Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance

Mortal Kombat has always been awesome. This game is the best so far. MKDA is absolutley one of the coolest fighters around. The unique combos, the awesome, brutal, crazy fatalities, the unlockables. It really is a cool game. If you like blood and gore, Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance is your game.

Deadly alliance is the fifth fighting MK.

Pros
Konquest, the tutorial mode is somewhat awkward and bothersome and at times difficult.
Buying in the Krypt is fun for a while.
Most of the returning characters.
Three disciplines for each character, one of them is weapon based.
Fairly easy for beginners.
IMHO Kenshi is probably the best new MK character since MK2. Li Mei, Nitara and Frost are just OK.

Cons
The graphics are unimpressive.
The multi kurrency gets annoying really fast.
Some kombos are really complicated, nearly impractical unless you have the time and willingness to master them
Multi-Discipline Kombos, IMHO these are the worts kind of kombos, mainly because I find the L and R button unsuitable for a fighting game
I don't believe that the GameCube control was designed thinking about fighting games. But this is no failure of MK itself.
Bo' Rai Cho, Mavado, Drahmin and Hsu Hao are probably the worst new characters ever. Mokap is just a bad idea.
This game doesn't include some popular characters like Liu Kang, Jade, Mileena and Baraka.
No online play.

New characters
Blaze
Bo' Rai Cho
Drahmin
Frost
Hsu Hao
Kenshi
Li Mei
Mavado
Mokap
Moloch
Nitara

Returning characters
Cyrax
Jax Briggs
Johnny Cage
Kano
Kitana
Kung Lao
Quan Chi
Raiden
Reptile
Scorpion
Shang Tsung
Sonya Blade
Sub-Zero

OK, maybe this game is already too dated; maybe you should already consider buying MK Armageddon instead, if you have a PS2.
IMHO, if you have a GameCube and you like fighting games, I'd recommend Soul Calibur 2.

It seems to me that this game is trying way too hard to break out of being just another Mortal Kombat game. The complaints of the simplistic combat system from previous MK games could no longer be ignored, so they invented a new combat system from the ground up. Like Sould Calibur, the direction you are pointing the D-Pad changes the type of attack, only unlike Soul Calibur it is somewhat unpredictable and less intuitive if you don't have each of the many moves memorized. A cool feature that enables you to switch between 2 fighting styles and 1 weapon style is a nice addition, but the combos that involve switching between the styles are quite difficult. While, it is cool that the new fighting system is based on actual martial arts styles, it would have been nice to included a feature to play with the old system...maybe by changing to "Classic Kombat" under the options screen. It is a very big minus that you cannot use the analog joystick...only the d-pad, which I find somewhat frustrating.
I find it very disapointing that some of the characters' signature moves are absent and each character only has a couple. You won't find Raiden's torpedo or teleport, nor will you find Scorpions teleport punch or even Kitana's fan throw.
In the past the fatality system had gotten a little out of hand with the addition of animalities, babalities, friendships, brutalties, etc...but in this game they opted to keep it simple by only giving each character 1 lonesome fatality. I find it humorous that the majority of fatalities end with the victor stomping on the defeated.
Which leads me to this; Mortal Kombat became popular due to the fact that it was so realistic, using digitized actors as fighters, but now the characters are bulky, overly muscular, that move stiffly, look like they are made out of plastic, and spew red pudding. Every character has had a complete makeover and looks nothing like they originally did.
Ever since Mortal Kombat 3, Midway has been unable to introduce any interesting new characters...same goes for this game. The new characters are easily forgotten and too generic to be anything other than fillers.
Other than elimination and versus, there is practice and konquest which are both just training modes. No tournament mode or 2 on 2 mode to be found.
My conclusion is to skip this game...maybe rent it, and pick up Mortal Kombat: Deception instead, as it addresses the majority of my complaints on this game.

I was a big fan of the Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat games in the early 90's, and even though I thought Mortal Kombat had cooler characters and graphics, I preferred the depth of gameplay of the Street Fighter series. In the Mortal Kombat games, everyone had the same punches and kicks, and often it was a matter of using the special moves more than anything else. With the Street Fighter games, every character (with the exception of Ken and Ryu) had unique moves -- different punches and kicks, and more possibilities.

Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance changes all of that. Each character now has 3 distinct, real, martial arts fighting styles -- 2 hand-to-hand styles and 1 weapon style each. In my opinion, this is the single best improvement they've ever made to the series. It adds an element of depth previously missing from Mortal Kombat.

The graphics are impressive, and so are the characters, though a few of the new characters are a bit unmemorable. Many hardcore fans were disappointed that each character only has one fatality, and there are no stage fatalities (though one level contains fountains of green acid that can harm you character). Also, there isn't much in the way of secrets to unlock, with the exception of The Krypt: a huge graveyard of coffins which can be unlocked with "koins" earned by winning matches. However, most of these unlockable items are pictures -- pictures of the developers, of characters, of design sketches -- pictures that don't enhance the gameplay.

This is a fantastic game, and is followed up by the equally impressive Mortal Kombat: Deception.

Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance was released a few years ago, and marked a new beginning for the Mortal Kombat franchise. After several below-par installments and an ultimately forgettable attempt at 3D, the creative team finally got serious and gave fans an installment that could compete with other fighting titles.

There's a lot to like about this game. The fighting system has been completely reworked, so that characters can switch between two fighting styles and a weapon style. Players can chain combos between styles, and the overall system allows for more creative freedom than the programmed combos of Mortal Kombat's past. Animations and character models hold up well, and the backgrounds are nicely varied. There is a long tutorial mode known as "Konquest" where players can earn koins as they master the game's roster of 21 characters (2 more are unlocked upon completion of this mode). These koins are then spent in the krypt, which unlocks a lot of hidden goodies such as new fighters, arenas, production artwork, comic book panels, photos of merchandise, and even some oddities (there's a "Cooking with Scorpion" video that must be seen to be believed).

In the years since the release of Deadly Alliance, a sequel has come and gone (MK: Deception) which makes some of the flaws in Deadly Alliance more obvious. Particularly, the tutorial mode can be very unforgiving at times, and often asks you to execute long button combinations with very hard timing. The d-pad on the Gamecube controller is also much too small, and as a result it can be hard to execute special moves correctly that require percise button presses. No arena fatalities, and the character fatalities aren't that great. Finally, the krypt of unlockables can be disappointing at times; you may save up a lot of koins only to unlock a picture or artwork you don't really care about.

Still, Deadly Alliance deserves a lot of credit for restoring the MK franchise to heights not seen since Mortal Kombat II. Definitely make the purchase if you haven't already, and also pick up the sequel Deception.