Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance is a game I'd say was full of junk characters. I almost dropped the franchise because it killed my favorite character, Liu Kang. Fortunately, Mortal Kombat X brought Liu Kang back as a playable revenant. Here? Liu Kang is dead. It was supposed to be a daring new move like what Transformers: The Movie did with Optimus Prime by killing him off. This game was trying new concepts, 3D gameplay, multiple fighting styles (which got old too quickly), and some new characters that just created a whole lot of junk and fandom rage. The game did initially succeed though I don't think it aged well. Just think how Mortal Kombat 11 even dares to use a Deadly Alliance arcade machine to murder the opponent in one of the stage fatalities. The game itself had some issues. I think one of my issues was the cheesy impale move. Other than that - the game took a step backwards with only one fatality per character and no stage fatalities.
I think the concept of Shang Tsung and Quan Chi teaming up in-game isn't a bad idea. The idea was taken from the non-canon Mortal Kombat Konquest TV series which sadly got canceled before we can see the original Kung Lao die in Goro's hands. The two of them are in the quest to resurrect the Dragon King Onaga's mummified army. The two of them not only got rid of Liu Kang. They also won at the end of the game as revealed by Mortal Kombat Deception - a game I don't bother playing anymore since the rise of Mortal Kombat (2011). The two were nearly unstoppable as they even defeated Raiden. Ironically, they were easily beaten by Kung Lao in an endurance match in MK (2011) during the second tournament before fighting Kintaro.
For me, the biggest weakness are most of the new CHARACTERS
You got that right - most of the new CHARACTERS! Newer concepts were introduced. Some of them were pretty cool on paper. However, most of the new characters introduced just sucked. Sure, the Red Dragon added a new layer to the conflict but Mavado and Hsu Hao will never be as cool as Kano as a villain. I think Li Mei is also not cool. I'm fine with Bo Rai Cho though but they could've given him a better move set. Though, there was also Drahmin who was downright infamous and so was Moloch. Blaze had an interesting concept but was junked. I guess that's why the whole victory of Armageddon was retconned to have Shao Kahn defeating Blaze instead of Taven's botched victory allowing Shao Kahn to finally win. That's a lot of junk characters if you ask me.
Maybe, I could talk about endlessly how Moloch is DARN UNFAIR. Sure, I was able to beat Onaga in Deception but Moloch leaves a lot more to be desired. Moloch was a little easier in Mortal Kombat Armageddon (since he was playable) but he's just too much of a nightmare here. Like Motaro, I felt Moloch is another character that just deserves to be JUNKED. I mean just junk Moloch.
The Mortal Kombat X comic book actually decided to give some well-deserved treatment. Hsu Hao who is so hated gets killed by Scorpion himself. Mavado gets killed by Jacqui and Cassie. What's, even more, is when we see Kitana kill Drahmin and Quan Chi kill Moloch. Li Mei was just an extra and NPC in the MKX game which was GOOD. The Red Dragon was an interesting concept but it wasn't fleshed out. I guess Kano's dirty style as a villain was more appealing to fans than Daegon himself.
Though some characters did get some better treatment later. Kenshi was popular enough to become a DLC for MK (2011) and made it up to the next game. Frost was given a role in Mortal Kombat 11 though I still feel she's not that interesting. Frost, like Kunimitsu in Tekken, just doesn't get enough development either. I felt Frost not being playable in MKX is really something I didn't care about. It's like Kunimitsu is no longer around and I don't care.
Overall, this game was quite the era of experimenting on new characters. New characters that I felt had potential but were wasted. For example, I felt the Red Dragon group could've been more interesting but Hsu Hao ruined it. Mavado was later even defeated by Kabal before Deception. I guess this game should be treated like Super Mario: The Lost Levels - a game that's not so good but can be praised as an experimental concept to learn from.
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