Tonight Snoop Dogg hosted the Spike TV Video Game Awards in Los Angeles, where Mortal Kombat: Deception beat out the competition and took home the award for best fighting game! Beating out such games like Dead or Alive: Ultimate and Def Jam: Fight for NY, this is a very prestigious accomplishment for Ed Boon, John Podlasek, and the rest of the Mortal Kombat development team. After following the development of this title since May, none of us had any doubt MK: Deception would come through victorious! Unlike other genres, SpikeTV did not formally present the award for best fighting game. Instead, on air was a short clip announcing Mortal Kombat: Deception as the winner for the best fighting game category. Shown below are a few clips from the segment: All of us at Mortal Kombat Online would like to send Midway Games our congratulations for a well deserved win in this category!

December 15, 2004: Midway issued today a press release acknowledging their victory. Read it here.

1UP.COM has updated with a 2-page preview of Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, as well as 11 new images - some of which are exclusive! They talked to Paradox, the Shaolin Monks developer recently acquired by Midway Entertainment, about the acquisition and of course, the game itself. Says Producer Shaun Himmerick:

"We have smoothly integrated all the elements people love about the Mortal Kombat fighting games: string and juggle combos, special moves, fighting stances, weapons, background fatalities, and fatalities. The first thing you will notice is how well the controls have transitioned to an adventure game. We scaled back the moves and combo systems from a traditional MK fighter to be more friendly to an adventure game. The combat is not limited to attacking one opponent in one direction; it flows freely from the ground to the air and in all directions around the player...even with this however, we still have easily the deepest and most diverse fighting engine of any adventure game out there... easily"

Check out the full article here, and the new screenshots here.

Midway has announced today that they have bought Paradox Development, developers of Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks. Midway President and Chief Executive Officer David F. Zucker commented, "The Paradox team's expertise in the fighting genre is an excellent fit with Midway's product strengths and will help us extend the Mortal Kombat franchise into the action-adventure genre and release a highly engaging title in the Mortal Kombat universe annually."

Check out an article on Total Video Games here, and the original press release here.

GameSpy has done a Q & A interview with Herman Sanchez, the guy responsible for a lot of the voice acting in Mortal Kombat: Deception as well as older Mortal Kombat games such as Mortal Kombat 4 and Deadly Alliance. From the interview:

GameSpy: When did you first realize that you had a cool voice?

Herman Sanchez: It kind of hit me early. Not that I had a cool voice, but early on other people would tell me that I had a distinct voice. Let me just say that puberty hit me early. It's actually genetic; I have the same deep, resounding voice as my dad.

Aside from his personal life, Herman also talks about how he first got involved in voice acting for Midway, other games he's been involved in besides Mortal Kombat, what it's like to do voice acting, and a broad range of subjects. Click here to read the full article.

1UP.COM has started their 2004 Awards Nominations, with Mortal Kombat: Deception being nominated for top fighting game this year. The winners in each category will be determined by the gamers and theirs votes, with all voting being done on-line through 1UP.COM. The results will be posted on January 6, 2005.

To cast your vote, head on over to the 2004 1UP Awards Nominations site, which you can get to by clicking here.