Has it been 11 years already? When Mortal Kombat hit the arcades back in the early 90's I wasn't really a big fan of fighting games as I didn't really have the time nor the 20 cent pieces to get really good enough at them to make myself a decent challenge for my friends.

Instead I would peer over their shoulder and watch them give themselves a future case of arthritis as they twisted their wrists and mashed their fingers as fast as possible all in the aim of beating the crud out of someone and pulling off the main gimmick that got kids interested in Mortal Kombat, the Fatality moves! Then I would go back to Gyruss or Time Pilot, much simpler games for my subtle tastes! I was yet to get the blood lust of Mortal Kombat in my system.

When Mortal Kombat first appeared there were massive amounts of public outcry from parents and do-gooders everywhere about the amount of blood, people getting their spines ripped out of their bodies and demonic images breathing fire and incinerating their victims. No longer is Mortal Kombat a low-res 8 bit colour affair with 2d sprites representing the characters, Mortal Kombat : Deadly Alliance (from now on MKDA) gives us 3d arenas, lush highly detailed characters, intricate, accurate fighting moves, nastier Fatality moves than ever before and I'm glad we don't hear a peep from the people that used to complain about this stuff anymore. I mean, what was their point? Sure it was violent, sure it was disturbing, but most importantly of all.. it was hella fun!!

Over the years I've come to look forward to each new MK release and the last few versions, well, to be honest most of them have been pretty average. MK purists would say that since MK2 every game has sucked but I've enjoyed most of them to some degree and I had been looking forward to MKDA ever since seeing the initial screenshots.

MKDA, the fifth game in the MK series is the first one to be released on the current range of consoles and is a return to the 'old skool' style of Mortal Kombat. Gone are the stupid 'babalaties' and all that garbage and we're back to a bare bones, knuckle crunching fighter but one with plenty of depth to satisfy any hardcore MK or fighting game fan.

The graphics in the game probably don't talk full advantage of the Xbox horsepower (this is a cross platform title after all) and while they don't fall into the DOA3 category of detail, they look extremely good and are very smoothly animated. The costumes on the characters look pretty cool and sport some pretty detailed textures and artwork. The arenas also are very nice with some excellent lighting, reflections and some even feature weather effects such as snow, rain and hail.

A lot of the characters have received makeovers as well and of particular note is the new Sub-Zero. No longer hiding behind a mask his frozen breath can be seen coming out of his mouth as he breathes and his arms go from normal flesh at the shoulders to being frozen towards his hands and a nice frozen mist floats off them as he moves around. The fighting moves and all the special attacks have all benefited from a massive upgrade that comes from playing on the new consoles and overall the game has a unique look from other fighters and retains its own distinctive MK look.

Now what has been the one thing to attract people to MK games over the years? Well the answer is obviously the copious amounts of blood and MKDA is no exception. When you hit someone with a weapon, fist or foot blood spews out, ripples and runs down their clothing (following the contour of their body) or drips from their limbs realistically. I'm no sicko or anything but it looks damn cool and leaves massive puddles around the arena. As you move through it, your character also leaves nice bloody footprints as he walks around! During the fights your character also receives cuts and bruises to his face that look great and at the end of each fight you can check out the damage done in a nice close-up.

One thing though with the levels, and this is because DOA3 must have spoilt us, is that the levels are all just round flat 3d arenas. They aren't multi leveled and there are no 'ring-outs' like in Soul Calibur. At the edge of each arena an invisible force field keeps the combatants from falling outside and it can allow a few cheap moves as you slam your opponent up against it and they bounce back at you for another kick to the head. One ice level sports some icy stalagmites that shatter when you kick or throw an opponent through them (uncannily resembling a existing DOA level) and another level has some acid that spurts out from time to time, but as far as environment interaction.. that's pretty much it.

The gameplay modes in MKDA are your standard arcade mode where you progress past one opponent after another to confront the final boss Shang Tsung who you need to defeat to stop the 'Deadly Alliance' Along the way you must also fight a creature called 'Moloch' and basically he sucks, but aside from that all the characters are great.

There's versus mode where you can slug it out against a mate but the meat of MKDA is the 'Konquest mode' where you travel around and complete missions to unlock Koins and learn the fighting moves for all the characters. Konquest mode is a pretty cool feature and if you're interested in learning all the advanced combo and special moves for each character then you will have to play through it. The Koins you earn along the way through Konquest mode more than make it worth your while as without these you wont be able to unlock the hidden characters such as Reptile, Raiden and Jax (amongst others) or unlock hidden arenas and alternate costumes in the Krypt, a massive room filled with 676 coffins of content for you to unlock.

To keep your Koins you setup a profile at the start of the game and allocate a code for yourself. Next time you load up the game, load your profile with your secret code and all your Koins are there ready and waiting for you. Your amount of wins and losses is also tracked in your profile as well. Once you've amassed a fortune in coins you can head to the Krypt where you can spend your jade, sapphire, ruby, onyx, platinum and gold coins on unlockable content that ranges from the already mentioned hidden characters, developer photos, arenas and costumes through to concept artwork, comics and memorabilia from older MK games. One hidden character Drahmin will set you back 6500 Saphire Koins so it may take a while to unlock everyone!

Multiplayer is an absolute blast. At the start of a match you can select your characters, choose an arena and a great new feature is the ability to place a wager on whom the victor will be! If both players press the right trigger, a betting screen opens where you can pick a type and amount of Koin to bet and to the victor, as they say, go the spoils! Save your profile to a memory card and make sure you take it with you to your mates place for some serious Koinage gambling! One major complaint that annoyed me with the great looking menus is that once you select a character you can't change your mind. Once your selection is made, if you hit the red B button it takes you back to the initial game menu instead of one step back! It made it extremely annoying, especially if you have indecisive mates like I do? but many late nights has been had with the Versus mode and my friends.