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Mortal Kombat II heading to Playstation Network this March
When Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 appeared on Xbox Live Arcade this past October, folks cried out for the prequel, Jax Vs Mile- err, we mean, Mortal Kombat 2. Playstation 3 owners win this round as Sony Online Entertainment will be bringing classic kombat to the Playstation Network this March.Mortal Kombat 2 will be available for $4.99 and is being handled by the team behind UMK3 for Xbox Live Arcade, Digital Eclipse. The site for the game itself is slim on details, but if we're to believe this preview from CES, it will support online multiplayer and a 720p resolution.Enjoy the screenshots and the quick-look strategy guide provided above.%Gallery-1824%
PREPARE YOURSELF for new Mortal Kombat Armageddon screens
Is it okay to get nostalgic about Mortal Kombat? We know the series isn't that old, and, in fact, still exists. But, for example, we can't help but reference the old "PREPARE YOURSELF" slogan from the 1993 print ads when we're talking about any MK game. We miss the old games, and it took the new one to put us in that state.Looking at the big, empty environments of the new Wii version of Mortal Kombat Armageddon makes us long for the detail-filled stages of the old games, and the sort-of-plain character models remind us of how amusingly hokey the digitized sprites used to be. Those were the days, when we didn't need fancy polygons to enjoy virtually ripping some dude's spine out. We had Claymation bosses and we liked it. It was a simpler time-- a TOASTY!! time.Screens, with obligatory Wii-gesture diagrams, after the break.
MK8 gets new spine: Unreal Engine 3
In an interview with Game Informer, Mortal Kombat maestro, Ed Boon, revealed that Mortal Kombat 8 will use the Unreal Engine 3. Boon realized that UE3 would be perfect for the next Mortal Kombat after playing Gears of War. "To me, when I saw Gears of War, I was like, 'Holy shit! That's the look that we've been talking about" (last we checked, the look you were talking about was people leaving behind 8 rib cages and 12 femurs when they explode). Beyond visual aesthetics, Boon states that his team will be throwing out all the recent iterations of MK and starting again from the ground up. Boon promises a new control scheme and play style. The changeable fighting stances, for instance, will not be returning.We're excited by the prospects of new Mortal Kombat. The last time Boon and company rebuilt Mortal Kombat, the series received a much needed kick in the pants. Here's hoping the newly redesigned version will become a similarly fresh experience. Don't get too excited though, the game isn't expected to ship until 2008.[Via Joystiq]
Mortal Kombat 8 inspired by Gears of War, using Unreal Engine 3
Speaking with Game Informer, Ed Boon described an opportunity to start anew with the next version of Mortal Kombat, the eighth in the series. Boon revealed that MK8 will be built using Unreal Engine 3, inspired by Epic's recent engine showcase Gears of War. "To me, when I saw Gears of War, I was like, 'Holy shit! That's the look that we've been talking about.' Visually, that's what we want to do," explained Boon. Visually.MK8 is still a fighter at heart, and Boon and the team hope that by starting from scratch, Mortal Kombat can inspire the genre as it did more than a decade ago. "We're not going to have three fighting styles, we're not going to have the same punches and kicks and the same kind of control scheme. Everything is getting trashed. We're reinventing everything from the ground up," promised Boon. Don't expect any solid details for some time; Boon admitted that MK8 is currently not in a playable state, supposing that its release won't come until the end of 2008.While Boon hinted at the possibility of MK8 on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii, it should be noted that Epic's Mark Rein recently told Wired that "it's not in [Epic's] plans to bring Unreal Engine 3 to the Wii. It's really designed for next-gen, high-definition." Oh snap!
DS Daily: On franchises
Despite the fact that some franchises just don't port well, the subject of whether or not any given property should make an appearance on the DS inevitably comes up. Square Enix is bringing their big franchises to the handheld. Mortal Kombat will be making an appearance. Katamari Damacy, however, rolled on by. We could go on, but we figure you get the drift. What we want to know is -- which franchises do you really want to see on the DS, and which ones do you hope stay far, far away?
Nintendo holds key to franchise longevity, profitability
As noted earlier, a list published by UK newspaper The Independent reveals what many already assume; Nintendo's Mario is the best-selling franchise of all time. Coupled with the second best-selling franchise Pokémon (also a Nintendo property), the two series, which have sold a combined 348 million games worldwide, account for nearly 34% of the total sales of the top-twenty best-selling franchises; which include two additional Nintendo IPs ranked in the top ten, Donkey Kong and Zelda. So what's Nintendo's secret?Cross-culture appeal, spin-offs (e.g., racers, sports titles, puzzlers), brand saturation (e.g., apparel, card games, TV shows), and E-ratings all appear part of a profitable formula built for the long haul.
SOE to bring six Midway classics to Playstation Network
In an effort to ensure that Joust will grace just about every console known to humankind, Sony Online Entertainment announced today that Mortal Kombat II, Gauntlet II, Rampart, Rampage World Tour, Championship Spirit and yes, Joust, will all be making their way to the Playstation Network.These six titles, chosen based upon their specific multiplayer strengths, will be playable online and developed by SOE themselves as opposed to a third-party company along the lines of Digital Eclipse who handled the Xbox Live Arcade ports for Midway. Dates and prices have yet to be announced beyond "early 2007," so we should have but a short wait ahead of us before we find out if someone out there listened to our own Vlad's whacky ideas concerning these classic quarter gobblers.
Pre-huzzah: Psychonauts spotted on back-compat list
For a brief moment in time, an updated version of the Xbox 360's backwards compatibility list was exposed for all the internet to see. Though it was yanked in a matter of minutes, one new entry stood out like an atomic mushroom cloud in a serene, children's playground. Not to imply that Psychonauts is capable of melting children or flooding large masses of land with deadly radiation, but its presence was rather devastating to the psyche. In case you weren't aware (and clearly you aren't much of the time), Tim Schafer and his team at Double Fine did extraordinary things with Psychonauts, managing to take the seemingly incompatible platformer and adventure genres and mash them together like two pieces of clay. That's before they twisted the whole mess into a variety of amusing shapes.Oh, there's a whole bunch of other new games too. However, when asked about the exact release date of this December update, Microsoft warned us that the list is not final. "We'll have more news soon -- as I'm sure you're aware with any software development, things can change at any time so we want to make an announcement when we're sure we've got the final, solid list."View the non-final, slightly wobbly list of additions after the break.[Thanks Nick! Thanks to Richard from Xbox 360 Fanboy for remembering to take a screenshot.]
PSP dominates on list of games for parents to avoid
The National Institute on Media and the Family has just released their annual Report Card, and are advising parents to avoid buying certain games for their kids. All of the titles feature "M" ratings, but meh... parents are too busy to actually look at ratings! Here are the games to avoid, with PSP titles bolded: Gangs of London * The Sopranos Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories * Reservoir Dogs Mortal Kombat: Unchained * Scarface: The World is Yours The Godfather: Mob Wars * Saints Row Dead Rising Just CauseThis list tells me one thing: the PSP really is for the mature crowd. Four of those titles are either exclusive, or enhanced on the PSP, making this system easily much more evil than the childish DS counterpart. At least the Institute recommends Loco Roco for the holidays, which should distract the kids from downloading porn onto their systems.[Via Joystiq]
Jack Thompson in new Mortal Kombat
In the early 90s the Mortal Kombat series set the bar for hidden characters. So when we caught wind of a Jack Thompson sighting in Armageddon we figured Midway was at it again. Alas, it was too good to be true, and the Thompson appearance was simply the result of some clever work in Armageddon's Kreate-A-Fighter mode.The good news is that you can easily recreate the Thompson clone with Gaming Target's detailed guide. But the fun doesn't stop there, there's instructions for molding an eclectic band of misfits that includes Evil Dead's Ash, Friday the 13th's Jason, Hulk Hogan, and Silent Bob. That squad's a good foundation for a solid fighter in and of itself. Toasty!
Mortal Kombat spears Xbox Live in the chest
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 is now available on Xbox Live. The gore-fest made a brief appearance last night and promptly vanished with a puff of smoke, only to reappear sometime after midnight. We suspect the decision was made following its accidental release last night, though those among us with tinfoil hats purport that Microsoft is orchestrating the entire mishap to keep our minds off of more luminary XBLA headlines.Costing 800 MS points, UMK3 is sporting current-week and all-time leaderboards, online two-on-two multiplayer, and four player "winner-stays-on" online tournaments. According to Major Nelson, many people are not seeing the game show up, to which he assures us that he is "escalating." Which likely means that he is telling his superiors, and not riding escalators up and down over and over again to his little heart's content.[Thanks to every one who sent this in.]
Ultimate MK3 pops up -- and vanishes -- on Xbox Live [update 1]
Like Dan Forden (pictured) before it, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 showed up on Xbox Live and promptly disappeared. Since XBLA games are historically released on Wednesdays, we're betting an (now possibly unemployed) Xbox Live employee hit the wrong key.We now know that UMK3 will be 43.62 MB in size, cost 800 MS points, and feature 2-4 player multiplayer. A few lucky gamers (not us) managed to purchase and download the full game, and show off their gamertags as proof. Something tells us, regardless of earlier plans, that next Wednesday will be rather fatalistic. Not to be confused with fatality-istic, that's just lame.[Update 1: UMK3 is now available on Xbox Live.]
Mortal Kombat on XBLA in November, reveals Midway
When my dad was coming up, one's identity was forged in this simple distinction: The Beatles or the Stones? In my day it became: Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat? This "classic" debate should enjoy a bit of a revival when Midway's Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 is hoisted onto Xbox Live Arcade alongside Street Fighter II' Hyper Fighting next month. Which franchise do you tend to ally with?Note: Midway has not announced UMK3's price or disclosed online multiplayer details.
Next-Gen Mortal Kombat opens a whole new chapter
If you've been following the Mortal Kombat universe, you know that the latest installment, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, saw the end of many storylines and characters. It's the final battle between good and evil! That's the end of it, right? No more krazy kombat? Nah. It's just the end of this console generation and in the minds of the MK team, the end of the fighting mechanics we're used to.On the next game, we've been told to expect "a bunch of brand new characters, a whole new fighting system, a new presentation with the new graphics for the new consoles, as well as a new control scheme to take advantage of some of the new technology available." This is coming from Ed Boon, creative director of the MK team. So it's all going to be new! Well, a few of the old character may stick around, but even so, this is great news! This intrepid blogger always enjoys new installments of a series where the slate is wiped clean, so to speak.
Mortal Kombat Armageddon interview
Ed Boon likes the Wii. This makes us smile since he had made comments before that the Wii isn't a great place for fighting games. He has taken those hurtful comments back stating that it will be a good challenge to fit the game for the system. Mortal Kombat happens to be one of our favorite fighting games (entering the blood code while our parents weren't watching gave us quite the adrenaline rush) and we are thrilled to hear that the king of fighting gore is appearing on the Wii, especially when it brings every single MK character with it in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. Anyway, MK god Ed Boon had a lot of nice things to say about the Wii including pearls like: "I hope the Wii is going to carve out its own market and will be very successful. As budgets for game development keeps going up and the prices for each system does the same, the Wii will become a more and more attractive option for both gamers as well as developers." When it came to talking about Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, he let us know that they are currently trying to find a way to fully utilize the Wiimote in this rather sticky transition. After all, we doubt you will find solace from fatalities with the usual combo breaker. Boon also stated that he would love to see classic Mortal Kombat games be a part of the Virtual Console. Again, we can't help but smile and twist our fingers in anticipation for Armageddon to reach our bloodthirsty fingers.
Speculating on the Virtual Console [Update 1]
Play-Nintendo has a "reliable list" (yeah, we know how those are) of games that are rumored to be on the Virtual Console. But it looks reasonable, and in fact, some of the titles are already confirmed by various sources. Their list is packed with classic titles, and some of them (oh, Castlevania, how we love you) are expected but still exciting, and others many of us still play on lazy Sunday afternoons (Ocarina of Time, anyone?) If this list turns out to be the real deal, we may have to take some extended breaks from our actual Wii games. A fanboy's life is full of difficult choices. Play-Nintendo also reports that their "source" confirmed five brand new games for the Virtual Console, but they couldn't reveal the details. We'll see. What are you dying to see? Frankly, we think Super Mario Bros. 3 is a necessity, if only because we know there'd be videos everywhere of fanboys reenacting scenes from The Wizard. If you could add any three games to this list, what would you choose? Full list after the jump.
Rampage confirmed, first screenshots
So, you'll remember an unofficial confirmation that Midway would be bringing Rampage: Total Destruction to the Wii. Now, we have an official confirmation. That's right: coming this winter, you'll be able to unleash your pent-up rage on various architectural structures. Play as monstrous beasts such as George, Lizzie, or Ralph, or...my God...Fifi the Rabid French Poodle. Awesome. Midway is also bringing the recently announced Mortal Kombat: Armageddon to the Wii, and has also confirmed an additional four titles in development for release sometime next year.
You got Sega Saturn in my 360!
Twistedsypmphony, head moderator guy over at Xbox-Scene, tipped us off to his Frankensteinian project, the Sat-2-360 Controller Adapter. The adapter allows players to use a Sega Saturn control on the 360. Considered by many to have the best d-pad and button layout ever, the Saturn controller is perfect for Street Fighter II or the upcoming Mortal Kombat. The adapter is still a prototype -- and ugly as sin -- but the functionality is promising. The unit is (technically) wireless, though I'd pay for the same thing with a USB adapter.If you'd like to learn more about it -- or make one yourself -- check out the forums at Xbox-Scene. For some X-tra credit, who wants to build me one? Anybody?Now, if SEGA would get cracking on the Live Arcade version of Virtua Fighter 2...
Midway goes all the way to lend a shoulder to Sony [Update]
Over at IGN, an interview was covered between GamesIndustry.biz and Midway CEO David Zucker. Zucker stood behind Sony's ever popular pricing decision with many points given similar to the breakdown of a bargain posted the other day. He mentioned the very inclusion of a Blu-Ray player and all features that come with that makes it worth the price. If the market for Blu-Ray takes off and it becomes the norm, it helps not only the PS3 all the more, but the Blu-Ray world as well.While PS3 does gather a lot of bad press, this is yet another very large, recognizable company name that does indeed lend support to Sony. Just a basic checklist of companies (well, person/persons in a company, but for generalization) that support Sony so far include, but aren't limited to: Square-Enix, Konami, EA, Midway and Activision. It may not seem like much, but it's better than being surrounded by flame.[Update: Fixed a typo.]
Mortal Kompat: Petition
Several Mortal Kombat fansites have banded together and started a petition to get Mortal Kombat: Deception and Mortal Kombat: Armageddon added (or in MK:D's case, re-added) to the ever-growing library of backwards compatible games. I'm pretty cynical about online petitions, but Microsoft actually responds to earnest pleading when it comes to their back compat efforts. By all means sign it if you want to see some fatalities down the road.[Thanks Patrick]
