It's Fatality Friday again, and we've got a few items for you today.

First, NetherRealm Studios' Community Manager Rigo Cortes sent over high resolution renders of the various Male Ninja Klassic Costumes to the Mortal Kombat fan sites. Today we get a look at the for Ermac, Sub-Zero, Scorpion and Reptile alternate Klassic Costumes from Mortal Kombat (2011)!

These costumes will be available for free when pre-ordering Mortal Kombat at various retailers. It's also very possible, but not confirmed at this time, that these will be available for purchase as well so you can collect them all!



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Hopefully soon we'll get a look at the alternate female ninja costumes that will be available as well.

Also, earlier today a Mileena Fatality was revealed on the GameStop Mortal Kombat widget. So head on over to that to check it out, but only those who have pre-ordered from GameStop will be able to see the uncensored Fatality in all of it's bloody glory!

A few minor news stories came by over the weekend, and figured we'd post up for those who don't follow us on either Twitter or Facebook.

First, a few weeks ago it was revealed that the Mortal Kombat Rebirth series is being re-created as an online web series. While casting was mostly a mystery, everyone was assuming most roles would be re-cast where possible. Yesterday the actress who played Sonya in the short, Jeri Ryan, confirmed via Twitter that she is officially in the series as well now.



Second, late Friday video game accessory maker Mad Catz's Product Manager Mark Julio revealed what looked like an unofficial Mortal Kombat style fight stick was on the way. The official Tournament Edition Mortal Kombat sticks are made by rival accessory maker Performance Designed Products.

Later in the weekend it was revealed that in-fact Mad Catz will be putting out new replacement top panels for their Tournament Edition FightStick owners that will give them a way to change to the default MK-style stick layout. Mark also added earlier today that there will only be around 300 made so they will be in short supply. We are not sure at this point if they will be offering complete MK style sticks or not, but it looks unlikely due to low quantities being produced.

To get a better look at the panel layout, take a look at the video below:



Thanks to everyone who sent in these news items!

Today for Mortal Monday everyone's favorite Shaolin Monk Liu Kang has been added to the Mortal Kombat Tab over on the Official Mortal Kombat Facebook page. It makes mention of his Dragon Fatality, so hopefully this fatality will be making it into Mortal Kombat (2011).



Included with this is a new wallpaper featuring Liu Kang punching through the chest of his opponent.



Head on over to the Mortal Kombat Tab to check out the new Wallpaper in all it's glory.

Many have wanted to see more of the Mortal Kombat (2011) Kollector's Edition bookends. The pictures we originally received were missing half of the statue and really misleading. That ends today, thanks to Rigo Cortes over at NetherRealm Studios. We are treated to see the rest of this great edition that will go great on many fans' bookcases in late April.

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Be sure to pre-order your copies today! For ease of ordering, here are links to pre-order the Xbox 360 version and pre-order the PlayStation 3 version at GameStop today!

An early Fatality Friday is upon us, as GameSpot posted a new Liu Kang Vignette video for Mortal Kombat (2011) today. In this video we get our first look at both Kano and Shang Tsung fighting on what appears to be a revised version of Mortal Kombat 3's Rooftop level. You also get to see one of Liu Kang's Fatalities that has been teased recently. An interesting note is that it appears that Shang Tsung is actually morphing in this video. So hopefully the team over at NetherRealm Studios found a way to make morphing work in-game on this new engine.



What do you guys think?

Two new tracks from "Songs Inspired By The Warriors" have been released today along with the new Liu Kang Vignette video. This time we got new theme songs for Sub-Zero and Liu Kang. You can see more details of each track and where to buy them below:

Liu Kang's Theme by Congorock - Available for purchase on iTunes or Amazon.

Helado (Sub-Zero's Theme) by Harvard Bass - Available for purchase on iTunes or Amazon.

Thanks to NetherRealm Studios' Art & Design Producer Hector Sanchez on Twitter at for the heads up on these new tracks!

Last December, EA Mobile released Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 for the iPhone and iPod Touch platforms. Today they released a new game on the AppStore just made for the iPad's larger screen, Ultimate Mortal Kombat HD. For $4.99 you get a whole new "Two Player Mode" that allows two players to battle head to head on the same iPad.



Unfortunately the one thing that is new to this version is not any good. "Two Player Mode" is extremely difficult to use as you have to share the same iPad with another person. Imagine you and a friend holding the same piece of paper long ways, now pretend to play a touch based fighting game on it. There is no room to make this feature comfortable, so you better like who you are playing against. A far better option would to have the iPad screen divided down the middle for both players to get their own screen on each side of the iPad, instead of them sharing a single side of the iPad to play on.

My biggest problem with this game is EA Mobile decided to be cheap and instead of making the existing game a "Universal iOS App" they made this into a separate "iPad only" version. But you'd think since this is the HD version you'd think the graphics are better right? Nope, the game graphics in this version are pretty much the exact same. The weak point of this port has always been the character models. Here their design and textures are still abysmal and no improvement has been made. The backgrounds that looked great on the iPhone version look great here because they are larger and easier to see detail, but look the same as they do on my iPhone 4. To confirm this I looked at the game content and very few files are changed at all.

While the iPad version does look nicer than the iPhone version scaled up does, EA could have easily just made the previous version look this good on the iPad as well. EA is simply selling everyone the same game with one new feature for even more money.

As far as positives go, the game does have a few. The game is actually easier to play on the iPad in single player mode because the buttons are larger. The game also connects over local WiFi for multiplayer matches with the iPhone version without a problem.

The game is still just as fun as the iPhone version, but is no where near a proper arcade port of the game by any stretch of the imagination as the gameplay itself is different. Sadly all of the bad gameplay bugs I encountered on the iPhone version are still here as well. So clearly no bug fixes have been attempted in the past two months, and I doubt they'll ever attempt them. So I'd say that if you have the iPhone version of this game already, then this is probably not worth the extra $4.99 purchase at this time. If you don't own either version and have an iPad, then I'd pick the iOS device you'd like to play it on more. Hopefully EA Mobile will work on fixing a few of the bugs and make the game worth a purchase, or they'll likely just lower the price again to $0.99 in which it'd be a steal.

Ultimate Mortal Kombat HD can be bought on the iTunes AppStore today for $4.99 USD.

It's Mortal Monday time again, and we got a fansite exclusive for you today. NetherRealm Studios' Community Manager Rigo Cortes sent over a high resolution render of the Female Ninja Klassic Costumes from Mortal Kombat (2011). The one we get a look at is the Jade version of the costume that will be bundled for free with the Mortal Kombat Blu-ray discs. I love these retro style alternate costumes and glad that NetherRealm Studios decided to give fans the choice to retro up this game a bit.


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Also, there is talk of some new content coming as a late Mortal Monday gift tomorrow. There are lots of theories out there, anyone have any guess what it'll be? To find out the news the quickest tomorrow, be sure to follow TRMK on Facebook and Twitter.

A Toasty Tuesday update is upon us today, this one is the highly anticipated and much talked about video that would "might break the Internet."

The big surprise is a character reveal of a character not many expected to be playable in the game. IGN just posted up a new gameplay video where we get a look at the unannounced, but rumored, mysterious dark ninja Noob opening a can of whoop-ass on his victims. Here is what Warner Bros had to say about the video:

Please find enclosed a new video from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and NetherRealm Studios unveiling Noob Saibot, previously Sub Zero, a fallen warrior, resurrected by the Netherrealm sorcerer Quan Chi to fulfill a dark objective. A faithful servant and a recent addition to the Brotherhood of Shadow, he plays a key role in helping Shao Kahn in his acquisition of Earthrealm. This intense video focuses on Noob Saibot’s vicious fighting style as he steps closer to his own mysterious shadowy mission.

To continue to be amongst the first to get the latest Mortal Kombat news be sure to follow TRMK on Facebook and Twitter.

Update 9:24 CST: Yes it appears as @MK_MortalKombat prophesied, the Noob Saibot video did break the internet. IGN is having problems serving up the video right now, so please hold tight I expect they'll have it resolved soon enough!

Update 9:35 CST: The video is back up now. Check out the awesome new Graveyard stage making it's debut as well!

Update 10:33 CST: Updated to IGN's YouTube copy of the video so those on Mobile can easily view the video.

Those who are looking for some behind the scenes looks at Mortal Kombat (2011) are in for a treat. Steve Beran who is Art Director of NetherRealm Studios wrote a great behind the scenes article over at the Playstation.Blog. In the article Steve details step by step how fatalities are created in the game along with a few unseen screenshots and story boards like the one below:



Here is a snippet of Steve explaining the first step in Fatality creation, when Ed Boon and the other game designers lock themselves in a room to come up with gruesome ideas to maim victims in the game.

The fatality development process is extremely collaborative. In the past, we didn’t start designing and implementing fatalities until the majority of the game was finished. But with this game, the team began working on fatalities early in the development cycle in order to have the maximum amount of time to come up with ideas and polish them. Fatalities are born in the dark recesses of the designer’s minds – each fatality always starts with a general idea from [Mortal Kombat co-creator] Ed Boon and the designers. They basically lock themselves in a room for hours and lay out all of their ideas. Once the meeting begins, one brave soul is the first to share a sick and twisted way for the player to finish off their opponent, and the process begins.

It's a great read, so we suggest you head on over and read the article. Thanks to JRF for the heads up!

Italian gaming website Multiplayer.it and 1UP posted up an the Liu Kang "Epic Beatdown Gameplay Trailer.". In this new gameplay trailer we get to see some of the longest segments of Mortal Kombat (2011)'s Story Mode yet inbetween some Liu Kang combo demonstration. To us it almost sounds like Robin Shou is back and playing the voice of Liu Kang, but this isn't confirmed at this point. You also get to see Johnny Cage in a spiffy alternate blue suit costume.



Thanks to @lord_scorpion87 on Twitter for the news tip.

Update 2/18/2011: We have updated above with our HTML5/Flash embedded copy of the video.

When the Mortal Kombat (2011) Tournament Edition was announced back in December of last year, you rushed to your local GameStop and put down your deposit, right? Well, maybe you thought that you would wait until it got closer to the game's release in April and you ordered it earlier this week? Good, because late last night GameStop ran out of their allotment of Tournament Editions company-wide, which is a portion of the 20,000 previously stated as being available for North America.

Good news though late-comers, Tournament Editions are still available at other participating retailers. You can still pre-order Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition from Amazon and receive the bonus Reptile costume and fatality. Also, pre-orders are still online at Wal-Mart - receiving the bonus Mileena features - and online at Best Buy. Although, one major caveat, Best Buy is stating that only the Standard Edition (game only) will receive their bonus Sub-Zero items, Kollector's and Tournament Editions are excluded. See our Facebook post detailing the Best Buy situation.

Also @geoffkeighley on Twitter let slip that a new character will be revealed on GTTV next week. The tweet was quickly removed but thankfully we saved it.

@noobde: Love "The Bonus Round" on GTTV, this week they were reviewing the big games of 2011. Zero mention of MK. We'll show you @geoffkeighley !

@geoffkeighley: @noobde We can't mention them all . See you next week for the character reveal!

Sounds like we're getting a new character revealed next Thursday on GameTrailers TV, so set your DVRs!

The official Mortal Kombat Twitter account just posted the first official look at Jeri Ryan as Sonya Blade from the upcoming live action Mortal Kombat digital series.



A bit of trivia is mentioned in the caption, as it was learned yesterday that Jeri Ryan shares a birthday with Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon.

Seeing as filming is completed, it wouldn't be too surprising to see this series show up sometime around the launch of Mortal Kombat (2011) on April 19th, 2011.

Earlier today our friends at Inside MK discovered that Issue #56 of the Italy's X360 Magazine has an interview with Ed Boon in which he mentions the possibility of Shao Kahn being playable when discussing special tag-team moves that will exist only when you use certain character combinations. If you read Italian you can read the article in it's entirety online. Otherwise here is the translated quote from the magazine:

"For me it will be awesome if everybody will find that Scorpion and Sub-Zero worked together in past, just like Jax and Sonya did." said Ed Boon about that possibility to create some Tag Team moves "These are the classic couples that maybe hardcore fans will have fun to discover. We will put inside some special moves when Raiden will be with Shao Kahn or Liu Kang... these are the things we would like players will discover during the game"

It is likely that the boss characters will be playable only after unlocking them, like they were in Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe.

According to IGN Australia, the Australian Classification Board, the equivalent of the ESRB in the United States, will decide to refuse classification for Mortal Kombat (2011). One of IGN's sources stated they received an e-mail stating that the game will "not be released in Australia. The e-mail added that the decision might be overturned in the future, but these steps were currently necessary."

Update: 9:40pm CST: IGN just updated their story with an official statement from Warner Bros. which we've included below.

The highly anticipated video game Mortal Kombat, published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (WBIE) in Australia, has been refused classification by the Australian Classification Board and will not release in Australia. We are extremely disappointed that Mortal Kombat, one of the world's oldest and most successful video games franchises, will not be available to mature Australian gamers.

WBIE would not market mature content where it is not appropriate for the audience. We understand that not all content is for every audience, but there is an audience for mature gaming content and it would make more sense to have the R18+ classification in Australia. As a member of the iGEA, WBIE is reviewing all options available at this time.

Looks like Australian fans may have to resort to importing the game unless something changes.

Update 10:40pm CST: Kotaku Australia got a hold of their hands on the classification report for Mortal Kombat that has some major spoilers of Fatalities in it. We included part of it here, which states there can be up to four Fatalties per character to be unlocked. Read the rest at your own risk.

Initially, the Move List Within the game includes one finishing move per character, although a player is able to unlock up to four per character. The Board notes that fatalities cannot be performed in Story mode and are unlikely to be performed frequently during gameplay; however, it is also noted that there are more than 60 fatalities available and they are an important component of the game.

We also got our own order cancellation from jbhifionline.com.au as we had ordered some Kollectors Editions from Australia. They seem to think there is no way for Warner Bros to appeal this, so hopefully this controversy will cause Australia to consider implementing the R18+ classification.

Thanks for pre-ordering Mortal Kombat. We’ve just been given some disappointing news from the distributor. The Office of Film and Literature Classification have made a unanimous ruling to ban Mortal Kombat for sale or import into Australia, as it is a unanimous decision we’ve been told they are unable to lodge an appeal. Unfortunately we will be cancelling your pre orders. We will keep your emails on file in case a modified version becomes available so we can notify you.

Update 11:12pm: We found a quote from Ron Curry, CEO of the Interactive Games & Entertainment Association (iGEA) that the WB Press Release had stated. It's a good read about the problem at hand.

The granting of another RC to a video game clearly designed and targeted at ADULTS again highlights the shortcomings of the current classification scheme. In particular, the absence of an adult classification.

As with many other forms of media, there is a demand and place for an adult themed narrative. We trust adults with this material in other media forms, yet deny them similar access simply because it’s a ‘game’. We would not accept the argument that because it’s “unsuitable for a minor to see or play” that it should therefore be banned in any other media form, so why video games?

When a highly anticipated game receives an RC we can expect two things to happen; interest in obtaining the game will actually increase and people will still get the game either through importing (ordering online) or pirating; the latter an encouragement to commit a crime in order to perpetuate the crime of accessing illegal content. Ironically, the game is then widely available in Australia without any identifiable classification markings. How is this informing parents and protecting children?

It is the industry position that an adult classification sends a clear message to the public that the content is not suitable for minors and is the most effective means of guiding access to mature content. Refusing classification of titles that meet adult rating criteria in every other Western country in our digital age is ineffective and naïve.

It is also important to highlight that content that exceeds the guidelines of an R18+ classification, should it be introduced, would still be refused classification and banned in Australia.

Update March 1st: It appears that WB Australia is appealing the ruling, and is doing so with the same version of the game with no censorship changes made.

"After careful consideration Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Australia have decided to appeal to the Australian Classification Review Board against the RC (Refused Classification) decision given to Mortal Kombat. After reviewing both the game play and the Board's original decision WBIE Australia believe the violence in the game is on par with numerous other titles readily available for sale in the Australian market. As such the company wants to exhaust all options to make the game available to Mortal Kombat fans in this country. An identical version of the game will be submitted for appeal."

Considering that the upcoming Wii sex party game Wii Dare got a PG rating the fact that MK got a RC is looking more and more silly.

It's Fatality Friday again and we just got some Kommunity kontent for everyone. Rigo Cortes the Kommunity Manager for NetherRealm Studios was nice enough to send us some new screenshots to share with the fans! You get a nice up close view of Cyrax's net and Nightwolf's lightning attacks beating up Kitana as well as Kung Lao giving Sektor a boot to the face!




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According to The Hollywood Reporter, a 2008 case filed against New Line Cinema, a Warner Bros. subsidiary, by Threshold Entertainment, producers of the original TV and Movie Mortal Kombat properties, has been dismissed. At stake was $9.3m in profits from the original Mortal Kombat (1995) film that Threshold Entertainment believe it was owed between 2000-2004 under their agreement.

However, back in December 2010 the presiding judge ruled that Warner Bros. was the "prevailing party" in the case and ruled that Threshold was only entitled to $14,000 after a financial audit, but was responsible for Warner's court costs. Because of that ruling, a hearing earlier this week on this matter determined that the rest of the case was moot, so the case was dismissed.

While Threshold Entertainment plans to appeal, this ruling only affects this single case. Threshold still has two more pending litigations against Warner Bros., one a similar case regarding unpaid profits, the other regarding the sale of Midway Games. Those cases were not affected by this latest ruling.

This is a great deal that we wanted to share with everyone. Right now you can get Mortal Kombat (2011) for a mere $46.99 after a $10 promotional credit that goes towards future purchases when you pre-order at Amazon.com. In addition to the $10 credit you are also getting the Klassic Reptile Playable Character Skin (pictured below) and original Reptile Fatality that you'd normally get with pre-ordering.



Below we have added handy links to easily pre-order each version of the game. Act fast as this deal may not last for long!



Note: If you already pre-ordered this version with Amazon, contact Amazon customer service to make sure you are getting this deal. The details say it applies to all current pre-orders but you should check to make sure, as in my experience they will often just credit you the difference in advance.

It's Mortal Monday again and some new Mortal Kombat assets are starting to trickle in. This time a wallpaper of what appears to be part of a Raiden fatality is up on the Mortal Kombat Facebook Tab and in the GameStop Widget. Here is a preview of said Wallpaper below:



Thanks to @nsayeed for the heads up. While this is clearly not the "big time announcements" that are expected this week, it's nice to see some love for our favorite God of Thunder, Raiden.

The official Mortal Kombat Facebook page just posted a new event to their page called the Mortal Kombat Truck Tour. A giant Mortal Kombat Truck, pictured below, will be traveling cross country over the next two months for fans wanting to check out the new Mortal Kombat (2011) before release.

 
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There isn't much information right now but there are dates running up to the game's release date all across the United States.

Los Angeles, CA (3/3-3/5)

‎(3/3 -3/4) Best Buy #109 @ 11301 W. Pico Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90064

‎(3/5) Best Buy #1198 @ 2375 N. Tustin St. Orange, CA 92865

Austin, TX (3/11 - 3/12)
Dallas, TX (3/19 - 3/20)
San Francisco, CA (3/25 - 3/27)
Minneapolis, MN (4/8 - 4/10)
Chicago, IL (4/16 - 4/19)

The event page says more details are coming closer to release, so stay tuned for more information! We expect this to me similar to the old Mortal Kombat 4 Road Tour and hope to have more information soon.

Updated 10:55pm CST With Los Angeles locations above, appears they'll be hitting up various Best Buy locations.

Updated 3/1 10am CST: Added pictures of the Mortal Kombat Truck above.

Updated 3/1 1:30pm CST: We've added a new TRMK Forum Section dedicated to the Mortal Kombat Truck Tour. Come discuss meet ups with your fellow fans as well as speculation about what we'll see on the tour. Head on over to the New Forum Section to begin discussing now!