While
fleeing from Scorpion in the pits of the Netherrrealm, Quan Chi discovers an ancient tomb which contains the remains of the
mummified bodies of the army of the Dragon King, the first emperor of Outworld (and the inspiration for the MK Dragon logo).
Learning that the army is invincible and undefeated while resurrected, he realizes that he must find a way to implant warrior
souls to fully resurrect the army. Therefore, he proposes a deadly alliance with the evil Shang Tsung where his part of the
deal will be immortality if he agrees to help him in his quest. Shang Tsung accepts the deal and the Deadly Alliance
is born. However before they could begin a total domination of the realms, the two sorcerers decide to destroy the only two
beings that could prevent their goal of absolute conquest. The first was Shao Kahn, the Emperor of Outworld, who was murdered
by the two sorcerers after they had made a false show of allegiance. They then travelled to Earthrealm by means of a powerful
mystic portal known only to sorcerers and deities, and attacked the undisputed and reigning champion of Mortal Kombat: Liu
Kang. Though Tsung was clearly losing the battle, Quan Chi's interference assisted Shang Tsung in gaining the upper hand.
Because of this, Tsung accomplished a goal that he had set out since his defeat at the hands of Liu Kang in Mortal Kombat...
Liu Kang
is dead.
After
consuming his soul, they returned to outworld where the souls of defeated warriors are used to resurrect the army of the Dragon
King. Should they succeed, they will be fully unstoppable. Meanwhile in Earthrealm, another alliance is being formed- Raiden
and Earthrealm's greatest warriors have reunited to kombat this new evil alliance...or die trying.
Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance follows Mortal Kombat Gold
and comes before Mortal Kombat: Deception.
Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance was once expected to make
its arcade debut back in 2000, but for a variety of reasons, it never showed up. Midway then decided to make Deadly Alliance
a direct-to-home game.
Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance is the first Mortal Kombat
fighting game to be released in 5 years (Mortal Kombat 4 was released in arcades in 1997). Mortal Kombat Gold did come out
in 1999, but it was simply an updated version of Mortal Kombat 4 for the Dreamcast.
This game brought back to life a series that had been waning during the
late 1990s. During that time, the MK franchise mostly created failed and mediocre projects (save Mortal Kombat 4 arcade and
home versions), that included the movie Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997), Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero (1997), an
animated series (Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm) (1997), and live action series (Mortal Kombat: Conquest) which lasted
for one season in 1998 (despite the fact that Conquest was popular, lack of funding prevented a planned second season from
going ahead), the mediocre Mortal Kombat Gold and the disastrous Mortal Kombat: Special Forces in 1999 (which lead to the
resignation of John Tobias, the co-creator of Mortal Kombat, and much of Midway's staff).
This game drops running entirely, as well as the associated "run meter."
Characters now each have multiple fighting styles - with the exception
of Blaze and Mokap, all are different. In previous games, aside from "dial-a-combos" all the characters fought virutally identically,
with only special moves to differentiate them.
Overall, the number of special moves per character (usable in any fighting
style) has been drastically reduced, varying only from two to four for most.
While still limited to only moving into the background and foreground,
movement in the third dimension is much easier and can be used continuously (in Mortal Kombat 4, one sidestep could be performed
at a rate of about one a second).
Like Mortal Kombat 4, invisible boundaries restrict fighting to the current
arena. However, in MK:DA, they appear as temporary walls that fighters can be slammed up against for extra damage.
Environmental interaction is present, but infrequent. Several levels include
obstacles - such as pillars or statues - that can be shattered to damage an opponent standing behind one, and one level (the
Acid Bath) does damage directly to fighters that stray too close to special acid-vomiting statues.