GameSpot is reporting that anti-video game attorney Jack Thompson has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Midway Games concerning what he considers to be the unauthorized use of his likeness in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. However, if you don't recall seeing Thompson in MK: Armageddon, you're not missing something; Thompson is not in the game, and what Thompson is apparently reacting to is seeing a kreated fighter modeled after him. From the article:

While Thompson is still in the thick of his Bully battle, he made time today to fire off a cease and desist order to Midway Games. He wants the publisher to stop distributing Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, but contrary to what one might expect, he didn't cite the game's over-the-top violence as a reason to stop selling it.

"It has today come to my attention that the newly recently [sic] Mortal Kombat: Armageddon contains an unauthorized commercial exploitation of my name, photograph, image, and likeness within the game," Thompson wrote in an e-mail addressed to Midway president and CEO David Zucker and carbon-copied to several news outlets. "You are commanded to cease and desist immediately from the distribution of this game because of this unauthorized, illegal content." (Emphasis in original.)

While Armageddon does boast a roster of more than 60 characters, Thompson isn't among them. Judging from a photo of the game included with Thompson's e-mail, he is referring to a character made using the game's kreate-a-fighter mode. The photo was part of a feature on Gaming Target yesterday which contained formulas for making a number of unlicensed characters from the game's various customization options. Other familiar faces in the feature included Hulk Hogan, Ash from Army of Darkness, director Kevin Smith in his Silent Bob alter ego, and Friday the 13th antagonist Jason Voorhees.

To our knowledge, there has been no response from Midway concerning this letter. If we learn anything, we will be sure to report it here.

To read the GameSpot article in its entirety, click here.

Our thanks to forum/chat member for letting us know about Thompson's most recent legal actions!

The recent release of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 for the XBox Live Arcade has sparked the classic game's appearance on the 10/26/06 edition of Gamespot's webcast show, On The Spot! From the preview:

After last week's mammoth PS3 event, Sony is bringing the system to On the Spot for a complete run-through, including a look at Blast Factor! Also, SNK drops by with Metal Slug Anthology for the Wii! Plus, we take a look at SOCOM U.S. Navy Seals: Combined Assault and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Justice for All, debut a world-premiere trailer for Ninja Gaiden Sigma, and compare Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3s!

The show will be comparing the original UMK3 with the rereleased version. As shown in a previous review from Gamespot, they seem to be supportive of this new version of the game, so it will be interesting to see what comments their webcast show makes on this subject.

The show is stated to begin at 7:00pm ET, 4:00pm PT, however the countdown timer would indicate that it actually begins three hours later than that, which would be 10pm ET and 7pm PT. To view the page, click here.

Thanks to forum member for sending the lead on this story!

The folks over at IGN have gone ahead and released their review of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 for the Xbox Live Arcade! While the reviewer from IGN noted that it was an almost perfect arcade port, unlike the GameSpot reviewer he tended to consider it to be more of a fault than a feature. Moreover, the reviewer had slightly more lag problems than the GameSpot reviewer, and tended to gripe about features that weren't included. From the review:

You get the sense that the computer cheats, and it's a terrible, hollow feeling that eats away at your stomach like an acid spit-ball from Reptile. After continuing enough times, you'll get to the boss characters, the biggest cheaters of them all: Shao Kahn and Motaro. Switch characters enough and continue enough times and you'll beat the game, watch Shao Kahn explode in a green fireball and enjoy the final scene of your character. Still, you're too angry at the CPU to enjoy it.

That's not the 360s fault, of course. This has been a problem for, like, ever with Mortal Kombat. The 360 does add a bit, most notable online play and leaderboards. Multiplayer and Xbox Live is where this game really shines as your friends don't cheat, and all those hours of memorizing move lists and fatalities finally pays off. Lag is an issue, though most of the time the game doesn't slow down; instead, it pauses for a second or two, interrupting the flow of the match. This is better than slowdown that ruins the timing of combos and special moves, and a necessary evil, I suppose.

The graphics and sound are identical, although you do have the option to stretch the dimensions of the game into widescreen. Other than a healthy dose of achievements, things that should have come with this $10 game are sorely missed, and make you question the value. Not only does the game not come with a practice mode (perfect for, um, perfecting combos and special moves), but there are no control options and not even a move list (quickly remedied with a simple Google search). If any fighter needs a practice mode, it's UMK3, thanks to the hundreds of combos waiting to be discovered and mastered.

In the end, though, IGN gave Ultimate MK3 a score of 7.0 out of 10, saying that longtime fans will "probably love this game and the online play". To read the review in its entirety, click here.

Our thanks to forum member for letting us know about this new review!

GameSpot has reviewed the Xbox 360 version of Ultimate MK3, which still remains a fan favorite amongst many long-time MK fans. Really, really good news for MK fans: According to the review, this isn't merely emulation as was seen in the Midway Arcade Treasures games. They have actually improved upon the original:

...The sound is actually better than it was in the arcade version. The developers must have gone back to the original source files for all of the music and sound effects, because there's a clarity to them that simply isn't in the original game. There's some great music in UMK3, and it's nice to be able to hear it at full fidelity.

As well, since the game works both online and offline, it goes into various modes for online play:

Online, you're given two different modes. The one-on-one fight can be played as a ranked or unranked game. There's also an unranked-only mode called versus challenger, which is similar to the quarter mode in Street Fighter II. Up to four players can connect to the same game and wait their turn in a "winner stays"-style set of matches. The two players not participating in the fight can watch the action. Network performance in a four-player match, whether participating or spectating, seems to be about on par with the two-player matches.

However, there is one issue that will still bug a lot of players (although a patch for this may be a possibility at some point). The hidden characters - Classic Sub-Zero, Mileena, and Ermac - don't seem to stay unlocked once you release them. MKD/MKA seem to have the right idea for accessing these unlockable characters online, so hopefully this train of thought will be applied to UMK3 online in the near future.

To review the article in its entirety, click here. To check out some screenshots that were posted, go here. Thanks go to and for the News Leads on this story!

Yesterday we reported that Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 had been briefly released on Xbox Live Arcade for the Xbox 360. It disappeared shortly after, leading us to believe it was just a glitch. However, Major Nelson, a member of the Xbox Live team has confirmed that the game has been officially released, and that the disappearance of the game from the menu was just a glitch. They are currently working to find out why it's not showing up for everyone, though.

In Major Nelson's article, he mentions a new mode for Ultimate MK3 called Challenger Versus Mode, which acts as what he calls a "winner-stays-on" tournament mode. He describes it as, "A new multiplayer mode which allows up to 4 players to play in a `winner-stays-on' style tournament. Statistics are recorded to allow for maximum bragging rights!" In addition, Ultimate MK3 has twelve achievements that can be gained.

To see if it's available for you, in Xbox Live, go to Arcade, then Genre, then Coin-Op Classics. The game costs 800 Microsoft points or $10 USD.

To read Major Nelson's article about Ultimate MK3's release, click here.

Our thanks to forum member for the heads-up about this official release!

EDIT - October 23 2006 8:45 PM CDT - Midway has issued a press release officially announcing the release of Ultimate MK3 on Xbox Live Arcade. To read the press release in its entirety, click here.