Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance Explained

[Music] thank you [Music] Liu Kang is dead by the late 90s mortal kombat's reception had certainly derailed with an abundance of mediocre projects from these sharp critical decline of MK mythologies and Mortal Kombat gold a bomb at the box office in Mortal Kombat Annihilation two attempts at a Mortal Kombat TV series to which both were canceled shortly after their first season and the final nail Mortal Kombat Special Forces which not only suffered staff departures including the co-creator of the franchise but also negative reception and disastrously at low sales after Mortal Kombat Special Forces tanked with sales and critics Midway had the series put on hold the time between MK4 and the next main installment will be a whole five years the longest gap between any new Mortal Kombat game with the extra time Midway still helmed by Ed Boone wanted to revise everything about the Mortal Kombat formula in MK4 it was clear the series needed a new design competition was getting much stronger whilst Mortal Kombat was mostly staying the same so in 2002 Mortal Kombat finally returned with Deadly Alliance available on the PlayStation 2 Xbox GameCube and Game Boy Advance with no longer having an arcade release as director Ed Boone put it without designing the game so it would take a quarter from you every two and a half minutes there could be more time and resources spent in making a strong single player component Deadly Alliance is the fifth Mainline entry with the Roman numeral for five being featured on the cover art of the game however it would drop the number title and instead switch to a subtitle named after the deadly new threat of this entry Deadly Alliance is once more a one-on-one fighting game but looks a lot different to the Mortal Kombat games before it Midway had evolved almost everything the biggest advancement was the new gameplay engine built for five three-dimensional battles unlike in MK4 now you can move along the z-axis with ease with even many of the characters Combos and special attacks also traversing you around your Target in three dimensions characters played much differently now coming with three different fighting styles that you could switch through on the Fly mid battles even having combos that would change through the fighting styles creating what is now called style Branch combos that dealt a large amount of damage to your opponent if executed correctly each character comes with two hand-to-hand combat Styles and one weapon Style with the weapon mechanic from MK4 being deepened in a great way each character has their own unique weapon that has much better animation and choreography than before with deeper combos the weapons can't be dropped but some bladed weapons can be stabbed into your opponent causing them to continuously lose Health until the round is over but doing this leaves you with just your hand-to-hand styles in until the next round the hand-to-hand fighting styles made the roster much more diverse no longer do the character's standard moves all play and look the same as each character's new Styles move control and flow differently to each other such as Kung lao's mantis style Johnny Cage's Duke condo and Shang Tsung's crane form and reptiles crab the fighting styles really fit these characters and added a lot of needed depth to the Mortal Kombat formula in addition to the fighting styles and style Branch combos characters still come equipped with the four attack buttons performing high and low punches and kicks the block button standard dial Combos and the iconic special moves centered around with each character's specific abilities however some iconic special moves of the past were dropped for certain characters like Raiden's charge across the screen and Shang Tsung's ability to transform into different characters is double presses of left and right have your character Dash backwards and forwards this was in exchange of the Run mechanic from MK3 and 4 which was replaced by a new power up feature in which your character will do a special move with the Press of R1 on the controller these power-ups range from being a torch that can restore some of your health to your character getting a temporary attack boost if you combine R1 with a directional button your character will perform an unblockable command grab but these gameplay enhancements came at a cost with the fatality system taking a slight step backwards each character now only had just one fatality move and the quality of these saw a visible decline they were still bloody but many left you wondering was that it Deadly Alliance is also the first Mainline Mortal Kombat to not feature any stage fatalities character models also saw a heavy improvement with the new game engine models saw a lot more detail and were much bulkier certain cloth materials and body parts had their own physics allowing them to sway and move more realistically when it came to modes Deadly Alliance was bursting with content in addition to the staple arcade mode which now featured a different progression animation between battles and had a triple threat boss Gauntlet ending like MK2 consisting of new sub boss molok Shang Tsung and then Quan Chi and you had the two-player versus mode there were now some new modes of play that have become iconic Staples of this franchise the big highlight at the time was Conquest mode advertised as being a large single player Adventure Conquest mode turned out to be mostly a glorified string of tutorial challenges teaching you the play styles of each character in the game you'll learn how to play all of their different fighting styles and get to test out to their special moves and combos in between each challenge a monk would continue his journey across different biomes and text boxes will pop up to progress the story of each character or just give some additional information completing challenges in this mode and defeating opponents in arcade and versus awarded you with coins that were spent in our new next mode the Crypt the Crypt is a graveyard filled with 676 coffins arranged alphabetically with a two-digit designation on each coffin using the game's coins you can spend them to unlock the coffins and reveal the gifts inside they can range from new characters new stages alternate costumes or even cool extras like behind the scenes videos and concept art which the game had tons of from a making of documentary spoof videos like cooking with scorpion to even a full music video from American rock band edema who featured scorpion in their video in the arcade mode the test your might minigame return for the first time since the original Mortal Kombat game and it also came with a new variation called test your site in which the MK logo will be hidden underneath one of three or four cops and after being shuffled around you must choose which one you think contains the logo other features included a new practice mode to which you could test out each character's moves in the new fighting system and the deepened options menu that allowed you to Tinker with many of the game's elements such as the computed AI difficulty how many rounds it takes to win the match match length how often the test your mic mini game appears the blood level and even remap all of the controls to suit your own preferences in Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance it is revealed that scorpions MK4 ending is Canon with Quan Chi being transported to the nether Realm by the ninja Specter and was tortured for the pain he had caused scorpion however in the nether realm Quan XI exploited the friendship with fellow Oni demons molok and ramen to escape the nether realm and scorpions torture escaping through a portal leaving his only behind he ended up in the halls of the long forgotten deceased Army Of The Dragon King wanting this mummified Army for his own command Quan Chi formed a secret alliance with outward sorcerer Shang sung in exchange for the sorcerer's help in Reviving The Dragon King's Army Quan Chi would gift Shang Tsung an unlimited wealth of souls for him to achieve his everlasting life Shang Tsung agreed and the first set their sights on the two mightiest opposers to their Alliance they defeated the weakened Shao Khan and then traveled to Earth realm killing Liu Kang this was a sign that Mortal Kombat was entering a new age with the death of their franchise's biggest hero straight out of the gate the stakes were high and the pieces were set Raiden had returned once more to gather the best Earth realm has to offer in order to stop The Deadly Alliance before they can achieve their goals let's now look at the Deadly Alliance character roster it's a mixture of 13 returning characters and eight new ones with two bonus secret characters to unlock for returning combatants we have scorpion who was returned to continue his quest to destroy Quan Chi his Styles and hapkido P Gua and his Katana they're Sub-Zero who has become the new Grandmaster of the reformed linkway Clan his fighting styles are Shotokan an aggressive form of karate founded in 1936 and his second is the dragon style a southern Chinese martial art designed to imitate the movements of the mythological creature and his weapon is the Corey blade fashioned straight from his powers to form objects out of solid ice using water vapor Johnny Cage returns to Aid Raiden in his new fight for Earth Realm his fighting styles are karate jikundo and he wields The nunchaku Shaolin Kung Lao returns to avenge the death of his friend Liu Kang his styles are the Mantis form created by Wang Lang in the 17th century Shaolin Fist and his weapon is the broadsword special forces members Sonia blade and Jax return in their new military attires to defend earthrealm and to rescue their other members after the destruction of their outer World investigation agency headquarters which left Cyrax trapped in outworld Sonja uses Kenpo a western variation of Japanese karate Taekwondo the Korean equivalent of karate with more emphasis placed on kicking and wields Carly sticks a weapon originating from the Philippines whereas Jax's styles are Muay Thai also known as Thailand kickboxing Judo a form that descends from jujitsu Sue and was developed in 1882 and he wields the tomfer originally in handle from the hand-operated Grain Mill used on farms which was developed into a melee weapon Cyrax returns now a full-time member of these special forces his styles are Ninjutsu [ __ ] and he wields pulse blades princess of adenia katana also returns to Aid the heroes her fighting styles are the eagle claw form a variation of kung fu that originated in southern China her second is bagua a relatively new Chinese martial art having been developed in the late 1800s by Don Kai Chuan and she wields her staple steel fans which is perfect for her character the Earth realm Defenders are LED once again by Raiden his first style is nanchuan his second is Jiu Jitsu and he wields his legendary staff Kano makes his return with him convinced to leave Shao Khan's servitude in exchange for working for the new Deadly Alliance his fighting stars are shinyi Aikido and his weapons are a pair of butterfly knives very fitting for the black dragon member reptile also returns lost after Shao Khan's dethroning by The Deadly Alliance and Andy's wandering Out World in search of a new purpose his styles are hungar crab and he wields the kirihashi blade lastly you have the Deadly Alliance Shang Tsung and Quan Chi Shang Tsung's fighting styles consist of the snake form the crane and he wields a straight sword these very cool character's Appliance Quan Chi styles are Tang sudo a screamer Andy wields double broadswords for new characters Deadly Alliance had the most newcomers in a Mortal Kombat game at the time there's boraicho the former teacher of Liu Kang he returns to train Kung Lao to help him in defeating the Deadly Alliance boraid show is notorious for his first fighting style drunken Fist and his grotesque special moves that include him vomiting and farting on his opponent his second style is mizong and his weapon is the short staff martial art Jujutsu Lee May is a native about world she has entered the Deadly Alliance tournament to win back the freedom of her people from Shang Tsung her fighting styles are baji Chuan luhif bafar and her weapon is the sign which draws many comparisons between her and Molina also with the color of her clothing another new hero in the series is kenshi a blind swordsman and member of the special forces his blindness was caused by the trickery of Shang Tsung prior to the events of the game he joins Earth realm Warriors to redeem his honor and bring Justice to The Deadly Alliance he has telekinetic abilities gifted to him by his ancestors which are some of his special moves feel like Ermac from the past his styles are Tai Chi Sancho and he wields the katana sharing the same moveset with scorpion there's frost a female siromancer and newest recruit of Sub-Zero's reformed linquay Clan she has joined Sub-Zero to battle The Deadly Alliance her styles are tong bay Yuan Yang and dual daggers nitara is an interesting new character being a vampire with wings that searches for an artifact that can separate her realm from outworld she manipulates reptile and Cyrax to try and get it her fighting styles are the leopard form fujao pois and she wields the karma Mavado is the leader of the criminal organization called The Red Dragon Clan rival to kano's Black Dragon it's revealed in the game that the black dragon is actually an offshoot from the red dragon with the red dragon being the original organization Movado is out to take down Kano and the special forces and allies his clan with the Deadly Alliance his style is a long Fist and Wing Chun Movado also uses the technique in which he Springs his ropes and uses him to pull himself backwards out of Harm's Way and also to projectile himself at his opponent he wields the hook swords from which he acquire it from killing cabal suhao is another member of the red dragon Clan he is tasked by Movado to sabotage the Special Forces outer World investigation agency causing Cyrax and kenshi to get stuck in outworld he is notorious for his dislike from critics and even the game's creators Jax kills Sue how and his Canon ending Sue how styles are schwei Chao wrestling and he wields the Sun Moon blades lastly there is draman an Oni that has escaped the netherrealm and wants revenge on Quan Chi for deserting him and moloch his styles are fighting styles made up named netherrealm and Oni and he wields his iron Club now upon completion of the conquest mode it will knock you two extra secret characters Blaze and mocap both of these characters don't have a fatality or even feature weapons instead having three hand-to-hand fighting styles and the three of them are shared from other characters Blaze was confirmed to be the same character sprites nicknamed torch that could be seen in the background of the pit stage all the way back in Mortal Kombat 2. Blaze is a fire Elemental who has the task of guarding the Egg of the Dragon King his three martial art forms are hapkido Jeep condo and Xing Yi mocap is a spoof character acting as a homage to martial artist Carlos Pacino who portrayed Raiden in Mortal Kombat 1 and 2 and has provided motion capture and animation work to the other games in the series in law mocab is a friend of Johnny Cage and his Styles consist of karate Tai Chi and Taekwondo alternate costumes were back in Deadly Alliance with all of the characters outside of Blaze getting an alternate look unlockable from the Crypt there were some great ones such as kano's MK1 attire Johnny cages tuxedo from MK4 juanchi's MK4 attire scorpion with his skull exposed Jax's hip-hop street style cyrax's human form and even having Shang Tsung's luck from the 1992 Mortal Kombat comic book completing the arcade mode as each character once again presented you with different endings this time going back to static images with narrated text some are Canon to the game while some aren't however at the time it was up to speculation how the game's story Ended as it wasn't fully revealed until the next game Mortal Kombat deception which would reveal that indeed Quan Chi and Shang Tsung defeated Earth Realms Defenders this being the first Mortal Combat in which the villains canonically win in a side plot reptile stumbles upon the Egg of the Dragon King guarded by Blaze and he becomes the new host With The Dragon King having returned the Game Boy advanced version of Deadly Alliance is much different to the Home console version while still featuring a 3D plane it's had 2D Sprites for its combatants and drops the conquest mode for instead a survival mode but still featured the Crypt it also only features 12 of the playable characters Scorpion Sub-Zero Sonya Blade Kano Kung Lao Jax Katana Shang Tsung Quan Chi kenshi limey and Frost having only three of the new Deadly Alliance cast it also excludes sub boss motaro and secret characters Blaze and mocap but with its abundance of extra features and Polished portable gameplay this is one of the highest acclaimed handheld Mortal Kombat ports that had released at the time a year later in 2003 Deadly Alliance would get an updated version exclusive for the Game Boy Advance titled Mortal Kombat tournament Edition this version featured a different character roster and an extra attack team mode the new roster features 15 characters scorpion Raiden Johnny Cage Shang Tsung reptile Cyrax Quan Chi borai Cho draman Mavado suhao nitara Sektor who is a pilot swap of Cyrax Noob cybot who is a pallet swap of Scorpion and new character Serena last seen as a boss in Mortal Kombat mythologies this being her first playable appearance Serena also borrows fighting styles from other characters Taekwondo and the side weapons from Lee May tournament Edition is the only Mortal Kombat fighting game to not feature Sub-Zero on its roster tournament Edition is very much like the companion to the Game Boy Advance version of Deadly Alliance it plays very much the same just featuring a different roster of characters in the end Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance received positive reviews and at the time was hailed as being the game that revived the Weeping Mortal Kombat franchise it was praised for its full Embrace of three-dimensional fighting systems deeper combo and juggling system and featuring entirely new fighting styles between characters Gamespot gave Deadly Alliance the Outlet's highest commendations of 2002's best fighting game on Xbox and best fighting game on GameCube it sold more than 1 million units across all Platforms in just its first month it was instantly won over by fans and critics alike it's no exaggeration to say that Mortal Kombat had risen again Deadly Alliance had achieved exactly what it set out to do the franchise was reborn with a strong New Foundation and a success with fans and critics Mortal Kombat was back and its future seemed bright with a new king to claim the outworld throw [Music]

Channel: Don Critic

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Keywords: Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance, Mortal Kombat 1, Mortal Kombat 1 trailer, Mortal Kombat 1 gameplay, Mortal Kombat retrospective, History of Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat Evolution, Mortal Kombat Explained, Don critic, Injustice 3, Metal Gear Solid Remake, Mortal Kombat 12 analysis, Mortal Kombat 12 trailer

Id: knByYGGMFXY

Length: 23min 33sec (1413 seconds)

Published: Fri May 26 2023