fter a long hiatus Mortal Kombat has finally returned, and I’m happy to report that Midway didn’t pull any punches with Deadly Alliance. In fact, this is easily the most hard-hitting MK in the series yet.

The biggest advancement that Deadly Alliance brings to the genre is the addition of fighting stances. Each of Mortal Kombat’s 21 fighters has three fighting styles that they can access with a simple press of the left trigger during combat. This opens an array of strategies, because each one has its own set of combos. Chaining combos and styles is the key to unlocking the most devastating attacks, which challenges the player with a whole new set of tactics.

Luckily, learning these new techniques is easy through Deadly Alliance’s rather helpful Konquest mode, where you must complete a series of tests for each character. These challenges, in turn, reward the player with “koins” that you can then use to purchase one of Deadly Alliance’s 676 secrets (which include art, hidden characters, movies, and a sea of fun stuff). Koins can also be collected by competing in the Arcade mode that challenges the player with a classic series of battles.

On Xbox, PlayStation 2, or GameCube, Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance looks equally gorgeous. For GameCube fighting gurus there really isn’t much choice: You must get this game. It’s that good.