Has Always Been, and Always Will Be

Part 5 of a Mortal Kombat Retrospective

Strictly speaking, the dead zone between Mortal Kombat releases was only two years, but it had been losing popularity for almost seven, and when Mortal Kombat V: Vengeance, was announced, it was greeted with little enthusiasm. Midway took steps to alleviate this through intensive promotional strategies, and it was considered a moderate success when it was released on the XBox, Playstation 2, and Gamecube in 2002, under the new title Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, making it the first Mortal Kombat with no arcade release.

The game brought the franchise into the 21st century, making a much more elaborate fighting engine, a vast array of unlockables (in the "Krypt") to increase replay value, and giving characters more unique and detailed looks. Each character had three fighting styles, two traditional martial arts and one weapon style. The developers attempted to emulate these fighting styles as best they could, and it led to more variety amongst the kombatants and a greater degree of mastery and strategy. Unfortunately, it contained the least amount of finishing moves since Mortal Kombat, with only one Fatality per character. It also introduced Konquest mode for each character, ostensibly a primitive story mode, which gave extensive background information on the fighters as well as trained players to use them. There were also frequent non-fight challenges - the return of Test Your Might and the new Test Your Sight.

The story of Deadly Alliance was the most elaborate and detailed at the time, and was much easier to follow thanks to Konquest mode and the (pretty sweet) opening movie. Quan Chi, fleeing Scorpion, stumbled upon the lost tomb of the Dragon King, giving him access to his undefeatable army. Quan Chi entered into an alliance with Shang Tsung to utilize the army, and together they killed their greatest threats - Shao Kahn, and Liu Kang (making this the first game not to feature him). We would also learn later that Goro had been killed in battle with the Outworld forces. Quan Chi used Shinnok's amulet to open a portal to the heavens, giving Shang Tsung access to unlimited souls and effectively making him immortal. In return, Shang Tsung drew souls from the heavens and implanted them in the undefeatable army, giving them a force capable of conquering the realms. Raiden gathered the champions of Earthrealm to bring them down. The game also featured several sub-plots involving specific fighters.

Returning fighters were Raiden who was effectively the main character, Kung Lao, Kitana, Johnny Cage, Sonya, Jax, Sub-Zero, Kano, an unmasked and bestial Reptile, Cyrax, and of course Shang Tsung and Quan Chi - the titular Deadly Alliance. The game also introduced many new characters: drunken master Bo'Rai Cho, young slave Li Mei - both Outworld natives, Red Dragon thugs Mavado and double agent Hsu Hao, blind swordsman Kenshi, Lin Keui apprentice Frost, oni demon Drahmin, and vampire Nitara. Also in the roster were hidden fighters Blaze and Mokap, as well as monstrous sub-boss Moloch, the oni compatriot of Drahmin.

The game had several drawbacks. The lack of more finishers and stage fatalities (a first for the series) made it seem half-finished, and several characters suffered from very stunted movesets; Kitana and Mavado were particularly weak fighters. Nevertheless, the game looked very impressive, made Mortal Kombat interesting again, and the library of unlockable rewards in the Krypt - which ranged from access to fighters, alternate costumes, and arenas, to minor but still cool prizes such as biographies, developer interviews, promotional videos, and concept art - gave the game considerably more replay incentive than any previous isntallment.

Despite already having a Gameboy Advance port, Deadly Alliance was redone as Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition for the portable system in 2D sprite form the following year, and despite missing many characters from the original it also added to the roster Noob Saibot, Sektor and, playable for the first time, Sub-Zero's demonic ally Sareena, introduced in Mythologies.

Deadly Alliance put Mortal Kombat back into the modern gaming community, and though it failed to surpass competing franchises, it reminded fans that it was still alive and kicking in the first words of the opening movie: "Mortal Kombat has always been, and always will be." For better or worse.