With less than two months remaining before the release of Mortal Kombat worldwide* -- the team from NetherRealm Studios are taking their game on tour for a six week hands-on invasion of the United States!

The 2011 Mortal Kombat Truck Tour marks the return of the series to America's roads, which were first assaulted by the games' brutal fatalities and 3D rendered fighting in 1997 with Mortal Kombat 4! It's one of many details surrounding the games that have made this a nostalgic experience, as much as it is the beginning of a new era.

It was in July, 2009 that courts approved the sale of all intellectual properties owned by bankrupt publisher, Midway Games, as part of a multi-million dollar deal that saw Warner Brothers acquire the lucrative Mortal Kombat license [full story]. In response, MK co-creator and on-going series Creative Director, Ed Boon, could only remark at the time, "[L]ooking forward to the focus being on the games, making them better and less on the noise surrounding us."

It would be untrue to say that there hasn't been a lot of noise surrounding Mortal Kombat in 2011, but it's all in service to a game that is coming together very nicely!

The MK Truck Tour is only the latest move in the cross-media assault by WB designed to fully capitalize on and restore the power of the MK license! Trucks adorned with the Scorpion and Sub-Zero game coverart wil be on the road from now until the official realse of the game (April 19), which will see the trucks make their final stop back in MK's spiritual home of Chicago!

Photographs from the first stop in the tour, Burbank, give fans the opportunity to peek inside the demo station that allows eight players to enter kombat at a time!

The tour will remain in Los Angeles until March 5, before moving on to Austin, Texas.
Complete details will be made available as they become known via the official Mortal Kombat Facebook. Current dates are listed as:

• Los Angeles, CA (March 3 - March 5)
  Best Buy #109 @ 11301 W. Pico Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90064 (3rd & 4th)
  Best Buy #1198 @ 2375 N. Tustin, St. Orange, CA 92865 (5th)


• Austin, TX (March 11 - March 12)
• Dallas, TX (March 19 - March 20)
• San Francisco, CA (March 25 - March 27)
• Minneapolis, MN (April 8 - April 10)
• Chicago, IL (April 16 - April 19)

Update Mar. 8: An updated list of times, dates, and addresses can be found in our full update.

Update: As reported by MKO user , participants were shown BluRay copies of the soon-to-be rereleased films [full story], while they waited, and were treated to free download cards for tracks from the upcoming concept album, Mortal Kombat: Songs Inspired by the Warriors [full story]. The download provided the first listen of Baraka's theme, performed by Run DMT, along with previously released Liu Kang and Mileena tracks.

The playable demo featured Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Johnny Cage, and Mileena, who were pitted against each other in an improptu tournament. MKO congratulates longstanding users on winning the tournament! He received a shirt, headband, interview, and will be e-mailed unspecified DLC content. Thanks to drpvfx for also providing photographs from the event:

The same playable demo will be exclusively available to the PlayStation 3 March 15th, with a timed exclusive for Playstation Plus users March 8 [full story]. The demo is unlikely to include materials from the recently revealed Challenge Tower -- a new incentive mode revealed recently via IGN [full story].

* Mortal Kombat will be released in PAL regions April 21. The game is currently Refused Classification in Australia, but will be appealed when WBIE resubmit the game for reclassification. Mortal Kombat Online is following the story closely. For more updates, follow @MK_Online!

Series co-creator and project lead Ed Boon sat down with Gamespot's On The Spot at the annual Game Developers Conference to discuss some of the more recently revealed aspects of the upcoming Mortal Kombat.

The video begins with Ed introducing the recently unveiled Challenge Tower mode [full story] and we receive a short demo of some of the missions. This includes a showcase of Sonya's special moves, which currently total five and include her trademark kiss and an Arc Kick, an anti-aerial type maneuver. We also get our first dose of Baraka in action, fighting in one of the challenges against Sonya with some of his trademark blade attacks.

A gray cyborg character's mugshot was present on one of the challenges, but whether or not this is Smoke remains to be seen. Ed did seemingly confirm once and for all that UMK3 character Rain would not be in the game, but left the possibility that he would later be available as a DLC addition to the roster. A "new" character was also unveiled simply named "Stunt Man" as he takes on Johnny Cage in one of the challenges.

The first appearance of Kano in action also comes in this video as he fights against Jax, performing his signature specials such as his knife toss and cannonball. In addition he performs his X-Ray attack, in which he stabs each of his opponent's thighs with his knives before delivering a straight kick to the face with his boot. With his end round taunt, he spits on the downed victim before stepping back. His classic heart rip fatality ends the match, with Kano reaching through the back of the opponent and ripping out the organ viciously.

Ermac also makes an appearance battling against Liu Kang, and a plethora of telekinetic specials are showcased. He has multiple versions of his slam, the classic in addition to other more elaborate ones. He retains his projectile and levitation slam abilities introduced in MK: Deception. He also talks up PS3 exclusive character Kratos. Though no footage was shown of him in action, he speaks of the amount of weapons Kratos will have at his disposal and that God of War fans should be pleased with his representation in the game as he'll carry many of his signature weapons from his home series.

Check out the video embedded above to watch the interview. The first 24 minutes contains the Ed Boon interview. You can also click here to visit Gamespot. Thanks to our many forum members who brought us this story!

Director of the upcoming Mortal Kombat digital series Kevin Tancharoen (@KTANCH on Twitter) has posted the first full photograph of Scorpion, portrayed by Ian Anthony Dale [full cast list].

As can be seen from the above photograph, the look of his costume is very similar to his look in the early games as well as the movies. This is to say it is strikingly different from what we saw in the Rebirth trailer [full story], in which we only saw him sporting a prison jumpsuit. This shot of Scorpion in a snowy forest could imply a meeting with rival Sub-Zero during the feature episode for the ninja spectre.

Update: The director has shared yet another photo from MK's snowy Vancouver location, this time of the behind-the-scenes variety. It seems the promise of brutal action in the live-action series will be met with the graphic vigor that made Mortal Kombat famous! So in touch with the games, @KTANCH playfully asks (complete with Sub-Zero style snowman), "Friendship or Fatality? Which do you prefer?" Just whose spine is it lying in the snow? We'll have to wait and see!

Thanks go to user MINION for word on this update. As always, keep checking Mortal Kombat Online for coverage on all Mortal Kombat-related news items, as well as @MK_Online on Twitter!

Playstation.blog is reporting that a demo for the upcoming Mortal Kombat will be available to subscribers of Playstation Plus on Tuesday March 8, 2011. It will be available for all PS3 users via the PSN store one week later on March 15.

The demo includes four playable characters: Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Johnny Cage and Mileena. The characters will be equipped with their complete arsenal from what we can tell. Classic arenas The Living Forest and The Pit will be available as stages. Modes available will be limited to single player and one-on-one versus modes. The recently unveiled Challenge Tower mode will not be part of this demo [full story] nor will the Story Mode. The PS3's exclusive 3D support will also be included.

XBL users will receive a similar demo "soon", though an official date has not been set. It's also currently unknown if these demos will have support for online play. Stay tuned to this story as more information surfaces!

Update Mar. 4: PlayStation Blog has posted a brief look at the demo, which has also been featured extensively in LA the last few days as part of the Mortal Kombat Truck Tour [full story].

The demo includes the PlayStation exclusive Stereoscopic 3D feature, which is said to be tastefully implemented to effect gameplay very little, whilst creating a visual pop to fighters on the screen. Ed Boon tells PS.Blog, "We didn’t want 3D to change the basic mechanics or complicate things needlessly." The Blog account reports that 3D is such that it can still be viewed without glasses, with minimal blurring of the background.

The demo also includes an exciting new preview clip for those who complete it's brief arcade tour! Forum member , who attended and won a Truck Tour tournament, reports that the clip provides first-look glimpses of Stage Fatalities for the Living Forest, City Bridge, and Armory levels, where opponents are eaten, runover, and dunked in lava. X-Ray and Fatality moves are also featured for Stryker, Baraka, Jade, and Sindel, who use trademark moves and weapons to brutalize their victims in a parade of decapitation, mutilation, and grenades! [What was it the Australians were upset about?]

Fans can also look forward to the return of Dan "Toasty" Forden, according to the PlayStation Blog report. Forden was a staple of the series, appearing occasionally in Mortal Kombat II, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, to exclaim "Toasty!" when the odd uppercut was executed. Oh, yeah. He made some music, too.

Mortal Kombat Online will continue to report on an Xbox 360 demo as information becomes available. Mortal Kombat arrives April 19, for both consoles. For more on the demo truck tour, follow the story on MKO. Follow @MK_Online for further updates on these stories.

Gaming site IGN has released an exciting new video featuring the up until now only slightly mentioned Challenge Tower. Narrated by Senior Product Mike Burkhead and Lead Software Engineer Jay Biondo, this in depth video shows off the massive game mode that is the Challenge Tower.

The Challenge Tower is a 300 mission tower where players will complete a variety of challenges both new and old. Classic MK mini-games such as Test Your Might and Test Your Sight return, along with new games Test Your Strength and Test Your Luck. Test Your Luck is described as a slot machine, where slots determine your opponent and a various number of handicaps. Handicaps seem to be very large in number, ranging from flaming floors, jump disabling and first hit kills. In addition, a number of vanity modes seem to be present as well such as Zombie Mode, Headless Mode and Armless Mode. We also get our first look at the retro ninja costumes in action as Scorpion takes on Sub-Zero. Both are currently exclusive DLC via Gamespot and Amazon, respectively [full story].

Specific challenges such as "Orange You Glad I Came" are described. This particular challenge, a favorite of some team members, featuring a tag battle with Sub-Zero and Scorpion vs. a boss character in which the boss changes colors from orange to blue, only taking damage from the character that corresponds to those colors. Another features a "shooting gallery" type set up where characters use their projectiles to knock back a stream of zombies, featured in the video were Johnny Cage and Stryker but the team revealed that up to 6 characters may be used. The final challenge titled "End Game" offers up a "great reward" that was not revealed in the video and should keep players busy for many hours working towards this ultimate goal.

Check out the video embedded above or on IGN by clicking here.