We are pleased to announce that the Evolution 2005 Fighting Game Championship pre-registration program has officially opened! Mortal Kombat Online and the rest of the community is asking you to come forward and help get Mortal Kombat: Deception in the nation's largest tournament this August in Las Vegas, Nevada during August 12-14, 2005. This is the chance for the Mortal Kombat Community to rise and give Mortal Kombat: Deception the chance to show the gaming elite what they have been missing. Only you can help prove that Mortal Kombat: Deception can deliver the same true tournament caliber play of games like the Tekken series!

In order for Mortal Kombat: Deception to become officially inducted in the Evolution 2005 tournament this August, Evolution is requesting that 100 people must pre-register for the MK: Deception tournament and commit to going. Mortal Kombat Online is asking the entire MK Community and all Mortal Kombat fan sites to spread the word, pre-register, and become a part of Mortal Kombat history. The fee for entering the Evolution tournament itself is $20 USD, with an additional $10 USD pre-registration fee for entering the Mortal Kombat: Deception tournament. So the complete entry fee totals out to $30 USD. If Mortal Kombat: Deception does not meet the required 100 minimum registrations, money will be refunded, according to the Evolution staff. From the voting/registration page:

For any of the provisional games (click here for the list) to be included in Evo2k5, it will need to receive at least 100 registered votes. The top two games receiving over 100 pre-entries will become official Evo2k5 tournaments. In the event that more than 2 games have over 100 entries, the two games with the highest number of votes will be included. For example, suppose that Capcom Fighting Evolution had 134 votes, Alpha3 had 112 votes, and Mortal Kombat: Deception received 104 votes. That means CFE and A3 would be included, and even though MK:D had over 100 votes, it would not make the cut.

yle5">If you have registered for a tournament that is not ultimately included in the final Evo2k5 lineup, you will receive a full refund for that registration. For instance, if you register to play in the Marvel vs Capcom 2, Street Fighter 3: Third Strike, and Vampire Savior tournaments, but Vampire Savior is not included, you would be eligible for a refund *only* for Vampire Savior. You will receive your refund in the manner you have selected in the profile field.

Evo2k5 reserves the right to add any game to the final Evo2k5 final lineup at their sole discretion, at any time. This means you should be fully prepared to enter any tournament that you pay for, as the directors may add it even if it does not receive 100 votes (for instance, if no game receives more than 100 votes, but Virtua Fighter 4 received 92 votes, it might be included anyway). Any games that are included in the Evo2k5 final lineup will have a strict no refund policy.

To begin the registration process visit the links below.

• Evolution 2005 Pre-Register and Voting Page Information
• Evolution Registration Portal (requires Shoryuken login)

You must be a member of the Shoryuken.com Forums in order to pre-register for the Mortal Kombat: Deception tournament. We encourage everyone to pre-register to get enough votes for Mortal Kombat: Deception!

According to Toys News International as well as ToyWiz, the folks over at Jazwares will be producing a line of ten-inch Roto-Cast Mortal Kombat: Deception figures in addition to the six-inch line. They've posted pictures of Sub-Zero and his brother Noob Saibot (already been seen) and they've also confirmed another fan favorite: Goro (though, no image yet available, except for a silhouette teaser).

To read the entire article, click here. Also check out the Mortal Kombat section of Toywiz's online store here. Thanks to MK Online chat member MickXII for the heads up!

Team X-Box is reporting that the band Rise Against is challenging gamers on X-Box Live to take them on in Mortal Kombat: Deception. For two hours on June 3, gamers will be able to take them on as part of the "Game With Fame" promotion. From the article:

Chart-climbing rock group Rise Against is calling on all Xbox gamers to challenge them as part of the latest Xbox Live "Game with Fame" on June 3, 2005. Xbox Live players can look for the gamertag riseagainstgwf from 3:00 – 5:00 p.m. CDT / 4:00 – 6:00 p.m. EDT to test their skills against the band in Midway’s Mortal Kombat: Deception.

The band’s debut album under the DreamWorks label, Siren Song of the Counter-Culture, has held a firm place in the Billboard Top-20 for New Artists since its arrival on store shelves in August 2004. Rise Against will do 'kombat' with gamers from their hometown of Chicago, Ill., where the band will perform at YMCA Field on June 4 as part of the Q101 Block Party powered by Xbox.

To read the article in its entirety, click here. To see the official X-Box Live Game With Fame page about Rise Against's challenge, click here.

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

Sadly, E3 2005 is over - along with your chances of ever being able to see what it was like. Bummed out? Don't be! Mortal Kombat Online is proud to bring you "Ten Minutes with E3"! Join Mobster4Christ as he takes you on a blitz through the South and West Halls of the Los Angeles Convention Center! You'll see all the major players in the video game world, along with the fantastic booths and displays they have set up. But be careful! If you blink, you just might miss something!

Click on the link below to see what all the buzz is about:

• Ten Minutes with E3

The final day of the Electronic Entertainment Expo has come to a close and Mortal Kombat Online is proud to present our final impressions of the E3 Build of Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks. Having performed a 121-hit combo, there's not too much left to say about the game that we haven't covered already. We love all the little details like the piles of skulls that can be knocked apart, and spikes in the ceiling that you can actually impale enemies on. If you miss one of the hidden secrets early on in the game, you will actually be able to go back to some of the earlier levels by way of the "Nexus". This will come in handy since some areas will require you to have advanced moves in order to access the secrets, such as a "running on walls" move that won't be accessed until later in the game. As revealed yesterday, whenever you access these secrets, you then unlock a new piece of content - one such piece of content being a new arena in Ko-Op mode.

Other cool tricks include cooperative moves that are pretty hard to pull off because both players have to work in unison, but the results are well worth it. For example, if you are Liu Kang and you do a fireball against Kung Lao while he's spinning, instead of going right through Kung Lao, it will bounce off of him spinning and spin-off a bunch of fireballs in multiple directions. Also, while this didn't work in the X-Box version of the game (which is about a week behind), in the PS2 version we were able to both select the same character in Ko-Op Mode. The second player would wear a different color costume - the same alternate colors as in MKII, so the second Liu Kang would wear blue or the second Kung Lao would wear brown.

In addition to our impressions, today was spent getting direct feed of the MK: Shaolin Monks demo that provides an in-depth look at the game including direct footage of fatalities, as well as exclusive footage of the unlocked Rooftop stage in versus mode. Liu Kang is controlled by Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks producer Shaun Himmerick, with our correspondent ]{0MBAT as Kung Lao. You can download the video at the links provided below:

• Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks E3 Demo Direct Feed

The next part of the day was spent recording our Mortal Kombat Online Fan Interview with Ed Boon and Shaun Himmerick on various different topics. We answered questions from users: Baraka407, SmokeNc-017, Fedegita, SubScorpTile, DECEPTION, and Bodzio, as well as one question that was asked by a ton of our users (try and spot which one!). Download the interview at the link below:

• Mortal Kombat Online E3 2005 Fan Interview

In adition to our interview, we invite you to visit our friends at TRMK who have also been covering the game at this year's E3. They have posted another detailed question and answer video interview with Shaun Himmerick, as well as a few extra fatality videos we were unable to grab. These can be located at their torrent download page. Also, last is our last batch of screenshots taken throughout the final day at the Midway Booth: Also keep in mind, that the demo that was previewed during this event will be available for all to play in a future issue of the Official Xbox Magazine, as well as Official PlayStation Magazine. This will surely be a treat for all fans. This proudly concludes our coverage of the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Special thanks to all the guys at Midway Games for the opportunity once again to cover the Mortal Kombat franchise. We'll see you live next year!

Update – May 22 – We'd like to thank MK Online forum member TonyTheTiger for helping out with a transcript of this interview. You can read the entire transcript here.