Mortal Kombat caused a huge shakeup in the fighting game genre. MK stood in direct opposition to Capcom and SNK with its button tap friendly, yet accessible special moves and combos in contrast to the complicated joystick motions of Fatal Fury and Street Fighter. Although the character designs were simple, they had well developed backgrounds, making the game’s backstory more fleshed out than the usual “some guy wants to know who the world’s strongest fighter is so he holds a tournament” story we see in 90% of fighting games at the time. The game also featured digitized actors with motion capturing. While it looks incredibly cheesy by today’s standards, it gave the game an unprecedented level of realism for its time. Oh, and there was one other big thing about it…oh yeah, that’s right, the blood. Punches and kicks drew blood, bodies were decapitated, hearts were pulled from chests as they were still beating, spines were ripped out, parents everywhere had fits, and politicians sensed opportunity.

Like many big gaming movements before and after MK, many games sought to imitate what made it special. Rather than presenting gamers with an equally accessible play control scheme or fully fleshed out characters, the companies decided to concentrate on the gore. As a result, we got games such as Incredible Technologies/Strata’s (keep these names in mind as they will come up again later on in the article) Time Killers and the 3DO ‘classic’, Way of the Warrior. While the latter game at least went the extra mile to use digitized actors, the play control and character designs of both games were so bad, that they actually rank among the greatest games of all time (albeit for all the wrong reasons). There were good games that used blood as a selling point as well. Eternal Champions, or rather its Sega CD iteration contained lots of hidden secrets, as well as a fighting game based on real-life styles that was more akin to Street Fighter than Mortal Kombat. Primal Rage set itself apart by not only featuring Dinosaurs and prehistoric apes as its characters, but by having a unique style of control motions that had players holding down the attack buttons while entering the motions. One game that stands in the middle is Strata/IT/Chun Soft’s Bloodstorm. While the play control and character designs leave a bit to be desired, it featured some unique gameplay mechanics which would have made it a classic had they been developed further.

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During some E3 exploits, Mortal Kombat producer and the overall frontman of the series Ed Boon sat down and talked alot about the upcoming Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe game.

More detail is explained by Boon, and shown in background during gameplay, about the differentiations between the Fatalities and Brutalities that the MK and DC characters have respectively. Also shown is a new component of the Kombat franchise called “Freefall Kombat”, wherein both warriors are in a state of pounding the hell out of one another whilst falling from a great height in an attempt to build a power meter to deliver a super move by the time they hit ground. An interesting concept, though seems a bit gimmicky to me.

What really excited me about watching the gameplay was twofold. Firstoff, the gameplay, though technically being 3D, has a much more 2D linear feel to it that reminds me of classic 2D MK games of old, without the motion confusion of more recent games. The other aspect was that many of the old signature character moves that have faded as the MK series as gone on seem to have returned. Scorpion has his classic-rendition of his Teleport back, while Sonya has both her Ring Toss attack and Scissor Grab move. These moves will come in handy for oldschool players who will be standing off with DC legends like Flash who works similar to Kabal but somehow seemingly more fluid, and Superman, who’s packed with heat vision, ice breath, and earthquake attacks.

Check out Gametrailer feature.

It’s been a little while since we heard definitive information concerning Midway’s upcoming game, “Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe”, but just recently some new info and new sights have helped quell some of the unrest the game originally set with its fans.

For starters, series head Ed Boon has gone on the record stating that, yes, there WILL be Fatalities in the game, however not every character will have them.

All of the MK characters and all of the DC villains will have fatalities. The DC heroes who don’t kill that often will have brutalities that will function just like fatalities but don’t actually kill the opponent.

Boon stated in an interview with Gamespot he was quiet shocked seeing fan uproar about a possible lack of Fatalities in the game, when no official statement had been made, and also went on to say how pleased he was that so many MK fans were up in arms about the ordeal. He also made mention of an E3 demo that will be available with only 4 characters and 2 stages to be shown. It seems that even the publicity of E3 will not stave the MK team from keeping key details of the game hush-hush.

Thus far the confirmed line-up for the game includes previously seen Batman, Superman, Scorpion and Sub-Zero, and has recently revealed that Flash and Sonya Blade will also be included. Despite speculation, no others have yet to be confirmed by the MK team, though there will be 20 in all.

Its been years since Marvel Vs Capcom hit arcades, and its still one of the most popular fighters with both casual players and tournament pros. But Capcom doesn’t hold the Marvel license anymore so re-releases and sequels aren’t happening any time soon.
To tap into this audience, Midway is going to announce shortly what heard back in September, that Mortal Kombat is going to be taking on the DC Universe. Noob.com has been running blurry images trying to hype things up for a big reveal, but Mortal Kombat Online has spoiled the whole thing with this:

Sub-Zero vs Batman.
Since this is still not fully announced, details are scarce; but one rumor persists: No fatalities, little blood. Last week on 1up.com’s 1up Yours podcast, Shane Bettenhausen said the next MK would be rated T, and this move is consistent with that thought. We’ll keep an eye out for a full press release soon.
The official website www.worldscollide.com is up and I’ve added the trailer at the top. See also Gamespot’s interview with Ed Boon. Mortal Kombat VS DC Universe is due fall 2008.

Apparently not too long ago, some guy on the IGN boards started a rumor about a Mortal Kombat vs. DC Comics fighting game in the works, citing an “inside source” as his feed. People dismissed it as false, and moved on about their business.

Now it seems the rumor is getting more hype. TRMK.org, one of the more prominent and informed MK sites on the net, has a recent article that analyzes the rumor a bit more.

As incredulous as this rumor has sounded ever since it first made the rounds more than ten years ago, TRMK has confirmed from our own sources that the next Mortal Kombat game for the current generation of consoles – Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 – will indeed be a “Versus” style game.

While we were unable to confirm the DC Comics angle proposed by the IGN Boards message, we do know that the game will feature another well-known established intellectual property. It seems unlikely that the DC Comics license will appear along side a franchise known for its gruesome fatalities; however, the MK Team did state that they were intent on “reinventing everything from the ground up” in order to “wipe the slate clean”. Therefore, the idea that the game will not feature fatalities in the traditional Mortal Kombat style is not as far fetched as it initially sounds.

The original rumor on the IGN boards had been picked up by a user of MKOnline forums, which enticed the guys of TRMK.org to do their own digging, and it seems they got a little more than just hearsay. It seems everyone from the staff of the fansites to the fans themselves are skeptical, and with good reason. Mortal Kombat became famous for it’s gruesome Fatalities and gobs of bloodshed and violence, and has not deviated from that road since it’s conception. With DC, despite being darker, leaning more towards the anti-violence side of things, it just seem farfetched to believe this 100%.

Not alot of DC fans would be too keen on seeing Batman having his spine ripped out, or Green Lantern having his head eaten off. On the other side, MK fans would not want to see Scorpion *not* impaling someone with his spear, or Sub-Zero *not* freezing his enemy and smashing them to bits. But, I guess we’ll see.

Taking a page from the SDCC exclusive release of the Goro figure a few weeks ago, the guys over at Jazwares Inc. have decided to continue the line of bigtime bosses from the Mortal Kombat series by releasing a Kintaro figure as well, under the Shaolin Monks line of toys.

Thus far, not much info has been released in tandem with the announcement of the figure, and thusly it’s undetermined whether or not the figure will be an exclusive like it’s Goro predecessor, or if it will be a regular release with the other toys of the line. A release date has not been dropped either, so pretty much the only thing we have to go on is the image of the figure. However, it does look very pretty this far along, and MK fans can only hope that more characters from the Shoalin Monks will be released in the near future.

As announced by IGN a few days ago, the good people over at Midway Games have blessed it’s loyal fans with a bit of nostalgia to tide them over until the next-gen Mortal Kombat comes closer to realization. Come November of this year, the Nintendo DS will be getting a ported release of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. A little treat for those familiar with Mortal Kombat Deception will also come bundled in, in the form of Puzzle Kombat (aka: Tetris with blood)

As can be seen, the box art mimics that of the skulls seen on the boxes and arcade machine versions of Ultimate MK 3. The character selection is the same, though some like Ermac and Mileena must be first unlocked in order to play, and Noob Saibot is unplayable. Still, it’s a little slice of heaven for those of us who miss the good ol’ days of 2-D fighting with motion capture animation and explosions of bodies with 10 limbs, 3 ribcages, and about 40 gallons of blood. Good times.

It looks like the boys over at Midway decided to finally give all the rabid Mortal Kombat fans their just rewards for their patience in waiting for the Wii release of MK: Armageddeon, and gave up the rendered images of the last remaining character to be added: Khameleon. Click the image for the full wallpaper rendering.

Thanks to the Midway forums for the catch, and the Mortal Kombat Online newsroom for the linkage. The rending itself looks neat, though admittedly like the bastard child between Sindel and Chameleon. I’m sure the blatent similarities between Chameleon and Khameleon will no doubt be reflected in her story and ending, which seems a bit cheap. However, I guess when you whine enough for a character to be inserted, you get what you ask for.