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At Midway’s recent spring gamers’ day, a select few members of the press were ushered in to a special suite, where they met legendary Mortal Kombat creator Ed Boon, who answered a few questions and showed a demonstration video for Mortal Kombat: Deception. So, Game Informer Magazine newbie Joe Juba and myself joined Ed, and sat back in awe at what was revealed to us.

As far as the way the fighting game portion plays (yes, now there are different portions of the game – more on that later), it seems like a major extension of Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. Midway has decided on sticking with the same 3 fight styles system, yet they will be expanding on it. There will be 24 total characters – 14 of which will be initially selectable. There will be 8 new characters, 6 characters will be returning from Deadly Alliance, and there will be 10 classic Mortal Kombat characters from earlier installments – like Baraka, Kabal, Nightwolf, and Sindel – who will be making their 3D debut. Boon explained that returning characters will have some similar moves to Deadly Alliance, but they will have some new move sets, so players who are more familiar with certain characters will feel much at home.

To teach people the different nuances in fighting games – like counters and reversals - Deception will feature on screen indicators to help teach players when the proper time is to block, attack, perform a counter, etc. There will be 3 indicator circles (red, blue, yellow) on the side of the screens which will tell you the strength and weaknesses of your attacks, as well as when you are the most vulnerable.

Obviously, one of the staples in the Mortal Kombat franchise is Fatalities, and Deception will be chock full of them. Each character will have 2 fatalities, and stages will also have stage fatalities. Deception will also feature a slight twist on the fatality scheme with adding Hari Kari to the mix. For example, say you get rocked by a buddy, and he’s about to pull off a fatality. By pressing a certain button combination, you can commit suicide before the fatality is performed. So, you’ll ultimately be racing against your opponent to kill yourself before he pulls off a fatality.

Boon stated that the backgrounds in the game will be “more than a portrait.” Environments in Deception will be much more expansive, and some will feature multiple tiers – much like the Dead or Alive series. You’ll be able to blast opponents through breakable walls and watch them fall, and then chase them below, and continue smacking the snot out of them. Boon described two of the levels that will be in the game. One was a collapsing pillar level where through out the match, the outer rings will continue to collapse until you have a small center pillar. The other was a Ying Yang type level where the Ying side was a nice beach area, and the Yang side was a rainy, desolate opposite. While you are fighting the Ying and Yang sides switch randomly.

Some levels will also feature deathtraps (different than stage fatalities), which will be indicated by a red marker. You’ll personally want to avoid these, but you can throw an opponent into a death trap and kill them. One area that we saw had hot fire and coals as the floor. An opponent got tossed in there and quickly crawled on his hands and knees to get out. Right before he was about to exit his burning crawling spree, a large metal brick came down a grinded him into pulp.

If the main fighting portion of the game isn’t enough, Deception will also feature a quest mode, board game, and puzzle Kombat. Yes folks, Deception is going to be the complete package.

Konquest Adventures, the free roaming quest mode will reveal much of the story in Deception. You start as a young teen, and play until you are an adult. This mode is going to be completely time based, and to witness certain events you’ll have to be at the right place at the right time. Much like Animal Crossing, if you’re not next to this specific tree at this certain time, you will not meet up with a certain character. While you don’t exactly create your character from the ground up, you’ll receive items to wear, which will act much like badges of honor. Once you’ve played through the entire adventure mode, you can pick your three fighting styles and take your character online.

The Mortal Kombat Board game (tentative name) portion is much like the classic Archon and Battle Chess titles. What this will boil down to is you’ll have a chess board with Mortal Kombat characters and you’ll battle characters to take over their square. While still based in the fighting game realm, there will be quite a bit of higher level strategy integrated in this mode, and there will be different piece classes.

All you Super Puzzle Fighter fans will be pleased to know that Midway will also be including a Puzzle Kombat mode to round out Deception. Puzzle Kombat is basically a puzzle fighter type game with a Mortal Kombat twist. There will be special moves that you can perform, and of course fatalities will also play a role as well.

If this wasn’t enough, Mortal Kombat: Deception will be completely online on the PS2 and Xbox. Whether you want to play the fighting portion, board game, or Puzzle Kombat, you’ll be able to take all these modes online.

Walking out of Ed Boon’s suite, we have to admit that we had been reduced to drooling, giggling little girls. Mortal Kombat: Deception is an extremely ambitious project. The fighting game alone is impressive, but the additions of Konquest Adventures, the board game, and Puzzle Kombat, and then bringing it all together online really seems to up the ante for all fighting titles. If Ed Boon and the Mortal Kombat team can pull this off, Mortal Kombat could be back at the top of the fighting genre once again.

-Billy Berghammer

I wasn't really sure if this is allowed, I know the scans aren't allowed, but they never mentioned information posted on sites.... I realize alot of this is information that has been repeated over and over again, but the fact that they mentioned kabal in there with every other confirmed MK combatant is sweet