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.

As the deadly alliance of Quan Chi and Shang Tsung emerge victorious against Raiden's warriors, a new evil, the Dragon King and former emperor of Outworld Onaga, appears to seek the six artifacts (the Kamidogu) that grant him supreme power over all realms. The main protagonist is Shujinko, a warrior with the power to copy other fighter's abilities who was deceived into ressurecting Onaga prior to the main story. To accomplish this task, Shunjinko traverses all the realms, from his native Earth Realm to the hellish Netherealm, while tutored by the grand masters of Mortal Kombat. However, once Shujinko accomplishes his task, he discovers that he has been a pawn in a plot to restore the evil Dragon King, Onaga, from the dead. With Onaga restored to full strength, the champions of Mortal Kombat must stop him from altering the very fabric of existence.