If you've ever wondered how NetherRealm Studios achieves a gruesomely full illusion with their over-the-top violence - Joystiq have demystified a crucial, but often overlooked element!


Schluck! MKX Gamescom reveal Kano keeps Foley artists in business.

Speaking to Warner Bros Marketing Games Manager Brian Goodman at Gamescom; [Joystiq] isolated the importance of Foley - the art of designing consequential and ambient sounds to effect an audible reality.

How do you design a reality of skull crushing, muscle tearing, body pulping, martial arts violence? With an assortment of fruits and vegetables, of course! Such is the nature of a Foley artist's life, where the mundane is swung, slapped and beaten to create a larger than life sense of sound.

That juicy explosion of a crushed skull in Mortal Kombat X is actually the sound of a watermelon splattering on a layer of plastic in NetherRealm's foley studio. The remaining bone snaps, cranium hits and squishy organ sounds are mostly made with various fruits and vegetables, Warner Bros Marketing Games Manager Brian Goodman told Joystiq at Gamescom.


Test Your Might: "Generic Male" takes a fatality from Kotal Kahn early in development.

Creative Director Ed Boon offered another peek behind the curtain, taking to Twitter to reveal the man, the myth, the legend of Generic Male.

Pictured above with newcomer Kotal Kahn; the "Generic Male" 3D model is used to "mock up" fatalities. This allows developers to test and demonstrate the deadly finishers that will eventually inspire the audible destruction of watermelons on plastic.

We're not sure if Mokap and Meat should be worried about job security just yet, but Boon did joke about Generic Male's Character Variations:

Kano was the character revealed for Gamescom 2014! Investigate the skills of his Character Variations and how they look in official MKX screenshots! Register to discuss all the news in the Mortal Kombat X forum!