Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance
Platform: PS2
Published: 2002
GUEST REVIEW by Mike Lebolo
When I was kid, I never really cared much for fighters. The most I'd give any attention to were Dragon Ball Z-related and those were utter shit. Then my older brother showed me the light, Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. Blood, gore and martial arts, there wasn't much more you could offer me at that age. Unfortunately, I was just coming out of some...unpleasant business that left me with severe anger issues. So while I had a blast just plugging in the second controller and bludgeon every other character in the game with Sub-Zero, I don't exactly have the fondest memories of the actual multiplayer. In addition, my terrible reflexes at the time also made it impossible for me to pull off any of the fatalities.
Why do I still look fondly on this game then? Simple, for all the frustrations the game provided, nothing like it had ever embedded itself in my imagination before. The characters and world were fascinating to me, ninjas and sorcerers, gods and royals, all battling it out in 1-on-1 bouts to the death. It was practically every single thing I thought was cool rolled into one package. Well, that and the fact that the Adema's tie-in song, "Immortal" is one of my favorite nu-metal (insert tired "hurr-durr, Limp Bizkit" joke here) songs.
The Game
Released in November of 2002 for all three major consoles (and the GBA for some bizarre reason), Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance was the fifth installment in the main portion of the MK series. Deadly Alliance was Midway's saving throw after MK4 its disastrous "re-release" MK Gold left fans bitterly divided on the series' transition to full 3D. While it didn't exactly repair the rift in the fanbase, Deadly Alliance did manage to provide a much more solid game that won many over. Taking MK4's base gameplay, Deadly Alliance provided a greater focus on combos and upped the ante on its predecessor's weapon system by giving each fighter three distinct fighting styles that could be switched to (and combo-ed into) on-the-fly. The result was a much more complex fighting game that gave its contemporaries a run for their money in more than just the popularity department. Something that couldn't exactly be said of the previous games.
The story (what little there is) is thus, the evil sorcerers Shang Tsung and Quan Chi have united to form the eponymous Deadly Alliance. Their first action: the assassinations of Earthrealm's champion Liu Kang and Outworld's emperor Shao Kahn. With their two greatest threats dead, the duo set about reviving the army of the monstrous Dragon King. Having witnessed all of this and with his fellow Elder Gods refusing to act, Raiden renounces his status as an Elder God (he became one at the end of 4) and gathers the remnants of Earthrealm's defenders to take part in a tournament hosted by the Deadly Alliance in the hope of stopping them before it's too late. This is all from the intro, mind you. Mortal Kombat didn't have a proper story mode until Deception's Konquest mode.
Speaking of Konquest mode, one of the same name appears in Deadly Alliance. You play as a monk on a journey to master all fighting styles and achieve enlightenment. In practice, it functions as a dressed-up tutorial/source of my greatest frustrations. One cool little detail in this mode, however, is the inclusion of tidbits of information either expanding on the backstory of the game or the history of the martial arts used by the fighters. It's a welcome touch and demonstrates how much effort and research was put into the game.
The Experience
I honestly want to tell you that this game is still amazing after all these years, I want to so badly, but I just can't. I used to think that the term, "it's a product of its time", was just a result of a lazy reviewer refusing to bother coming up with a better description. Well, either I was wrong, or I'm a lazy reviewer, because it's the best way to describe Deadly Alliance. This game embodies the early 00's 3D fighter craze. That heavy emphasis on combos I mentioned earlier? It comes at the expense of so many of the things that make a Mortal Kombat game, well, a Mortal Kombat game. Specifically, the special moves, stage interaction and fatalities. But, before we get into the meat of my issues with the game, let's start with the characters that debuted in Deadly Alliance and my various praises/complaints about them.
• Blaze - An elemental who was on some vague quest before being imprisoned by worshippers of the Dragon King who forced Blaze to guard the egg of the Great Dragon. One of the two actually secret characters in the game (the game claims every character you unlock to be "secret", but they're not exactly a secret when they're on the damned select screen now are they?) and in the vein of previous MK secret characters, Blaze's fighting style is a composite of other characters (in this case, three) in the game. This results in Blaze having no weapon style, which is strangely distracting. He also has no fatality, in a Mortal Kombat game...
• Bo' Rai Cho - A legendary martial arts master from Outworld, who I guess was too fat and lazy to help out in the previous games. I hope you think fat, flatulent, drunkards are the funniest people ever, because that's all you're getting from this one-note joke. Both fighting as and against him is an exercise in patience as he fluctuates from one of the most awkward to play as to biggest spambot in the game in the blink of an eye. The best thing I can say about him is that brutally murdering him never stops being fun.
• Drahmin - One of the two oni that freed Quan Chi from his imprisonment in the Netherrealm, thus causing much of the plot. I hate Drahmin. The average human lifespan is roughly 71 years, yet that still would not come close to describing one one billionth of how much I hate him. Drahmin is the only fighter in the game built entirely on juggle combos which, by itself is fine, but he lifts his design almost wholesale from the equally uncreative Meat from MK4. The only major difference being his right arm being encased in a club and his vaguely Japanese myth-related mask. The straw that breaks the camel's back, however, are the flies that incessantly buzz around him for the entire match. Just a constant high-pitched buzz the entire fight, it's maddening, made even worse when he fights himself (which you have to do if you want to finish Konquest mode). What pisses me off even more is that he has one of the better fatalities in the game, must be the reward for not blowing your brains out the minute you heard the buzzing.
• Frost - A Lin Kuei prodigy with powers very similar to the Grandmaster and her mentor, Sub-Zero. Is anybody even going to read this one? I've already established I'm a Sub-Zero fan, so of course I'm going to think more of him is even better. Ah well, might as well give her a write-up anyways. Actually, despite the similar powerset, Frost's general fighting style is quite different from ol' Subby. She's much quicker and precise, which can best be demonstrated with her two specials: a ray of ice projected from her hands and a sliding kick. Certainly sounds like Sub-Zero, but both come with a twist. First the ice ray travels along the ground, so it can only freeze a grounded opponent that doesn't step out of the way, this difficulty is balanced out by the fact that Frost has plenty of combos that can leave the enemy reeling. Second, the sliding kick, rather than propelling her opponent back, flings them overhead, making it great for escaping when your back is literally against the wall (invisible wall, that is). If you ask me, Frost is one of the best characters in Deadly Alliance, especially with how much effort was clearly put in to make sure she didn't feel like a clone of her master.
• Hsu Hao - One of the most trusted members of the Red Dragon Clan, Hsu Hao works as the enforcer of Mavado's will. Mongolian Jax, seriously, just ask the creators. Planning to make Hsu Hao as iconic of a foe for Jax as Kano is for Sonya, what they wound up with instead is a cardboard cutout evil brute with absolutely nothing remarkable. In fact, his main outstanding characteristic, his cybernetic heart, functions exactly like Kano's eye. Come to think of it, he uses a rough, brawling style, a grappling style and dual-wields small bladed weapons. So in trying to make Jax's greatest foe, Midway created a plainer, bulkier clone of Kano. Klono, if you will. Though considering all of the missteps over the years, how he is Ed Boon's most despised creation, continues to elude me.
• Kenshi - An arrogant fighter brought low by Shang Tsung's treachery, Kenshi seeks to redeem himself and kill the traitorous sorcerer once and for all. The only good male fighter introduced in Deadly Alliance and probably the only one most readers will recognize. To wit, he is the only DA character in MK9 and even with all the room given in the reboot, he remained almost unchanged from his first appearance. Then again, it's pretty hard to strike greater gold for a fighting game than a blind, telepathic samurai out to avenge his ancestors. His fatality is also one of the most brutal (if a bit long) in the game, not exactly the highest bar, but still a plus.
• Li Mei - A villager from an Outworld town under the boot of the Deadly Alliance, Quan Chi and Shang Tsung have promised her home's freedom if she can win the tournament. Mileena, at some point Mileena was supposed to be in this game. That doesn't come from any info given by the creators, there's just no way to not see Mileena when you play as Li Mei. She's a dark-haired stunner who wears purple, relies heavily on kicks much like Kitana (who is in the game) and wields a pair of sais. In truth though, I wouldn't count her among the bad newcomers, her sympathetic backstory certainly helps endear her.
• Mavado - Leader of the Red Dragon, the predecessors to the Black Dragon, Mavado has pledged his and his clan's loyalty to the Deadly Alliance in exchange for the head of Kano upon the Alliance's victory. Do you like Kabal, I sure as hell hope you don't. You think he got a raw deal in 9? At least he died on-screen there. Here? He gets iced off-screen with zero fanfare and only faint mentions about Mavado killing him like he was nothing. If it was anything like how the computer uses him, Mavado likely sidestepped Kabal's attacks and spammed his stupid ass grappling hooks. To further twist the knife for Kabal fans, Mavado uses hookswords that the game openly states he took from Kabal's corpse. Much like his minion, Hsu Hao, Mavado is little more than a cheap attempt at creating more evil Earthrealm characters while expending as little effort as possible.
• Mokap - "A former martial arts teacher on the North side of Chicago, the man commonly referred to as Mokap was called upon by Johnny Cage to do some motion capture work for his new movie "Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance". I'm not even bothering to do my own version of his bio. Mokap was intended as a tribute to Carlos Pesina, the man responsible for Raiden's motion capture in the first three games (Mokap! Get it? Get it? It's so damn clever!). Much like Blaze he...you know what? Screw this! It's fucking Mokap! Who the hell wants to play as Mokap!?
• Moloch - The other oni that helped free Quan Chi and the resident "Why couldn't you just be Goro?". Moloch is one of the worst bosses in fighting game history. His design is unbelievably plain, he's little more than a blueish-gray, hairless gorilla with a ball and chain. He also has about five attacks, one of which can only be dodged by sidestepping, but sidestepping it just means he slaps you in the face with his balls...that came out wrong. The other attacks are so quick that it's next to impossible to interrupt any of them without spamming, which is also the only consistent way to beat him. Between him and Drahmin, I hope to God that there is never another oni in Mortal Kombat, ever.
• Nitara - Contrary to Earthrealm folklore, vampires are in fact a species from the realm of Vaeternus, a realm that Shao Kahn merged into Outworld during his many conquests. Having heard of an orb that can restore her people's homeland, Nitara seeks to obtain it, but the Deadly Alliance and their tournament stand in her way. It's a bit more complicated than that, but that's the best summary I could write. Next to Frost, Nitara is probably my favorite Deadly Alliance character. She also brings to mind the question, cyborg ninjas, a skinless man and Jarek really came first in a series built around blood and horror before a sexy vampiress? Really? Anyways, Nitara is a good all-rounder with a good mix of ranged specials and close combos. The fact that her grapple restores some health makes her an even better choice for beginners. Well she would, if you didn't need to unlock her.
Onto my previously mentioned meat...I really need to think before I speak. Let's start with my issues with the fighting itself, because I have never had such a love-hate relationship with a fighting engine. On the one hand, it's a solid, occasionally great, fighter in the style of Virtua Fighter. On the other, it's Mortal Kombat in-name-only. Sure there's blood spraying everywhere, but special moves vary from almost practical to completely useless, can only be chained into juggle combos and even then, not every character has a good enough pop-up attack to give you time to initiate the special. Then you have, aside from the acid spitting dragon orb statue things in one level and some destructible objects in two others, zero interaction with the stage, including no stage fatalities. Even 4 had stage fatalities! And that brings me to my biggest complaint, the fatalities that are in the game (barring a small number) suck. They just suck. Ranging anywhere from the overly-ridiculous one where Sub-Zero rips out his opponents entire skeleton whole, to the outright pathetic, like Quan Chi stretching his opponent's neck and that's all he does. Behold:
If that is not the single worst fatality in Mortal Kombat history, I don't know what is. For even greater comparison, here's his fatality from 4:
But that's just par for the course for Deadly Alliance. It gets so much right, but at the expense of the core concepts of Mortal Kombat.
You've probably noticed that I have yet to talk about Konquest mode. That's because there's nothing more to be said, it's literally a tutorial mode with a couple "challenges" sprinkled in for "fun". Konquest exists solely as another mode to gain Koins to use in the Krypt, or as I call it, the most tedious way to unlock anything ever. The "koffins" go from AA to ZZ and each one requires one of six different kinds of Koins, two of which can only be earned in the Test Your Sight and Test Your Might minigames. I'm going to be honest here, by the time I was done unlocking every character and had finally finished Konquest mode (which can't be done until you unlock every other character) I made it through arcade mode (which I did about ten times prior to get the Koins required) one more time before I about lost my damned mind.
Like I said before, Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance embodies the early 00's 3D fighter craze, especially its worst aspects. Specifically, the tendency to completely ignore the appeal the series, even if that meant making a less fun game, in order to make a game that appealed to tournament players. So I feel it's only appropriate to give it two scores, one for its quality as a fighting game, and the other for its quality as a Mortal Kombat game.
Fighter Score - 6.5/10
Mortal Kombat Skore - 4/10
