While at the Electronic Entertainment Expo this year, we tried to get the most important media assets out to you first while in Los Angeles. Now rested, we are releasing some assets that we didn't have time to get up while on our trip. First, we have some exclusive assets from Midway Arcade Treasures 2. While at the MK Party and at the Midway Booth, we had some time in between our matches of MK: Deception to play some old school Kombat. Unfortunately, only the original Mortal Kombat was playable in this demo build. However, we had a great time reminiscing the older days of blood-shed yore. Not much in room of assets was released for this game, but here is the official trailer that was showcased at E3. We also have raw footage of the game straight from Midway's press kit.

• Midway Arcade Treasures 2 Trailer
• Midway Arcade Treasures 2 Raw Play-Through

Moving on to Mortal Kombat: Deception, we are now releasing two exclusive trailers of the game, as well as an interview with series co-creator Ed Boon that was passed out to various media outlets, including ourselves. We would have brought this to you sooner, but we had our own interview to post during the week of E3. As for the two trailers, one of them is an updated version that was shown on a display of sixteen TVs that were outside of Midway's Booth. Last, check out our exclusive face-off between ]{0MBAT and Scott-Howell, that you won't find anywhere else!

• Press-released Ed Boon Interview
• E3 official Mortal Kombat: Deception Trailer
• ESRB official Mortal Kombat: Deception Trailer
• Exclusive Mortal Kombat Match!

A lot of these videos have already been seen, save the last one, but we at least now have them in one central location. Tonight concludes our E3 2004 coverage as we release our final hands-on review of Mortal Kombat: Deception!

The Puzzle Kombat Mode in Mortal Kombat: Deception is quite simple, yet quite addictive. Many people have described it as feeling like Tetris, Columns, Puyo Puyo, or Dr. Mario. The truth is, this game is a lot more like Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo.

The game is not like Tetris in that you need lines, or other puzzle games in that you want 3 or 4 of a similar kind in a row. You can gather up many many different blocks of a similar color (say red), and then when you get a red dragon koin color, that will wipe out every red block connected to it. Dragon koins are fairly rare, giving the game an interesting challenge while not making it impossibly hard. As you obtain the dragon koins and knock out your blocks, you can do combos along the way, and this will charge up your super meter.

Once in a while, you can get an item such as a bomb - This knocks out every single block of the color your set your bomb down on, whether it's connected to the other squares or not. Using your bomb in a combo charges up your Super Meter faster. Of course, every time you get rid of a bunch of your own blocks, you're also sending a bunch of extra blocks to your opponent's screen. One of the other things we noticed (thanks to some very good playing skills, and a little luck) is that when you clear your screen all the way down to the bottom, you get a little notice saying "EXCELLENT!" and it bumps up your Super Meter as well.

While you're playing Puzzle Kombat, you have caricatures of the normal MKD fighters representing how well you're doing - and as you do your combos they will do a special move. Each special move that your fighter does affects the blocks in a different way, so which character you picked comes heavily into play. For instance, if you do a combo while playing as Scorpion, it will jumble your opponents blocks around. Not all of these specials are aggresive, as Mileena has a drill for her special that will destroy two columns of her own blocks. Still another special in the game will group your own blocks by color.

Your fighters are also pushing each other to the corner of the screen, so when one person's blocks are all the way up to the top, that person has also been pushed all the way to their corner into a deathtrap - FATALITY! Each background in Puzzle Kombat has its own unique Stage and therefore Stage Fatality, as well.

Like regular Kombat, it is best 2 out of 3, so you still have a shot at it regardless of what happens in the first round. The best strategy that seems to work for us while at E3 was to stack up all the blocks of the same color in a row (as best we could) in order to knock a bunch of them out at once when the dragon koin arrives. Doing this in a way that sets up combos would be ideal (for instance, destroying a pile of red blocks, which in turn destroys a pile of blue ones). Remember, doing a combo is what activates your special move, giving you the real upper hand in the game!

Like Chess Kombat reviewed yesterday, Puzzle Kombat will be one of the modes that can go online. In fact, in the video, you can see Mortal Kombat Online's own DArqueBishop and Scott-Howell battle it out over a LAN! Click here to download the Puzzle Kombat video.

Mortal Kombat: Deception's Chess Kombat might seem uninteresting at first, but once you've played it it's hard to put down. For starters, this game is not exactly like chess. If you've never played chess, don't let the name fool you because you will be able to pick this up relatively easy. It's more like that game Archon, but you don't have to have played that before in order to start Chess Kombat either.

When you first start, you can elect to play against the computer, a second player, or someone online. Next, you will be asked to assemble a team of 5 characters. That's five different characters, you can not pick the same characters over and over. You may, however, use the same characters that your opponent is using. This is good, because it forces you to master many different fighters and not just stick to one.

The Leader is your most important fighter; if your leader dies, you lose. This is kind of like the King in chess. Your Champion is the most powerful fighter; it can move farther than your other pieces can. Your Sorcerer (you have 2 of these) is interesting, as you have access to 8 different spells such as imprison, resurrect, etc. If you lose one of your Sorcerer's, then you only have access to 4 spells, so try to be careful. Then we have the Shifter. When you fight as the Shifter, you turn into the person you're fighting against. Last, but not least, we have the Grunt. Your grunt is like chess's pawn, you will have the most of this piece and will do most of your fighting as the Grunt. Make sure you really know how to use the fighter you select here.

Once you begin, you will notice 2 pieces on the board highlighted in green. These recharge the health of all your fighters if you manage to get your piece on that square. You also have one piece reserved as your trap, you can set it anywhere on the board you like. You want to be aware of where your opponent set their trap, so you know to avoid that square.

Now when you begin your first move as the Grunt, you can move one space diagonally or 2 spaces vertically (you can move horizontally if that space is available to you). Different pieces will be able to move farther, or shorter, depending on the piece. When 2 pieces land on the same square, that's when the good ol' MK fighting begins. Whoever lands on the square second is considered the attacker and starts with a 10 point bonus (slightly more health). The battles go pretty quickly, faster than a normal MK battle since your health starts out very limited. When you win, you are given the opportunity to finish your opponent with a Fatality - it really wouldn't be Chess Kombat without it!

The best part about Chess Kombat? The classic, retro, MK backgrounds redone in 3-D! We've already seen the pics of The Courtyard (which can be seen in the video below), The Dead Pool, The MK3 Champions, and The Portal. And the game's not even finished! Who knows what old-school stages will end up returning? These are definitely a treat for the long-term Mortal Kombat fans. The monks and Shang Tsung's guards are enough to make any MK fan start salivating. In the E3 version of the game, you had one stage as the background for the entire game. It remains to be seen if this will be true for the final version.

So, check out this exclusive, direct-feed video of Chess Kombat.

Also, as a special treat to the Mortal Kombat fans as to what E3 was like, there was a huge set of 16 TV screens right outside Midway's booth. Here is a special video of one of the MK: Deception trailers being displayed across all these TV sets at once. Enjoy!

Mortal Kombat: Deception's Konquest Mode can be summed up in one word: Wow. Where to begin? Well, the star of the show is a pupil of Bo Rai Cho's named Shujinko. His name will probably be customizable in future versions, but for now he's known only as Shujinko as this was just the E3 beta of the game. Anyway, as you control Shujinko you meet your friend, Apep, who pals around with you and shows you what missions there are for you to accomplish. When he leads you to the dojo, you train with Bo Rai Cho to learn new moves.

You may have heard that Konquest Mode is a game all on its own, and this is absolutely true. You start out in a dojo with Shujinko as a young boy, and all the other kids in the village are acting out a play. The characters that the children are pretending to be are famous MK warriors, such as Kung Lao, Goro, and Shang Tsung, acting out famous events in the Mortal Kombat universe.

The main missions as well as the side missions there are to do are simply incredible. There is a sick boy who you help by finding medicine for him, or a guard that is hungry and you go to the butcher to get some food for him. By helping people, you can get various rewards such as Kurrency (koins), or being granted access to areas that were blocked off before. Many things such as secret fighting styles will be unlocked through Konquest Mode, so it is important to help as many people as possible.

It's been said multiple times that every MK character will be in this game. The Midway guys confirmed this again at the pre-E3 MK party and E3 itself. Even in this beta version, we are shown characters from Lin Kuei clan members to a messenger for the Elder Gods.

It is this messenger of the Gods that grants Shujinko the ability to develop the fighting styles of all the warriors he encounters. Herein lies in the customization: with all the fighting styles in the game available at your finger tips (through Shujinko), it is up to you to decide which ones you want to use. And you will have every fighting style in the game to choose from; as Shujinko's adventures lead him through the 6 different worlds that Bo Rai Cho sends him to: Earthrealm, Outworld, Netherealm, Orderrealm, Chaos Realm,and Edenia.

One of Ed Boon's answers in MK Online's 10-Question Fan Interview revealed that you can play as Shujinko in Konquest mode until he is an old man, at that point he will be playable in regular Kombat mode as well as online.

In short, Deception's Konquest mode is everything a die-hard Mortal Kombat fan could ever ask for! Check out these videos:

• Konquest Mode's Beginning
• Konquest Mode's End

Last night the E3 Expo came to an end. Mortal Kombat Online would like to thank its users that have appreciated all of the hard work that has gone into this year's coverage. The last day at E3 was spent getting final impressions of Mortal Kombat: Deception, as well as having our final discussions with various Midway contacts and team members. Most of us are already on the way home, or will be leaving later this morning- so don't expect our next update until sometime towards the end of this weekend. Once we get back and get things situated, we will post more information learned on the gameplay, and eventually get the rest of our videos up that we haven't had time to post. We've been very tired from long nights of reporting, so once we're fully rested, expect more updates. Even though the Exposition might be over, our coverage will continue soon!

Update: Well to hold you over.. we just remembered in two different brochures given to us at the Midway booth, that it confirms Raiden is in the character roster of MK: Deception. Also, we read earlier today that Gamespot has confirmed that Jax is also in the line-up.