Everyone's favorite Midway Boards moderator, Cinder, has come through for the fans again. This time, he's posted a piece of concept art from the upcoming Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. This concept art is of the area known as Shao Kahn's Temple; based on the layout, it's likely that this is an area from the Konquest mode as opposed to an arena in the fighting mode.

To see the original Midway Boards thread in which this concept art was posted, click here.

Our thanks to forum member for the heads-up on this piece of concept art!

Though a rather short article, Bryan Dawson of GameDaily sat down with series co-creator Ed Boon recently and had a discussion on the status of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. Now don't get us wrong, we are all very excited for this title to be released later this year, but we can't help but smile at one of the key points brought up in Bryan's article:

At this time I figured I should ask the one thing I've wanted to know since Armageddon was announced. I asked Boon when Mortal Kombat would be making its way to next generation consoles. With a smile Boon told me that the next Mortal Kombat (MK8 for now) will be on next generation consoles and they've already started work on it. It almost certainly won't be hitting next year, but it should be arriving sometime in 2008. In addition, the game will not use the same engine as Armageddon and the past few MK titles, so we'll be getting an all new Mortal Kombat.

To read this short article in all of its entirety click here. Thanks goes out to for the heads up on this update.

GameDaily recently got together with Mortal Kombat series co-creator and project lead Ed Boon, to get a first-hand hands-on look at Midway's upcoming latest installment in the MK series, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon! While the interview and hands-on didn't reveal anything new for the most part, there were a couple of paragraphs that did stand out. From the article:

The main gripe we've had with Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance and Deception were simply that they were both too shallow. Coming from fighting games such as Tekken and Virtua Fighter, the amount of depth featured in the combat system of both previous MK titles this generation was lackluster at best. However, sitting down with Boon gave us a new outlook on where he was coming from. Boon himself is an avid Tekken fan, and when he has leisure time, he plays Tekken. With Mortal Kombat (especially the last two titles in the series) Boon wanted to create a fighting game that was easy for anyone to just to pick up and play.

From Deadly Alliance to Deception, the series has remained geared toward novice fighting game fans, while still adding bits of depth here and there. Deception added Kombo Breakers and death traps on top of the existing Deadly Alliance fighting game engine. Armageddon picks up where Deception left off by adding aerial combat and a new parry to the fighting engine. The game will still feature the ability to pull off three Kombo Breakers per fight, but this time you can also use a parry. By pressing back and the block button when your opponent attacks, your character will parry the attack, leaving your opponent vulnerable. This should add a bit more strategy to the battles, and keep players on their toes.

...

While we're still eagerly awaiting the first next generation MK title (which we'll have information on shortly), MK: Armageddon is shaping up to be the must have MK title of this generation. The online play has been retained from Deception and remains unchanged, and there's a new mini-game that has replaced Puzzle and Chess Kombat. Unfortunately, Midway isn't ready to talk about it yet, but we'll have more on Armageddon and its secret mini-game before it releases in October.

This is the first we've heard of new information concerning a next-generation MK title; keep tuned here, for as soon as we hear something we'll pass it on!

To read the article in its entirety, click here.

Our thanks to forum member for the heads-up on this news story!

Long-time MK fans will recognize the name John Turk, who played Sub-Zero and Shang Tsung in MK3 and all the male pallette-swapped ninjas in UMK3, in the second of the Bonus Levels cartoons from the upcoming Press Start Movie! John plays two villains in this episode, Vlad and King Reptillor. From the developer's blog:

Press Start seems to have caught a case of Kombat Fever! This month’s episode of our animated series Press Start: Bonus Levels will feature special guest star John Turk, the man who played the title role in “Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero”, as well as sorcerer Shang Tsung and the spectrum of palette-swapped ninjas in “Mortal Kombat 3” and “MK Trilogy”.

Not only was John the digitized model for the two-dimensional fighter, but he also played Sub-Zero in the live action movie scenes in “Mythologies”. His other acting credits include roles in “Prison Break”, "Walker, Texas Ranger”, Cup of My Blood, and Slave. In addition to acting, John is an athlete and personal trainer.

Now he’s lending his voice to “Bonus Levels”, but in a videogame-esque role that's altogether different from the icy ninja... and a whole lot sillier.

See the episode on Friday, May 26!

And of course, some screenshots: The episode is available online now. Thanks again to the Press Start crew for keeping in contact with us for this update!