G4's popular videogame preview and review show X-Play will be covering Midway's upcoming action/adventure game Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks on their newest episode premiering tonight! From the X-Play website:

This X-Play's jam-packed with reviews! We review three new games on the PS2: Batman Begins, Gundam Seed and Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks. Then we go portable and check out Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory for the DS and Spider-Man 2 on PSP.

The episode premieres tonight at 11 PM EDT/8 PM PDT. After the episode airs, we'll have more information on what was shown, including screenshots. To see more information on the episode (plus information on other showings if you miss tonight's episode), check the episode page by clicking here.

Our thanks to forum member fraysol for the heads-up on this upcoming episode of X-Play! Here are the pictures from the episode, as promised:

UPDATE: X-Play has made a text version of their preview available on the G4 website, giving a fairly thorough impression of the game. For example, from the article:

The action reminds us of a dumbed-down version of God of War. Like Sony’s slick hack-'n'-slash, it's really easy to pull off really cool moves from the get-go. Shaolin Monk’s combat is also similar in that chaining together attacks and stringing together huge combos makes the fighting really interesting. The big difference is that it’s much, much easier to create combos in Shaolin Monks. You're given much more time between hits, making combinations comparatively undemanding. That said, the game is several months away and the fighting system will surely go though some tweaks.

Expect plenty of standard grunts attacking in the early going, allowing you to learn the various controls. While the level design seems simple so far, it's still fun pulling of the different moves, discovering which attacks are our favorites, and learning how to use them to make combos. Though Kung Lao’s hat throw is one of our favorites, we're having more fun playing as Liu Kang, mostly because of all those silly sounds he makes.

Interspersed between clearing rooms of bad guys there's some simple platform-jumping to be done--all culminating with a boss fight with Baraka. This exciting encounter mixes melee, projectile, and dirty tactics (Baraka can light captives on fire, causing them to run like maniacs and accidentally burn you). Overall the build we've played is an entertaining ride that leaves us wanting more.

To read the preview in its entirety, click here.

Our thanks to chat member Three-11 for the heads-up on this update!

July 22, 2005 - UPDATE: Also, they had another MKSM trailer again on yesterday's episode of Cinematech, which was titled "Karate Chop". From the Cinematech website:

Check out the amazing gameplay in Mortal Kombat: Shoalin Monk, kill aliens in Area 51, and rock out to the Barber of Seville and everyone’s favorite Italian, Mario.

For more information on this episode, including the next airing date and time, click here. Here are some screen caps from that as well:

Note: While all the Fatalities were censored with cute little kitty cat heads for X-Play, there was no such censorship in Cinematech. Yet, both episodes had the same rating of TV14-V for violence. Also interesting to note, while on the subject of ratings, that X-Play gives the game an M rating while Cinematech has the Rating Pending logo. Our thanks go to MK Online forum/chat user DECEPTION for this segment of the update!

We're back with a few more exclusive images and news items from San Diego Comic-Con. Firstly, enjoy the pictures of the SDCC-exclusive Cold Snap Sub-Zero and Demon Head Scorpion:


The first run of the figures will be available in retailers everywhere come August and will include Baraka, Raiden, Scorpion, and Sub-Zero. The next run of figures will come out in November or December of this year and will include MK: Shaolin Monks versions of Sub-Zero and Scorpion, plus the main heroes: Kung Lao, and Liu Kang.

Additionally, we can confirm that Tekken will be one of the very next fighting games added to the Epic Battles Trading Card Game due out in September which currently includes Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter.

UPDATE: Here's another three shots, thanks to MKO forum/chat member |NS|!

Thanks again to |NS| for the three pics!

MK Online staff member RivetSpoon had a chance to attend San Diego Comic-Con, and was there ever a lot of Mortal Kombat stuff there!

To start off with, Midway had a playable demo of MK: Shaolin Monks available (the same demo that will be included within the next month on the demo discs with OPM and OXM magazines). Jazwares was there, promoting their MK: Deception action figures. They had a preview of the 10-inch Roto-Cast Noob Saibot figure, though photography was not allowed. The Demon Head Scorpion was for sale at the Tower Records booth, in addition to the Cold Snap Sub-Zero for sale at the AFX booth - both SDCC exclusives.

Additionally, the folks at Score Entertainment in conjuction with the artists at Udon Comics displayed the first preview of the Epic Battles Mortal Kombat vs. Street Fighter Trading Card Game. The cards pictures are just prototypes, and are subject to change - but needless to say, the detail is amazing. (One of the most interesting, in my opinion, happens to be Sindel doing her sonic scream, named The Sounds of Music, against Scorpion's spear and breaking it apart.)

There will be 119 Mortal Kombat cards and 119 Street Fighter cards, at least for "Round 1" - more cards will be available at a later date. All the MK characters are supposed to be from MK: Deception, with all the SF characters from SF3: Third Strike. Hardcore MK fans may notice a few exceptions, with some characters from Deadly Alliance being shown that only appeared in MKD briefly in either Konquest Mode or the Dark Prison Arena. They are still open to the idea of crossing over with other fighting games in the near future, and Fatalities and possibly other finishing moves will be included.


Stay tuned, some more pictures and a detailed explanation of the rules coming soon.

A great site for some of the up and coming Xbox games, Xboxyde, has posted a video containing the first ten minutes of Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks. This footage looks to be directly from the upcoming demo to be included with the next issues of OPM and OXM magazines, although really, it is the exact same stuff that we at MK Online showed you during our E3 2005 coverage. But guess what? The game is so cool, it really is worth seeing again. So, enjoy the screenshots, and check out the video here. I'd like to thank Ultimate Ryu and several other people for sending in News Leads about this story.

The latest issue of Lee's Toy Review (Issue #152, June 2005) has an ad for the Killer Toys website where you can order the Mortal Kombat: Deception action figures. Here's a scan of the ad, as well as the cover of the magazine in case you wanted to pick it up:


According to the ad, these are set to ship in August, so you can head on over to that site to pre-order them now or wait for them to hit local retailers near you!