Deception in your pocket
I initially loved Mortal Kombat Deception, but upon playing it again recently, realized that although all of the reasons I enjoyed it were valid, it really wasn't all I had previously seen it as and I was likely blinded by fanboyism. It's still decent, but even reading over my old review, it seems there was a lot to despair over that I had noted but ignored.
Unchained is a semi-upgrade to the core Deception game, but optimized for portable play. For the first time ever, a handheld was powerful enough to handle an MK game that wasn't just a severely watered down version of its home console cousin, and in fact, was able to add more characters into the mix.
However, even though there are four additional characters (over the Gamecube version) to choose from, the game actually seems a bit cheapened due to this. The characters are literally copied and pasted from their Deadly Alliance incarnations, which means that by Deception standards, they are woefully incomplete. This means no Hara-Kiri moves, no new specials or fighting styles, no second Fatalities (or any Fatalities, in Blaze's case), or any other sort of modifications to the character in general.
The worst thing about this, is the fact that Unchained was meant to add to these characters' stories to bridge some of the events between Deception's main release and Armageddon. However, due to numerous delays, Unchained was released after Armageddon, and since the additional events for these characters were already shown in Armageddon, it meant these extra plot points placed in here were nearly for naught. Furthermore, even though the game was delayed so many times, these extra characters still were shoved in here incomplete.
By far the biggest complaint about this version, however would be the graphics. I've never been one to champion graphics over other factors of a game, but due to the crisp, clean PSP screen and its distance to the gamer (as opposed to a TV), the in-game character models show up as dated, jagged messes of polygons, even though they looked half-decent on a bigger screen. The FMVs and other non-gameplay related graphics look much better than on a television, and as a result, offer stark contrast to the graphics you see during Kombat.
Other changes involve a boring endurance mode and the arcade ladder more closely resembling Armageddon's. However, neither of these are worth anything other than a brief mention.
If you absolutely must tear someone's spine out on the go and don't feel like dealing with the repercussions of doing such in the real world, this is the way to go. However, there are scores of better fighters for the PSP that you can choose from if bloodlust isn't required.
