Mortal Kombat: Deception - Reception

Reception

During its release week, Mortal Kombat: Deception sold one million units, surpassing the sales from the previous MK title and becoming the fastest-selling game in Midway's history. A year later, the game had sold 1.9 million units worldwide. Before being released, GameSpot named it the "Best Fighting Game" from the E3 2004. It was also the winner of the 2004 "GameSpot Top Spike TV Video Game Awards" in the category "Best fighting game". For "Gamespot's Best and Worst of 2004", Deception received the award for best fighting game. On February 1, 2005, Deception received the "Fighting Game of the Year" award at the 8th Annual Interactive Achievements Awards held at the Green Valley Ranch Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada. Its PlayStation 2 version was a runner-up in IGN's "PS2 Best of 2004 Awards" in the "Best Fighting Game" category, and won the "Readers' Choice".

Metacritic had 81 favourable reviews out of 100 for both PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions. However, the GameCube version received 77 favorable reviews. GameRankings had an average of 81.31% from 57 reviews for the Xbox version of the game. The PS2 received almost the same average but with 49 reviews, while the GameCube version received 77.43% from 18 reviews.

Video game publications have commented on the game, giving praise and criticism. Jason Porter from GameChronicles.com and Louis Bedigian from GameZone praised the interaction with stages as one of the best parts of the game, commenting that it adds more strategy to fights. Both praised the return of "classic characters", commenting on their new designs and how different their attacks are. Porter noted Noob-Smoke to be "arguably the coolest fighters in Mortal Kombat history". Gaming Age writer Brian Peterson commented that Deception was the best game from the MK series since Mortal Kombat II. He praised the characters designs, noting them to be fluid and detailed. Like Porter, he praised the interaction with stages. Jeremy Dunham from IGN said that it is the best game from the Mortal Kombat series. He also stated that the removal of special move buttons, which caused too much damage to an opponent, was one of the developer's best decisions. As such, with the special moves removed from the fights and the addition of Breakes, players are now able to stop any combo. However, he noted that character designs were "robotic" in comparison to other video games such as Dead or Alive or Virtua Fighter 4. The soundtrack was also criticized as having "basic sound effects". GameSpot reviewer Greg Kasavin commented that the fights have been highly improved with the addition of new fighting styles which "is clearly inspired by kung fu movies". Although he stated the fights were not perfect noting they could end in a few seconds due to the interaction with the arenas, he praised how painful and funny some moves looked. TeamXbox reviewer Dale Nardozzi praised the characters' animations and movements. He also noted that the soundtrack "sets the tone perfectly for your basic, disembowelments, decapitations, and impalements".

The Konquest Mode received mixed reviews with Jason Porter praising it for the interaction between characters and how different it is from common RPGs. He also lauded how Konquest develops the story for Deception and Shujinko, whom he noted "players will really care about". Jeremy Dunham praised how the Konquest Mode explains the storyline from the game. Conversely, Greg Kasavin commented that the Konquest Mode "is the weak point from the game" as he noted it to be "ugly", lacked good voice acting and good graphics. However, he noted that one of the "few nice touches" in Konquest was "hitting anybody you want". He then added the mode had to be passed if he wanted to unlock characters. Bedigian complained that the Konquest is the biggest flaw of the game, criticizing the storyline, the trainings and voice acting. Nardozzi, however, noted the mini-games to be very entertaining if played online.

In contrast to the Xbox and PS2 versions, the GameCube port received lower scores from publications. It has been criticized for the lack of an online mode though 1UP.com still praised it. Although the addition of Goro and Shao Kahn was praised, GameSpot noted that the other ports were better, while also commenting on Goro's appearance which looks "anemic". In his review, GameSpy's Miguel Lopez said the GameCube version "is far from the best version of the game" and advised players to use another port to play.