Mortal Kombat: Deception

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"I was the fool who brought him this power. Only I can destroy this threat, born of deception." —Shujinko, the game's main character.

Mortal Kombat: Deception is the sixth canonical installment in the Crazy Awesome and Bloody Mortal Kombat franchise. It was released for PlayStation 2 and Xbox in 2004 and for Game Cube in 2005, and it takes place right After the End Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance.

At the end of that game, Shang Tsung and Quan Chi managed to bring back Outworld's ancient army. The opening cutscene brings us to they fighting Raiden. Once Raiden is down, they start fighting each other, with Quan Chi defeating Shang Tsung. However, while he was rejoicing with his victory, someone appears. It's Onaga, the resurrected Dragon King, who wants Outworld back. Quan Chi and Shang Tsung tried to bring him down, with Raiden joining them later. In the end, neither the three of them could stop Onaga, and Raiden, in a desperate move, tried to do his most dangerous move... which has proven to be fatal only for the trio, as Onaga managed to survive to that and without taking much damage. With Raiden and the Deadly Alliance gone, now there's only one ruler.

It turns out that, while the events of previous games were taking place, Onaga, disguised as an Elder God emmisary, tricked a youngster named Shujinko into getting six MacGuffins for him, across the realms. This, plus Reptile's body being used as a host, managed to bring back the Dragon King to life.

So, now, without any leader, and with five of the heroes being killed in battle, Sub-Zero trapped in the Netherrealm, and his pupil Frost being... frozen, the survivors of the battle against the Deadly Alliance (Kenshi, Bo'Rai Cho, Li Mei, Scorpion and the aforementioned Sub-Zero) are on their own against the forces of Onaga, which included the Tarkatan army, led by Baraka. Raiden, corrupted by Onaga's magic, became disgusted with the humanity in general, and revived Liu Kang as a zombie, sending him to a massive manslaughter. Kang's spirit, however, stays with Ermac, to help him save his friends.

Aside of the aforementioned Onaga, Shujinko, Baraka, Ermac and the aforementioned returning characters from the past installment, the game managed to brought back several of the characters from past games, such as Tanya, Jade, Mileena, Kabal, Nightwolf and Sindel, while adding several new faces such as Kobra, Kira, Ashrah, Hotaru, Havik, Dairou and Darrius. There's also a sub-boss team called Noob-Smoke, comprised of, you guessed, Noob Saibot and his minion Smoke revived and reprogrammed in order to serve his new master, and two Game Cube exclusive characters also returning: Goro and Shao Kahn, included due to the lack of online play in said version.

Deception follows the 3D path the Mortal Kombat series has taken with Mortal Kombat 4 and Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. It also brought back the Stage Fatalities, which were absent in the previous installment, now doable even during the match, and increased the mayhem by adding several stages more than two traps, a Combo Breaker system, and a hara-kiri move, which the character can use to avoid the Fatality. And, as you've seen above, it's the first Mortal Kombat game which assumes that The Bad Guy Wins (ok, it's the Big Bad Duumvirate from the previous game, but still). Oh, and it's the first Mortal Kombat game to feature online play, in the Xbox and Playstation 2 versions.

There's also a PlayStation Portable version called Mortal Kombat: Unchained, which included all of the aforementioned playable characters of above (including Goro and Shao Kahn) and added the Deadly Alliance versions of Jax, Frost, Kitana and Blaze, plus an Endurance Mode.

Followed by Mortal Kombat Armageddon

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Tropes used in Mortal Kombat: Deception include:

• Actually a Doombot: Explaining the presence of Goro and Shao Kahn after their apparent death in Deadly Alliance (Gamecube only).
• Better to Die Than Be Killed: The hara-kiri moves.
• Big Bad: Thanks to his decades-long manipulation of Shujinko with the objective of merging all realities into one, Onaga is into this position for this game as everyone turns against him, both heroes and villains.
• The Bus Came Back: Nightwolf, Kabal, Noob Saibot, Smoke, Sindel, Tanya, Jade, Mileena, Liu Kang. Shao Kahn and Goro join them in the Gamecube version.
• Came Back Wrong: Raiden, after he releases his Godly essence in an attempt to stop Onaga. Liu Kang, after Raiden (after he Came Back Wrong) reanimates his corpse.
• The Cameo: The Dark Prison stage (which is set underneath Shang Tsung's island) features nearly every playable character from the series not in this game, the cast of Deadly Alliance included. A Mortal Kombat II-era Shang Tsung also pops up on the balcony of the Deadpool stage. All of the non-playable characters from previous games can also be seen scurrying around the graves in The Krypt.
• Combo Breaker: It can be used three times in a match, however.
• Concept Art Gallery
• A Day in the Limelight: There are several unlockable "Kards" which contain bios about the characters.
• The Dev Team Thinks Of Everything: In the Dark Prison arena, the cells contain characters who appear in the Konquest Mode but are not playable; in the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions of the game, this includes Goro, Shao Kahn, Frost, Jax and Kitana. In the GameCube version, however, these five characters are indeed playable, so they are not there, while Goro and Shao Kahn are replaced by Kintaro and Motaro.
• Downer Beginning: See Oh Crap below.
• Eat the Dog: In the Konquest Mode, you meet up with a woman in the starting town who is looking for her lost dog. You are directed to a butcher shop where the butcher has already killed the dog. He says something along the lines of "Oh no! I didn't know he was anybody's pet! I thought he was a stray!". He gives you the dog's butchered remains anyway. When you meet back up with the woman, her lines are...

"Oh no! Niko! I shouldn't have let him out of my sight!... oh well, would you like some Niko stew?"

• Enemy Mine: The opening movie starts with Shang Tsung and Quan Chi fighting Raiden, then turning against one another, before playing the trope straight when Onaga turns up and they all start attacking him instead.
• Everybody's Dead, Dave
• Farts on Fire: Uggh. Who knew Bo Rai Cho had the stinkiest Fatality in Mortal Kombat history.
• Hotter and Sexier: What Deadly Alliance started, this game cranked it up a few notches. With the notable exception of Ashrah, just about every playable female has at least one Stripperiffic outfit.
• Irony: The original Sub-Zero from Mortal Kombat had the classic "Spine Rip" Fatality, which involved ripping the opponent's head off with the spine still intact. Scorpion, who originally sought revenge against the original Sub-Zero over the death of his clan and family, adapts the classic Spine Rip Fatality as his own.
  • Pull this on ether Sub-Zero (the current one) or Noob-Saibot(the original Sub-Zero) to really see a Death by Irony
• Kill'Em All: A great amount of the kombatants, including nearly all of the original cast, especially the Earthrealm characters (Johnny Cage, Sonya, Kitana, Jax and Kung Lao), are killed off at the beginning of the game.
• La Résistance: Mostly notably Darrius.
• Meaningful Name: The second name of the game, Deception. It's about Onaga tricking Shujinko, who played a big part of the deal in reviving the former.
• Mini Game: "Chess Kombat" and "Puzzle Kombat".
• Nostalgia Level: Many of the arenas.
• Offhand Backhand: One of the loading screens shows Kenshi doing this to Kira via telekinesis... into a wall.
• Oh Crap: The opening movie comes with one for the player, as the first shot is of the stairs leading to Shang Tsung and Quan Chi's base from the previous game littered with the corpses of Johnny Cage, Kitana, Sonya, Jax and Kung Lao, and one in-universe when Onaga turns up.

Quan Chi: "No! It cannot be!..."

• Palette Swap: Monster, the real Elder Gods' champion, is one for Scorpion. This proves himself to be very relevant, since Scorpion is chosen as the Elder Gods' champion in the present day. It seems the Elder Gods have a preference for Shirai Ryu ninjas.
• Precision F-Strike: If you knock Ermac off of the Sky Temple, you hear something you wouldn't expect from someone with his disposition.

RAAAAAAAAAAAGH

• Shout-Out: Check the page.
• Shows Damage
• Spinning Out of Here: Jade has a move called Vanishing Winds where she spins around a cloud of green smoke and reappears behind her opponent.
• Terrible Trio: Kabal, Kira and Kobra.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Havik seems to think so about being knocked off of the Sky Temple.
• Those Two Bad Guys: Noob-Smoke.
• Unholy Matrimony: In Li Mei's ending, she becomes Onaga's queen, happily joining him as he fuses all realms into one and hunts the Elder Gods' down.
• Unwinnable by Design: Several of Konquest Mode's questlines have no ending.
  • Also in the starter town, you can accept a quest to deliver a pot to another NPC somewhere else in town. If you leave the town before completing the quest, you'll figure out that you technically can't get back into the town.