You remember the original Mortal Kombat, don't you? It was "that game," which was universally condemned by parents and censors and universally loved by kids for the very same reason: the blood. Truly, any game that thought is was gory had its heart ripped out and stepped on by Mortal Kombat, with its infamous fatality moves that resulted in graphic dismemberment, beheadings and many other truly horrible ways to die. Now the long-awaited next-generation sequel is here and I'm delighted to say that it's better (and gorier) than ever.

The story behind Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance is paper thin like most beat 'em ups, but perhaps slightly more original than your usual grudges and tournaments. There are wizards, demons and all manner of unpleasant wackos from other dimensions that would really like to get their hands on that prime real estate known as Earth. However, the elemental gods have decreed that this can only be accomplished by defeating a series of Earth's greatest champions in a fight to the death and thus Mortal Kombat was born.

There are no less than 21 characters to master in this game, 9 or which must be unlocked as you play. Most of the old favourites are here, including Scorpion, Sonya Blade, Johnny Cage, Sub Zero and Raiden, with the protagonists this time being Shang Tsung and Quan Chi, freshly escaped from exile and attempting to use the souls of MK champions to raise an unstoppable undead army. I guess they don't know about clichés in the Outworld! Sadly Liu Kung isn't with us any more as the deadly duo killed him and took his soul, but a number of new characters are added to the fray this time around. These include Bo'Rai Cho (Liu Kung's trainer), Sub Zero's apprentice Frost, the blind ninja Kenshi and warrior clan leader Mavado, plus less human creatures such as Reptile and the monstrous Moloch.

From the moment the game loads up, the presentation of MKDA is excellent. There is an excellent FMV sequence at the start of the game that brings you up to speed on the story and intricately animated sequences are to be found with the menu options. It's all very slick looking and even the loading screens feature various stills from the FMV story. You have several choices on offer when you first start the game - you can dive right in with Arcade Mode, select Versus Mode to take on a friend, go to Practice Mode and get to know the characters or head into Konquest Mode. I'll come back to the others later, but what is really worthy of mention is the Konquest Mode. In this you work through an initial 8 training missions that introduce the basics of the game and then for each character there is a series of 10 brief missions that teach you how to string together the fighting styles and moves of your chosen character. These aren't missions as such, this is just a glorified training mode, but the level of interaction and instruction is just right and such that you really start to get a feel for what each character can do. It takes you through each group of the character's fighting styles including the basic, combo and special moves before pitting you against yourself in the final mission.

This leads me into the combat itself and MKDA does not disappoint. In fact, this is without doubt one of the finest fighting systems I have ever seen in a game (possibly the best I have seen) due to its ease of use and variety. Each character has three fighting styles (two hand-to-hand styles and one weapon style), which you can switch between at any time. This means that effectively you must get to know the character three times over and makes almost for three characters in one. As you master a character and play extensively with them, you will come to realise just what a huge difference these styles make, as one style might work brilliantly against one character but be next to useless against another. Each foe you face will fall to one of your styles; it's just a case of figuring out which one (or which combination) exploits their weaknesses the best.

The fighting styles are very faithfully recreated from real martial arts styles ranging from Tae Kwan Do and Karate to Xing Yi and Drunken Boxing, the latter of which is superbly done (if you've seen the Jackie Chan classic, The Drunken Master). Each character has a unique weapon for their third style too, ranging from daggers, swords, blades and staffs of various natures to other weapons such as nunchuku, an iron club, steel fans and even some sort of energy sword. One of the coolest things about these styles is that there are combination moves that use all three styles, so you might start with a volley of punches in your first style, switch to the second for a couple of kicks and then finish off with a devastating weapon attack in your third. These are tricky to pull off at first, but once you get into the rhythm you'll get the hang of it and they really are satisfying to use and super stylish to watch. Whichever mode you are in, a full Moves List is available from the pause menu, allowing you to look up the combinations at any time.

The graphics in MKDA are absolutely gorgeous - they are very detailed with solid character models and beautifully flowing, natural animation for every move. The animation of walking, dodging, blocking and fighting all blends together seamlessly to create a seriously impressive sight. The 3D arenas too are spectacular with detailed, animated backdrops and some very imaginative and impressive locations. And, as you would expect, there is blood aplenty, which falls as a result of almost every move and stains the floor of the arena for the entire battle! There are some moves that are so vicious that they will have your opponent staggering back for a moment, hands cupped to their face as blood pours from it! You can dodge around your enemy too, so the movement is in full 3D and although the arenas are somewhat confined and non-interactive, this is not a problem as the game's emphasis is purely on combat. The sound effects and music are excellent too, completing the atmosphere and excitement of the game as punches thump and blades clang together. The squelching sounds of particularly gory moves are really cool as well.

But none of this would be complete without the fatalities, which as you would expect, are some of the most graphic and gory sequences you've ever seen in a computer game. Scorpion shoots his spear on a rope right through his opponent's head, then tugs it teasingly a couple of times before whipping it back, causing the head to explode in a shower of blood, flesh and brain chunks! Sub Zero punches through his opponent's back, feels around a bit and then whips out the entire skeleton, the skin flopping to the floor! Kenshi's is one of the best new ones, as he uses his telekinetic abilities to twist and break every limb in his opponent's body until their unnatural, lifeless form crumples to the ground! Each character has their own distinctive way of utterly decimating their opponent and each is as gory and amusing as the next. Truly, the fatalities are just awesome and an outstanding feature of the game.

You must create a profile when you play the game and make sure you do this straight away, as both the Konquest and Arcade modes earn you Kurrency for use in the Krypt. There are 6 forms of Kurrency (each based around a certain jewel or precious stone) and you earn Koins from each from every successful battle in Arcade mode and mission in Konquest mode. You can then enter the Krypt, a massive, dark and dingy dungeon with no less than 675 koffins all stood up in rows waiting to be unlocked. Within them lie big prizes such as new characters and alternative costumes, to smaller things such as concept art, profiles, comic book pictures and other extras, plus extra Koins and occasionally an empty koffin (accompanied by a sadistic laugh after you've wasted your hard-earned kash!) The only katch is that you don't know what's in the koffin until you pay the money to open it, but you can usually tell by the price whether it's a big or small prize inside. With so much to unlock (and a significant amount of play needed to get at the unlockable characters) this adds a whole load of replay value to what is already a long-lasting game thanks to the variety of fighting styles.

The Arcade Mode is extremely difficult and whilst you won't struggle too much in the first 3 or 4 levels, by the time you are halfway through and up to 50% difficulty (each level is rated with a percentage difficulty so your opponents get gradually tougher regardless of who they are) you will really have to know your character and make good use of all fighting styles, dodging and blocking to defeat your enemy. Thankfully there are not only unlimited continues, but you can change character at any time, so if you are totally stuck you can always switch to a character you think has a better chance of winning. Both of these features are very welcome and thoughtful, to minimise on the frustration of being stuck with a character you just can't win with or reaching the end and then running out of continues. The difficulty is not a bad thing though as it will really force you to master the characters and get the full satisfaction of pulling off a spectacular run of offensive moves with which to decimate your opponent. Also, the order you face your opponents in is different every time, meaning that you won't get bored because you face the same opponents every time in easy mode. This again is a thoughtful addition of variety to prevent the game from getting boring in its easier stages. In fact, there is nothing of note to criticise, this game really does have it all with no major flaws.

Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance is a fantastic new beat-'em-up that's got everything you could want - stunning graphics, wonderful animation, over 50 moves split across three distinct fighting styles of hand-to-hand and weapon combat for each of the 21 characters, with bucketloads of gore and better than ever fatalities. The amount of unlockable stuff and the excellent interactive training mode adds to the life of the title. MKDA has brought fresh blood to the beat 'em up genre, and plenty of it!

Reviewed by Geoff Holland for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).