
Earlier this week, four European game retailers (
gamemania.be,
ShopTo.net,
vanstockum.nl &
bol.com) all listed a
Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection game for pre-order with a release date of
November 2010 for the
PlayStation 3. One store even noted that the mystery game will come with a demo for
Mortal Kombat (2011). Most of the stores have since removed their listings soon after posting them, but the timing of their listings likely means they were informed of the game was coming before
Warner Bros. was ready to announce it.
Was it too much of a coincidence that multiple stores posted the same game, only moments later to have it removed? It appears not.
TRMK has independently confirmed with multiple industry sources that
a high definition Mortal Kombat arcade update is indeed currently in development.
Mortal Kombat HD Kollection will be a
2D Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection (MK1, MK2 and UMK3) featuring all-new
high resolution in game graphics - not simply upscaled graphics, but sharp, crisp, awesome-looking
High Definition graphics.
Unlike
Capcom's Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix, which required new character drawings, remaking
Mortal Kombat in high definition is not as easy. In order to properly recreate the series in HD,
Warner Bros. needed to film actors performing the moves like they originally did 20 years ago, just now with better high-definition cameras. Resorting to hand-drawn characters, or using 3D models in place of real actors would just not look right and cause many fans to revolt. However, things are not as simple as that. Since the previous actors are now 20 years older and - in most cases - wouldn't look to be the right age in high definition,
Warner Bros. has hired new actors for the various roles and have been busy capturing them over the past few months at a
Warner Bros. Studio in
Los Angeles.
TRMK has also heard that some of the original cast is involved in the filming in some capacity as well.
For an example of the quality of the original captures, take a look at the recently released raw footage from
Mortal Kombat 1 over on
Daniel Pesina's YouTube account. Clearly back then, the camera used was not of the highest quality. Also, many of the filming sessions were not shot in front of a blue/green screen for easy
chroma key. Obviously, a reshoot would be necessary in order to get a proper High Definition worthy image of the characters for an updated
Mortal Kombat game.
Since we know the filming was taking place as recently as earlier this month, the latest rumors placing it's release to be before Christmas is questionable. While it is possible, the rumored release is fairly unlikely unless the replacement of the character sprites is one of the final steps left in development. It just seems too close to be possible given time needed for testing, certification, etc. We also doubt that
Mortal Kombat HD Kollection is only for the
PlayStation 3 unless some really good exclusivity deal was reached with
Sony, as currently fighting games for both systems sell fairly well unlike the previous generation of consoles which favored the
PlayStation 2.
Finally, we are not entirely sure who is the developer of this "Kollection", as the main staff at
NetherRealm Studios is busy with
Mortal Kombat (2011). Our guess is
Backbone Entertainment, the developers behind the downloadable ports of
Mortal Kombat II and
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3.
Backbone also were responsible for
Capcom's HD "remixes" of
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo and the
Super Street Fighter II Turbo. Since we do know for sure that the filming took place in
Los Angeles, we're not 100% sure that
Backbone Entertainment is involved as they are located closer to
San Francisco, CA. We can also assume that the original artists still on board at
NetherRealm Studios would be involved in the art updating process as well. However, we still feel like
Backbone is the best fit for programming duties due to their history with the classic
Mortal Kombat franchise and "HD remix" track record.
There is still a lot we do not know, but with
Gamescom this week and
PAX Prime at the end of the month, we might get lucky and know a lot more sooner than we think!
Update 9/8/2010: More evidence surfaces for the MK HD Arcade Kollection.