December 5th, 2011
2:43 PM CST -
It seems like it was not very long ago that I was penning the announcement of our ten year anniversary back in 2006. Incredibly, I am here again to put down my thoughts on how significant it is for a website covering a single video game series to persevere for 15 years. Mortal Kombat has been an extremely unique series that, ironically, never seems to die. In fact, I can say that with the recently released Mortal Kombat (2011), the Mortal Kombat series is at its highest point in popularity for the entire 15 years TRMK has existed.



It wasn't apparent that Mortal Kombat would ever get to this point in history. In the past five years, there was a major amount of uncertainty surrounding Midway Games, the parent company of the Mortal Kombat franchise. Starting with the Chapter 11 reorganization filing of Midway Games and the subsequent rumors of selling the Mortal Kombat franchise to Warner Bros. After all of the dust had settled, Midway Games was no more, but Mortal Kombat would live on under the new stewardship of Warner Bros. and the direction of a rebranded NetherRealm Studios.

After releasing the first ever crossover game in Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe, the franchise was due for a major overhaul as current generation consoles featured so much opportunity for a "true" mature Mortal Kombat game. Mortal Kombat (2011) was a game that every fan of any Mortal Kombat game could get excited about. It truly was a game for the fans that stuck by the series, and regained the interests of those who had forgotten about it. Not only has Mortal Kombat (2011) been a critical and financial success for NRS and Warner Bros., the TRMK community has grown to its highest levels of participation and readership ever because of the game's successes. With the embracing of Mortal Kombat (2011) into the competitive fighting game community, the franchise has positioned itself to become a greater impact on the video game industry than it ever has since its inception.




Thanks to NetherRealm Studios and Warner Bros. for the unprecedented cooperation we have experienced in the last few years. The new NetherRealm Studios has been an amazing group to work with, given the studio's new-found ability to independently handle their community relations. Thank you to all of the NetherRealm Studios staff members we have come in contact with and to Rigo Cortes for being an invaluable asset to the Mortal Kombat community.

Special heartfelt thanks to Patrick McCarron for taking TRMK to levels I could have never reached by myself. Through his direction and leadership, TRMK has become a true destination for those who are passionate fans of the Mortal Kombat franchise. TRMK successes are due to Patrick's hard work and dedication to the site, along with the excellent staff of Forum Moderators he has assembled. I sincerely appreciate the working relationship Patrick and I have formed throughout the years, and look forward to what we can accomplish in the future.

Finally, it is because of you, the reader, that we are able to continue our passionate work to further the Mortal Kombat community. There have been some very dark days along this 15 year odyssey; however, it is truly apparent that the community remains strong and will continue to be for years to come. With the upcoming 20th anniversary of the Mortal Kombat franchise next year, another chance to celebrate and reflect on a game that has impacted millions across the world will be here soon as well. I am extremely excited at where the next chapter of Mortal Kombat will take us and have never been more confident in its future success. Hopefully at this time five years from now, we will be reflecting upon how far the TRMK community has progressed after two decades.

Sincerely,
Jeff Greeson and Patrick McCarron
The Realm Media Networks Staff.

BIRTHDAY CONTEST

To show our appreciation to our readers over the last fifteen years, we have lined up two weeks of awesome contests for our loyal readers. This week we are giving away two copies Mortal Kombat (2011) that are AUTOGRAPHED by many of the developers at NetherRealm Studios. This contest will run all week and will allow you one bonus entry per day during the week.

To enter head on over to one of the two contest pages that set up for the contests, one for Xbox 360 and one for PlayStation 3. Click the one (or both) that you want to enter below and follow the instructions to enter.


We will have a few additional contests to announce in the coming days and weeks as time goes on so stay tuned for further announcements. Until then, let these images be a teaser for what else is in store.





What are your favorite TRMK Memories? Take a trip through our News Archive and post a comment about your favorite stories over the years.
December 7th, 2011
9:47 AM CST -
Early this morning some eagle eyed TouchArcade fans discovered a new Batman: Arkham City game just released today in New Zealand for the iOS platform called Batman: Arkham City Lockdown. There was no early tips or info from Warner Bros. Games that this game was in development or on the way. It looks like an adaption of Batman Arkham City but made specifically for the iPhone and iPad platforms.

Here's a few screenshots from the AppStore page, click on them to enlarge.





Here is what the game description says:


The inmates have escaped and Batman has his hands full defeating an army of henchmen and some of his most iconic villains. Scour the rooftops and the seedy underbelly of Gotham City through a series of one-on-one battles with the Joker, Two-Face and more, as well as the Batman: Arkham City Lockdown exclusive – Deathstroke. Choose from several Batman skins and power-ups as you punch, kick and combo your way to cleaning up Gotham City.


Upon further inspection of the New Zealand AppStore description page it is revealed that NetherRealm Studios is actually the developer behind this project. This could very well be one of the three unexpected surprises that Ed Boon said NRS was working on. Since NetherRealm Studios also assisted in the development of Batman: Arkham City for consoles and PC, this doesn't come as a complete surprise.

The game should be available for download on the iOS AppStore at 11pm Eastern Time. We will have more news and a quick review on the game once we get our hands on it.

Update: Here's the announcement trailer for NetherRealm's Batman Arkham City Lockdown for iOS. Looks amazing. Check it out below:


10:29 AM CST -
Appears the much delayed European release of Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection is finally arriving. According to the list of updates to the store this week it shows the game will finally be available for £7.19 or €8.99.

We're not sure if this version is the long awaited patched version of the game, or if it's the same as the other release. If it's the newer patched version, that means that the US release is just around the corner as Ed said earlier. Any readers in Europe got any info?

Update: Reports from our reader Yuri Helsen and Tim Static indicate that European players are getting v1.02 of the Arcade Kollection which is NOT the patched version. It's possible that in order to distribute a patch across all PSN stores they had to first put the current version up for sale. We should still see the patch later this month.

Update 6:30pm: We got great news. We regret the previous error in reporting but we discovered that the v1.02 European release of Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection is in FACT the patched version. Europe has been playing with the new net code and other fixes since they got the game. Check out our Patch notes for more details.
2:38 PM CST -
Just a few hours after Europe got the Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection, we have gotten word from NetherRealm Studios Creative Director Ed Boon that the much awaited Patch is finally releasing tonight.

We don't know what systems are getting it when, but we will update this space once that is known.

He also said that they are working on patch notes, so we should get those shortly hopefully. I would assume this patch will propagate to the new European purchasers soon as well. More as it develops.

Update 6pm CST: Still no sign of the North American release of the patch, but we got good news.

Unlike we reported in an earlier update, today's European release of Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection did in fact come with the latest patch as we guessed would happen.

Thanks to our friends over at Kamidogu we've gotten our hands on the European release and have come up with a list of changes from the patch below. We will be updating this with more photos, and eventually video, as we find more changes that were made in the game.

Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection v1.02 Visual Patch Notes
(Click thumbnails below to enlarge)


  • New Video Display option "Stretch" that fills a HDTV. The screenshots in this article demonstrate this new feature.




  • Audio glitches like MK2's attract mode, Scorpion's Voice, etc now sound proper. Audio issues still remain, but many have been improved. For example Scorpion's Voice on UMK3 can be heard when throwing the spear.


  • Online has player names on each side of the screen in the selection, loading screens and during games.





  • Online is MUCH improved. So far only been able to play against European players due to it being released over there only so far and it is quite smooth despite the long distance. Immediately feels different, no more like you are playing in molasses. Here's a quick video showing how fast online is now, hope to get a longer video up soon but having technical difficulties.



  • Unpausing the game no longer leaves you unable to move for a few seconds

  • You can use UKKs in UMK3 online now.




  • The "Arcade" Filter has more even scanlines when in "Stretched" mode, but in other modes retains it's uneven scan line arrangement from previous release.


  • DISPLAY: STRETCH FILTER: ARCADE

    DISPLAY: CABINET/STANDARD FILTER: ARCADE


  • The video "gamma" level was reduced resulting in a less washed out colors.


  • BEFORE:


    AFTER:



  • Unfortunately they didn't put in version restrictions on the matchmaking, so if you get matched against a 1.02 player from Europe or a 1.01 player in the US right now you get a nasty black screen. This problem should go away once 1.02 is sent out worldwide.


  • More to come...



Update December 9th: Both Wednesday and Thursday both came and went, with no patch being released for North American customers. We're unsure what happened and there has been no response or statements from the various people at WB and NetherRealm Studios.

Update December 15th: Ed Boon just posted a few updates about the patch availability.
"Patch submitted & waiting on approval. The "best guess" date we are currently given is Dec 19th, which is this Monday." - Ed Boon

December 10th, 2011
8:13 PM CST -
Tonight was the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards and Mortal Kombat (2011) was nominated for Best Fighting Game and Best DLC (Freddy Krueger). Mortal Kombat easily beat out the competition of Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, King of Fighters XIII and WWE All Stars to take home the Best Fighting Game of 2011 prize. Unfortunately, Portal 2 beat out Mortal Kombat for Best DLC. You can't win them all, but I'm sure Freddy will now be haunting the dreams of Portal 2's heroine Chell.

There is sadly no Best Fighting Game of 2011 acceptance speech to show you, as Spike felt the award wasn't exciting enough to unveil on the main show. Instead, the award was just announced it between other awards to make time for more celebrity guests like Charlie Sheen who made it known he was there just because he was paid well to be there. Seeing that Spike is also home to the UFC it would have been a perfect opportunity to have a UFC fighter give the award for "Best Fighting Game" so they could fill their celebrity presenter quota.

Perhaps the biggest shocking announcement came during the internet-only pre-show. According to GameSpot, Ed Boon was interviewed and gave a few clues into his "unexpected surprise". According to Ed, NetherRealm Studios is working on a second non-Mortal Kombat title, the first being their recently released iOS game: Arkham City Lockdown. Skip to 5:00 into the below video to see Ed's acceptance of the award and mention what NetherRealm Studios is working on next.


UPDATE 4:31pm: The Unofficial Apple Weblog also caught up with Ed Boon on the surprise release of Batman: Arkham City Lockdown. Boon mentioned that there may be other iOS projects in the works at NetherRealm.

And this isn't the last we'll see of Netherrealm Studios on Apple's mobile platforms, according to Boon. "Oh, yeah," he told me, "we have a number of things in the works. But nothing we can say just yet.


What do you fans think NetherRealm Studios is working on next? Leave your thoughts in the Komments.
December 12th, 2011
11:05 PM CST -
First we'd like to issue a big congrats to the winner's of the autographed copies of Mortal Kombat (2011): David King (PS3) and Wilbur Smith (Xbox 360). They should be getting their prizes soon along with a few extra MK goodies thrown in for good measure.

The next contest is the grand daddy. We're giving away two Mortal Kombat (2011) Tournament Edition Sticks that are autographed by various members of NetherRealm Studios. We had the NetherRealm Studios team autograph the Mortal Kombat embossed plexi-glass cover to keep the autographs away from harm while also providing a nice way to display the autographs when open. We have one for each system, so enter for your system of choice or both if you play on both systems.




Autographs included on the stick are: Steve Beran, Ed Boon, Mike Boon, Rigo Cortes, John Edwards, Paulo Garcia, Tony Goskie, Hans Lo, Carlos Pesina, Mike Taran, Alan Villani & John Vogel

You will also receive some additional MK goodies in your package, so cross your fingers!

You can enter the contest via the Widgets below, may take a second to load


a Rafflecopter giveawaya Rafflecopter giveaway

Note: There is no game included, it's just the stick

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