E3 2010 Recap: Mortal Kombat Reviews Pour In

Patrick McCarron

TRMK Admin, Co-founder
Staff member
After the full reveal at E3, excitement for <a href="http://www.trmk.org/games/mortal_kombat_9/">Mortal Kombat (2011)</a> has been spreading all across the internet. From major media sites to reactions on Twitter, there is a definite buzz in the air around the game. Some of today's biggest excitement for those of us not at the show came with the leaking of a shaky cam video of a few of the game's Fatalities <a href="http://screwattack.com/videos/Hands-On-Mortal-Kombat">from the website Screw Attack</a>. You can watch the video below, but beware it's not for the queasy.

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Sister site <a href="http://kamidogu.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9173">Kamidogu.com put up a great overview of the game</a> along with a few booth pictures. Here is a small snippet that details the new dynamic blood system in the game:
Ed described the blood, which now has ultra-realistic properties. Blood sprays depending on the attack, meaning if Scorpion slashes his opponent in a circular motion the blood sprays in a curved fashion. Other advancements include proper bodily damage, which have been expanded to include actual lacerations in the skin. Not only do the characters lose blood whilst doing battle, they can also stain each other. Blood from your opponent can spray onto your kombatant, and stay there for the remainder of the match. The longer it stays exposed, the more it decays and turns darker

Long time Mortal Kombat fan and friend of TRMK, <b>Dan Amrich</b> aka Activision's own <a href="http://www.oneofswords.com">One Of Swords</a> had a lot of good things to say about it.
"MK is going to make every old school fan very very happy"
"... MKII, much prettier, much faster, much freer-flowing combos"
Dan also posted the first screenshot of the game's menu that really shows the detail in the game's character models. I can't wait to see full 1080p stills in the future. This is an obvious step up in fidelity from <a href="http://www.trmk.org/games/mortal_kombat_vs_dc_universe/">Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe</a>.
<center><a href="http://www.trmk.org/images/mk9/MortalKombat_E3_MainMenu_DanAmrich.jpg"><img src="http://www.trmk.org/images/mk9/MortalKombat_E3_MainMenu_DanAmrich_t.jpg"><br/>Click to Enlarge</a></center>

Another friend of TRMK and President of <a href="http://www.Robomodo.com">Robomodo</a>, <b>Josh Tsui</b> who previously worked on <a href="http://www.trmk.org/games/mortal_kombat_4">Mortal Kombat 4</a> and <a href="http://www.trmk.org/games/mortal_kombat_mythologies_sub_zero">MK Mythologies Sub-Zero</a> had a short message that he <a href="http://twitter.com/robojoshy/status/16318080052">sent to Ed Boon on Twitter</a>.
"@noobde IZZA SO GOOOOOD"

Newly re-launched video game magazine EGM also revealed that <a href="http://www.egmmediagroup.com/blog/page/276">Mortal Kombat</a> will be the cover story of their SUMMER 2010 issue</a>.
<center><a href="http://www.trmk.org/images/mk9/EGM_239_Cover.jpg"><img src="http://www.trmk.org/images/mk9/EGM_239_Cover_t.jpg"><br/>Click to Enlarge</a></center>

GameSpot also <a href="http://e3.gamespot.com/video/6265851">did a video interview with</a> a clearly excited Ed Boon. He discusses many things including online and single player modes that we will see much later.
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I wanted to bring up the <a href="http://ps3.ign.com/articles/109/1098513p1.html">interview with Ed Boon by IGN</a> again as in this interview they touched on something I've been feeling missing in Mortal Kombat.

But what about Babalities and the like? "Certainly this Mortal Kombat game we're taking a little bit more seriously, so we're probably not going to have a friendship move and whatnot," says Ed, "but if we were to do something like that we're definitely not going to document it. That's what I think was part of the fun of the old games. 'You turned the guy into a baby!' What? Or, 'you pulled out a rainbow'! What the? It's such an odd thing. We really want these events – if they happen – to be almost rumors. That's a big part of what Mortal Kombat was. The question mark about - what else is in this game?"

I agree 100% with Ed, and feel that the game needs to ship with some hidden undocumented content. Stuff that you can't find in a Strategy Guide or even a moves or FAQ list until someone actually discovers it. The internet was in it's infancy but everyone in the newsgroups used to work together to uncover these hidden moves and secrets. This was great about the old arcade games, and I hope it's something they aim to do again with this game.

Also TRMK Forum member <a href="http://www.trmk.org/forums/member.php/4705-Tedakin">Tedakin</a> gave us his <a href="http://www.trmk.org/forums/showthread.php/12961-Saw-the-demo-at-E3.-Met-Ed-Boon.-My-thoughts.">review of the game</a>. He touched on how detailed and lively the game's backgrounds are this time around:
When the characters are fighting in the Living Forest there's dynamic lighting breaking through the trees and casting accurate shadows on them. Also, there's a lot going on in the backgrounds. People are being tortured and strangled by vines. Birds are flying around. The big thing I noticed was in Kahn's Arena there is a second fight going on in the background featuring a giant monster that looks like a rancor battling a small group of warriors.

Tedakin also posted the first full picture of the game's select screen which clearly shows that Downloadable Content (DLC) will be possible in this game.
<center><a href="http://www.trmk.org/images/mk9/MortalKombat_E3_SelectScreen_Tedakin.jpg"><img src="http://www.trmk.org/images/mk9/MortalKombat_E3_SelectScreen_Tedakin_t.jpg"><br/>Click to Enlarge</a></center>

Last but not least, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?pid=199246&id=117266501638089">Mortal Kombat won GameSpot's E3 People's Choice award</a>. So congrats the whole team, it's well deserved. There are also plenty more awards for the game to win, so be sure to <a href="http://e3.gamespot.com/games.html?sort=votes&page=15">do your part and vote!</a>. It's also currently up for <a href="http://games.ign.com/articles/109/1094418p1.html">Best Fighting Game of E3 over at IGN</a>.

<b>Update</b>: Forgot <a href="http://kotaku.com/5565326/the-new-mortal-kombat-cuts-deeper-than-ever-before">Kotaku's very positive review of Mortal Kombat</a>:
Mortal Kombat feels like a solid return to form, a gory, bloody bash, full of what made fans fall in love with the series, a few smartly borrowed mechanics that could make non-fans appreciate what it has in the fighting department.

Also <a href="http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/jeff/">Jeff Gerstmann</a> from <a href="http://www.giantbomb.com/news/mortal-kombat-cuts-down-to-the-bone/2203/">Giant Bomb also just posted his review</a>. In this bit he dissects how the game is played, and mentions the market possibility for custom arcade sticks.

It sounds like there's potential for some sort of MK-specific hardware down the line, too, as the game's more advanced moves, like tagging and throwing, can be done by hitting multiple buttons on the classic five-button MK setup, as well as via their dedicated shoulder buttons. It'll be interesting to see if that develops.
 
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oh my goodness, i need too see a gameplay video! i'm about to explode!!!!!!!!!

Hopefully soon NetherRealm will be releasing a few gameplay videos. Right now I believe they are not doing so because the clips haven't been ESRB rated yet. I doubt it'll take long.
 
SMACK!!! thanks pat, i needed that. have you heard anything about when they possible will release some videos and pics? or is it still up in the air?
 
Scorpion looks awesome. I'm still hoping for some new characters though, if it's an altered timeline I'm not ruling that out.
 
I'm very excited as well, though, waiting for almost an entire year is a HUGE tease!

I do have to say that IGN's snub is typical of MK's treatment. I think anything Capcom (SF, MvC, etc) always get higher billing because of this unspoken bias regarding the Capcom games over anything MK. I assume that the over-the-top features of previous MK games (like MK Chess and kart racing, for example) turned people off to the series. This is despite the face that Deadly Alliance and Deception, as fighting games, brought back major respect to the series and gave it a fresh lift.

Regardless, this game is getting billed as something special and I hope it's the best of the bunch!
 
I have been waiting for this for a very very long time. It sucks a bit that it's going back in time but that will be fun! I was kinda hoping to see the further outcome of the Armageddon story arc, but this is good too, to relive the old times with a major tune up to the series. I can't wait for it's release which unfortunately I have to wait a year for!! I'm very proud of the over the top gruesome effects of Kombat that they put into the game. Shame on IGN for not nominating Mortal Kombat which in my opinion should be directly above MVC3, that's just my opinion on that matter. I must admit for a guy who loves horror films and can easily stomach gruesome things, I have to say that MK: Deadly Alliance actually made me queasy for a some time when put on max on a big screen TV... and now Ed Boon says that it's ULTRA realistic and I'm a bit nervous as to how I'm going to stomach that but I LOVE MORTAL KOMBAT!!! Always have and always will!
 
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I'm waiting for Raiden for Raiden ad Kabal's confimation as playable characters. It's starts at the end of Armageddon, so I hope it'll show what happens before they go back in time.
 
Another review by Wil Wheaton of Stand by Me and Star Trek the Next Generation:

http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/wwdnbackup/2010/06/field-report-e310.html

The next thing I saw was a demo for the next Mortal Kombat game. I loved MK2, and my friends and I used to get together back in the Genesis days to play that and NHL 93 (one of my favorite thing about the movie Swingers was seeing them play games the same way my friends and I did) but I hated MK3 and have since lost interest completely in fighting games. The next Mortal Kombat, though, may change that. The fatalities, models, animations and environments have improved and evolved exactly the way you'd expect, and it was suprisingly fun to play. It was fun to try to translate the muscle memory of Scorpion's special moves from six buttons and a D-pad to four buttons, two thumbsticks, and four triggers.

Sounds like he is really sold on it.
 
Wow, so much great news!! MK looks unbelievable!! Simply amazing!! And EGM is back in print! :hail: I just signed up for a years subscription. :)
 
i really hope they offer dlc alt costumes

id like to see how they wld do classic costumes, so sub, scorp and rep wld look more as they did in mk1 & 2. u know, without all the armor n shit, just ninja outfits

maybe give mileena her less sexy mk2 outfit (no homo)

and cage w/o the tat and the mk 1 oufit, justa thought
 
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