Game Informer has just posted an interview with Midway's Ed Boon and Shaun Himmerick concerning their upcoming action-adventure game, Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks! The interview gives some new insights into the game not previously mentioned. For example, they give the definite answer as to whether the game is online-capable. From the interview:

Game Informer: First off, will I be able to fire up Shaolin Monks and go online and play cooperatively with someone else?

Ed Boon: No, so far there isn't a plan for this game to go online yet, but for future games it may be a consideration.

Shaun Himmerick: We looked at online and the things that we would have to cut back on, and what we found were some things that we didn't really want to do gameplay wise. And, it would have been too expensive. We really want to maximize gameplay and that's the decision that we ended up making: no online.

In addition, there is word that Liu Kang and Kung Lao may NOT be the only playable characters in MK:SM. From the interview:

GI: How many playable characters have you settled on so far?

SH: More than two! There isn't a final number yet. We could fit in a ton of playable characters if we were willing to sacrifice differentiation. If one character fights the exact same way as all the others, heck, we could have everyone be playable. But, we don't want to do that. We really want to make each character feel and play differently. Right now Liu Kang and Kung Lao feel and play completely different from each other. So there may be as few as three and the most there would probably be is six.

The article also goes into detail about the state the game is in at present.

GI: We broke the first news on Shaolin Monks, but so far, how is the development cycle progressing? We got to see a lot of illustrations of boss battles and plans for other characters, but what sort of plans do you have for that element now? How are you going to make each boss battle different?

SH: Believe it or not, content wise, the team has reached their limit in what they've put in the game. So basically we have from now until the game ships to add a ton of stuff that's related to storyline and camera and other things. We have a tremendous amount of time now to just polish every single piece of the game. All the boss fights, in particular, will get a lot of this sort of attention.

EB: One of the things that we'e balancing right now is being able to have all sorts of gamers be able to pick up the gameplay. We'e dealing with queues and flashes in certain areas to get people in tune with what they need to do at certain points in the game. Once we can communicate these nuances, the game is so much more fun because you realize what you need to do. Some people still pick up the game and can instantly figure out what to do, and those are the people that we need to say that you need to do more than simply mash on the buttons.

The interview also contains details on gameplay, elaboration on how the extra characters will work, and gameplay information. It ends with a brief discussion of Mortal Kombat: Deception online, and a quick word on Raiden in Unreal Championship 2.

To read the interview in its entirety, click here.

Our thanks to forum member justycist for the heads-up on this important interview!

Wrapping up our coverage of Midway's Winter Gamers Day, we are pleased to bring to you our initial impressions of Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, and our final impressions of the new characters in the GameCube port of Mortal Kombat: Deception.

For now, let us start with MK: Shaolin Monks. The intro is just amazing. Every single character from the first Mortal Kombat game can be seen battling each other in just utter chaos. They also cut to a shot of the Tarkatan hordes charging into the throne room of Shang Tsung, only to have one dispatched fairly quickly by Kung Lao's razor-sharp hat. Shang Tsung's guards from MK1 are also seen, and they are given a beating by Shang himself after being knocked into him by Liu Kang! Kung Lao's presence seems to indicate a major retcon to MK continuity, as the Mortal Kombat II comic by John Tobias establishes that Kung Lao was not present at the Mortal Kombat tournament.

As always, old school fans will have every incentive to play this game, as you can now see what's around stages that will be very familiar, such as The Pit, The Tower, Goro's Lair, The Portal, and The Living Forest. MKSM will also continue the MK tradition of turning rumors into reality - you can now knock your enemies into the mouths of the trees in the Living Forest. In fact, Shaun Himmerick assured that not only would every stage from MKII be included in MKSM, he also assured that each of these stages would have at least one secret unlockable within them.

The gameplay starts out very simply - in a one player game, you can choose to play as either Liu Kang or Kung Lao. You can also choose a 2-player cooperative mode. You begin with your classic moves from the MK fighting game. As you progress in the game, you can get your moves "upgraded" - eg, Kung Lao's Hat can strike multiple opponents, or whizz around the entire room. He never loses the ability to do the plain old Hat Throw, however; it's just that more options become available to the player as the game moves on.

The graphics seem much improved since the early screenshots we saw when the game was first announced. This could be a combination of the fact that the in-game models have been worked on some more, and that since we are now seeing the game in motion we can appreciate its fluidity.

One of the more interesting factions we noticed is the ability of characters to work "in tandem" to create huge damage combos. As you press the indicated buttons when prompted, you can do more and more damage as part of the combined combo. In addition, the air combos are simply amazing. Some of Liu Kang's advanced moves include doing a fireball in mid-air, but they can be directed downwards towards the opponent if you wish. Kung Lao can also be seen doing his famous Diving Kick multiple times in one jump.

Even at this early stage, it is obvious that MK: Shaolin Monks will be a worthy addition to the Mortal Kombat lineup, and we look forward to seeing more of this game in the days and months to come leading up to its Fall 2005 release.

Aside from MK Shaolin Monks, we also got a hands-on experience with the GameCube version of MK: Deception. Goro and Shao Kahn don't feel like bosses, they actually play like normal characters instead. This is great, as you have access to all the basic moves like ducking, uppercutting, jumping, and they play at the same speed as the rest of the characters as well. Congratulations to the MK:D team for their fine implementation of these fan favorites.

We also have some more pictures of the games and the show floor.

Of course, Mortal Kombat Online wasn't the only gaming site to attend Gamer's Day. In addition, check out the coverage from these other fine websites:

• IGN - Midway Reveals New Titles
• IGN - MKSM - Mr. Hat and Mr. Fireball Combat Outworld Evil
• GameSpot - MKSM Impressions
• GameSpot - MKSM Presentation (video)
• GameSpot - MKSM Developer Interview (video)
• GameTrailers - MKSM GamePlay Trailer (video)

This closes our coverage of Midway Winter Gamer's Day 2005. On behalf of everyone here at Mortal Kombat Online, we thank you for joining us as we reported on Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks and the GameCube version of Mortal Kombat: Deception! This is ]{0MBAT and D'Arque Bishop signing off from Las Vegas.

While at Midway Gamers Day, we obtained the official Press CDs with official images and trailers for both MK: Deception and MK: Shaolin Monks. Click below to check out the assets:
Check out the Fact Sheet, in Adobe Acrobat PDF format:

• MK: Shaolin Monks Fact Sheet (7 MB)

Also, there are 2 movies available:

• MK Shaolin Monk Presentation Video (168.6 MB)
• MK Deception GameCube Trailer (16.5 MB)

The videos are in Windows Media video format (.wmv) and are free to download. Keep it tuned here, we'll be back soon enough with our final impressions of the GameCube version of MK: Deception, as well as our initial impressions of the MK: Shaolin Monks footage!

While at Midway Gamers Day, we went ahead and took several photographs of the show floor, the trailer and presentations from the upcoming Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks and gameplay from the GameCube port of Mortal Kombat: Deception! Some of these images are not too clear, but some provide some never-before-seen choice information, such as Goro and Shao Kahn's bios from MK: Deception! Click on the thumbnails to see the full-sized images.

Stay tuned, official Midway assets as well as our final impressions to come!

At Midway Gamers Day, we managed to get some direct feed footage from Midway's upcoming GameCube port of their award-winning fighting game, Mortal Kombat: Deception! This first video features a mirror-match in the Beetle's Lair arena, featuring Goro!

• Goro vs. Goro (9.7 MB)

This second video stars Goro again, as he faces off against Raiden in the Sky Temple stage. Of particular note in this video is the fact that for the first time, Goro is on the receiving end of a fatality...

• Raiden vs. Goro (12 MB)

Finally, we have another mirror-match, featuring Shao Kahn having it out with his clone in the Nexus stage.

• Shao Kahn vs. Shao Kahn (5.68 MB)

These videos are in Quicktime format. Keep it tuned here, as we will be updating later on with images from both Shaolin Monks and Deception!