2:06 PM CST -
Greetings from the Electronics Entertainment Expo! We just got back from our first hands-on session with Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance and are very enthusiastic about its progress. Even with many of the features disabled in the version here on the floor, the gameplay is intense -- even with projectiles temporarily stripped from the game. Scorpion, Sonya, Jax, Blind Kenshi (not finalized name), Quan Chi, Li Mei, Sub-Zero, Shang Tsung were all playable characters. Each had a different weapon and two fighting styles to choose from during play. The ability to chain fighting styles in a combo was also in the game, but will be expanded upon before its release. Realistic character animation physics were present such as sweat and dripping blood during battle (blood follows the contours of the characters bodies, but there is no scarring or torn clothing yet).
Among the characters disabled on the select screen were Johnny Cage, Kano, Cyrax, Raiden, Kitana, Kung Lao, a female Sub-Zero (as of yet unnamed), and Mavado. Some of the other features that are planned for the final release are ring outs and background interaction (as we've seen from sketches). One cool effect that we were told about was the use of animation similar to bullet time (as seen in The Matrix and Max Payne). Another interesting concept is Terminator 2 inspired freezing: when Sub-Zero freezes an opponent, their motion continues, but slows down until they are frozen solid. An in-depth story/training mode is also in the works where each characters progress is mapped out on their journey. The GameBoy Advance port is said to be coming along really well with 3D scaling and rotation, but is still essentially a 2D game. Overall we were very impressed with what we saw and can't wait to see more! We will continue to update with more of our findings for the duration of the show (trust us, there's a lot more).