Over on the Midway Boards, Cinder has once again come through and posted some more koncept drawings from the soon-to-be-released action/adventure game Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks! This time, Cinder has posted two koncept drawings. The first is a color drawing of one of the two title characters, Kung Lao! The other is a koncept drawing of the Outworld female assassin, Mileena!

In addition, Cinder posted the official TV commercial from MK: Shaolin Monks. This video is the same as was seen back at Midway Summer Gamers Day, with Raiden prompting Kung Lao and Liu Kang to begin their quest. The video is in Windows Media format.

MK: Shaolin Monks TV commercial.

To see the original forum thread where the Kung Lao sketch was posted, click here. To see the original forum thread where the Mileena sketch was posted, click here. To see the original forum thread where the TV spot was posted, click here.

Our thanks to forum member Subzero2 for the heads-up on these new koncept drawings and the new video!

First off in today's updates the folks over at IGN have provided their complete preview of this month's release of Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks. The preview commends the game for it's rich gaming experience. Here's an excerpt:

I really don't like the Mortal Kombat series. I've played the game for years, but it's never been one my favorites. I've never liked the design all that much or the fighting style (always preferring Street Fighter), but this game has attracted me because of its well thought out design, expert execution, and fun, deep gameplay.

Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks is simple and arcade-style in design. It's deep with extras, upgrades, and items, while giving players the great joy of playing it alone or with some one else. While the graphics are decent, and the sound effects riddled with blood-curdling screams and gushing puncture wounds though the head, the fighting hits that perfect level of polished, honed, combo-heavy madness.

As far as we've played, the levels are diverse, refreshing, and fun, and the unlockable extra MK characters (OMG, which ones will be playable??!!!!) should give gamers another reason to rip through this meaty game at least one more time.

IGN in conjunction with their preview, has released six new videos of direct feed footage that can be found here.

On a related note, Gamespot has also released a new Official Trailer 2 for Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks that you can download at this link.

Thanks goes out to fellow MK Online users Blackcyborg and FatalTragedy for sending in the news leads!

Midway Games released last week eight new screenshots from the upcoming PC release of Midway Arcade Treasures: Deluxe Edition. The compilation will feature games from both Midway Arcade Treasures 2 and Midway Arcade Treasures 3. This is important to Mortal Kombat fans as it means that the arcade ports of Mortal Kombat 2 and Mortal Kombat 3 will be included. Although a screenshot of the original Mortal Kombat is shown below, our best guess is that it was released in error. Check out the screens below:

Midway Arcade Treasures: Deluxe Edition is scheduled for a late September release by the end of the month and will retail at $19.99 USD. Also, our friends at TRMK report that Midway has concluded that no network multiplayer will be available for this exclusive PC release.

UPDATE - 13 September 2005 11 AM EDT - We have checked with our sources at Midway, and they have confirmed that the inclusion of MK1 screenshots was an error on their part. Mortal Kombat II and Mortal Kombat 3 are the only MK games that will be part of Midway Arcade Treasures: Deluxe Edition. We have gone ahead and removed the MK1 screenshot from the article.

Playboy Magazine has published one of the first reviews of Midway's soon-to-be-released action-adventure game, Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks. The brief review, in which MK: Shaolin Monks gets four rabbits (their highest rating), is rather concise and to the point. From the review:

Rather than rehash, the newest in the series, Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks ... takes the action out of the familiar one-on-one face-off that almost all fighting games employ and frees it, Double Dragon-style, to deliver a sprawling, explorative adventure positively packed with old-school cooperative arcade brawling. ... New tag-team combos provide a plethora of new fatalities, giving this intense and nostalgic joyride a fresh perspective.

The review (where MK:SM is labeled as "Game of the Month"), appears in the October 2005 issue of Playboy, which should be out to subscribers and at newsstands soon.

Our thanks to Joe of MK KOOL for the heads-up on this new review!

Mortal Kombat Guides has received a brand new render from Midway's soon-to-be-released action/adventure game, Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks. This render features a minor character from the game, but one that is fought often: one of Shang Tsung's Masked Guards!

To see the forum thread on Mortal Kombat Guides in which this image is posted and discussed, click here.