Everyone's favorite fighting game series, Mortal Kombat, appeared on G4TechTV's program "Icons" on an episode that was all about fighting games. They did a surprisingly good job considering they had to fit the information into thirty minutes (minus commercials), covering a wide variety of topics such as: How fighting games started, how they tied into the arcade scene, how the fighters on the powerful consoles drove away arcade business, the emergence of 3D technology being used, violence in fighting games, how certain politicians reacted, the assembly of the IDSA/ESA and the rating systems, and online play. Many people from different sectors of the gaming industry gave comments on their own perspective, including four people from the Mortal Kombat team: Ed Boon, John Tobias, Steve Beran, and Tony Goskie.



For details on the show (such as the next airing), check out its own page on the G4TechTV website here. Our thanks to MK Online forum/chat member DECEPTION for the heads up on this update!

The folks over at Jakks Pacific have sent us a super high-resolution photo of their Mortal Kombat TV Games Unit, and you can make out a lot of detail not noticable before in earlier pictures.


Check out the picture here, or if you want a super high-resolution image, click here.

The best part is that we've also been given official word on the release date: Look for it in stores as of March 2005!

Thanks to our contact at Jakks Pacific for this update.

The latest issue of Game Informer (Issue 142/Feb. 2005) has within it a list of the Top 50 games of 2004, and Mortal Kombat: Deception made it to that list. The games weren't ranked, so all fifty of them have equal weight. From the article:

Not only does Deception refine and improve the fighting engine introduced in Deadly Alliance, it also adds online play and a bucket of additional features, such as an MK version of chess and a puzzle game. An improved training mode is also offered in the form of Konquest mode. With so many different ways to play, a ton of unlockables, and the rock solid combat at its core, no other fighting game around is as fully stacked as Deception.

Additionally, they're having a contest on their website where you can win all fifty of them. To register for the contest, click here.

But it doesn't end there – there were two more lists in this mag, Top 10 Developers and Top 10 Publishers. Their #10 Developer was Midway (Chicago), and the #7 Publisher was Midway as a whole. So congratulations to the folks over at Midway on even more victories! Thanks go to MK Online's own The_Purple_Bunny for the word on this update.

Our sources within Midway Games have come through for the fans again. This time, they've provided for us renders of the two exclusive characters in the upcoming GameCube version of Mortal Kombat: Deception: Goro and Shao Kahn! While garbed in their traditional costumes, the renders also reveal some subtle attention to detail, including (for example) irises in the glowing red eyes of both characters. Click on the thumbnails to get larger sized images for download: Mortal Kombat: Deception for GameCube in still on track for a March release. Our thanks to our sources within Midway for providing these renders!

IGN has just posted a story in which they give a preview of one of Jakks Pacific's upcoming additions to its TV Games lineup. This particular TV Games unit has only one game on it, but it is a heftier game than most other TV Games: the original Mortal Kombat! From the article:

Mortal Kombat TV Games will be a self-contained unit based on the original arcade game's upright control panel in a control-pad form. This battery-powered device simply plugs into any TV or VCR with video/audio inputs, offering an accurate version of the original 1990 arcade hit Mortal Kombat without the need for a gaming console.

Two of these units can be linked together for one-on-one fights, and the internal memory chip will record high score standings, just like the original arcade unit. Jakks Pacific promises that the version of Mortal Kombat in this controller will be completely unedited, featuring the same blood and fatalities the series is known for

The article also has an image of the controller; the color scheme of the controller matches the red, yellow, and orange look of the original Mortal Kombat arcade machine. A release date has not been set yet, but the article does state that the currently planned price is $19.99. As we learn more about this controller, we'll be sure to post it here!

To read the story in its entirety, click here.

Our thanks to forum member darthtsung for the heads-up on this news story!