Midway brings everything we love about MK to the 3D realm.
Now that I've gotten my self-absorbed memory lane trek out of the way... Mortal Kombat II was hands down the best of the 2D MK titles; it built upon everything we loved about MK 1 and added more to it. Fatalities, Freindships, Babalities, Stage Fatalities, cool backgrounds, a wicked story, etc... Until MK: Deception, the following MK titles were good, but couldn't hold up. MK4 was the first 3D MK. It failed to capture the multiple Fatalities and Stage Deathtraps that we'd grown accustomed to. MK4s graphics were a NON-issue because 3D gaming was still new, so we didn't expect much. In fact, we expected crummy graphics becaues 3D titles were far less detailed than their 2D counterparts.
Now we have Deception! MK: Deadly Alliance proved 3D graphics could rock on a MK game, but it was missing multiple Fatalities and Stage Deathtraps. Deception delivered. Along with that, there is a Chess Kombat mode (with a weird MK twist), a Puzzle Kombat mode (think 'Puzzle Fighter') and a Konquest mode (a story mode that trains you). The Puzzle and Chess modes are self explanatory. The Konquest mode is neccessary to unlock additional Karacters, Kostumes and Arenas. Konquests story is also fairly entertaining.
If, like me, you grew up on Mortal Kombat and miss MKII's awsome extras--- by all means cop this game.
note: MK Deception (XBox version) also has an emulator for XBox 360.