The final day of the Electronic Entertainment Expo has come to a close and Mortal Kombat Online is proud to present our final impressions of the E3 Build of Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks. Having performed a 121-hit combo, there's not too much left to say about the game that we haven't covered already. We love all the little details like the piles of skulls that can be knocked apart, and spikes in the ceiling that you can actually impale enemies on. If you miss one of the hidden secrets early on in the game, you will actually be able to go back to some of the earlier levels by way of the "Nexus". This will come in handy since some areas will require you to have advanced moves in order to access the secrets, such as a "running on walls" move that won't be accessed until later in the game. As revealed yesterday, whenever you access these secrets, you then unlock a new piece of content - one such piece of content being a new arena in Ko-Op mode.

Other cool tricks include cooperative moves that are pretty hard to pull off because both players have to work in unison, but the results are well worth it. For example, if you are Liu Kang and you do a fireball against Kung Lao while he's spinning, instead of going right through Kung Lao, it will bounce off of him spinning and spin-off a bunch of fireballs in multiple directions. Also, while this didn't work in the X-Box version of the game (which is about a week behind), in the PS2 version we were able to both select the same character in Ko-Op Mode. The second player would wear a different color costume - the same alternate colors as in MKII, so the second Liu Kang would wear blue or the second Kung Lao would wear brown.

In addition to our impressions, today was spent getting direct feed of the MK: Shaolin Monks demo that provides an in-depth look at the game including direct footage of fatalities, as well as exclusive footage of the unlocked Rooftop stage in versus mode. Liu Kang is controlled by Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks producer Shaun Himmerick, with our correspondent ]{0MBAT as Kung Lao. You can download the video at the links provided below:

The next part of the day was spent recording our Mortal Kombat Online Fan Interview with Ed Boon and Shaun Himmerick on various different topics. We answered questions from users: Baraka407, SmokeNc-017, Fedegita, SubScorpTile, DECEPTION, and Bodzio, as well as one question that was asked by a ton of our users (try and spot which one!). Download the interview at the link below: In adition to our interview, we invite you to visit our friends at TRMK who have also been covering the game at this year's E3. They have posted another detailed question and answer video interview with Shaun Himmerick, as well as a few extra fatality videos we were unable to grab. These can be located at their torrent download page. Also, last is our last batch of screenshots taken throughout the final day at the Midway Booth:
Also keep in mind, that the demo that was previewed during this event will be available for all to play in a future issue of the Official Xbox Magazine, as well as Official PlayStation Magazine. This will surely be a treat for all fans. This proudly concludes our coverage of the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Special thanks to all the guys at Midway Games for the opportunity once again to cover the Mortal Kombat franchise. We'll see you live next year!

Update – May 22 – We'd like to thank MK Online forum member TonyTheTiger for helping out with a transcript of this interview. You can read the entire transcript here.