Over on the Midway Boards, three more loading screens from Mortal Kombat: Armageddon featuring Blaze vs. Onaga, Shao Kahn vs. Reiko and Kitana vs. Male Kreate a Fighter was released. Also, over on the Official Website the "question mark" page has been updated with Stryker costume koncept artwork and another Motor Kombat concept render.



Mortal Kombat: Armageddon is the last chapter in the current generation of Mortal Kombat games. Featured initially only on Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation 2, the game will have the largest roster of characters and also feature a new "kart" racing mini-game dubbed Motor Kombat. In North America, the standard and premium edition PlayStation 2 versions will be in stores on October 10th, while the Xbox version will debut on October 17th. The game will also appear on the Nintendo Wii in the first quarter of 2007.

Thanks hellfire and K1LLKANO.

Over on the Midway Boards, three more loading screens from Mortal Kombat: Armageddon featuring Shinnok vs. Sub-Zero, Darrius vs. Hotaru and Bo Rai Cho vs. Reiko was released. Over on the Official Site the "question mark" page has been updated with Wasteland and Krypt concept images. Also, a new image was posted over on GameSpot.



Mortal Kombat: Armageddon is the last chapter in the current generation of Mortal Kombat games. Featured initially only on Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation 2, the game will have the largest roster of characters and also feature a new "kart" racing mini-game dubbed Motor Kombat. In North America, the standard and premium edition PlayStation 2 versions will be in stores on October 10th, while the Xbox version will debut on October 17th. The game will also appear on the Nintendo Wii in the first quarter of 2007.

Thanks Immortal Reaver.

The Official Mortal Kombat: Armageddon Website has been updated with the remainder of the entire roster of characters.

Thanks Rain Demon.

Also, over at GameSpot, a new video of Stryker's Trading Card has been posted.

A new loading screen from Mortal Kombat: Armageddon was released over on the Midway Boards. This time a little bit of controversy comes with this image of Dairou vs. Female Kreate a Fighter. Previous loading screens have featured a blue male and female Kreate a Fighter, while the character select screen features a red and blue Kreate a Fighter character squares. This new loading screen features a purple female Kreate a Fighter, prompting rampant speculation and numerous questions on the forums.


Mortal Kombat: Armageddon is the last chapter in the current generation of Mortal Kombat games. Featured initially only on Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation 2, the game will have the largest roster of characters and also feature a new "kart" racing mini-game dubbed Motor Kombat. In North America, the standard and premium edition PlayStation 2 versions will be in stores on October 10th, while the Xbox version will debut on October 17th. The game will also appear on the Nintendo Wii in the first quarter of 2007.

Over on the Midway Boards, three more loading screen from Mortal Kombat: Armageddon featuring Drahmin vs. Female Kreate a Fighter, Female Kreate a Fighter vs. Female Kreate a Fighter and Noob vs. Frost was released. Over on the Official Site, with new videos are posted and the "question mark" page has been updated with Konquest Jungle, Shinnok, Title Screen and Dragon Cave concept images.




Mortal Kombat: Armageddon is the last chapter in the current generation of Mortal Kombat games. Featured initially only on Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation 2, the game will have the largest roster of characters and also feature a new "kart" racing mini-game dubbed Motor Kombat. In North America, the standard and premium edition PlayStation 2 versions will be in stores on October 10th, while the Xbox version will debut on October 17th. The game will also appear on the Nintendo Wii in the first quarter of 2007.

Thanks The 7th Number and Immortal Reaver.

Here's a great deal for those who haven't already pre-ordered your copy of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. If you buy Mortal Kombat: Armageddon today from EBGames.com and use to coupon code MK2D you will receive free 2-Day shipping. Just add Mortal Kombat: Armageddon to your cart, and then at checkout, enter the code MK2D and select USA 2-Day handling in order to save you $7.

Both PlayStation 2 versions will ship from EB Games warehouses on Monday and you should receive the game on Wednesday at the latest. The game is scheduled to be in stores on Tuesday. And if you buy from any of the links in this post, you'll help out TRMK in the process. It's a win-win! The offer is good only today only.

CHICAGO – October 9, 2006 – Midway Games Inc. (NYSE: MWY), a leading interactive entertainment industry publisher and developer, today announced that Mortal Kombat®: Armageddon™, the final chapter of the Mortal Kombat franchise for current generation gaming systems, has shipped for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system. Both the standard and Premium Edition packs are now available. Mortal Kombat: Armageddon for the Xbox® video game system from Microsoft is scheduled to be available Monday, October 16. In addition to Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, Midway is also scheduled to release both Ultimate Mortal Kombat® 3 for Xbox Live™ and Mortal Kombat®: Unchained™ for the PSP™ (PlayStation Portable) in November of this year.

"Mortal Kombat: Armageddon marks a significant milestone in the franchise as it's the final Mortal Kombat title to be released on current generation systems," said Steve Allison, chief marketing officer, Midway. "Mortal Kombat: Armageddon also contains gameplay features that series co–creator Ed Boon and team have always wanted to implement, such as create–a–fighter and create–a–fatality modes, and the option to choose from over 60 of the most popular Mortal Kombat fighters."

Mortal Kombat: Armageddon continues the tremendous success of the franchise which has generated over $1 billion in sales to date and is currently being backed by a multi–million dollar marketing campaign that includes the Mortal Kombat "Scream It" video contest hosted by GameSpot.com, a competition which allows fans to create unique and creative short films showcasing why they are the biggest franchise fan. Visit GameSpot for more information and contest rules.

Mortal Kombat: Armageddon's Multi–Million Dollar Marketing Campaign includes:

• National television advertising campaign on multiple mainstream broadcast and cable networks such as ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNEWS, MTV2, SCI–FI, USA, Cartoon Network, Discovery Channel, BET, Comedy Central, SpikeTV and more
  
• Sponsorship of Total Non–Stop Action (TNA) Wrestling Pay–Per–View event on SpikeTV
  
• Participation in consumer oriented events & tours such as:
  
  
  
  • Game Live's 2006 College Tour (40 colleges nationwide)
    
  • Vibe Game Club featuring Yardfest (40 colleges & 5 malls nationwide)
    
  • GameSpot's "Afterhours" event on October 14, 2006
    
  
  
• Aggressive online campaign to top–tier enthusiast and mainstream consumer sites including Gamespot.com, IGN.com, Google.com, and WWE.com, among others
  
• National pre–sell programs at select game retailers, where gamers can pre–order Mortal Kombat: Armageddon and receive a special edition Mortal Kombat poster or an animated cell signed by Ed Boon (*while supplies last)
  
• Dedicated web presence at www.mkarmageddon.com; download the latest new game play movies and assets at the official website of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon
  

As many wait impatiently for tomorrow, the official Mortal Kombat: Armageddon website has updated each and every character with their showcase videos. Also, over on the "question mark" page, a Balcony area concept image was released.


Also, a quick reminder for those looking to pick up a particular Premium Edition cover artwork box. Johnny Cage and Goro will be at EB Games / Gamestop stores. Kano and Sonya will be at Wal-Mart. Shao Kahn and Sindel are at Best Buy and the standard boxart Premium Edition will be at GameCrazy, typically attached to Hollywood Video movie rental stores. The Premium Editions will retail for $49.99, while the standard PlayStation 2 version and the Xbox version will retail for $39.99.

To view the full set of boxes, check out our previous news update: MKA PS2 Premium Edition Covers are Store Exclusives

Thanks Rain Demon and Immortal Reaver.

Welcome to the day of Armageddon. The final chapter in the current Mortal Kombat mythos is here. Stores across the nation begin selling the PlayStation 2 versions, including the Premium Editions which contain an autographed cell, extra videos and an emulated version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3.

In Xbox news, EBGames.com now has Mortal Kombat: Armageddon for Xbox shipping tomorrow, October 11th. Perhaps the delay for some stores isn't as long as previously reported, which was a week. Also you can recall that the Xbox will not be receiving a Premium Edition of the game; however, there is work being done on a Xbox Live Arcade version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 for the Xbox 360 that will feature online play. Midway announced yesterday in their press release that we can expect a release in November, along with Mortal Kombat: Unchained for the Sony PSP.

The official strategy guide for Mortal Kombat: Armageddon is being published by Prima Games. A preview of the electronic verison of the guide is now online. The 23 page preview features information on general fighting strategies, stage overviews, kreate a fighter details and UMK3 moves.

The first reviews are starting to make their way online. Check Metacritic for a running tab of all of the online reviews. IGN: 8.5 and GameSpot: 7.0

And lastly, here at TRMK, work has begun on our very own in-depth online strategy guide. As with years past, you can expect the same quality of strategy guide we have delivered, culminating with highly praised guides for Mortal Kombat: Deception and Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks. Because of the immense volume of characters, we expect this guide to be one of the most challenging guides to develop, especially without any pre-release information. However, the TRMK Staff and many volunteers are up to the task and are ready to bring you the quality work this site is proud to provide.

As you head out to stores to buy your copies of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, don't forget to head back to our community forums and post any questions you have about the game. And if you're a pro and have found everything there is to find in the game, please feel free to help out those who are stuck or are in need of assistance. We sincerely appreciate the TRMK Community for the positive help we witnessed throughout the first few months of Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, and we hope that this quality effort is duplicated for Armageddon.

As mentioned yesterday, EBGames.com stated that the shipping date for the Xbox version of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon was set for today. The product page over on EBGames.com shows that the game is now in stock and is currently shipping. A quick check of local GameStop and EB Games stores confirm that the game is expected to be in stores tomorrow (October 12th).

Initially, the Xbox version was delayed one week after the PlayStation 2 release. Check with your local stores tomorrow, by calling before you head out. If you are successful in getting your Xbox copy, post a message in our Mortal Kombat: Armageddon Forum.

The build up to the ultimate Mortal Kombat game in the current generation was big. Over 60 characters to choose from, a highly anticipated follow-up to last year's hit Konquest mode and a whole new Kreate-a-Fighter feature were amongst the highest anticipated features in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. But it appears that Armageddon has seemed to crumble under its own weight, according to fan reactions in our Message Forums.

The ambitions of the MK Team to include every character in the Mortal Kombat universe required several trade-offs in the main arcade portion that several fans are upset about. One major point of contention is the Kreate-a-Fatality feature. jeary writes, "If time or space was the problem, why couldnt they have just threw back in the identical deadly alliance and deception fatalities. Then created maybe 15-20 new ones. Even one per character would have been better than the kaf. The whole time im trying to do the kaf, im looking at the sheet rather than trying to enjoy the fatality."

Another trade-off are the character endings. The MK Team in the past decided that the fully animated endings in MK4 were so time consuming to create that they would be going back to static screen narration endings for Deadly Alliance and Deception. With the large character roster, it seems like even creating one static screen per character was too much and the team resorted to a narration over the character performing "kata". SubZero'sBrother writes "The endings.. By far.. The worst this series has ever seen.. I won't spoil anything here, but when your game concludes you'll know what I'm talking about.. Maybe I set my sights too high? I think not actually."

The most puzzling "letdown" seems to be Konquest Mode. Mortal Kombat: Deception featured a free roaming Konquest Mode that was open ended and featured tutorials on each character. On Armageddon's Konquest Mode The 7th Number writes, "I really didnt like the konquest either, too much fighting, and its all a set path so you have nothing to do except run down the street and beat up some goons. Deceptions konquest was way better. It was free roaming, finding stuff on your own, and that meditation part made it freaky." iniquity1 adds, "But call me weird, I enjoyed the training missions as each fighter from Deception. It gave me a chance to feel up the other fighters to know their strengths and weaknesses. Not to mention at least knowing HOW TO FIGHT WITH THEM instead on constantly pulling up the "move list" menu.".

It's not quite clear as to why Konquest Mode went the direction it went in Armageddon, after such a dramatic improvement in Deception over Deadly Alliance. The transition to the Mortal Kombt: Shaolin Monks engine might have something to do with the fact that none of the puzzle mechanics from Deception's Konquest Mode made it over to Armageddon. Many were expecting a whole new chapter in Deception's Konquest, but instead received a radically different linear button masher.

These are only a few of the opinions being expressed on the Message Forums. If you agree with some of these sentiments or have a totally different opinion, get an account and express yourself!

Perhaps the last news story on reader reaction to the perceived shortfalls of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon was a bit one-sided; however, it does not mean that those comments and opinions are not valid and do not exist. But as to any rhetoric, there are two sides, a point and a counter-point.

From game to game, fans have been upset that their favorite character, no matter how obscure, didn't make it into the latest version of Mortal Kombat. With Armageddon, every Mortal Kombat fan is obliged with their 3D fighter version of characters such as Stryker, Jax, Sheeva etc. Evil Dead writes, "with 60 characters to choose from, everybody can play as their favorite. No need to ***** about so and so being left out of the game."

One extension of a great feature in Deception was the Stage Death Traps. The MK Team had planned for death traps in Deadly Alliance; however, didn't have time to finish them. In Deception the traps were brought to life and many revelled in their gory climax. In Armageddon the MK Team pushed the bar higher with almost every stage featuring a unique way of killing your opponent mid-round. Glamador agrees, "Love them too! I miss the pit but the deathtraps are wonderful and the design simply perfect! I would have liked to have fewer of the old MKD stages (quite a few of them I disliked) but it doesn't even begin to bring down the awesomeness of the new stages!" He also adds, "I like some of them for their multi-tiered aspects. Like that spiral staircase one where you just keeping knocking ppl down over and over. Damned fun that is."

Armageddon also brought to the Mortal Kombat series the first time anyone could actually create their own character. Many fans enjoy the freedom and coming up with their own creations. Outworld Imp writes, "I love Kreate a Fighter! It is the most detailed creation system I have ever had pleasure to use. Sure it could have been better, but I just love how you can: create a fighter, their fighting and weapon styles, and a biography." Kona adds, "KAK was an idea I wish they had in Deception to improve for this game. This mode is good, could have had more to do though. I like the freedom you get with the different parts."

While some may argue that Deception's Konquest Mode was better than Armageddon's, others enjoyed the change of pace. undertaker3x7 writes, "The Konquest was enjoyable and even though I liked the Deception Konquest better I didnt want a long ass Konquest this time and the 5 - 6 hours it took to finish Konquest was perfect." Jim_Vengence preferred the shortened Konquest, "I thought that the konquest mode was leaps and bounds better than Deceptions (Which I found drawn out and stale, It felt more like a chore to beat than it was fun)."

There are many other positive opinions on Armageddon on our Message Forums, including a thread on what people like about the Kreate-a-Fatality mode. As with any opinion, there are those who will agree and disagree with it. While some may be dissapointed by some of the shortcomings of Armageddon, there are many fans out there that enjoy many of the game's new features. Whether you agree or disagree with either of these sides, make it known on our Message Forums.

Continuing our Interactive Map Guides series, TRMK presents The Mortal Kombat: Armageddon Konquest Interactive Map Guide. Currently all of the information featured in the guide is complete and accurate; however, the final location and the stylings of the guide are currently in development, hence the BETA tag.

The Mortal Kombat: Armageddon Konquest Interactive Map Guide contains context sensitive icons overlayed over in-game maps in order to provide easy, precise and detailed information on where to find every Relic Item, Koin Chest, Power Up, Soundtrack, Checkpoint and Objective in Armageddon's Konquest Mode.

If you find yourself stuck or missing those few relics in order to unlock everything, check out our guide. There you'll be able to quickly find the information you're looking for in order to complete Konquest easily. Now, if you can just get past those pesky multiple Daegon's.

Midway Games Ltd., the European arm of Midway Games Inc., has created an official site for the European release of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon for PlayStation 2. Featured on the site are some screenshots and a cool Fatality Generator which allows you to see a different Kreate a Fatality based on answers to a few questions.

It also appears that the European release of Armageddon is being promoted with the European "The Unholy Alliance" tour featuring Slayer.

The European release of Armageddon is exclusively on the PlayStation 2. It is currently scheduled for October 27th.

Thanks tokidoki.

Word from Major Nelson has it that Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 has made it onto the Xbox Live Arcade! For a cost of 800 Microsoft Points ($10), you can fight through the entire single player arcade game and a all new online multiplayer mode! The multiplayer modes include a new Challenger Versus Mode which allows you and 3 other friends to battle it out in a "winner-stays-on" style tournament. A total of 12 achievements for up to 200 Gamerscore points are available.

For moves lists check out our classic arcade moves list for Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Check back soon as we will have a new layout for our classc moves lists.

Thanks, Mortail Wombat.

Update 10:30 AM CST - Patrick McCarron
It appears some people had problems finding the game on Xbox Live, Major Nelson said he's escalated the problem. The game now appears for me under the New Releases for Live Arcade category, and is also at the bottom of the Coin-Op Classics category. I had issues downloading them a few minutes ago, but all is okay now. Go get it!

Update 11:00 AM CST - Patrick McCarron
I am having issues with the game and Xbox Live, I get disconnected as soon as I start the game. So I can't play online at all. I sent this on to Major Nelson so hopefully we can get that issue fixed for everyone too.

Update 12:00 PM CST - Patrick McCarron
As far as the UKK entering for unlocking the three special characters, they appeared to have accidentally changed what buttons enter what box. The developers have swapped the HP and HK buttons for some reason. Here's the rundown:

Box 1 - HK
Box 2 - LP
Box 3 - BL
Box 4 - LK
Box 5 - HP

Update 2:00 PM CST - Patrick McCarron
The online play is working now, thanks Microsoft for fixing that!

The eccentric Florida lawyer, Jack Thompson, who seems to have a personal vendetta against the video game industry has just lost one battle and is now choosing another. His new battle is against our current favorite game, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon.

It seems some creative fans made up a Jack Thompson look-a-like via the Kreate a Fighter mode in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon and posted the instructions on how to create your own copy of Jack, amongst other characters, online to share with others.

So Jack Thompson, who seems to be without a sense of humor, decided to send a "cease and desist" email to Midway Games President and CEO David Zucker. He also decided to carbon copy it to news outlets, to I guess get some press to back him up maybe? Here is part of the email:

"It has today come to my attention that the newly recently [sic] Mortal Kombat: Armageddon contains an unauthorized commercial exploitation of my name, photograph, image, and likeness within the game. You are commanded to cease and desist immediately from the distribution of this game because of this unauthorized, illegal content." (Emphasis in original.)

It seems that either Jack doesn't get the idea that someone "made" this character themselves, and it's not included in the game itself. Or maybe he's just trying to stifle any creativity in the video game community, and will start suing anyone creating custom characters. Maybe he'll start by suing me on my behalf for creating a likeness of myself in the game?