Mortal Kombat: Deception is the sixth installment in the Mortal Kombat franchise. Based on the Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance engine, players once again have to fight to stop this new threat in the sixth installment of the fighting series. The standard Arcade, Versus, and Practice modes return, as well as new items to be found in the Krypt. In addition, there are new Konquest Adventure, Chess Kombat, and Puzzle Kombat modes to give the player new mini-games.

The Playstation 2 and Xbox versions offer online, competitive play against other players. The Gamecube version does not include online play, but offers Goro and Shao Kahn as exclusive playable characters.