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:
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:
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.
