Mortal Kombat: Deception
Midway attempts to redeem itself with what looks like will be decent MK title
Tags: Mortal Kombat: Deception Categories: PS2 Previews, Previews, Xbox Previews
Posted by David Hinkle on Aug 3rd, 2004
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If you’re anything like me, you were pleasently surprised with the latest installment in the Mortal Kombat franchise, Deadly Alliance(further referred to as MK:DA) when it released back in November of 2002. While a very solid title, and leaps and bounds above the other 3D installments for the Dreamcast and N64, it still didn’t feel like Mortal Kombat used to. Maybe it was the lack of multiple character fatalities, stage finishing moves, and Scorpion’s teleportation punch, but there was something there that certaintly didn’t scream Mortal Kombat to me. Even so, I was just glad to have another game with the Mortal Kombat name attached to it that was even remotely good.
Well, given the success of MK:DA, we can all look forward to the next chapter in the MK book in Mortal Kombat: Deceptions (further referred to as MK:D) due out this October. The best part? Midway is looking to return to its roots.
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That’s right folks, once again will we have the ability to uppercut! Once the move that, when placed correctly, could turn the tides in an MK war is making a valiant return and I couldn’t be happier. Throwing a nasty uppercut at someone jump-crazy will feel better than it ever did before, and also create more opportunities for juggle combos. As if that’s not all, thankfully they’ll be putting in more than just one fatality per character (one of my grievances with the last title), and also going to implement stage fatalities once again. To add a twist to that, they’re going to create sort of ‘instant kill’ stages as well called Death Traps. Kind of like knocking your opponent off a cliff in Dead or Alive, you’ll now have the chance to kick your foe into lava pits, giant spike rollers, and any other number of things Midway is cooking up.
Some of the old characters will be making a comeback for MK:D with updated looks. Nightwolf will be making his first appearance in a non-2D MK title, as well as Ermac and Sindel. Some of the others you will undoubtfully know are Jax, Baraka, Mileena, Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Bo Rai Cho, and Li Mei. The only newcomers revealed so far are Ashrah, Kenshi, and Hotaro. So far there are 24 comfirmed character slots(don’t count out hidden characters) and the remaining have not yet been revealed.
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Midway is trying to put the emphasis back on each individual character’s special moves rather than insane combos as was in MK:DA. So you’ll definately see Scorpion’s teleport punch, Ermac’s telekinetic slam, and Baraka’s blade spark among others. This is definately a step in the right direction for Midway if they indeed hope to get back to the core of things. Also, for all you fans of the MK:DA fighting styles, you’ll be glad to hear that most of the fighting styles and moves will remain the same for those characters, yet there will be some tweaking. So essentially Midway is trying to go ‘best of both worlds’ here.
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Also included in MK:D will be several mini-games. There’ll be Chess Kombat (a sort of live action chess game where each piece actually kills the other piece – a sort of gorey Wizard’s Chess), Konquest Adventure (a free-roaming action-adventure game), and Puzzle Kombat(very similar to Capcom’s Puzzle Fighter series).
Another great addition comes in the form of online play for both the Xbox and PS2 versions of the game. As far as which is better, well I’d put my money on the Xbox version. LIVE can’t be beat for console play online in my opinion and who can resist talking trash to your opponent in an attempt at the announcer guy’s voice as you rip his head off. Combined with the several mini-games, this should give MK:D the replay value MK:DA lacked.
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Tags: Mortal Kombat: Deception
Posted by David Hinkle on Aug 3rd, 2004 and is filed under PS2 Previews, Previews, Xbox Previews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
