It turns out that actor Trevor Goddard, who played Kano in the Mortal Kombat movies, did not die of a suicide as many have speculated. Though he did die of a drug overdose (heroin, cocaine, valium, vicodin were all found in his body), the coroner has ruled that his death was an accident.

Also interesting to note, Goddard was an Englishman posing as an Australian. He worked hard at changing his accent, and came up with a story about how he was born in Perth and later moved to the U.S. to become a professional boxer.

Read the full article here. Thanks to Shaz for letting us know.

Nintendo's own gaming magazine Nintendo Power reviewed Midway's soon to be released GBA-exclusive fighter Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition in volume 171 of their magazine, and gave it a fairly glowing review! From the article:

Exclusive characters, tag-team matches, four-player tournaments, a betting feature and new battlegrounds make Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition the best MK game yet for the GBA. The animation is a little choppy and the graphics are often pixelated, but the action is nonstop and the play control is tight and responsive.

The game earned an average of three and a half stars out of five from the five reviewers. The article and review is not online yet, but you can pick up a copy when it goes on sale at your nearest newsstand!

Remember, you can pre-order Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition from the MK5.ORG Online Store. Our thanks to forum/chat member theeldergodofice for the heads-up on this review!

G4 TV, a channel about video games and gamer lifestyle, taped its first video game award show entitled G-Phoria, last night in Hollywood. It was a full-house event featuring an audience full of celebrities, video game journalists, and respected members of the industry. The event was hosted by actor/comedian, Jamie Kennedy. Several awards were given out from such categories like Best Adaptation to Most Annoying Character. Of interest to us however, is that the award of Best Brawl was given to the top-selling fighting game hit, Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, beating out Namco's Tekken 4. Congratulations to Midway Games for the continued success of their game!

G-Phoria, sponsored by EB Games and JEEP, will air Friday, August 8th at 8:00 PM EST.

Midway Games issued today in a press release and in a conference call, its financial results for the closure of the second quarter ending June 30th, 2003. Revenues for the quarter were $5.0 million, down from $28.1 million of the second quarter in 2002, which was due to less product releases. Midway also gave their guidance for this third quarter with Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition still set on track with its release next month.

David Zucker, president of Midway Games, commented in the conference call of how the company's strategy is now going to give a larger focus on its most popular intellectual property. From the conference:

Going forward, new intellectual property will represent a smaller percentage of our new release mix. While we will continue to release and introduce more intellectual property, we are first going to do a better job of leveraging our own brand and franchises, i.e. Spy Hunter, Mortal Kombat , Gauntlet, Area 51, NARC, and so forth, and be more proactive in associating other brands, licenses, or notoriety with our games.

Also, when asked about the expectations of the Mortal Kombat franchise, it was noted that Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance has already qualified as part of the Playstation 2 Greatest Hits program. David Zucker also commented on the anticipated Mortal Kombat sequel due out fourth quarter 2004:

The next installment of Mortal Kombat will ship for the 2004 holiday season, I can't go into details, but I can tell you Ed Boon and the team are very optimistic about the game and its coming together, and we are committed to making it the top selling fighting game in this cycle.

As always, we will keep you informed of all developments.

The latest publications of Game Informer and Electronic Gaming Monthly are throwing out some of the first reviews of the soon to be released Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition for Gameboy Advance. Though a matter of opinion is certainly in play, as it is apparent from EGM's review, which placed on the game ratings as low as 4.0 (out of 10). However, in Game Informer the viewpoint from reviewers is on the flipside, with an overall rating of 8.5/10. From the article:

The core gameplay mechanics haven't changed in the slightest since last year's phenomenal handheld conversion of Deadly Alliance. Tournament Edition simply adds depth to the experience. On the multiplayer end, up to four players can compete for a trophy in tournaments or team up in an intense Tekken Tag-style two-on-two team match.

Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition is set on track with a release date of late August 2003. Remember that you can pre-order this title by visiting our online store at any time. Thanks goes to Total-MK and nthdimension of our forum for posting this information.