Edit Apr. 2: Another year, another cruel and unusual lie. Did we fool you? Not for a second! The following article is a complete fabrication: part of our annual April Fools tradition. You can berate us on the forums, or come down from the high with a look back at some of Mortal Kombat's best hoax, fake & forgotten characters! See you next year!

Injustice: Gods Among Us is still a few weeks away from an official April 16 release, but it seems NetherRealm Studios are already well aware of where they're heading for their next major project!

Back in 2008, Mortal Kombat Online was with you to break the first official news of Mortal Kombat's foray into crossover territory. Five years later, we're happy to do it all over again, confirming the official exclusive announcement of Mortal Kombat versus DC Universe 2!

NetherRealm Studios will always be known as the developer responsible for Mortal Kombat, but if you thought their shift to a fighting game based on the characters of DC Comics was groundwork for a future crossover -- you'd be wrong!

CVG are reporting comments from NetherRealm Creative Director Ed Boon, who says development of Injustice: Gods Among Us as a separate series will likely prevent any future meeting between the two franchises.

Never say never, of course, but we loved how our last Mortal Kombat game was strictly Mortal Kombat. And when you think about it, the last Mortal Kombat game we did, it really had the essence of the series more so than any other game in years.

With Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, there's two pretty different audiences; one which wants to see violence and blood, and there's another that wants to see grand superhero moments. We were kind of balancing on a fence trying to accommodate both audiences with Mortal Kombat vs. DC.

Liu Kang battles Flash in Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe.

EventHubs recently conducted an interview with Christian Svensson, Capcom's vice president of strategic planning and business development. In closing, the interview mentions the very popular subject of what franchise the Street Fighter series should next cross over with. His response:

CVG recently caught up with producer Hector Sanchez at Gamescom and decided to touch on an all too familiar subject: Mortal Kombat vs. Street Fighter. The two fighting series often cited as the birth of the mainstream fighting genre have been rumored to join forces several times over the last decade. Mortal Kombat series creator Ed Boon has stated multiple times he would love for the project to come to life.

Ed Boon posted on his Twitter page a screenshot which reveals some more lost kontent - a Soul Chamber level that almost made it in to Midway's famed basketball series, NBA Hangtime. From the horse's mouth:

These images were going to be used in a "hidden MK court" for one of Midway's NBA Jam/Hangtime home ports. But the NBA said no. :(

To read the quote on Ed's page directly, go here. Our thanks go to Kombat19 for the word on this update!

With the release of Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict today, the official site has been updated with the bios for all the characters from this game - including, of course, Raiden from Mortal Kombat! Here it is:

Name: Raiden
Race: Elder God
Sex: Male
Age: Ancient
Birthplace: Unknown
Starting Weapons: Lightning Bolts, Thunder Staff
Adrenaline Abilities: Teleport, Stun Trap, Heal, Warrior Spirit
Data: As an Elder God, Raiden has been cursed with seeing the devestation to come. When the Gods stood firm on their decision not to interfere in the ways of mortals, Raiden pleaded with them to take action, but they refused. Disgusted, he relinquished his immortal status to travel amongst the realms, gathering the support of the greatest warriors against the coming storm. And there is no better place to recruit the champions of the galaxy then the Liandri Tournament.

Thanks go to MK Online chat/forum member DECEPTION for this update!

Midway sent out a press release this morning announcing that they have shipped their most recent game to stores, Unreal Championship 2! Though not a Mortal Kombat game, the game is notable to MK fans because of the well-known fact that one of the unlockable characters in the game is the popular thunder god Raiden! From the press release:

"Midway, along with the millions of people involved in the Unreal community around the world, is extremely excited about the release of Unreal Championship 2," said Steve Allison, chief marketing officer, Midway. "Our recently formed relationship with Epic Games, Inc. is one that we feel extremely thrilled about, both for Unreal Championship 2 and for future Unreal products, and we are confident that gamers will be extremely enthusiastic about our first title together. Unreal Championship 2 has been given the time over its development process to be refined to its core and, as we hope people will soon see, the outcome is one of the best-looking Xbox games on the market and one of, if not the greatest Xbox Live title ever."

Unreal Championship 2 should be hitting retail shelves within the next couple of days.

To read the press release in its entirety, click here.

Update – the folks at GameSpot posted a video review of the game. To see the video review, click here. The video is available free as a free stream to all, or even as a free download as a GameSpot Basic member. Overall, they give the game a 9.4 out of 10, so it's definitely a game worth checking out! Thanks to MK Online forum/chat member DECEPTION for the info on the video review!

To read the press release in its entirety, click here.

The folks over at GameSpot have acquired and posted some more screenshots from Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict. To check out the rest of the screenshots, click here.

There's also some videos worth checking out. GamePlay Footage 14 features Raiden actually doing a FATALITY. The new Developer Interview video features Epic Games President Mike Capps briefly discussing what it's like working with Midway and his praise for the Mortal Kombat series, as well as how well Raiden fits in to UC2's environment. To check out all the videos for this game, click here. As always, streaming videos are free for all, to download is also free, albeit as a GameSpot Basic member. Thanks to MK Online forum/chat member DECEPTION for the tip on this update!

Midway Games has released a render from their upcoming release of Epic Games's upcoming X-Box game Unreal Championship 2! This render is of particular interest to MK fans as it includes everyone's favorite thunder god, Raiden! As can be seen in the render (and in previous UC2 media), Raiden retains his pre-Deception appearance; this is obviously the "good" Raiden as opposed to the dark one.



To see the image in a smaller file-size (more appropriate for dial-up users), click here. To see the full 2 MB render, click here

Our thanks to forum member kubaidragon for this heads-up, and to Mortal Kombat Guides who first broke this story!