Mortal Kombat Deception. I grew up with this game. It has an absolute treasure trove of content.

For starters, it has the greatest single player mode the series has ever had in the form of Konquest mode. You can explore six unique and interesting realms, interact with almost every character that has been in the series since then, learn the skills of many warriors, perform lots of side quests that award currency and sometimes more like an alternate costume or concept art from the krypt, and even unlock characters by finding hidden chests and such. There is so much stuff to do in this mode, it is insane thinking about the amount of content. I have fond memories of spending hours wondering every realm talking to everyone and seeing what all I could discover. Sometimes it was nice just chilling out the the ambient music of the mode. It was so relaxing I would wonder around aimlessly, lost in the virtual world. This is just one mode as well.

Obviously, it has an arcade mode like any other fighting game. You face a series of opponents with a new boss, the Dragon King, Onaga, at the top. What is most surprising, however, is the fact that there is a new unique sub-boss. He dawns the name "Noob-Smoke." It is a character that is basically two in one, Noob and Smoke. A tag team taking up one slot. It was unheard of at the time. Not to mention how difficult these guys were. I lost more to them than Onaga. Beating arcade here for the first time was very satisfying. It is a very amusing ride too. The battle music really gets the blood pumping. My absolute favorite song has to be "Slaughterhouse Jive." It has such a dark, ominous, and rugged tone. It fits the worn down bloodbath of a stage perfectly. The stages are amazing.

Every stage here has a special kind of aura to it. In one, you are fighting for your life on a lone platform in the mountains surrounded by spikes that keeps getting smaller as the clock ticks. In another, you are at the top of a skyscraping Asian inspired tower during an intense thunderstorm where you could plummet to your death any second. In another, you are at the gravesite of Earthrealm's greatest champion and must prove yourself on this sacred ground. The stages have a lot of personality. Personality that the characters share.

You start with 12 characters, then unlock the other 12 through Konquest mode. The design team went crazy with the designs for each character. Sub-Zero looks like an ancient samurai (my favorite Sub-Zero costume to date), Kabal has a trench coat, Ermac has a less traditional MK mask now with black bandages around his face, and Jade is now maskless in her default costume. Each character really feels unique here, except for Kobra. There are some really awesome new characters such as Hotaru, Havik, and Shujinko. However, there are more questionable ones like Kobra and Darrius. Regardless, the roster is nice and solid.

In addition to Arcade, Konquest, and Versus (which I forgot to mention but is a given), two additional modes have made it to this game. One of which is Puzzle Kombat. It involves bobble head versions of the characters fighting each other while tetris style blocks fall for the player to arrange in a way that they can break many of one color at the same time to throw more blocks at the opponent so that their blocks stack to the top and a stage fatality will be performed on them. It is easier to play than explain here. Lastly, there is Chess Kombat. Imagine Chess. Now throw the characters on a chess board and instead of taking a piece when your share a space with your opponent, you initiate a fight with them. The winner will take the square. There are also traps, power squares, and a fatality will automatically be performed on the leader when defeating them.

This game is filled to the brim with content. I have only scratched the surface. If you guys haven't already, check this game out. It is well worth it. :)