We have just received an exclusive tip from a person who claims to be a staff member of a Russian magazine. According to him a local russian publisher sent them some info and media for the next Mortal Kombat game. The working title appears to be Mortal Kombat V - dropping any thought sub-title for this next installment. The logo that was attached to the e-mail we received looked legit. Their information also includes a few confirmed characters - Scorpion, Sub Zero, Sonya Blade, and Quan Chi. Our source would like to keep his credentials in secret and the magazine that he represents - thanks to our affiliates at Planet MK for checking that this magazine was indeed authentic. At the time of contact Midway would neither confirm or deny our findings.

Also our source has received the Mortal Kombat Video Teaser from E3 last May and promised to send it our way. We should have screen captures on our site in the near future.

Midway Games has annouced today that Mortal Kombat Advance has been shipped for the Nintendo Gameboy Advance. Check back here soon for our new MK Advance section along with some other surprises.

Click on over to Midway.com as they have just posted a small link to "Mortal Kombat" towards the top of the page. This link brings up a pop-up window with a short flash clip stating that Mortal Kombat will be coming to next generation consoles Fall 2002. Then you can sign up for breaking updates by providing your email address and birth date. Notice nowhere do you see a "5". Maybe Midway is sticking to its original name afterall.

If anyone is interested IGN Pocket released an interview with the guys over at Virtucraft, developer of Mortal Kombat Advance, about their part in the conversion of UMK3 for the Nintendo Gameboy Advance. Here are some highlights:

IGNpocket: Why did you choose to go with Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 in bringing the series to the handheld? Why not MK Trilogy, or even a version of Mortal Kombat 4?

Brian Beuken: The GBA is essentially a 2D system and we wanted to produce the an amalgam of best of the 2D games. Its not a straight port of UMK3, rather it takes the best bits from Mortal Kombat 1, 2, 3, and Trilogy and crunches them all together.

Midway.com has updated today with a section dedicated to Mortal Kombat Advance which has 4 additional screenshots from the game. The following is taken from the site:

- More than 20 characters to select from, including bosses and hidden characters
- Discover all of the combos, fatalities and friendships
- Master your technique in single player Mortal Kombat
- Use the Game Boy® Advance Game Link® Cable to battle your friends in 1-on-1 and 2-on-2 Kombat