Gurimmjaw
Earthrealm
Mortal Kombat creator Ed Boon knows that you want fatalities when you play MK. He's heard countless times about how the previous game, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe was a T-rated game that didn't do justice to the franchise. He's heard a lot of fan output -- both positive and negative -- about what should be in the next Mortal Kombat; so fans who wish MK revisited the old days, here's your game, as the new Mortal Kombat is an M-rated, fatality-filled retelling of the first three MK titles (along with some new features).
Boon's presentation features a lot of classic MK items, but done in glossy high-definition. He takes care to point out that levels such as Living Forest and The Pit are lifted straight from the first two installments, and when it comes time to show characters, he lovingly demonstrates the game with Sub-Zero and Scorpion. Associate designer Eddie Ferrier elaborates on the use of past games, "The storyline is basically a retelling of the first three games -- we actually use time travel to revisit that timeline and do some retconning." Ferrier also points out that the most of the (approximately 26) character roster will feature MK fan favorites pulled from that trilogy, along with wholly new characters or tweaked-due-to-alternate-timeline versions of classic characters. At the moment, the roster that the team shows off includes: Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Johnny Cage, Kung Lao, Mileena, Nighwolf, Reptile, and Sektor.
Again, to show off how much this new installment celebrates the series roots, Boon then shows off a series of fatality videos, all in full M-rated grisliness. Particular ones that stand out include Reptile vomiting poison into someone's mouth before snapping their neck, or Sektor blowing someone up with a blast and then having missiles lock onto individual meat chunks afterwards, to Kung Lao planting his razor hat on the floor (creating a makeshift tablesaw) and then dragging his victim across the floorbound hat. During my quick hands-on session, I managed to pull off one of these (where Sub-Zero freezes some poor fool's legs, and then tears the torso off said frozen appendages), and like in classic MK titles, these seem to be easy-yet-esoteric controller inputs that are quickly keyed in after hearing "Finish him!"
But Boon and Ferrier and the rest of the team over at NetherRealm isn't just making Mortal Kombat a glorified Greatest Hits compilation with HD and little else -- there are actual gameplay additions being added to the franchise. Boon points out that the Super Meter, which was introduced in MK vs DC, now has "additional features layered onto it." The Super Meter now has three levels to it -- with each level conferring a different fighting bonus. First, you can use the initial one-third of the Super Meter to pull off an Enhanced Move -- which, as it sounds, simply makes your move more powerful. This ranges from simply doubling attacks (two fireballs instead of one) to making your uppercuts more potent (and therefore, your victim more ripe for juggling). If you save up your Super Meter, you can expend two-thirds of it to pull off a Breaker; this instantly breaks any combo and be a great defensive mechanic when your opponent is pounding on you mercilessly. Finally, you can expend the entire meter to execute an X-Ray attack -- a special attack so damaging that it not only knocks off a hefty chunk of life (from my layman's eyes, it looks like it knocks off a third or a little under half of your opponent's lifebar), but it has a grody animation of a close-up X-ray of your victim's organs under attack. Apparently, someone on the MK team has watched a lot of Jet Li's Romeo Must Die
(skip to the last few seconds of this clip for an example).
Each character's X-rays (as both the attacker and the victim) is distinct and brutal -- stuff I've seen include collapsing of tracheas, ocular stabbings, and spinal shatterings.
Another mechanic that isn't too new for fighting games, but still new for Mortal Kombat, is Tag Team fighting. Not only can you switch between your two tag-teamed characters, but you can also call in Tag Attacks (where you switch fighters mid-combo so that, for example, Johnny Cage starts the conversation while Sektor actually finishes the argument) or Tag Assists (where the second character momentarily jumps in to add oomph to the current character's attack). I'm not a fighting guru, so I actually don't pull off any Tag mechanics myself, but they certainly look neat when Ferrier plays!
Mortal Kombat looks like it's come quite a long ways from its T-rated usage of DC characters and tame fatalities. It's both a celebration of its past, and a solid (and eminently playable) entry into modern HD fighting. If you had told me that I would actually enjoy playing an HD-generation Back to the Future-style re-imagining of Mortal Kombat, I would have declared you mad, but hey, it looks like Marvel vs Capcom 3 actually has some competition. It's like the '90s never stopped!
Source: http://www.ugo.com/games/mortal-kombat-preview
Boon's presentation features a lot of classic MK items, but done in glossy high-definition. He takes care to point out that levels such as Living Forest and The Pit are lifted straight from the first two installments, and when it comes time to show characters, he lovingly demonstrates the game with Sub-Zero and Scorpion. Associate designer Eddie Ferrier elaborates on the use of past games, "The storyline is basically a retelling of the first three games -- we actually use time travel to revisit that timeline and do some retconning." Ferrier also points out that the most of the (approximately 26) character roster will feature MK fan favorites pulled from that trilogy, along with wholly new characters or tweaked-due-to-alternate-timeline versions of classic characters. At the moment, the roster that the team shows off includes: Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Johnny Cage, Kung Lao, Mileena, Nighwolf, Reptile, and Sektor.
Again, to show off how much this new installment celebrates the series roots, Boon then shows off a series of fatality videos, all in full M-rated grisliness. Particular ones that stand out include Reptile vomiting poison into someone's mouth before snapping their neck, or Sektor blowing someone up with a blast and then having missiles lock onto individual meat chunks afterwards, to Kung Lao planting his razor hat on the floor (creating a makeshift tablesaw) and then dragging his victim across the floorbound hat. During my quick hands-on session, I managed to pull off one of these (where Sub-Zero freezes some poor fool's legs, and then tears the torso off said frozen appendages), and like in classic MK titles, these seem to be easy-yet-esoteric controller inputs that are quickly keyed in after hearing "Finish him!"
But Boon and Ferrier and the rest of the team over at NetherRealm isn't just making Mortal Kombat a glorified Greatest Hits compilation with HD and little else -- there are actual gameplay additions being added to the franchise. Boon points out that the Super Meter, which was introduced in MK vs DC, now has "additional features layered onto it." The Super Meter now has three levels to it -- with each level conferring a different fighting bonus. First, you can use the initial one-third of the Super Meter to pull off an Enhanced Move -- which, as it sounds, simply makes your move more powerful. This ranges from simply doubling attacks (two fireballs instead of one) to making your uppercuts more potent (and therefore, your victim more ripe for juggling). If you save up your Super Meter, you can expend two-thirds of it to pull off a Breaker; this instantly breaks any combo and be a great defensive mechanic when your opponent is pounding on you mercilessly. Finally, you can expend the entire meter to execute an X-Ray attack -- a special attack so damaging that it not only knocks off a hefty chunk of life (from my layman's eyes, it looks like it knocks off a third or a little under half of your opponent's lifebar), but it has a grody animation of a close-up X-ray of your victim's organs under attack. Apparently, someone on the MK team has watched a lot of Jet Li's Romeo Must Die
(skip to the last few seconds of this clip for an example).
Each character's X-rays (as both the attacker and the victim) is distinct and brutal -- stuff I've seen include collapsing of tracheas, ocular stabbings, and spinal shatterings.
Another mechanic that isn't too new for fighting games, but still new for Mortal Kombat, is Tag Team fighting. Not only can you switch between your two tag-teamed characters, but you can also call in Tag Attacks (where you switch fighters mid-combo so that, for example, Johnny Cage starts the conversation while Sektor actually finishes the argument) or Tag Assists (where the second character momentarily jumps in to add oomph to the current character's attack). I'm not a fighting guru, so I actually don't pull off any Tag mechanics myself, but they certainly look neat when Ferrier plays!
Mortal Kombat looks like it's come quite a long ways from its T-rated usage of DC characters and tame fatalities. It's both a celebration of its past, and a solid (and eminently playable) entry into modern HD fighting. If you had told me that I would actually enjoy playing an HD-generation Back to the Future-style re-imagining of Mortal Kombat, I would have declared you mad, but hey, it looks like Marvel vs Capcom 3 actually has some competition. It's like the '90s never stopped!
Source: http://www.ugo.com/games/mortal-kombat-preview
