Microsoft has updated the backwards compatibility list for original Xbox games on the Xbox 360. This August 2006 update, marks the return of Mortal Kombat: Deception.

During the Xbox 360 initial launch, Microsoft announced that Mortal Kombat: Deception was among the list of initial Xbox games that could be played on the Xbox 360. Unfortunately, the emulation was not playable at all, which we detailed in our Mortal Kombat: Deception on Xbox 360 feature. Shortly after our feature was published, Microsoft removed Deception from the backwards compatibility list in the December 2005 update, stating quality issues.

The game now appears to work great, a huge improvement over the previous emulation attempt on the part of Microsoft. The game handles at full speed with no pop up textures and slowdown like the game had before when the Xbox 360 launched. Tests for playing a game over Xbox Live were even successful after a few tries. Alas, the network connections of the available players at the time left something to be desired.

Now that this update has reintroduced Deception, Mortal Kombat fans now have much better chance for Mortal Kombat: Armageddon to become backwards compatible on the Xbox 360, as the two games share the same base engine.

Thanks Dustin!

It's nice to see that Microsoft has finally woken up. Maybe if we're really lucky, PAL region XBOX owners may yet enjoy MKA.

I'm not sure if anyone else noticed this yet or not, but it seems Microsoft went the extra mile and also supported the premium content bonus disc. I have the Raiden version, but I would imagine it works across all distributions. It's really nice to be able to play the original MK on the 360. It looks like there's some slight texture blurring, but that could just be because I haven't played the original in a long time.