Midway has reaffirmed plans to deliver a "next generation" version of long-running series Mortal Kombat in a recent financial report.
Currently the company's not shedding any further light, but Mortal Kombat creator Ed Boon revealed to CVG that the title will be built from the ground up when we spoke with him earlier in the year.
"The only thing I can say at the moment is we are going to do a reset, we're going to throw everything from the previous Mortal Kombats, we're going to start from scratch and try to introduce as many new characters as possible, new features, new stuff like that and take advantage of the amazing presentation, graphics that all of a sudden you can do, things that are a lot more real", he explained.
Confirming that it will definitely be a fighting game, Boon said the title will be far dirtier and grittier than previous instalments in the series, adding that the development team is just trying to take advantage of all the new hardware that's available and doing the most it can with the new consoles.
In terms of a release date, Boon flagged the end of 2008 as probable. "...I would imagine we probably wouldn't start talking about it until the beginning of 2008 maybe... There's a lot of work, there's a lot of work that we're doing. The next-gen systems are so much work, it's overwhelming", he told us.
That's nice to hear. I've always had a fondness for Mortal Kombat ever since the first one way back when. It's good that they will try to revamp it properly as the last few felt the same but with different mini-games. I hope they can produce something worthwhile with the power they have in the current consoles.
Considering the fact that Mortal Kombat games have always struggled to keep up with the times (all of them were up to techically far superior games, especially Mortal Kombat IV, which turned out to be a shallow semi-3D affair when compared to the likes of Virtua Fighter, Soul Calibur and Tekken), I can't say that I'm expecting anything major.
With that said, the name "Mortal Kombat" has always been able to pique my interest, for some strange reason. And it always looks very appealing on screenshots.
I'd love them to develop a TRUE next-gen version of the original Mortal Kombat but obviously in a 3D arena!
The technically accurate fighting in games like VF & SC are great in their own way but just doesn't compare for me with the brutal ability to "Finish him!" with a decapitation, impailment, pit death etc. but give the mini-games and stocking-fillers a rest guys and concentrate on the main attraction, and Goro has to make a return!
I still haven't finished Mortal Kombat Armageddon on the Wii, story mode yes that was easy, but arcade mode I can only do with Scorpion.
Still, I can't wait to see what they'll pull out for the next installment in the series, the prospect of new characters is good too seeing as there were only a few in Armageddon and I think everyone is sick of a large chunk of the characters they've brought in over the years that are just clones of other characters.
As far as gritty, dirty fighting goes I think Def Jam Vendetta is the benchmark, I'd love to see MK1 remade in this new system, just the basic 8 characters.
As far as gritty, dirty fighting goes I think Def Jam Vendetta is the benchmark, I'd love to see MK1 remade in this new system, just the basic 8 characters.
I second that (no, not the vendetta quote) but yeah, keep the original 8 characters (maybe the roster from MK2) and just make it absolutely choc FULL of moves, limb breakers, impalements, everything!
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