Mortal Kombat Is Back In Brutal Style!
by GL News
Impressive backdrops and fan favourite characters
Hot on the heels of the impressive and utterly dark pitch trailer, Mortal Kombat: Rebirth which we reported on recently, comes the news that Mortal Kombat in game form is back and back in style. While it is still unclear whether the movie from Kevin Tancharoen’s grim vision will get the go ahead it deserves from Warner Bros, it seems that the gaming community are faring far better.
Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment today announced that the next instalment of the brutal fighting game will be arriving on the PS3 and Xbox360 in 2011 with a return to past form and a number of new features which include a ‘tag team’ mode.
After the breakup of Midway, Warner quietly scooped up some of their key franchises and fans were left wondering what would come of the series. Now however, the new game is being developed by NetherRealm Studios and led by none other than Mortal Kombat creator and creative director, Ed Boon. Warner have promised that this latest chapter will be a “triumphant return to the series’ mature presentation and a reinvention of its classic 2D fighting mechanic.”
“We are bringing the Mortal Kombat franchise back to gamers with the talented NetherRealm Studios team creating the game fans long to play,” said Martin Tremblay, President, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. “Re-establishing the brand with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Mortal Kombat innovates on past games while staying true to the brand’s legendary characters and fighting style.”
Something which is confirmed by Ed Boon, Creative Director of NetherRealm Studios:
“We can’t wait for players to get their hands on Mortal Kombat. This game really is a response to what players have been demanding: mature presentation, reinvented 2D fighting mechanic and the best, most gruesome fatalities ever!”
And he isn’t wrong there. As we would expect from a game which is returning to its mature and brutal roots, Fatalities are back and more bad-arse than ever with a new introduced combo mechanic which strips flesh from the victim, revealing their bones. From our numerous, drooling views of the trailer it appears that many of the old guard such as Johnny Cage, Sub Zero, and Raiden are present and correct, with appearances from Nighthawk, Reptile, Mileena, and Kung Lao – who boasts one of the nastiest and most excruciating finishing moves that we’ve seen.
The game is set against some stunning 3D backdrops which maintain the dark, grittiness of the series without losing any richness and colour. Arenas, cracked bridges, gnarled forests full of hanging victims and even the classic underground chamber, where in the background, we noticed a struggling victim being slowly lowered into the acidic soup while Johnny Cage got his arse handed to him by Sub Zero.
With a stunning, suitably gory looking return to form for the series, Mortal Kombat appears to be in good hands. Could this be the game fans have waited for? We’ll eat Raiden’s hat if not. Roll on 2011.
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I know it’s not big and it’s not clever but I love some old-school MK and this appears to be ON A 2D PLANE AKA MASSIVE FUCKING WIN!
I’m about to cum ice bolts.
Agreed on the 2D thing. Absolutely adoring this. I always preferred MK to SF and this video is the dog’s bollocks and then some. Thankfully they’ve brought back the old guard and also kept in some of the more interesting folk such as Nighthawk from MK3. can’t wait for more fatalities to be revealed, but to be honest, they’d have to be pretty damn good to beat that Kung Lao one…harsh…but awesome.
I never really liked Street FIghter either, always saw it aimed more towards kids than adults and preferred the graphic nature of Mortal Kombat, even though the graphics themselves tend to be inferior to Street Fighter. It’s just one of those things though, fighting should have gore… blood… anger… vehemence… not fragile looking idiots with bright yellow flat tops and a subliminal love for his oriental friend. I’m looking forward to this.
FINISH HIM. That is all.
It’s not just the graphics that have always been inferior to Street Fighter; Mortal Kombat’s actual combat has always been inferior too, but it sells well because it has gore in it.
It goes back to Nintendo’s policy on the NES and SNES of not allowing any bloody violence in games officially licensed by them. Capcom played along and toned down Street Fighter, and had a superior 2D arcade fighter on the SNES. Mortal Kombat was an inferior fighter, but released on the SEGA Megadrive with (for the time) very bloody graphics and fatal finishing moves, and cashed in by marketing itself as the “adult” fighter that doesn’t censor itself for the kiddies.
I don’t mind too much, I play most fighting games anyway, even if the Capcom and SNK ones tend to be the better games. I will almost certainly be giving this a look, though I know it won’t have the same staying power of Street Fighter IV.
The thing about MK is that it’s fast.
If SF2 was a karate battle, then MK was taekwondo. All flashy high kicks. All spectacle.
It makes for a less balanced game for sure but the backstory was good enough to make a half-decent film (confession: I loved it and even liked the sequel). SF2 wins the gameplay battle but MK2 was my game of choice.
Of course, they’ve still not topped Way of the Exploding Fist in my eyes. So what the fuck do I know?
I loved IK+ but I hated Full Contact. I loved Yie Ar Kung Fu but hated Thai Boxing. I also remember Rise Of The Robots… hyped to hell and crap as hell… but it looked shiny.
I wasn’t actually aware that MK actively marketed itself as an adult fighter, I was only commenting on the fact that Street Fighter was always very vibrant, over saturated and cartoonish in its stylings whereas Mortal Kombat went for a more photorealistic approach which, in my eyes, made it more adult. Not sure if I’d play either anymore, I have SFIV and it bored the shit out of me… even watching Victor and Tiq thrash it out with their super awesome fantastic moves just had me bored to tears, but I’m not much into fighting games these days.
Oh MK was definitely marketed as the adult fighter, SEGA pumped a lot of money into a joint campaign, because they used it to promote their console over Nintendo’s one. It worked too, because the Megadrive outsold the SNES in Europe.
This was back in the height of the Nintendo/SEGA fanboy wars. Everything and anything that distinguished the two consoles from each other was used as a marketing campaign, and the Nintendo “no blood” policy was a furious point of contention. MK profited from that hugely. There was a SNES version of MK at one point though, without the fatalities or blood, and it was hilarious for it. It also didn’t sell at all.
Personally I found the gameplay of Mortal Kombat to be far better than that of Street Fighter. To me, a game doesn’t have a superior fight mechanic or better gameplay if it makes the regular move sets stupidly hard to pull off which is what I found with the SF games. Half circles and then cut across…jag down here and swoop up for a half moon here, then down, follow the second star on the right and straight on ’til morning. I remember struggling constantly. That and the fact that I agree with Rich – (MK was fast, SF lumbered).
Mortal Kombat took the opposite approach by making their moves easier and more logical to pull off and just the finishing moves tricky, which I think is how it should be. To me, it made it the better game and it looked more mature with a more interesting set of characters and backstories, not just the gore.
Whether that speaks volumes about my ability to play a fighting game or not, no idea, (probably) but it made the difference between a frustrating and ultimately tedious and shelvable experience and one which lasted the course. MK was the only fighting game that I ever finished, with the exception of the one with dinosaurs in it. Which was crappy but hey, it had dinosaurs in it which gives it an instant bundle of win points.
Sorry… um… a fighting game with dinosaurs!? And you never told me??? *shocked*
[...] revealed by playfront.de. Cementing what we could already glean from the gameplay trailer in our recent news coverage, it would appear that Scorpion, Milleena, Reptile, Sub-Zero, Kung Lao, Johnny Cage, Night Wolf and [...]