Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance (PS2)

Mortal Kombat, the curse of spelling pedants and easily offended parents everywhere, has returned (again)--and this time it's making a proper effort to reclaim its crown as king of the beat-'em-ups. Just like movies and music there are some games that just seem to be a product of their time, appearing ridiculous when dragged kicking and screaming into the present day. Mortal Kombat suffered just such a fate when it was given one sequel too many and people realised that badly digitised 2-D characters in a dumbed-down version of Street Fighter II wasn't quite in keeping with the zeitgeist.

Sensibly, instead of trying to do just the same old thing with better graphics, Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance brings that most unexpected of presents to the beat-'em-up party: a new idea. Specifically, it gives you the ability to switch, at the press of a shoulder button, between one of three different fighting styles for each character. This works tremendously well, allowing you to change from ranged to close-up to weapons attacks, for example, with ease. The ability to see physical damage appear on your opponent during the course of a match is also a nice touch, but thankfully they haven't thrown the baby out with the bathwater and all the old Mortal Kombat extras are still here: there's a ton of spilt claret if you so much as touch the other player and a range of spine-ripping fatalities and brutalities to show off with at the end of a bout. Admittedly the graphics still aren't all that great, but they do the job and quite frankly anything that manages to make Mortal Kombat fresh and exciting again is doing very well indeed. --David Jenkins

"A triumphant return... a truly individual and spectacular-looking game. 8/10."

Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance delivers the highly acclaimed series to next-generation consoles with a lethal dose of unparalleled brutality, supernatural mystique and a reinvented fighting system. Beginning the next chapter in the battle of good versus evil, two powerful sorcerers--Shang Tsung and Quan Chi--join forces to deliver unrivalled fighting action in their quest for supreme mortality. Players engage in hand-to-hand and special-weapon combat, executing secret moves and combinations with new fatalities and deadly body blows. Lethal new warriors are added to the mix along with the return of Mortal Kombat classics--Scorpion, Raiden, Sub-Zero and Sonya. Hyper-realistic, Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance features progressive physical damage that allows players to view the inevitable demise of their opponents while utilising three unique fighting styles for each warrior, creating nearly unlimited fighting possibilities.

From the franchise that rocked the world and revolutionized the fighting game genre, Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance enters the 21st century with an all-new fighting system, an in-depth, supernatural storyline and infamous brutal fatalities that push the limits of the next-generation console systems.

Throughout Mortal Kombat's history, many have attempted and failed to take control of the tournament and therefore gain immortality. Now, two sorcerers, Shang Tsung and Quan Chi, unable to achieve their goal of immortality separately, join forces. This deadly alliance will likely ensure the destruction of Raiden and the mortals. With their combined powers, Shang Tsung and Quan Chi represent Earth's greatest threat...