Mortal Kombat: Deception captivated an audience of thousands of gamers in 2004 when it was released on the Microsoft Xbox and Sony Playstation 2. Featuring various new modes and online play, it quickly became the best selling game in Midway's history and has won the prestigious honor of Best Fighting Game of 2004. Earlier this year thanks to high fan demand, it was released on the Nintendo Gamecube with exclusive boss characters. The game's success continues to grow as Midway Games plans to announce that it will be ported to the Sony PSP later this year. However, Mortal Kombat: Deception is only the beginning of a continued release of Mortal Kombat titles in 2005.

Led by the creative minds of Ed Boon, Shaun Himmerick, and Midway Los Angeles, this Fall Mortal Kombat fans will experience a vast departure from the traditional fighting genre as they tackle the first action adventure game in the series since 2000! The game is Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks - a title that will let players revisit the nostalgic era of Mortal Kombat II, centering around the characters Liu Kang and Kung Lao. Offering interactive backgrounds, co-operative play, and the expected mix of bloody fatalities, MK: Shaolin Monks is expected to be one of the most innovative Mortal Kombat titles to date.

Fortunately, we're going to be able to get our first hands on experience with this title. Mortal Kombat Online is proud yet once again to announce our fourth trip to Los Angeles, California to report LIVE from the Electronic Entertainment Expo! Join fellow staff members Scott Howell, CCShadow, D'Arque Bishop, ]{0MBAT, and Mobster4Christ as we hit the road and cover Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks live from the show floor on May 18-20th! Be prepared for our first impressions, exclusive screenshots, game videos, and maybe a few surprises in between.

Also, we're announcing the return of our Fan Interview that has become a favorite among our users! From now until May 13th at 11:59 PM EST, we invite all registered users to fill out our submission form to have a chance to get your questions asked to Ed Boon and producer Shaun Himmerick! Ten winning submissions will be picked and used in the interview itself! Check the fan interview page for further details on how to enter. With that, we ask that you check out our E3 Coverage Section to witness all of our past trips and media that was included.

Don't miss out, our coverage beings on Wednesday, May 18th!

With the release of Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict today, the official site has been updated with the bios for all the characters from this game - including, of course, Raiden from Mortal Kombat! Here it is:

Name: Raiden
Race: Elder God
Sex: Male
Age: Ancient
Birthplace: Unknown
Starting Weapons: Lightning Bolts, Thunder Staff
Adrenaline Abilities: Teleport, Stun Trap, Heal, Warrior Spirit
Data: As an Elder God, Raiden has been cursed with seeing the devestation to come. When the Gods stood firm on their decision not to interfere in the ways of mortals, Raiden pleaded with them to take action, but they refused. Disgusted, he relinquished his immortal status to travel amongst the realms, gathering the support of the greatest warriors against the coming storm. And there is no better place to recruit the champions of the galaxy then the Liandri Tournament.

Thanks go to MK Online chat/forum member DECEPTION for this update!

Rumours have been flying back and forth concerning the possibility of Mortal Kombat making its way to Sony's new PSP system. Such rumours have been fueled by listings in some game store sites. To get an idea of the truth, we checked with our confidential sources within Midway Games, who spoke to us under condition of anonymity. The answer they gave was a definite affirmative to the rumours. According to our confidential sources, Mortal Kombat: Deception will in fact make its way to the Sony PSP by year's end.

At this point not much else is known about the PSP port; we were given the impression that not even a ship date is known at this point. More official news will be forthcoming in the next couple of months, however. Keep it tuned here, as we will report more on these developments as we learn about them.

Our thanks to those people who emailed in News Lead Submissions about the possibility of a PSP port, and to our anonymous Midway source who helped confirm it!

Midway sent out a press release this morning announcing that they have shipped their most recent game to stores, Unreal Championship 2! Though not a Mortal Kombat game, the game is notable to MK fans because of the well-known fact that one of the unlockable characters in the game is the popular thunder god Raiden! From the press release:

"Midway, along with the millions of people involved in the Unreal community around the world, is extremely excited about the release of Unreal Championship 2," said Steve Allison, chief marketing officer, Midway. "Our recently formed relationship with Epic Games, Inc. is one that we feel extremely thrilled about, both for Unreal Championship 2 and for future Unreal products, and we are confident that gamers will be extremely enthusiastic about our first title together. Unreal Championship 2 has been given the time over its development process to be refined to its core and, as we hope people will soon see, the outcome is one of the best-looking Xbox games on the market and one of, if not the greatest Xbox Live title ever."

Unreal Championship 2 should be hitting retail shelves within the next couple of days.

To read the press release in its entirety, click here.

Update – the folks at GameSpot posted a video review of the game. To see the video review, click here. The video is available free as a free stream to all, or even as a free download as a GameSpot Basic member. Overall, they give the game a 9.4 out of 10, so it's definitely a game worth checking out! Thanks to MK Online forum/chat member DECEPTION for the info on the video review!

G4TV is at again! This time, on Attack of the Show, they give the Mortal Kombat series credit for being "the best fighting game of all time", and will see how the fighting games of today compare! Part of the episode's summary on their site:

Kevin R. is convinced that Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance is the greatest fighting game ever made. Kevin P. scoffed. After a short debate involving several other gaming titles, the two Kevins settled the matter with a round of Deadly Alliance. Kevin P. was thrashed, and the debate was tabled.

This episode of Attack of the Show will air tomorrow night at 7 PM EST. For more information on this episode, click here. Thanks to MK Online forum/chat member DECEPTION for the news!

Update – April 12, 2005 – Now that the episode has aired, it's clear that they were referring to the overall Mortal Kombat series as being the best fighting game (Not any one specific game in the series, though they compared it to Deadly Alliance). Here's some screencaps from the episode: