As announced previously, Mortal Kombat II is coming to the Sony Playstation 3 via their Playstation Network's download service. According to Sony's Station.com website, MKII's release date has been firmed as March 2007, with a sale price of $4.99 USD. The game (as reported at our Gamers Day coverage) is an almost-flawless emulation of the original arcade game, and will also feature online multiplayer. From the Station page:

Get Over Here! Come relive all the fatalities that made Mortal Kombat II® a beloved classic. Brought back and available for download exclusively on the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, play as 1 of 12 characters as you venture through realms, such as The Dead Pool, Kombat Tomb or Kahn's Lair. Battle all of your favorite bosses such as Goro or Shang Tsung and unlock hidden characters including Noob Saibot. Decide your enemies' fate with 3 different special endings and prepare to Finish Him!

While the page says "Goro", we believe that this is a typo and that they actually refer to Kintaro, the Shokan that appeared in that game. We'll be keeping an eye on this game; as soon as it is released, we'll be sure to announce it here!

To read the GameSpot story that first picked up on this story, click here. To see the page for this game on the Station site, click here.

Our thanks to forum/chat member for letting us know about this news story!

Another character bio from the most recent of releases, MK: Armageddon, has surfaced. This time, former Black Dragon member Jarek has his time in the spotlight as we learn what his activities have been since his first and last appearance back in Mortal Kombat 4. His fate is described and his new purpose revealed, which ties into his ending present in MK: Armageddon. Seemingly a neutral character, Jarek appears to hold no allegiance and fights only to perfect his fatality techniques.

What was done to me by the Special Forces could only be described as brutality. But that's fine. I can take it. What angered me was that somehow Jax found me. I'd covered my trail, kept to the shadows. But still I was routed out.

Jax dropped me into a ravine, assuming that would be the end of me. It would have been if I hadn't thrust my weapon into the cliff wall to slow my descent. I was badly injured, so I went into hiding. My rumored death would be the ultimate camouflage as I regained my strength.

Obsessed with thoughts of revenge, I traveled all over the realms looking for ancient texts that would show me a fatality worthy of my betrayer. But my injuries made perfecting these new techniques a very painful task. My frustration turned into rage and I no longer cared who had sold me out. I would kill them all — a sentiment Quan Chi apparently shared.

Quan Chi recognized the carnage I had left behind as I practiced my new fatalities on the good people of the realms. He was impressed and offered to help me increase their power and effectiveness. All I needed do was fight beside the Forces of Darkness in Edenia. The means of enhancing my fatalities would reveal itself, and all my enemies would be there for the slaughter. Soon I'll have revenge. The time will come to finish them all.

To view the original page on which this bio appears, click here.

Thanks to forum member for sending in this newslead first.

The folks over at Midway have decided to give out another set of screenshots from the upcoming Nintendo Wii version of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon! Two of the screenshots show regular kombat action: one has Reiko using his charge attack against Liu Kang, and the other shows Sektor using his flamethrower against Cyrax. The other three images demonstrate how the Wii remote would be used to implement such attacks; two images show the Wii remote motions needed for each attack, and one image shows a three-panel demonstration of Reiko's charge attack in motion.

MK: Armageddon for Wii is on schedule for an April 2007 release.

Our thanks to our contacts at Midway for providing us with these screenshots!

Mortal Kombat Armageddon has just been declared winner of yet another award; this time it's OXM's Game of the Year for the original Xbox system! Amongst the other competitors for the award were Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent, Tiger Woods' PGA Tour '07, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy.

The site for OXM Postcast has made an MP3 available which announces the award for MKA in this category; it is Episode 51 and can be downloaded here. The file itself is over an hour long and is over 30 MB. MKA's victory can be heard near the end around the 55 minute mark.

Accepting the award for the game is none other than Mortal Kombat's Ed Boon who also discusses Mortal Kombat 8 in the podcast; mentioning that the game will start over with a clean slate and use the Unreal 3 Engine.

Our congratulations to Midway for yet another award for the latest installment of Mortal Kombat! Many thanks go to Dan Amrich for the word on this update.

Midway has posted a new bio from MK: Armageddon today! The elusive and mysterious character Rain has some light shed on his history and future. Mysteries revealed include the truth of the realm of Edenia's inhabitants, Rain's alliance with Quan Chi and his role in the future of his homelands. However, this bio is notably shorter than the previous offerings from the MK team's writing staff. Much of Rain's history, especially between his appearance in MK: Trilogy and present day, are left to speculation:

The Edenian race is descended from the gods. That is the reason for our longevity, our nobility, and our strength. But I am more than a distant relation to the deities of old. I am a direct descendant of Argus himself. Only recently have I discovered my royal heritage. Quan Chi, an emissary of Shinnok, revealed to me that I am entitled to great power — and control of Edenia. My father hid my identity for fear it would complicate his plans for succession. He favored his sons Daegon and Taven and groomed them to one day replace him as Protector of Edenia. But he foolishly tied this plan to a quest to save the realms from Armageddon, leaving open an opportunity for me to seize the power that is rightfully mine. Though it seems the Forces of Light seek to steal the prize from me, Quan Chi has made plans to assure my victory. He and his allies will help fend off the Forces of Light as I make my way to Blaze. But before this final battle, I must ensure that Taven and Daegon cannot challenge my ascension. I will finish them both before they complete their quest.

To see the original page which this bio is posted, click here.

Thanks to forum member for sending in the newslead first.

The folks over at Xbox Live recently made a new set of picture packs available for Xbox 360 members. These six packs feature avatars from the arcade/Xbox Live Arcade hit Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3! These picture packs (which, as said before, contain avatars that can be used as your gamer picture in your Gamercard) contain five pictures each. With five exceptions, all are select screen/progress tower portraits from Ultimate MK3. Two avatars are from Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, and two are from Mortal Kombat Trilogy. Each pack contains the following gamer pictures:

• Picture Pack 1: Kano, the MK dragon, Motaro, Sindel, and Classic Sub-Zero.
• Picture Pack 2: Mileena, Kung Lao, Shang Tsung, Cyrax, and Jax.
• Picture Pack 3: Kabal, Stryker, Nightwolf, Jade, and Scorpion.
• Picture Pack 4: MK: Armageddon Sub-Zero, Kitana, Sektor, Liu Kang, and Sheeva.
• Picture Pack 5: Reptile, Noob Saibot, Shao Kahn, Sonya, and Ermac.
• Picture Pack 6: MK: Armageddon Scorpion, Unmasked Sub-Zero, Rain, Human Smoke, and Cyborg Smoke.

Each picture pack costs 100 Microsoft points, which is the equivalent of $1.25 USD. To see these picture packs and purchase them, go to Xbox Live Marketplace in the Xbox 360 Dashboard, choose Themes and Gamer Pictures, and choose Newly Released Themes and Gamer Pictures. (You will need to be an Xbox Live Gold or Silver member.)

Our thanks to forum member for letting us know about these picture packs!

Today Midway has came through with the seventh bio from their latest release, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, in the form of the MK veteran, Sonya Blade! It would seem the Special Forces agent's new mission revolves around Sektor's Tekunin ninja clan rather than any of her older foes. This bio also refers back to scenes in the Konquest mode of MK: Armageddon, particularly the Tekunin Warship episode, where Sonya confronts Sektor. Along with this retelling, what occurs afterwards is also revealed. References are also made to Jax's current state, however we are given few clues to this.

For a long time my objective was to hunt down and eliminate the rogue clans of the criminal underworld. Kano, a member of the Black Dragon, had been a particular thorn in my side. I was close to capturing him, but once I heard about Shang Tsung's Mortal Kombat tournament, protecting Earthrealm from invasion became my sole priority. Once Onaga was stopped, it seemed the threat was eliminated. I could resume my mission against the Black Dragon and Red Dragon clans.

Jax and I came back from Outworld only to find ourselves fighting a different kind of invasion: one from inside our own realm. While we were gone the cybernetic ninja faction known as the Tekunin had grown in number and threatened the stability of civilization. My attention was fixed on this new ninja clan; I was forced to focus all of our resources on defeating them.

The Tekunin leader, Sektor, seemed to have connections with hostile entities from beyond our world, blatantly violating Earthream law. I needed to uncover his plans and stop him. We had one chance: Intel revealed that Sektor was aboard a warship somewhere over the Botan jungle. The Special Forces attacked and brought down the ship. Jax led a ground team to look for survivors, but he's still MIA and, I'm afraid to say, most likely captured by the Tekunin.

For days Jax's cybernetic bio-sensors indicated that he was alive, yet the readings were abnormal. His life signs were stronger, but there were changes in his brainwave patterns. Eventually his signal was lost and we have no way of knowing if he's alive or dead.

We may have crippled the Tekunin, but they will regroup. I need to find out who they were working with from outside Earthrealm. The idea that these rogue groups are conspiring with outside agents is alarming and underlines the importance of eliminating them once and for all. I have to find some way to shut them down.

To see the original page this bio was posted on, click here.

Thanks goes to forum member for submitting this lead first!

At Midway Winter Gamers Day 2007, the folks from Game Informer also got the chance to sit down with Mortal Kombat creative director and series co-creator Ed Boon. Of course, the topics of the day were Mortal Kombat: Armageddon for the Nintendo Wii and the yet-to-be-named Mortal Kombat 8. While most of the material covered in both topics were also covered in our own interview, Game Informer did learn that not only will Mortal Kombat 8 use Epic Games's Unreal Engine 3 (which powers such games as Gears of War, Rainbow Six: Vegas, and Unreal Tournament 3), Ed was actually heavily inspired by the look of Gears of War. From the interview:

GI: How far into development is it?

Boon: The main thing we’re doing right now is the core technology. We’re using the Unreal 3 engine, and we’re getting our base, “How do display a character, normal-mapping, bump-mapping, shadows” all the things that are expected of the game. I have a bunch of ideas on paper in terms of things that I’d like to theoretically try, but it’s not like it’s in a playable state yet.

...

GI: How has the experience been with the next-gen, and what are some of the nuances that you’re finding with the Xbox 360 and PS3?

Boon: Our goal, graphically, with this game is to be as gritty and—I don’t like to use the word “dirty,” because I don’t want to imply not-cool graphics—but a very dark, serious Mortal Kombat. Not vibrant, saturated colors, but more of a really down and dirty Mortal Kombat game. To me, when I saw Gears of War, I was like, “Holy s___! That’s the look that we’ve been talking about.” Visually, that’s what we want to do. Gameplay-wise, I kind of attribute it to what we did with Deadly Alliance, where everything is thrown out. We’re not going to have three fighting styles, we’re not going to have the same punches and kicks and the same kind of control scheme. Everything is getting trashed. We’re reinventing everything from the ground up. We really think that’s needed—you know, we’re on Mortal Kombat 8, in a sense—to kind of wipe the slate clean every once in a while, and I kind of feel that now is the time. Our visual presentation and our game presentation and our thing that you’ll hear about very soon are all going to be new to this game. It’s going to be nothing like you’ve ever seen before.

To read the interview in its entirety, click here.

Our thanks to everyone who sent in news leads about this important news story!

The folks over at Midway have gone ahead and posted another bio from Mortal Kombat: Armageddon! This time, the bio is that of Johnny Cage, whose actions leading up to MK: Armageddon have been heavily hinted at in several of the previously released bios. In it, he tells about his confrontations with the fallen Elder God, Shinnok, and his decision to take on the leadership role for the forces of good previously held by Liu Kang and Raiden. From the bio:

It used to be, when there was a threat to Earthrealm, that Raiden would rally the Forces of Light to face the enemy in Mortal Kombat. Somehow he could always discover the truth behind the deception. I was one of his allies and fought with him against the Forces of Darkness. In those early days Liu Kang was the point man, he was the star. The rest of us played supporting roles, clearing the way so he could take on the main threat.

But times have changed. Raiden has abandoned us. He's become darker, using more ruthless ways to keep the "peace." And Liu Kang was killed. Though his spirit is still around to help us, eventually he'll pass on into the Heavens. It seems like we have no clear leader. We're just not the fighting force we once were. We're scattered all over the realms. Maybe it's because there hasn't been a real threat since we took care of the Dragon King, I don't know. But I can't help but feel uneasy about the future. I used to think, "What if there's a new threat? Who's gonna lead us?" With Raiden gone, how would we even tell when something bad is about to happen?The answer came soon enough. I started having visions of someone we had defeated years ago: I saw the Fallen Elder God Shinnok plotting something and I decided to find out what. In my visions I could see Shinnok in different locations, conjuring these communication portals to give orders, which I couldn't quite understand, to his minions. I followed him, finding each place I saw in my visions, and always there was evidence that he had in fact been there. My visions weren't dreams after all. Shinnok was back!

In my last vision, I clearly heard Shinnok say the next place he was going to contact his minion from was Shang Tsung's island fortress. That place has played a big part in the fight between good and evil. It seemed fitting that I would confront Shinnok there.

When he finally showed up, I watched him for a while, to try to get some idea as to what he was planning. Was I surprised to see that the "minion" in the portal was Quan Chi! Shinnok ordered him to gather the Forces of Darkness and retake Shao Kahn's fortress in Outworld. When he dismissed the sorcerer, I approached Shinnok. He was startled and immediately conjured up a skeleton hand to trap me. I jumped out of the way and followed with a Shadow Kick to the chest. I pummeled him, and he never regained his composure. The coward escaped in a cloud of smoke... a teleport of some kind, I suppose.

I seem to have discovered the next great threat to Earthrealm. Now I need to find the others. I'll need their help if I'm going to defeat Shinnok's forces. The fate of Earthrealm depends on me.

To see the page in which the bio was posted, click here.

Our thanks to forum/chat member for letting us know about this new bio!