If you're a fan of the Mortal Kombat series, or fighting games in general, get ready. This mature title has got puzzles, RPG, chess, and yes, lots of bloody Kombat!

The traditional aspects of Mortal Kombat are here. You have different characters to choose from. Different styles of fighting. Key combinations create gorgeous attack moves. You earn coins as you go, to spend on unlocking new characters, levels, and other secrets.

The graphics here are simply gorgeous. The floors and walls have textures from shiny and reflective to grainy matte. The glow of fire, misty mountains and glowing lights are quite impressive. Characters have robes that flow with the action and accessories that sway realistically. If you want to be gory, the blood even flows down your body.

On the other hand, in Dead or Alive the environments are amazingly reactive - fighting in a snowy area leaves tracks in the snow, and autumn leaves blow past you in the forest. In comparison, Mortal Kombat has a desert island fight seem like the ground is made of concrete. So there is still room for improvement.

Body movements are equally as well done. Gone are the days of blocky characters with jerky attacks. You can really feel like you're in a martial arts movie here, with the super smooth blocks and combo kicks. This is great for the audience the game is intended for (mature) - but means that youngsters can easily get upset by some of the very realistic back-breaking moves. There's a reason this game earned that mature rating.

Even the sub-games are so good that they could easily qualify as standalone packages. The Puzzle Kombat is in essence tetris with fighting animations for when you do well. Chess Kombat is chess with little mortal kombat pieces. You can play both of these on XBox Live too! There's also a Konquest Adventure where you wander around talking to characters and taking on quests.

Highly recommended for mature fighting game fans, and with all of the things to unlock you have great incentive to play for weeks and weeks to see everything.

Buy Mortal Kombat Deception from Amazon.com