’m happy to see this excellent fighter finally get a GameCube release. On any system, it has a great fighting engine, tons of gameplay modes, and a lot of kick ass characters. The GameCube version even has two that are exclusive – old favorites Shao Khan and Goro. However, these characters come with a cost, one that GameCube owners should know well by now: the lack of online play.

When I previously reviewed Deception for PS2 and Xbox, I scored it a half-point higher than this version. This deduction is strictly for the missing online mode. For me, being able to recreate the arcade feel of taking on all challengers through online play is something that two extra characters doesn’t make up for. Goro and Shao Khan are both great fighters and don’t ever feel like they were slapped together hastily as bonus characters often can. But, given a choice between these two villains and limitless rivals around the world, there’s no contest.

As far as everything else is concerned, however, the GC version is equal to the other two in my eyes. The fighting engine simply rocks, and the addition of combo Breakers adds a ton of strategy that was missing from Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. I really love the environmental interactions that debuted in this entry, as they can really turn the tide of a battle and add another layer of strategy to the combat. The characters look uniformly impressive, and the music and sounds are great. The additional gameplay modes, such as Puzzle Kombat and Konquest mode are enjoyable in their own right as well. Overall, Deception offers a ton of bloody entertainment, even when going online isn’t an option.