gaming history.

Best Version: Sega CD

6. Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 – 1995

An upgrade version of MK3, UMK3 is widely considered the best 2D MK game ever made as it perfected what they were trying to do with MK3. Adding new characters such as Rain, Noob Saibot, and Khameleon, and adding an Aggressor meter as well as making combos much easier, UMK3 was fast, looked good, and was dark with everything the series had to offer up until then.

Best Version: Nintendo DS

5. Mortal Kombat II – 1993

Most people will say MKII is the best game in the series due to the perfect balance and style between MK1 and MK3. It was a little darker, more sinister, and had an imaginative roster of new characters such as Baraka, Kitana, Mileena, and Jax. The stages were amazing and the introduction of Babalities and Friendships helped set the tone for the series from here on out. The controls were tight and the game looked amazing.

Best Version: Sega Saturn

4. Mortal Kombat Trilogy – 1996

MKT was a best-of compilation of the series up until that point. Taking every single character, stage, and mixing several -Alities together, the game was a massive success and was a blast to play. You could also play as the bosses which were completely unheard of back in the day and it was so much fun. Trilogy remains one of my favorite MK games of all time and I spent hundreds of hours perfecting this game.

Best Version: PlayStation

3. Mortal Kombat: Deception – 2004

Deception was the best 3D game up until this point and had a lot to offer. It improved immensely on Deadly Alliance’s realistic martial arts and added new game modes and some amazing characters and stages. The game was just dark, gritty, and hit that perfect style that people loved. While the three martial-arts styles were a bit clunky and memorizing long combos was silly, most people forgave it for the amount of content available. Chess Kombat is still one of my favorite MK game modes of all time. Play chess like normal and then duke it out to take over the square. Puzzle Kombat took the Street Fighter version and added Chibi MK characters duking it out on screen. However, Konquest mode was a nasty ugly chore to unlock stuff in the Krypt. It was also the first online fighting game ever made and was buttery smooth across the board with a lobby room, ranking system, and various other features. I played this game for so many hours I lost count. The Fatalities were amazing and the new Hara Kiris which were “reverse Fatalities” blew my mind away. It was as competitive as it got and holds a special place for me as it was the first game I had ever pre-ordered as well.

Best Version: Xbox

2. Mortal Kombat – 2011

With DC Universe disappointing fans so much we had all lost hope. Thankfully many consider this version to be the best 3D MK game to date and rightfully so. It builds off of MKII’s balancing and uses most characters up through MK3 so it keeps it old school. The X-Ray moves shook the industry and added a whole new meaning to gore and violence to video games. The new Challenge Tower was a blast and it featured the best story mode in any fighting game to date with halfway decent voice acting for once. Sadly, the game was quickly abandoned and only featured 4 DLC characters before being cut loose.

Best Version: PlayStation 3

1.Mortal Kombat X – 2015

MKX not only pushes the entire series in a new direction but shows fighting games a whole new level of production values and content. Taking the best from MK 2011 and the 2D games, MKX feels heavier, chunkier, and more violent than ever and that’s a good thing. Using Unreal Engine 4 and creating some of the sickest Fatalities to date, MKX also introduces some great new characters for the first time since Deception. The stages are awesome, the DLC characters rock, and the story mode is actually quite amazing and pushes the last game in the back corner. The new Krypt mode is more interactive and can almost be a game all on its own, and the new online towers make the game feel like it’s 1992 all over again.

Best Version: PC

Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance – 11 Years Later

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 08/23/2013

Posted in: Game Boy Advance, Gamecube, Nintendo, PlayStation 2, Retro Consoles, Sony Consoles, Xbox. Tagged: deadly alliance, fatality, fighter, gameboy advance, gamecube, gba, Microsoft, midway, mortal kombat, Nintendo, playstation, ps2, Sony, xbox. Leave a comment

Publisher: Midway

Developer: Midway

Release Date: 11/16/2002

Also Available On

Deadly Alliance was a turning point in the series. MK4 got mixed reviews from fans and critics and wasn’t exactly what they wanted. Being only the second 3D Mortal Kombat game it was another reboot that took itself more seriously and became more complicated and deep. It featured three different fighting styles, long combo chains that you had to memorize, and gone were the days of fast button mashing. You now had to think ahead about your next move and strategize. It was the most robust and sophisticated fighting game ever made at the time, but it didn’t come without its flaws.

Kitana-Alt-Mortal-Kombat-Deadly-Alliance

Deadly Alliance was the first MK game to venture out away from just fighting in a core title. The team added a Konquest mode which is a giant tutorial on how to use every fighter and learn all their moves. This is pretty big for a fighter and can be a lot of fun. You follow Raiden down a long path across various MK worlds and learn about each fighter. They each have three different fighting stances; two regular and one weapon stance. That’s not all though, these can combo into and out of each other for major damage. Characters with blade-type weapons can impale their weapons into the opponent to make them bleed out, but they lose the weapon for that round. This more technical fighting style for MK had mixed reactions, but I like it a lot.

One thing I wasn’t fond of was the lack of special moves and fatalities. There’s only one fatality per character and a lot of them are mediocre at best. They aren’t as gory or as awesome as previous games. Cyrax is missing his net move, a few characters only have 2-3 special moves, so it feels weak. At least the mini-games make a return because they haven’t been seen since MK1. A new Test-Your-Sight mini-game is added which is a cup and ball game. The team also added a Kurrency system and a Krypt to unlock costumes, videos, art, and interviews. I love this a lot and is great fan service. However, once you unlock the entire Krypt there’s not much else to come back to. Unless you are playing with a friend on the couch the game is just seriously lacking in single-player content and that is why I got bored with it after a couple of months.

The graphics were decent for the time, but the gore looks like balls of Jell-O and the characters look like plastic dolls. The women’s breast physics looks like swaying punching bags at 100 MPH even when you tap forward slightly. The sound effects are a bit weak and a few are recycled from MK4. The arenas are also kind of boring and many of them are new. The overall game is pretty solid but needed more polish. I also wasn’t too fond of the new characters. A few were likable such as Frost, Nitara, and Drahmin, but all the rest just felt forced or rushed. I also didn’t really like a lot of the redesigned characters such as Sonya and Johnny Cage. The character design is just really lacking here, but that could be just me being a picky fan.

Overall, Deadly Alliance is a nice change for the series and the more complex and strategic fight style may not be for everyone. The lack of content really hurts his game though, and it suffers from an overall lack of polish. It’s still worth getting in your bargain bin for some couch time-fighting.

Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance – 8 Years Later

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 09/08/2012

Posted in: Game Boy Advance, Gamecube, Microsoft, Nintendo, PlayStation 2, Retro Consoles, Sony, Xbox. Tagged: deadly alliance, fatality, fighter, fighting, gameboy advance, gba, gore, mk, mkda, mortal kombat, Nintendo. Leave a comment

Publisher: Midway

Developer: Criterion Games

Release Date: 2/13/2004

Also Available On

I know what you’re probably thinking. Deadly Alliance on the GBA? Puh-lease. Don’t criticize the game just yet. Deadly Alliance for GBA is a solid fighter with a trick 3D fighting system that is simplified from the console versions. The game features a full Krypt, mini-games, and a new Survival mode. The graphics are surprisingly good and the sound quality is excellent.

Unlike past Mortal Kombat handheld ports, this game is actually good. The fighting system is a mix of 2D and 3D with each character’s 2 main martial arts stances (the weapon stance was taken out). The fighting system may seem dumbed down or too simple because the GBA only has two face buttons. Using a combo of the D-pad and face buttons you can pull off some great combos with ease. The whole transition feels natural and hand-tailored to the console. My main disappointment is the lack of characters. Only about 10 made it into the GBA version, but a new character, Sareena, made it into the game from Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero. I am also disappointed that each character only has one Fatality (like in the console version), but they are different and quite detailed for a GBA game.

The sound quality is excellent with the announcer’s voice intact. The graphics are pretty decent with full 3D backgrounds, but they are very muddy and lack any detail. The graphics are a love/hate type of thing. The Test-You-Might and Sight are fully intact here which is nice, but the Konquest mode is obviously missing, but instead, there is a Survival mode that was stuck in here. There is a full Krypt with alternative costumes and other things. So this is a huge MK experience on the GBA and probably the best one.

If you loved Deadly Alliance or just want a solid fighter on your GBA then pick this up. There is a lot of content in here and the fighting system is solid and fluid. The graphics look pretty and the sound quality is excellent so you have no reason not to play this!

Mortal Kombat Retrospective — Part 3 of 4 — 128-bit Era

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 04/22/2011

Posted in: Blogs. Tagged: 128-bit, action, adventure, armageddon, deadly alliance, deception, era, fatality, gamecube, Microsoft, mortal kombat, multiplayer, ngc, Nintendo, online, playstation, PlayStation 2, port, ps2, psp, retrospective, shaolin monks, Sony, unchained, wii, xbox. Leave a comment

Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance

–2002–

Released: PS2, Xbox, NGC, GBA

The series needed a quick revival after the rocky 64-bit era failures. With new technology, the series could redeem itself with a new engine, so in 2002 MK: DA was announced at E3 of 2001 and everyone freaked out. It totally rewrote the way we played MK but was received very well. Fighters were going in a new direction and MK was lagging behind. The new game featured a few new game modes, a whole new 3D fighting system, and was more realistic and a bit slower than the past fighting games.

Alliance featured real-life martial arts fighting styles that each character had. You would switch between two different fighting styles (Jeet Kune Do, Maui Thai, etc.) and one weapon fighting style. These were designed to stay true to the character’s background and form and they were done very well. The game also used motion capture technology for the first time to recreate all the animations and martial arts fighting moves. Alliance did feel slower since all the combos had to be memorized, and the game now featured a story Konquest mode that had Raiden walking along a path to teaching you how to use every character. This made playing the game easier, but everyone wanted to control a character in this mode.

The game also featured a Krypt mode that allowed you to use the in-game Kurrency from Konquest and you could unlock alternate costumes (my favorite thing out of the Krypt), concept art, concept videos, and just a bunch of fan service like interviews and things like this. There were hundreds of items and I loved this. It made you feel like your fighting skills were paying off (literally). While Test Your Might was only seen in the first game Test your Sight was a new mini-game that was just the three cups and a nut game. It was good to know Mortal Kombat was going into new play modes and mini-games.

I mainly remember Alliance for the Adema “Immortal” music video, and it helped me fall in love with rock music. I also remember getting it for my birthday along with the T-shirt and I couldn’t be happier. I was also disappointed to not see online play because Sony was just starting to roll out their Network Adapters for online play. Alliance was an amazing fighter, but it also introduced new characters that I actually loved. Unlike MK4 these characters had the MK feeling to them. Kenshi, Nitara, Hsu Hao, Bo’ Rai Cho, Frost, Drahmin, Movado, and Li Mei were new characters, but I only really loved Li Mei, Nitara, Drahmin, Kenshi, and Frost. Two unlockable characters known as Blaze and Mokap were put in. There was no special boss of the game again, and Moloch was once again the mini-boss. The others to me felt like generic characters and never became really popular. A lot of favorites returned, but the roster was about the same size as other games so this was a little bit of a letdown. Each character had two Fatalities, but the other “-alities” were sadly missing once again. At this point, I thought they would never come back. Deadly Alliance was the foundation for two more great 3D MK games, but it eventually became its own poison.

Tournament Edition was released for GameBoy Advance and became the first “good” handheld Mortal Kombat. I even got a chance to play this and it was amazing and even had a 3D fighting plane. It had one character that never made it into the console games known as Sareena only seen in the live-action cut scenes of Mythologies.

Mortal Kombat: Deception

–2004–

Released: PS2, Xbox, NGC

After almost three long years Deception was announced in 2003 and it featured a ton of new content. It was also the first-ever online fighting game. The game boasted a bigger roster, a return of more fan favorites, three new game modes, and a new “-ality” known as suicide Hara Kiris. It was also the first MK game to have a collector’s edition with extra add-ins. The PS2 version got a special Sub-Zero character known as the Premium Pack, but the Xbox got four covers with Scorpion, Raiden, Mileena, and Baraka known as the Kollector’s Edition. Each came with a metal serialized trading card for the cover character as well as a making-of DVD, and an Arcade perfect port of MK1. It was a good start for the collector and I got the PS2 version.

New game modes included Puzzle Kombat (Street Fighter Puzzle MK style), Chess Kombat, and a new adventure Konquest. The Konquest wasn’t that good and featured terrible graphics, hideous voice acting, and you had to run around collecting Kurrency and finding chests to unlock some fighters as well as unlocking alternate outfits. The Konquest mode was considered a bad hindrance and felt like filler where a more robust version could have been created, or just kept to the original Konquest mode. Chess and Puzzle combat was well received, and the Krypt stayed but was slightly expanded.

The Hara Kiris were the first suicide Fatality that the losing opponent could do. These were self-mutilation “-alities” that fans really dug and could take away the glory of winning from an opponent. These never saw the light of day after Deception which is really too bad. The other mini-games from Deadly Alliance were missing, but the two new modes were enough. Online play was smooth and really extended the replay value of the game. I remember playing online for hours on end and it really kept me playing for months after release. Deception went down as the best MK game of the 128-bit era adding new combos and some fighting styles to the game. A new feature introduced was multi-tiered arenas that dealt damage if you pushed them over yellow lines, but red ones were new stage Fatalities (but just ended in instant death). This added depth and strategy to the game since getting pushed around made you nervous. MK4‘s stage weapons were added back in and actually felt useful this time around. A new “Breaker” system was introduced which let you have three chances to break an opponent’s combo.

Deception was also the first MK game to not be originally released on a Nintendo console due to Nintendo’s lack of online support. After so many protests and petitions Midway finally released Deception to the GameCube with Shao Kahn and Goro as playable characters to make up for the lack of online play. This, however, didn’t sit well with critics and was quickly forgotten. New characters were introduced into the series once again, but most didn’t feel quite right. A couple stuck but others felt generic such Dairou, Darrius, Ashrah, Shujinko, Kobra, Kira, and Havik. I liked Kira and for some reason played as Darrius quite a bit due to his close-range fast combos. I didn’t like the rest so it felt like at this point the MK team just can’t create good new characters. A new boss was introduced as Onaga the Dragon King and there really wasn’t a mini-boss this time around.

Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks

–2005–

Released: Ps2, Xbox

Shaolin Monks was the last attempt at an MK action-adventure, but this time was well received and was actually good. A new development team took the reins on this one and featured a fluid combat system, Fatalities, and hidden secrets. It was a very short game (about 4-5 hours), and featured terrible graphics, voice acting, and the story was complete nonsense. However it was all about the fighting, and the puzzles used the series’ violence to be solved. You chose to play as either Liu-Kang or Kung Lao but Scorpion and Sub-Zero could be unlocked later. It was a pretty fun game, and items were unlocked with hidden red orbs throughout the game and featured 2 player Ko-op.

I loved the game at first, but over the years it felt really dated and the ugly graphics really stuck out over time. It was a successful side story and it proved MK could do it. It also featured an Arcade perfect port of MKII as a hidden unlock but was once again not released on the GameCube due to the system dying early. No one really screamed about this so Midway just continued not to release games on the Nintendo consoles for the time being.

Mortal Kombat: Armageddon

–2006–

Released: PS2, Xbox, Wii

Armageddon was the 128-bit version of Trilogy. It featured all the greatness of this era and the team claimed this would be the last MK game in this series. After Armageddon, there were rumors that MK would completely change will all-new characters and settings, but this never happened. Every single character in the MK universe was playable which made Armageddon the biggest roster in any fighter game up to its release. Over 60 characters were playable, but some things also changed that fans didn’t like. Gone were the unique two-per-fighter Fatalities and instead were “generic Fatalities” which featured a tier system (up to 10) where each button combo would mutilate a certain part of a character ie: Rip off their arm, leg, rip out kidneys, snap their neck, and then you would be rated based on how many you could put in. Each time the meter ran down quicker and quicker, but the system was very complicated and was hated by most fans. The team also dropped one of the fighting styles for each character so it was just one style and a weapon style. This was so the game wasn’t unbalanced and overly complex.

Konquest mode stuck around but instead used a fighting system similar to Shaolin Monks, but Kurrency, hidden items, and a story were still here but it was still unnecessary. The graphics were a little better in Konquest, but the whole fighting engine looked dated since the next generation of consoles was starting to come out. Puzzle and Chess Kombat were sadly missing, but the Krypt was back for the third time and instead was a wall of unlockables, so it didn’t have the charm like last Krypts. It was also smaller this time around which really upset me. Motor Kombat was introduced and was probably the worst mini-game from any other game. It was very short (the tracks) and didn’t feel right at all and felt just tacked on. Thankfully the MK team never brought it up again, but it was fun to check out. Armageddon also had a Kollector’s Edition with a signed animation cell of the logo by Ed Boon, a making-of DVD, an arcade port of UMK3, and had 4 different covers depending on what store you bought it at, but was only available for PS2.

About a year later they answered the new cries from Nintendo fans and released the game on the Wii, but was met the lackluster results. The motion controls didn’t pan out correctly and were hard to pull off so using the Virtual Console gamepad, or GameCube controller was the only real way to play. It also didn’t feature online play (once again) and this really hurt the game sales-wise. It did have a new Endurance mode as well as an exclusive playable character Khameleon from UMK3. Armageddon only featured two new characters which were Chameleon and Sareena who were only playable in Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition for GBA. Armageddon did have a Create-A-Fighter mode which was well-liked by fans, and I particularly loved this mode and wish it would come back to future releases. It allowed you to even type up a bio, choose fighting stances, styles, combos, special moves, so it was very in-depth. Armageddon felt a little bloated and the 128-bit era of MK games was starting to grow tiresome for fans.

Mortal Kombat: Unchained

–2006–

Released: PSP

Unchained was MK fans who owned PSP’s desperate cry for an MK game. While the DS got UMK3 fans of the PSP got a perfect port of Deception since it could display proper 3D graphics. While everything was intact PSP owners got Goro and Shao Kahn from the GameCube version, but Infrastructure online play was never put in. The game was excellent and felt right, and was the best portable MK game ever made. I spent hours and hours on this game, but my biggest complaint was that the announcer’s voice sounded pretty bad due to sample rate scaling to fit on the UMD. Konquest mode’s horrible graphics were even scaled-down more so it was painful to even look at. The graphics weren’t downgraded too much and still looked amazing on the handheld. It was released about a month after Armageddon so I felt it was a bit late to release this.

While there were only two games released in the staple numbered series they were both excellent, and one good adventure game was released as well as a strong portable. The 128-bit era was a great time for MK, but fans started longing for the old gameplay again. The 256-bit era will mark the series as a complete return, but for now, we had some excellent MK games to play until the next generation cycle.