Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance is a 2002 fighting game developed and published by Midway for the Xbox, PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Game Boy Advance. It was the first all-new Mortal Kombat fighting game produced exclusively for home consoles, with no preceding arcade release. It is the fifth main installment in the Mortal Kombat franchise and a sequel to 1997's Mortal Kombat 4. Its story focuses on the eponymous alliance between sorcerers Quan Chi and Shang Tsung and their schemes to revive an ancient army to conquer Outworld and Earthrealm. The game is the only main installment not to feature series protagonist Liu Kang as a playable character. It is also the first game in the canon series to not have the involvement of co-creator John Tobias, as he left Midway in 1999 to pursue other interests. In addition to the original Game Boy Advance Port of Deadly Alliance, a second version entitled Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition was released on August 25, 2003. Tournament Edition featured characters omitted from the first port, along with characters not present in the other versions such as Sektor, Noob Saibot, and Sareena. Deadly Alliance received positive reviews from critics, and revived the Mortal Kombat franchise.