Shaolin Monks goes out of its way to create a vibe very much like that of MK II. The opening level has you battling ugly, ogre-looking creatures inside Goro's lair. As you progress, you'll eventually end up at the bottom of the classic pit stage, complete with plenty of corpses impaled on the spikes around you. In fact, once you climb out of the pit after a brief platforming sequence, you can uppercut enemies into the pit. À la MK II, the game even goes the extra mile of switching to a top-down camera view of the enemy shrieking as it falls to its doom. The graphics shown in the demo weren't exactly awe inspiring from a technical perspective, but aesthetically, they caught the feel of old-school Mortal Kombat very well.
Of course, Liu Kang and Kung Lao aren't the only classic characters to make an appearance in Shaolin Monks. During the course of our play time, we counted no fewer than three brief cameos from characters like Raiden (who acts as your tutor during this first level,) Johnny Cage (who shows up just long enough to uppercut an ogre into the pit, as well as put on his trademark sunglasses,) and Reptile, (who disappears via his invisibility power before you get the chance to take him on). The demo was also bookended by a boss fight against everyone's favorite Outworldian ginsu knife, Baraka. The fight began simply enough, with us executing combos on the bladed one, while he did the same to us. After Baraka's health was depleted to a certain level, however, he jumped back across the stage to grab a couple of caged monks and then set them on fire. This made things a tad more difficult, as we now had to fight Baraka while a pair of flaming monks ran wild, constantly knocking into us and damaging us. It took a couple of well-placed fireballs to finally do away with the monks and resume the fight. The fight continued to build up to the big climax, and then right before we could actually vanquish Baraka, the game thanked us for trying the demo and ended. A painful, harsh tease, but effective, as we now can't wait to see what happens next.
Read the entire preview in full here. GameSpot's official movie 3, as well three additional raw footage videos featuring Fatalities and Raiden, and a new intensive Developer Interview with series co-creator Ed Boon, can be found via this link; with the screenshots available at this link.
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Mortal Kombat is said to be identical to the console versions and is ported - as are all of the games - from PSP-friendly PlayStation 2 code. Interestingly, all will make use of the PSP’s natty Wi-Fi capabilities, with Arcade Treasures promising 16 multiplayer games, a mouth-watering prospect indeed. Four-player Gauntlet arcade, anyone?The article also mentions that the PSP versions will be on display at E3; keep checking back, as we will report everything we can about the PSP versions from the E3 show floor next week!
In fact, the line up for Arcade Treasures reads as follows: Spy Hunter, Sinistar, Defender, Paperboy, 720, Klax, Joust, Marble Madness, Toobin', Rampage, Gauntlet (4-player), Rampart, Wizard of Wor, Xybots, Championship Sprint, Arch Rivals, Cyberball 2072, Xenophobe, Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II, and Mortal Kombat 3.
"The first quarter revenue is in line with our guidance and the reported net loss was better than what we projected. Most importantly, we made further progress during the quarter toward increasing the strength of our product pipeline. The recently executed publishing agreements with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for animated film and Cartoon Network properties add high profile licensed content to our portfolio and provide a solid foundation from which to build our new family-friendly line of games," commented David F. Zucker, president and chief executive officer.In addition, the press release makes mention of upcoming projects and expected revenues for the rest of the year.
For the year ending December 31, 2005, Midway continues to expect net revenues of approximately $225.0 million, representing an approximate 40% increase over 2004 revenue levels. The Company expects major releases for the second half of the year to include: LA Rush, Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks, The Suffering: Ties That Bind, Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows, Ed,Edd 'n Eddy: The Mis-Edventures and Blitz: The League. The Company now expects a net loss of approximately $47.0 million for the year ending December 31, 2005, an increase from the Company'™s prior expectation of a net loss of approximately $38.0 million.To read the press release in its entirety, click here. (Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view the release.)
