We are happy to announce that the upcoming game Mortal Kombat will be showcased at both the Cologne Games Con and PAX 2010 in Seattle. Several responses on Twitter by WB representatives confirm as much. Also confirmed is that several new characters will be announced at these events, so stay tuned in the coming days as we get our first taste of big news since this year's E3.

NinjaBoy66: More characters will be announced at GC. Listen to Ed's comments about the roster during E3 interviews it will reveal clues. Can't say more 1:29 AM Aug 11th

GamesCon runs from August 18-22. PAX runs from September 3-5. Thanks to forum member Tyrant-Cenobite for acquiring this information!

ScrewAttack has posted an in-depth article concerning the various mini-games that have been found throughout the history of the Mortal Kombat series. Since the early days of the series in the 1990's, Mortal Kombat has always included fun bonuses to entertain players. It began with the Test Your Might mini-game in MK1 and continued with in game versions of Galaga and Pong. With the evolution of the sixth-console generation, the MK team began to expand these games from simple time passers to full fledged modes of their own. Our first taste of this was in 2004's Mortal Kombat: Deception which gave us both Chess Kombat and Puzzle Kombat. Motor Kombat came with Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. The side adventure game Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks had a special versus mode apart from the main game as well. From the article:

I'm a big fan of puzzle games. I believe that Tetris Attack is possibly the greatest puzzle game ever made, and I once skipped school to beat someone's score in Popcap's Alchemy so they would stop bragging. So it should be a surprise to no one that I viewed Puzzle Kombat as an equal to the Transformers delivering me gold bars while I'm accepting honors for writing the greatest novel in history - and watching Black Dynamite at the same time. I loved this game, and I still do.

This mini-game takes the idea of tradition chess and takes lots of liberties. You still have differing pieces, but the pieces are very unusual. You have your usual pawns then sorcerers, shifters, champions, and a leader(king). A round of Mortal Kombat is played each time two pieces meet in a square, and that's where a lot of the differences in pieces show up.

Shaolin Monks' Versus Mode was the closest thing to taking MK to true 3D. The process behind it is simple: Shaolin Monks takes the best of MK to open 3D, non-round combat. The Versus Mode takes SM(Shaolin Monks), narrows it to an arena - or stage - and brings back traditional, best of three combat. The best way to describe this is to compare it to the cult classic fighter Ehrgeiz.

The last yet most recent mini-game I'm going to mention is a ripoff of a very famous franchise but still ridiculously fun: Motor Kombat. Take Super Mario Kart, restrict the number of tracks(it is a mini-game after all), add in the madness that you expect from Mortal Kombat, and you've got a badass mini-game. Motor Kombat features special moves, death traps, multiple characters, shortcuts and more.

To read the article in full, click here.

The long running ScrewAttack show on GameTrailers has posted a list of their favorite 10 fatalities from the Mortal Kombat series. The list spans from Mortal Kombat 1 through MK: Shaolin Monks release wise and features the likes of Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Liu Kang and Johnny Cage. Below is a recap of their top 10:

• 10) Reptile - Face Eat (Mortal Kombat 4)
• 9) Quan Chi - Leg Rip/Beat (Mortal Kombat 4)
• 8) Dairou - Rib Rip (Mortal Kombat: Deception)
• 7) Cyrax - Trash Compactor (Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance)
• 6) Kano - Skeleton Rip (Mortal Kombat 3)
• 5) Baraka - Stab Lift (Mortal Kombat 2)
• 4) Scorpion - Spear/Head Rip (Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance)
• 3) Johnny Cage - Nut Punch Combo (Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks)
• 2) Liu Kang - Dragon Morph (Mortal Kombat 2)
• 1) Sub-Zero - Spine Rip (Mortal Kombat)

To watch the video in full with commentary, click here.

Recently, Game Informer caught up with series co-creator Ed Boon and touched on a subject unknown to most. Following the release of Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks Paradox Studios was slated to do another game featuring rivals Scorpion and Sub-Zero called Mortal Kombat: Fire And Ice. The game apparently would have played somewhat similar to Shaolin Monks, but due to funding the concept was eventually abandoned.

"When they finished [Shaolin Monks], the guys at Paradox were gonna do another one called Fire & Ice. It was gonna be a co-operative Scorpion and Sub-Zero game," Boon said. "They actually started the early stages of that game, but they couldn’t do it in time and under budget, so the project was canceled and kind of went away."

The interview goes on to ridicule the much maligned spinoff Mortal Kombat Special Forces, to which Ed Boon admits the game probably shouldn't have been shipped. Several months ago, Ed mentioned this mysterious game on his Twitter account with the simple message of "Fire And Ice!", a clue to this then unknown entity. To read the full article on Game Informer, click here.

Thanks to forum member -NIGHTWOLF- for the word on this story!

It looks like James Kozanecki over at GameSpot Australia had the chance to interview Hector Sanchez from the MK design team at NetheЯRealm Studios! Here’s a little bit of what he had to say:

Hector Sanchez: “We’re opening up the frame windows a little bit more to link combos together... We’re not doing the dial-a-combo thing that Mortal Kombat’s had before. The combos are actually customized for each one of the characters and as you play more, you’ll be able to discover different combos that work together. It’s not just ‘Okay, hit these six buttons in a row’ and then some canned animation plays. Everything actually flows together, the animations open up on certain frame counts. We’re really trying to get that more in-depth – pay attention to what’s going on, get your timing together, and stuff. There’s a lot of cool surprises. I’m sure soon enough, just like with any other game, the fans are going to discover things that even we didn’t think of. We’re giving the fans the tools, and we’ll see what kind of painting they can come up with the tools.”

To watch the video in its entirety, click here and fast forward to about the 4:40 mark. A big thanks to fellow MK fansite Inside Mortal Kombat for the word on this update!