When I think Mortal Kombat now-a-days, I immediately cringe. The classic 2D fighting franchise has -- over the years -- turned into a three-dimensional mess of clunky controls and slow-moving fighting mechanics that only the truly hardcore MK fans can appreciate. With this in mind, series creator and creative director Ed Boon and his team at NetherRealm Studios are hard at work on a new entry into the franchise with a specific focus on what made the first three Mortal Kombat games so great -- lots of blood, crazy fatalities, and fun gameplay. I was lucky enough to get a look at an early build of the MK reboot and it seems that Boon and company may be onto something that fans of the original games should be excited about.
What was made immediately clear by the development team presenting the game at the Warner Brothers booth was that this game, internally called Mortal Kombat 9, is returning to the series' roots. Gone is the previously established 3D gameplay mechanic, in its place is a two-dimensional playing field with full 3D characters and environments similar to Street Fighter IV.
Speaking of the characters and environments, MK9 will include on the retail disc a total of 24 characters and 18 environments spanning the history of the series with more to come via downloadable content for both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Via the demonstration, I was able to get a glimpse of Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Johnny Cage, Reptile, Kung Lao, Sektor, Mileena, and Nightwolf in action -- including their famed fatalities. It was fairly obvious to me after viewing all the new fatalities available to the characters on-hand that MK9 is one of, if not the most brutal Mortal Kombat game in franchise history. I saw characters split in two, heads chopped off and spun around as a trophy, just all sorts of craziness. Boon really means business with this new title.
Other cool things shown in the game like persistent blood effects that soak into the characters' clothes and stain the floor as the match goes on really add to the extremely satisfying gameplay mechanics. No longer a complicated mess, the controls seem much easier to grasp and if you have played any of the classic Mortal Kombat games you should feel right at home. That is not to say there is not any sort of complexity in the fighting system. Similar to straight forward brawlers like Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, MK9 has a deep combo system for fighting game veterans to master, and with an added sense of speed to the combat, this reboot of the series looks like more fun than ever before. Look for it sometime in 2011.
Unfortunately, they did not allow any video or pictures of the game since it is still early in development; however, check out the trailer below for a glimpse of some of the in-game footage I got to see being played at E3 this week.
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