After several years of planning (since the days of MK: Deadly Alliance), Midway has opened up their message boards to the public! Check out Midway Forums now! The highlight of the forums right now are for the most recent Mortal Kombat games - Mortal Kombat: Deception and Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks. There's also a third category of just general games by Midway, besides MKD and MKSM.


A big thanks to MKO forum/chat member DECEPTION for the heads up!

GameSpot has just posted a video tour of Midway's upcoming action/adventure game, Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks! The video, which clocks in at just under three minutes, features commentary from MKSM team members such as Steve Beran, Ed Boon, John Vogel, Marty Stoltz, and Shaun Himmerick. The first half of the video covers the back story and the opening cinematic, where facts previously unknown are revealed, such as the fact that Kung Lao was presented during the first tournament, in disguise as one of Shang Tsung's guards. The second half of the video discusses gameplay mechanics; not much new is covered here, except for a mention (and demonstration) of the return of Test Your Might, as Kung Lao and Baraka parry, attempting to get the best of one another as the game shows a power meter for the player to fill.

The video is available for download to GameSpot Basic members, and for streaming to non-members. The low-resolution video is 34.4 MB, and the high resolution video is 76.1 MB. To download or stream the video tour, click here.

Our thanks to forum/chat member DECEPTION for the heads up on this breaking news story!

The latest issue of Official U.S. Playstation Magazine (August 2005, Issue 95) has one of the trailers for Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks in very high-quality included on the bonus disc.

Check out these pics from the video:


That's right, in that last picture, you can clearly make out everyone's favorite MK villain, Shang Tsung, in his MKII costume, after Shao Kahn restores his youth. I'd like to give a special thanks to MK Online forum/chat user ShoeUnited for using his skills in helping to improve the quality of that last picture!

The guys at IGN have rounded a bunch of guys they consider to be the "badasses" of PS2 games, and grouped them all together, to let you decide which one is the baddest-ass! From the article:

We've created a list of 32 characters and grouped them into packs of four for different types. The eight different groups with an example of each are: The Stealthy Loners (Naked Snake), the Heavy Hitters Union, Local 627 (Jak), The Licensed Ringers Club (Wolverine), The Not-Quite Humans (BloodRayne), The Demon Hunters Guild (Dante), Thugs-R-Us (Carl Johnson), The Lone Gunmen (Max Payne), and the Martial Arts Masters (Heihachi).

All of the characters have been paired up and so the first session of voting will last until 6/27 and will narrow the field down to 16. After that, each category will have a winner in the next session of voting when the field gets narrowed down to eight on 7/1. After that, we'll have three more voting sessions on 7/5, 7/8, and 7/11 when the lines get really blurry and the top dog emerges from the rubble. Who's going to win? Only time will tell.

In the Martial Arts category, they've picked Quan Chi from the Mortal Kombat series. He has some tough competition, such as Heihachi Mishima, Ryu, and Goku. (Frankly, I would have picked someone besides Quan Chi for this. But perhaps Mortal Kombat has a bit more bad-asses than some of the other games, and they felt they could only pick one MK character.)


To read the entire article, click here. Thanks to MK Online forum/chat member Baraka_MK for the word on this badass update!

We here at Mortal Kombat Online have been working for the past six years to bring the latest news and information from the world of Mortal Kombat, from the news sites such as GameSpot and IGN to the halls of Midway Games itself. We're now proud to kick off a new feature here at MK Online: Developer Diaries. Developer Diaries is, in short, a look at the development of the Mortal Kombat games through the eyes and words of the very people who created it. We are happy to kick off Developer Diaries with a six-part look at the development of Midway's upcoming action-adventure game, Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks!

We're starting our series with an entry from MK: Shaolin Monks producer Shaun Himmerick, as he describes the circumstances that led up to the game being given a green light for development. New installments of Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks: Developer Diaries will be appearing every two weeks. Join us as we look at the beginnings and production of this new game from the eyes of the Mortal Kombat development team!

The second entry in our Developer Diaries series is now online! In this entry, Shaun Himmerick discusses the ins and outs of the environments in MKSM, plus answers a few users' comments for a bonus quickie!

NEW - August 1st - The third entry in our Developer Diaries series is now online! In this entry, Shaun again replies to fans' comments and questions, plus goes into detail about the challenges of bringing the characters to life!

NEW - August 8th - The fourth entry in the series is now online! This time, after answering fans' concerns and questions, Shaun goes into detail about Ko-op mode... revealing the trials of making it and the rewards of playing it!

NEW - August 24th - The fifth entry in the series is now online! Shaun delves into the bloody world of the finishing moves... from the Fatalities all the way to the aptly-named Brutalities!

NEW - September 9th - The final entry in the series is now online! Shaun discusses the final days of working on MK:SM. We thank you for joining us in this look at the development of MK: Shaolin Monks through the eyes of those who created it!

To see the main Developer Diary index, click here.