America's favourite fighting franchise is celebrating twenty years of existence as a pop culture phenomenon, and in this conveniently aligned Year of the Dragon, everything is coming up Mortal Kombat!
2012 not only marks the anniversary of the first arcade game's release, but also fifteen years since the last time the Dragon Logo graced the silver screen! The 1997 feature sequel might not be every fan's idea of a landmark, but with rumors of an all new era of MK cinema giving way to the first official teasers, we're all too pleased to mark the occasion with another anniversary competition giveaway!
Mortal Kombat Online is giving members the opportunity to win the ultimate Mortal Kombat movie experience throughout the month of July! Three mediums are represented as cinema, television and the burgeoning world of online new media each get the Mortal Kombat treatment -- part of this unprecedented, total prize pack!
One lucky winner will receive an instant media library as they take possession of entire uncut runs of Mortal Kombat: Legacy (2011) and Mortal Kombat Conquest (1998), as well as the films that started it all: Mortal Kombat (1995) and Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997)! That's a total run time in excess of 1200 minutes!
If that isn't enough, delve deeper into the world of video games and cinema with a copy of Generation Xbox: How Video Games Invaded Hollywood -- the book by Jamie Russel that takes you into the making of the 1995 hit, as recently featured on the site!
For a chance to win this massive pack, simply ensure you are registered to Mortal Kombat Online. Then post a comment in the appropriate forum kontest thread, declaring your intention to enter the draw! One lucky winner will be randomly selected at the end of July from available entries.
Please Note:This competition is open to all users. Some items may be region specific and require multi-region technology. Individuals may only enter once. Users found entering multiple times will be disqualified. Winners will be notified by e-mail, prizes must be claimed within thirty days.
Ultimate Mortal Kombat Online Movie Prize Pack Includes:
Mortal Kombat Blu-Ray (1995)
Includes Mortal Kombat: The Journey Begins animated feature.
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation Blu-Ray
Mortal Kombat Legacy Blu-Ray
Mortal Kombat Conquest Vol. 1-3 Region 4 DVD 9 episodes on three discs - inculding feature length pilot.
Mortal Kombat Conquest Vol. 4-6 Region 4 DVD Includes 12 full episodes on three discs.
Generation Xbox: How Video Games Invaded Hollywood by Jamie Russel
Update:Kongratulations ! The Ultimate Mortal Kombat Movie Experience is yours! This exciting prize pack is an instant MK movie library of rare quality. Stay tuned for more opportunities to win with Mortal Kombat Online!
Discuss the latest movie happenings in the Media & Merchandise forum. Remember your entry into the world of Mortal Kombat with the nostalgia-laden Year of the Dragon anniversary thread! For more MKOntests and extended MKOmmunity activity, follow @MK_Online and like us on Facebook!
Fifteen years after the last Mortal Kombat sequel received its theatrical release -- excerpts from a new production script have been teased by director, Kevin Tancharoen!
Released via micro-blogging site Twitter (@KTANCH), the script snapshots [below] offer the vaguest glimpse into a reboot still largely enshrouded in mystery. Scorpion, Sub-Zero and Jax feature in expected roles, but Kabal adds an unexpected reference to excite fans of the games.
Last year, Tancharoen directed Mortal Kombat: Legacy, a nine episode live-action series released via YouTube, which reportedly attracted the largest viewing audience the site has seen for serial content of this type. Detailing brief segments from the earliest parts of characters' journey, it remains unknown if the series will provide a direct prologue to a theatrical release.
In a 2011 interview with MovieWeb, Tancharoen discussed the potential for mapping the Mortal Kombat saga across different mediums and formats:
I think that, with a property or a franchise which has the scope that Mortal Kombat does, I think it's interesting to use different mediums to showcase different parts of that universe. I think the web series itself helps motivate a bunch of back stories. I still think that a feature version of it would be gigantic, but it also works to do both. You have the supporting episodes on the web, that people will get into the origin stories and all that stuff. The movie is obviously the big event, and you see things like that happening quite a bit now. Like, for instance, I'm getting ready for Sucker Punch to come out, and, on the internet, supporting it, are a bunch of animated shorts. It's kind of like how The Animatrix opened up the world of The Matrix and made it much bigger. It's not in the feature film, but it made the universe gigantic, and you were able to see different stories with it.
Michael Jai White and Ian Anthony Dale starred respectively as Legacy's Jax and Scorpion, with Kevan Ohtsji as Sub-Zero. Two-part episodes introduced the characters in feature roles, establishing rivalries that have motivated the characters through many of their most iconic appearances.
Though Kabal does not feature in the Legacy shorts, Kano and the Black Dragon appear throughout, establishing a relationship with the Lin Kuei that is predicated on cybernetic enhancements. In the games, Kabal is a morally ambiguous survivor of Outworld attack, with ties to the Black Dragon and an advanced life support system that enhances his fighting skills. This relationship may appear to bring him into conflict with Jax, in the script. It will be Kabal's first appearance in a film, having only been referenced by name in the 1997 critical flop, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.
Sub-Zero as he appeared in first-look Mortal Kombat: Legacy teaser. [full story]
The teaser images follow widely reported rumors of leaked plot details [full story], which the director took a vague swipe at in another tweet. The rumors, describing a 'lowly supermarket employee' who discovers hidden powers, play to urbanized versions of the characters that appeared in Tancharoens job-winning showreel, Mortal Kombat: Rebirth [more], and certain segments of the Legacy series. The legitimacy of the claim remains unverified.
When Mortal Kombat began the journey from sprites to silver screen, production faced a slew of challenges at every conceivable level. As documented by the book Generation Xbox: How Video Games Invaded Hollywood, the obstacles began with the mere idea of a Mortal Kombat movie [full story]. Once greenlit; the realization of iconic, fantastical creatures and abilities from the games would push the makers to devise practical solutions.
The vision of a towering, four-armed man-dragon is a memory from the arcades few will forget. For the 1992 video game, Goro was a sub-boss character created using digitized stop-motion animation, and a highly detailed, 12 inch clay maquette.
Bringing the towering menace of the Shokan Prince to theatres was a task for Amalgamated Dynamics Inc -- an Academy Award winning effects studio who has created animatronics and effects for movies like; Alien 3, Jumanji, Starship Troopers, Spider-man and many more.
As documented in a newly released demo featurette from the studio [above], the process of designing a real-time animatronic Goro was an extensive one. Featured in the video are major stages in the creation of the hero creature, from outer sculpting, to internal musculature and radio controlled animatronics.
The cumbersome nature of such a tall figure must have been limiting, but the featurette shows off the staggering amount of maneuverability and animation achieved with electronics and suits -- perhaps beyond what was even captured by the cinematic release. Designed to act, emote and interact in real-time, Goro existed in many forms, also created as a full puppet for the film's climactic falling sequence.
As reported in 2011; NetherRealm Studios acquired one of the films Goro heads [pictured above], now proudly displayed with a gallery of other props from the MK canon in the Chicago headquarters.
This year; the Mortal Kombat series celebrates twenty years of existence! Share your nostalgia with the MKOmmunity in our Year of the Dragon superthread. Discuss more from the movies in the dedicated Media & Merchandise forum.
Following widely reported plot rumors from the upcoming movie; Mortal Kombat Online yesterday reflected upon the trials and tribulations that face video game adaptations, and Mortal Kombat's trailblazing pedigree in the area [read on].
Through the course of this discussion, we included an excerpt from the Jamie Russel written book, Generation Xbox: How Video Games Invaded Hollywood.
Described as "a story of disaster, triumph and [Angelina] Jolie in hot pants," the book recounts the twenty year relationship between Hollywood and the interactive medium. Containing extensively researched anecdotes and tales from the people involved, [Russel] includes a meaty section regarding Larry Kasanoff and Paul W.S. Anderson's important journey to making Mortal Kombat -- still one of the most succesful game-based films to date.
At the end of last month, we gave away digital copies of the book to followers of our Twitter account (@MK_Online). Now, with permission from the publisher, we present the complete Mortal Kombat extract from Chapter 5: It's A-Me, Mario. For more details about the book, visit the authors website.
Generation Xbox: How Video Games Invaded Hollywood Written by Jamie Russel
It was during a visit to Midway's offices in Chicago, that [producer Larry] Kasanoff saw the company's new hot property, the Mortal Kombat coin-op. They took the movie producer down to a local arcade where it was testing off the scale. As kids crowded around the machine, Kasanoff realised they had a hit on their hands. That wasn't news to Midway. But the producer was also convinced it had potential as a movie. Their response? "Bullshit! There's no way you can do that. This is an arcade game, there's no way you can turn it into a movie." Kasanoff told them, "I don't just want to just make a movie. I want to make a franchise."
Despite the huge interest in Mortal Kombat's success, the reaction was largely one of derision or outright bewilderment. Hollywood, always risk averse, was convinced that videogame movies were the kiss of death after the corrosive impact of Super Mario Bros.. "Everyone was calling me up saying, ‘What are you doing? This is going to ruin your career. This is a videogame, this can't happen'."
Videogames were still considered a new phenomenon. The older generation of studio executives simply didn't get it. "My best story of what it was like back then was the meeting I had after I announced I had the rights to Mortal Kombat," says the producer. "[One of the studios] said, ‘This is great, come right up'. When I got there, I'm in a boardroom with millions of people and they're going: ‘This is fantastic, this is great, you've got Mortal Kombat, this is wonderful...er, what is it exactly?' I tried to explain to them but nobody even had a Nintendo console to play the game on. So we got a golf cart to drive around the lot until they found the merchandising guy. He had a console. We plug it in, I show them Mortal Kombat on Nintendo [the sanitised, bloodless version]. They looked at it for about 30 seconds, turned to me, stuck out their hands and say: ‘Well, thanks for coming.'"
"My philosophy always was: the reason why people fail making movies from videogames is because they try to make movies from videogames," Kasanoff explains, somewhat gnomically. "I thought: we're not making a movie based on a videogame, we're making a movie based on the story that the videogame is based on. The story is the centre of the wheel and the videogame is the extension of one of the spokes." With a screenplay ready, Kasanoff began to look for a studio.
Kasanoff, who knew [studio] New Line didn't have much else to fill their summer slate with, cut a deal: "They needed a hit for the summer and because of my track record, they thought, ‘What the hell maybe this is it'." Kasanoff agreed to halve his fee but in return he'd keep sequel, merchandising and TV rights. It was a bold move, reminiscent of George Lucas's deal with Fox on Star Wars. After Mortal Kombat became the franchise that Kasanoff believed it could, he cleaned up. "Once the movie became a hit, and those rights became enormously valuable, [New Line] were constantly trying to get those rights back from me. I think they were somewhat resentful." As the screenwriter William Goldman once said, in the movie biz "nobody knows anything". In the grey zone where videogames and movies met, that statement was doubly true.
"[Head of production at New Line] Mike [De Luca] didn't look anything like a studio executive," recalls [director Paul W.S.] Anderson. "He had torn jeans, a Black Sabbath T-shirt and you know he just looked like a skater kid. He was the first person I saw in Hollywood who had game consoles in his office. Nowadays you go into any young executive's office in Hollywood now they have toys, game systems. It's almost de rigueur - like an interior designer puts all these things there when they do the office. Mike really was the first person I'd met working in Hollywood who had an appreciation of this aspect of youth culture."
In hiring Anderson, Kasanoff and New Line were taking a big risk. But the feeling was that the project needed someone who could connect the dots to the fan audience. "There was this belief that videogame movies just didn't work, the idea of adapting videogames into movies was a flawed one," the director says. "My feeling was, it wasn't a bad idea. They really were a justifiable intellectual property to adapt into movies. It was just that no one had made a very good movie out of one yet that reflected the game correctly and that was also a movie-going experience that pleased fans as well as non-gamers. Mortal Kombat was probably the first movie to deliver that."
Throughout 1993, the Mortal Kombat phenomenon had been mentioned in nearly every newspaper in America - even before it joined Night Trap in the dock at the Senate hearings. It was synonymous with everything that was cool, edgy and violent about videogames. Parents and politicians hated it, moral crusaders denounced it. You couldn't buy publicity like that and the kids quickly claimed it as their own. Even though the movie wouldn't arrive until 1995, the brand's cultural half-life was still strong enough to make most young moviegoers' Geiger counters click like crickets on speed.
During production, as a courtesy more than anything, [Mortal Kombat creators] [John] Tobias and [Ed] Boon were flown out to visit the set. Kasanoff was keen to get them involved, though he was concerned about the impending culture clash as these Chicago videogame engineers found themselves dazzled by the bright lights of the movie biz. "There's always a tendency for people to show up in LA, get an Armani suit, a convertible and a bimbo and boom! they've gone Hollywood. There's always a risk that you're going to lose a percentage of people in doing that," he says. "But the thing with John and Ed was that they didn't believe in it. Nobody believed in this movie."
What did surprise the designers was the deference they were shown. Hollywood has always been good at playing to talents' egos and when Tobias and Boon arrived on-set they got the red carpet treatment. "Everybody was very gracious. Even the stuntmen would come up and shake our hands and thank us. What they were thanking us for was us creating the game which ultimately led to them having a job. I wasn't expecting that at all and I got a real sense of what we had created and what it had snowballed into."
"We're not making a movie based on a videogame, we're making a movie based on the story that the videogame is based on."
While the collaboration with Midway was smooth sailing, New Line was a different story. "The reality was that the studio in those days was such a mess," says Kasanoff. "You couldn't find anyone. During one of the Mortal Kombat movies I'm sitting in a teak long boat in the South China Seas [on location] and I get a phone call from the New Line office saying, ‘You know, you're not greenlit yet...' I just hang up the phone and say, ‘Action' and nobody bothers to call back until after we've finished the movie."
The studio's haphazard management style was a headache. Executives would disappear for weeks at a time and Kasanoff occasionally had to fight to get his requests met. "You'd tell them: ‘I have to fly this guy in from Xianju, China because he's the best wushu kicker in the world' and they'd look at you like you're fucking crazy: ‘Who cares? Just kick somebody'. But that's not what you do. We took extraordinary care with the martial arts. The biggest tenet of Mortal Kombat is the martial arts."
The first test screenings confirmed that. Audience feedback suggested there was too much talking, not enough punching. New Line ponied up more money and additional fight scenes were shot. When they ran it again, the reaction tested off the scale. "The audience couldn't sit still," remembers Kasanoff. "It was like they were at a Black Eyed Peas concert. Kids were getting up and fake punching each other in the aisles. That's when I realised it was a hit."
Even still, Kasanoff claims no one had faith in it, neither at New Line or Midway. Or even in Hollywood generally. "After the test screening an executive at New Line said the movie was a piece of shit," says Kasanoff in his inimitable style. "When I finished the movie I took it to Chicago to show Neil Nicastro, who was chief executive of Midway. I said, ‘You see, you said I wouldn't do it but here it is.' He sits and watches it. When it's over, he looks at me and says: ‘Three out of 10. Piece of shit.'"
Even during the opening weekend, the producer fielded calls from acquaintances telling him his career was over. "But this is Hollywood, so when it turned out it was a hit, the same people called me up and said ‘I knew it, I was behind you all the way!'"
Franchising the hell out of these properties became the standard approach. If nothing else, The Wizard had been prescient about the way videogame movies would become an issue of commerce over art. Kasanoff, who had the confidence to secure the Mortal Kombat rights early on, reaped the benefits of this approach. Mortal Kombat cost $20 million to produce and took over $23 million in just its opening weekend in the States. By the end of its theatrical run, Mortal Kombat had grossed $70 million in the US alone and $122 million worldwide.
That was just the tip of the iceberg of what would become a $3 billion cross-media franchise. "It's a lot more than a movie," Kasanoff told Cinefantastique magazine in 1995. "It's an animated video special, a live-action tour that we're doing, a series of toys and merchandise licenses, a making-of-the-movie book, a novelization of both the movie and, separately, the underlying story. It will one day be a live-action TV show, and an animated series. All that stuff is in the works or has already happened. Mortal Kombat is more than a videogame we turned into a movie. It's a phenomenal story we are cross-publishing in every medium that exists. That's what I formed the company [Threshold] to do. It's not just a movie, it's a way of life."
Taken individually the Mortal Kombat products, with the exception of the original videogame, were largely uninspired. Cumulatively, they were unstoppable. Each property fed off the others, generating heat from its cousins' exposure. As a business model it was brilliant. From a fan's perspective it was like being spoon-fed one pureed Big Mac after another. The success of Mortal Kombat - undeniably a phenomenon - told every Hollywood producer with their eye on a videogame property that the bar didn't have to be set that high. New Line and Midway's executives were right: Mortal Kombat the movie was a piece of shit. But with the right Midas Touch even turds could be gold-plated.
Mortal Kombat Online must once again thank Yellow Ant and Jamie Russel for permission to reproduce the chapter. Generation Xbox is available for digital or paperback purchase, via Amazon.
In the coming months, Mortal Kombat Online will be giving away a paperback copy of the book, along with other exciting prizes. Stay abreast of competitions and content by follow @MK_Online and liking us on Facebook. Discuss the movies and more on the Media & Merchandise forum.
With the latest Mortal Kombat movie rumors sparking a surprised reaction [full story], we're reminded that you can never take for granted what will eventuate from the adaptation process.
Video games have now spent decades flirting with cinema, but in that time, very few movies have broken through an assumed stigma of incompatibility that still exists between the interactivity of games, and the plot structure of popular film. For prominent figures like film critic, Roger Ebert -- who infamously wrote in a 2010 blog, "... video games can never be art." -- the flaw may be presumed to lie in the source.
Despite the inherent similarities between these audio-visual mediums, which fans are no doubt more sympathetic to, critics and audiences have often agreed upon the failings of big screen adaptations, resulting in as many financial flops, as bad reviews.
In the eyes of many, the fighting genre has been particularly guilty of wasting time and money. Typically deviating wildly from the spirit of what made characters successful, fighting game films have contributed some of the most costly disappointments to DVD bargain bins. Infamous titles like; Tekken (2010), The King of Fighters (2009) and The Legend of Chun-Li (2009) have worked hard to earn the mutual ire of critics, fans and audiences alike, shedding dollars in the process. Indeed, as recent reference documents, time and experience has not improved the output of video game adaptations, at all.
Released theatrically in 1995, Mortal Kombat has managed to remain one of the most successful and best regarded movies of its type.
Time and scrutiny will open the movie up to criticism and lampooning, but by sticking to the most fundamental elements of the hugely successful franchise -- which already included helping handfuls of film reference (ie; Enter the Dragon) -- Mortal Kombat: The Movie made its mark on pop culture as a whole.
Following on the heels of notoriously unsuccessful outings -- Super Mario Bros. (1993), Double Dragon (1994) and Street Fighter (1994); MK provided a stark contrast to the less confident representations of major pop culture events. The movie was the launching pad for then- youthful and stylish director, now-contentious British genre-phile, Paul W.S. Anderson, but as the book Generation Xbox: How Video Games Invaded Hollywood recounts, it wasn't a world of savvy understanding that embraced the watershed film.
It was during a visit to Midway's offices in Chicago, that [producer Larry] Kasanoff saw the company's new hot property, the Mortal Kombat coin-op. They took the movie producer down to a local arcade where it was testing off the scale. As kids crowded around the machine, Kasanoff realised they had a hit on their hands. That wasn't news to Midway. But the producer was also convinced it had potential as a movie. Their response? "Bullshit! There's no way you can do that. This is an arcade game, there's no way you can turn it into a movie." Kasanoff told them, "I don't just want to just make a movie. I want to make a franchise."
Despite the huge interest in Mortal Kombat's success, the reaction was largely one of derision or outright bewilderment. Hollywood, always risk averse, was convinced that videogame movies were the kiss of death after the corrosive impact of Super Mario Bros.. "Everyone was calling me up saying, ‘What are you doing? This is going to ruin your career. This is a videogame, this can't happen'."
Videogames were still considered a new phenomenon. The older generation of studio executives simply didn't get it. "My best story of what it was like back then was the meeting I had after I announced I had the rights to Mortal Kombat," says the producer. "[One of the studios] said, ‘This is great, come right up'. When I got there, I'm in a boardroom with millions of people and they're going: ‘This is fantastic, this is great, you've got Mortal Kombat, this is wonderful... er, what is it exactly?' I tried to explain to them but nobody even had a Nintendo console to play the game on. So we got a golf cart to drive around the lot until they found the merchandising guy. He had a console. We plug it in, I show them Mortal Kombat on Nintendo [the sanitised, bloodless version]. They looked at it for about 30 seconds, turned to me, stuck out their hands and say: ‘Well, thanks for coming.'"
"My philosophy always was: the reason why people fail making movies from videogames is because they try to make movies from videogames," Kasanoff explains, somewhat gnomically. "I thought: we're not making a movie based on a videogame, we're making a movie based on the story that the videogame is based on. The story is the centre of the wheel and the videogame is the extension of one of the spokes."
As a consumable piece of pop entertainment, MK had one eye on the times, one eye on the hugely popular source. It was a project that encapsulated the era on many levels -- an age which lacked proven reference of even cousin properties, like the comic book superheroes who dominate todays box office.
In many respects, the superhero cream that has risen to the record setting top has overcome the same difficulties that face video game cinema. Since the superhero movie era was grandfathered in by the shy black leather of X-Men (2000), the best movies have become increasingly deliberate and bold with their artful combination of visual and conceptual reference. It is progress gaming adaptations have struggled to make since 1995, and a truth to learn from as the medium ages.
Celebrating twenty years of Mortal Kombat, it's impossible to ignore the similar fictional catalogue the series has built-up -- a serial that has continued even in the latest chapter, which sets about rewriting major elements in MK history, by spring-boarding off the otherwise most recent.
The potential for the series to emulate the blockbuster pantheon of comic book adaptations is strong.
Most Watched: Legacy Flaunts Success in Variety Magazine Spot. [Source: @KTANCH]
With the success of the first Mortal Kombat film still in memory -- along with the bitter taste of its unimpressive sequel -- we await what lies ahead for the franchise. With major icons like Halo and Metal Gear Solid falling short of their hotly anticipated filmic aspirations, the burden of pressure weighs heavily on the proven record of MK, which has the potential to become a major film property again, backed by new owners, Warner Brothers.
With no less than a reported 56 Million views on YouTube, Mortal Kombat: Legacy has already carved the Dragon Logo into history, once more. As the most viewed online series in the history of the site, the game adaptation has blazed a trail in new media and set the stage for high expectations. It remains to be seen, however, how much of that audience will follow into the tradition of the box office, where tickets are more likely to only count once.
As noted in an update to the original story; Legacy director, Kevin Tancharoen, has poked fun at the widespread rumors of his films plot, first reported by Bloody Disgusting. No details have been officially released.
Special thanks to Yellow Ant for permission to use excerpts from Jamie Russel's insightful book, Generation Xbox: How Video Games Invaded Hollywood. We will be featuring more from the book soon. For more details, visit the author's website. Discuss Mortal Kombat movies and more in the Media & Merchandise forum.
Even before Mortal Kombat: Legacy wrapped its short online run [last year], rumors of an inevitable big screen return for the Dragon Logo have run rife. After months without news, plot details have been [allegedly] unearthed in an exclusive update from horror movie super-site, Bloody Disgusting.
Supermarket Sweep Kick: MK Movie to Spill Blood in Aisle 3?
The report describes a basic premise of the transformative misadventures of an everyman who discovers his internal hidden strength, "... a lowly unlucky supermarket employee who discovers that he has out of this world powers and must decide between good and evil, even though the evil side has helped him discover his true potential and who he really is."
Kevin Tancharoen (Fame (2009), Glee: The 3D Concert Movie) is still attached to direct the Warner Brothers film reboot, with mixed reports of invovlement by script writer, Oren Uziel.
Tancharoen, best known for his work in dance TV and cinema, directed the entire series of Legacy shorts, courting some controversy with his knowing departure from established reference. The director was selected for the job after making waves with the leak of his loosely inspired demo reel short, Mortal Kombat: Rebirth [full story]. Noted for its production quality, Rebirth featured several Legacy actors, appearing in scenes noted for their stark departure from recognisable Mortal Kombat trademarks.
Mortal Kombat: Legacy was released on deluxe Blu Ray, December 2011 [more]. The disc contains nine fully presented, unedited episodes, as well as featurette extras going deeper into the series.
Update: Tancharoen took to Twitter for what seems to be a light hearted response to rumors. Included is a reference to the recently delayedTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot film, produced by Michael Bay, and controversially said to feature the inclusion of a planet of alien turtles:
Rumor what rumor?I also heard that 2012 is real and TMNT are aliens!
Share your response to the Bloody Disgusting movie rumors on the forums. Follow the story by liking us on Facebook and following @MK_Online. Celebrating twenty years of Mortal Kombat, the MKOmmunity is currently voting for the supremacy of two of the series' everymen, Stryker and Johnny Cage [read more].
Coming 2013, Injustice: Gods Among Us will reunite the developers of Mortal Kombat versus DC Universe with the characters they last battled, 2008. This time, the action will focus exclusively on the heroes and villains of DC Comics [full story], opening up a universe of possibilities not afforded to the split loyalties of the previous fighting crossover.
Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Flash make their triumphant return from the Versus lineup, joined so far by Harley Quinn and Solomon Grundy, who freshen up the DC cast with their first appearance in a game of this sort. Brand new gameplay mechanics will even the odds between these unlikely opponents, seeing characters divided into two classes emphasising Power and Gadget based abilities [full story].
With more than seventy years worth of characters to draw upon, the threat of DC heroes gone rogue -- as teased by the launch trailer -- opens the playable line-up to some exciting possibilities! We're told to expect twenty-odd characters to start, with downloadable extras a likely factor in Ed Boon's bold claim that everyone's favourites will find their way into the action.
Rather than hold Ed exactly to his word, the Mortal Kombat Online staff have crammed into a satellite in Earthrealms lower orbit, intent on narrowing the list down to the Top Ten Heroes we'd most like to see! As you might have guessed, there's also a Top Ten Villains list, yet to come.
To keep things interesting, we've omitted characters who have already been announced, or made the cut previously in MK vs DC. That means no: Green Lantern, Catwoman, Captain Marvel, Darkseid, Joker, Lex Luthor, or Deathstroke -- who would all be welcome return appearances. [Eagle-eyed viewers will have already noted Lex Luthor's appearance in the launch trailer -- whatever that means. -M]
#1 Martian Manhunter Real Name: J'onn J'onnz First Appearance: Detective Comics #255 (1955)
In a game that already boasts the likes of Superman and Solomon Grundy, the challenge to differentiate basic superhero powersets like amazing strength, or flight, is a fundamental difficulty for developers. Affectionately dubbed the 'Swiss Army knife of superheroes' -- Martian Manhunter ticks all the boxes of your garden variety Superman, standing on his own with the unique hook of Martian invisibility and shape-shifting!
A charter member of the Justice League, it's no surprise that Martian Manhunter would be among the most sought after characters to miss MKvsDC. Regarded by many as the soul of the JLA, a staple appearance in recent cartoons gave MM the exposure comics fans knew he deserved. He may still be the best of the B-list, but when it comes to Earth's greatest heroes, the B-list is nothing to sneeze at!
Unlike his literary predecessors, a simple sneeze won't put the Martian Manhunter down for long, but he is famously susceptible to the humble naked flame. Whether that could play into in-game balancing is something we can only speculate, remembering the super-power chemistry debate inspired by Superman's ice breath (and Sub-Zero) that nearly made it into the game.
#2 Green Arrow Real Name: Oliver Queen First Appearance: More Fun Comics #73 (1941)
Pre-dating Marvel's avenging archer by two decades, Green Arrow may lack the big screen credentials of his counterpart, but is about to follow up a long running stint on TV's Smallville with his own live-action series pilot, Arrow! If that wasn't credential enough, he's also no stranger to the world of the fighting game, [one of only two] heroes not featured in both MK vs DC Universe and 1995's console clunker, Justice League: Task Force.
In a world where the major comic houses are directed by their cross-media branches, a TV show is pretty much a compelling case for a tie-in video game appearance! Fortunately, this beloved member of the Justice League brings with him plenty of in-game allure.
A gadget character if there ever was one -- the potential for a zone-heavy projectile style is fairly obvious, and wildly open to interpretation. Classic trick arrows offer gimmicks like a flying boxing glove, blinding flash arrow, expanding adhesive foams, explosives, nets and the classic kind that stings a lot. The potential to turn bow into close-range weapon, also an interesting prospect.
Suffering from a vintage when heroes were prone to imitation; the modern Green Arrow held a tense relationship with Batman -- a character he was seen to be a rip-off of in his early, Arrow Mobile driving years. That rivalry was put aside in 1986, when Green Arrow was one of the few DC heroes to appear in Frank Miller's gritty Bat-opus, The Dark Knight Returns -- an instrumental factor in Batman's all-human battle with Superman. Decidedly mortal, Green Arrow is a perfect choice in the event the Gods Among Us need to be stopped by their fellows!
#3 Doctor Fate Real Name: Kent Nelson First Appearance: More Fun Comics #55 (1940)
When it comes to classic designs from the golden age of comics, it's tough to go past the all encompassing helmet of Dr. Fate! The golden Helm of Nabu was most famously worn by Kent Nelson, but several characters have donned the dramatic facade, transformed into a powerful sorcerer of order, in the process.
Whether you feel it necessary to specify magic as a "weakness," or not, Dr. Fate is a compelling adversary (or ally) to Superman and the other Gods Among Us. Ranking in the upper echelon of DC Universe powers, Fate was one of the few heroes of his time to hold membership with both the Justice League and Justice Society, occasionally shelved or hampered because of his cosmic scale. The in-game possibilities are vast and visually intriguing, in the right hands, offering the kind of versatility that could really fill the gaps after mechanics are mined for the other, more tactile powers.
#4 Nightwing Real Name: Dick Grayson First Appearance: Detective Comics #38 (1940)
In a game already confirmed to contain Batman, Nightwing could be seen as a somewhat redundant, if popular, inclusion. On the heels of the Arkham games and the end of a blockbuster movie trilogy, there's always the danger of too much Bat-family, not enough DCU. If Injustice really winds up being a battle between corrupted icons and the rest of the heroes, however, there's probably no one better to go toe-to-toe with Batman than his seasoned ward.
The former Robin famously matured into his own hero in the mid-eighties, paving the way for no less than two other boy wonders, and a girl. With a famous history as a circus acrobat, Nightwing should probably play like a faster, more agile Batman, throwing in the unique fighting tool of twin batons for tech heavy, intricate gaming.
#5 Hawkman Real Name: Carter Hall First Appearance: Flash Comics #1 (1940)
Possessing a famously confused history full of alien twists and reincarnating turns, there are really only a few things you need to know about Hawkman! First and foremost, he has functioning wings and a stylized helmet, which both clearly identity him as a hawk-like man. Less readily assumed is his offensive potential, which is where the wonderful world of medieval weaponry comes colliding with everything you thought you knew!
One of the sorely missed heroes who would've meshed well with an MK style in Versus; Hawkman's most famous weapons of choice include a fixed mace, spears, metal nets, the occasional battle axe, and a gravity wielding gauntlet of doom called the Claw of Horus. Bottom line -- Hawkman is a bad ass with a moral compas that readily accomodates the occasional brutality in the name of good!
#6 Atom Real Name: Ray Palmer First Appearance: Showcase #34 (1961)
Like most DC heroes, time has seen another character don the mantle, but in the absence of certainty, we're defaulting back to the original (for this version). By any alias, Atom is your quintessential shrinking hero, capable of manipulating his molecules to disappear to the sub-atomic level, whilst retaining the full focus of his potential mass.
Putting a spin on the invisibility mechanic made famous by Reptile, Atom offers the wholely unique and very fun potential for size-altered skills. If rapid enough, shrinking could become a valuable defensive evasion technique, while bouts as a truly miniature fighter could confound and baffle opponents! For theatrics, there's always the tried and true favourite of an Atom in the eardrum -- the kind of attack that's reliably toppled the heaviest hitters of the DC Universe.
#7 Black Canary Real Name: Dinah Lance First Appearance: Justice League of America #219 (1983)
One of the (rare) enduring figures in DC's pantheon of legacy heroes, Black Canary is the continuation of the Golden Age character of the same name, with all the modern benefits. Her trademark ultrasonic scream conjures more elaborate versions of MK's Sindel, with perhaps a cinematic approach fitting some of the sequences seen in initial Injustice previews.
A friend, ally and more to Green Arrow, Black Canary comes ready packed with some interesting associations for the story mode that is being touted as an even greater upgrade to MK's award winning fight-plot [via GameInformer]. Black Canary is one of DC's many renowned martial artists, but it all comes back to the canary cry, which would no doubt have a lot of interesting applications, playing in to arena interactivity with a little imagination.
#8 Sandman Real Name: Wesley Dodds First Appearance: Adventure Comics #40 (1939)
Let's face it. When it comes to fighting games, sometimes the visual is everything. In the case of the golden age Sandman, the tastefully eerie image of a man in gas mask is enough to sell a very atmospheric addition to a roster of Gods Among Us.
Depending on your references, Sandman has his own godly connections, but as a decidedly human hero, his skills would no doubt unfold as one of the gadget characters in Injustice. His patented gas gun makes for some obvious, traditional free-hit predicaments [with opponents put to sleep], but it also comes in a steel cable, harpoon variety, recalling another familiar method of a certain fighting game character. With Sandman, it really does boil down to a unique aesthetic, an advantage for a character who can be vehicle to whatever the imagination wants.
#9 The Question Real Name: Vic Sage First Appearance: Blue Beetle #1 (1967)
The character who inspired Watchmen's Rorschach -- The Question is of a much later vintage than The Sandman, but obviously owes a lot to the trenchcoated traditions of the evolving pulp heroes. A politically saturated character, his powers are all but non-existent, save for his development of keen martial arts skills learned from DC kung-fu fighter, Richard Dragon.
Envisioned over time with elements of mysticism and deep paranoia, The Question may have a part to play in the story mode, if nothing else. A mist emitting Question may run the risk of drawing comparison to a character like Smoke, but it would be the kind of drama that could really add something special to Injustice. The kind of aesthetic quality that would rival what Capcom has achieved with their less logically concerned convulsions with the Marvel characters.
The promise of threatening Gods Among Us and the tradition of mortal men fighting the super-powers makes The Question a perfect vessel for any plotted revelations that may need to spread. Injustice may be billed as an over-the-top fighter, but if characters like this can sneak some hand-to-hand skills, it will be a nice nod to the diversity of heroes and NetherRealm Studios' origins. Get some atmospheric gas swirling around the place, and you've got yourself a memorable character.
#10 Aquaman Real Name: Arthur Curry First Appearance: More Fun Comics #73 (1941)
Quite possibly the most talked about character who didn't appear in Mortal Kombat versus DC Universe, Aquaman has battled ridicule and infamy at every turn for the last few decades. With the recent relaunch of the DC Comics line-up, Aquaman has been an obvious pet project, designed to be mocked no longer. With the grit he acquired in the nineties and an embellishment of classic facets, Aquaman is front-and-centre in the current DC Universe, all but assured a spot in any self-respecting DC fighter.
In a game that's pushing environmental interactivity, the unique potential of an acquatic theme, if not literal underwater combat, is too intriguing to pass up. As a power character, Aquaman obviously brings the standard array of liquid-theme attacks, with the summoning of off-screen whales always a contingency that could find its way into the super-moves system. Whatever the playable result, it seems the bigger surprise would be an Injustice without Aquaman. An injustice, indeed.
These are just ten of the characters we'd like to see in Injustice: Gods Among Us. In the coming week, we'll delve deeper into the DC Universe with 10 Villains. Share your Gods Among Us wishlist in the DC Universe Injustice forum. For more like our Facebook and follow @MK_Online.
A horse is a horse, of course, of course. That is, of course, unless that horse is the famous MK3 centaur, Motaro! In which case, he's not a horse at all, and is much more likely to try to rip the skin from your flesh, than exchange pithy lyrical dialogues of an equine nature.
It began with a humble poll on Mortal Kombat Online, and ever since you selected Motaro as the statue you most wanted to see, the process of turning pixel to polystone has been underway!
The MKOmmunity has been involved at every stage of production thus far, with Syco Collectibes incredibly attentive to fan feedback throughout the sculpting stages. MKO fans helped keep the little details true to the character, influencing the minutia of the 14" statue, down to the finger.
Three months after the first preview, Syco are ready to unveil the first look at a paint master version of the Motaro statue chosen and overseen by Mortal Kombat Online fans!
Images represent an unfinished product with some revision still expected, but it gives you an idea of where the process is going. Is the fully painted centaur sub-boss up to standards? Fans will be encouraged to continue to share their opinions in the official forum thread!
Despite not quite being finished, Syco Collectibles are offering the customary pre-order option, with a 20% discount for using the appropriate link. Members of Mortal Kombat Online have been assured an exclusive priority on pre-orders for at least the first week, meaning you have a guarantee not to miss out in this window, should stock be limited.
Representing the character to scale with the rest of the standard 10" line; Motaro is 13" head-to-toe, positioned on a 14" diameter base. The horizontally inclined body stretches an equal 15", making Motaro a big release in more ways than one!
Mortal Kombat Online has provided exclusive first-look coverage of various stages [above] and will continue to keep you updated on this special project! Get more updates by visiting the Media & Merchandise forum and by liking us on Facebook and following @MK_Online!
This weekend, two tribes go to war in the far off, exotic realm of Anaheim, as the dust of E3 settles to reveal the best of the East, facing the best of the West! The Major League Gaming Spring Championships are here, and the Pro Circuit is set to play host to an epic confrontation between New York's finest dominators, and the last bastion of hope for the free fighting world!
Between them, vVv CD Jr and vVv REO have laid waste to the Earthrealm Mortal Kombat ranks, leaving a trail of broken champions along the Road to Evo, whilst ruling MLG's Fighter Arena and Winter Championships with devastating ease!
Gathered before the East Coast contingent are the world's deadliest assassins! IGL's DJT and MIT will join EGP Tyrant, Xblades and Krayzie Bone in a West Coast front, backed by the likes of PowerUp Winner IKizzLE, UFGT8 Runner-Up Pig of the Hut, Evo 2011 Champion PerfectLegend, Team GGA, and many more! A full list of competitors and seeding is available at MajorLeagueGaming.com, hyperbole not included.
The Spring Championship takes place across three big days, with a whopping Mortal Kombat kitty of $26,700 -- which, in current conversion, roughly equates to mad fat skrilla, yo! Covering the cost of entry, food and drink, and a trip to the merchandise stand for a keepsake memento, will no doubt be an attractive reward for the men and woman [shout out, WhatsHerName!] contesting the title.
Tom Brady will be on the tournament sidelines, calling all the HD action live on stream -- with @MLG live tweeting elimination results [apparently]. Brady features in one of the many sideshows, this tour, when he defends the integrity of his Sub-Zero against all challengers (such as DJT). The Mirror Matches will continue with an exhibition clash between vVv CD Jr and EGP Tyrant, testing the might, mettle and metal of their respective Jax'!
Discuss all this and more on the MKO Gameplay & Matchmaking Forums -- designated realm of competitions unto a thing of tournament. We're looking for players to throw their razor-tipped hat into the online arena. Add your name to the MKOmmunity Gamer Index and make a challenge.
Developments in the archaeological world aren't necessarily the first thing you'd expect to read about on Mortal Kombat Online -- or the first thing we'd expect to report -- but when it comes to uncovering the supposed bones of a vampire in Bulgaria [via Cosmic Log], well. That piques a certain MK interest.
Vampire Remains Discovered in Bulgaria [via MSNBC]
As we embrace the twentieth anniversary of the very beginnings of Mortal Kombat, we look back upon those early, seminal experiences with fond nostalgia. As important as those origins are, we mustn't forget that a mere ten years ago, in 2002, Mortal Kombat was undergoing another milestone of metamorphosis, with the release of the transformative Deadly Alliance.
Deadly Alliance did many things that arguably make it the beginning of an MK Silver Age. For the tried and true characters of the digitized '90s, it provided the first significant establishment of individual visual identity, bolstered by unique fighting styles that had eluded the series, even in its first 3D outing (MK4). Changing circumstances that utilized elements established in previous games, but weaved them in a whole new way, embellished and polished existing fiction to form the crux of a bold new game. Around these throughlines, new layers were added to a mythos that already stood out in the world of fighting games.
One of the unusual new elements added to Deadly Alliance was Nitara -- a character who still holds the distinction of being the first and only playable vampire in Mortal Kombat.
Twenty years later, it can sometimes be easy to overlook the fact that, like most enduring fighting games of the age, Mortal Kombat was very much a pastiche. Like Street Fighter II before it, the characters of Mortal Kombat represented familiar archetypes, if not literal living individuals. Borrowing heavily from the worlds of American and Hong Kong cinema, comic books, and mythology; Mortal Kombat was a pop cultural by-product, ready-made to incorporate established concepts with flair and ease.
Through tone and texture, MKII defined something identifiably Mortal Kombat, but it was inevitable that certain tried and true formulas would find their way back to the franchise, reacting with these trademarks. The incorporation of vampires was a natural fit. Afterall, Mortal Kombat had made its name on two visceral elements integral to the mythology of the modern vampire -- blood and death.
Nitara Battles Reptile in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance (2002)
In-game mechanics defined vampires for Mortal Kombat, as much as any popular reference. For a game often perceived as being foreboding and dark, some of the more grim and morose elements of vampire mythology were left unreferenced, or at least, unspoken. Instead, the introduction of vampires brought with it a vague and simple MK twist, tying the species to another realm -- one of the many impacted by the machinations of Shao Kahn and Outworld.
As the MSNBC article describes, the Bulgarian skeleton was found with a piece of iron, conjuring images of irons classic occult properties, and the practise of iron rod impalements cited in other Bulgarian graves. Keeping the dead from becoming undead is a preoccupation found extensively in human superstition and pop myth, and is certainly an on-going concern for the heroes (and villains) of Mortal Kombat.
Ironically, MK vampires of the realm of Vaeternus (as it was revealed circa Armageddon), are quite the opposite of undead -- a romantic, elder species of bloodsucking immortals. The traditional concerns of elemental iron and impalement were brought to light, however, through the Ashrah wielded sword, Datusha.
Chinese for "massacre" -- the Datusha blade infuses a sense of Eastern mythology, along the lines of the Chinese taoist peach wood sword, used for slaying demons, or vampire equivalents. This particular sword [Datusha], we're told, goes so far as to possess its host, revealed in an online bio that expanded Nitara's participation in the compilation episode of Armageddon. This bio also introduced an ancient vampire martyr, Kahil Grigesh, responsible for slaying untold vampires before his redemption through ritual suicide, designed to trap the animate sword in the Netherrealm. A male vampire was revealed to have been in development for Deadly Alliance, but left abandoned by the final game [full story].
As a species noted to frequent Earthrealm, there's every implication that Nitara's people are the predecessors of Earth vampire mythologies, which may expand to accomodate branches of fanged human undead, bloodlusting impalers, or jiangshi hopping vampires. The latter, popular in martial arts movies of an appropriate vintage, remain apt fodder for the likes of Liu Kang and his kung fu brethren, should the option ever present itself.
Of the MK era just passed, there's a noted difficulty of relevance for characters who were, in part, created as part of tangent plotlines. Nitara may not have a stake in the battles between Earthrealm and Outworld, but with a universal grudge against Shao Kahn, and the recent introduction of his blood-borne assassin, Skarlet, you've got to think there's plenty of potential for some classic rivalry.
Nitara's Second Character Bio - Deadly Alliance (2002)
In this nostalgic Year of the Dragon, we're reminded, (via a strange bit of news), just how expansive the Mortal Kombat mythology has become over twenty years. As the newest saga of an alternate timeline fades, there remains a lot of unexplored territory for future instalments, and an elaborate canon to look back upon should the opportunity arise. Just as DC Comics has amassed an elaborate mythology, which NetherRealm Studios now commit themselves to; so too is MK a fact of the gaming canon, twenty years and running.
Nitara is one of the sixty-four characters featured in our unprecedented quest for a Supreme Mortal Kombat Champion! She faces Ashrah in tomorrows story fuelled grudge match of hunter and hunted! Make sure you're registered to add your vote to the biggest consensus ever pooled!
While the new game from NetherRealm Studios and DC Comics is played behind closed doors at E3; G4 have one of the first few public glimpses of Injustice: Gods Among Us gameplay.
The face of NetherRealm Studios, Creative Director Ed Boon, was in-studio to talk about the superhero fighter that promises to blaze new trails beyond the trademark style of Mortal Kombat, or even their first trist with superheroics, in Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe.
Interactive arenas remain a key feature of Injustice, offering a variety of strategic influences to help two classes of characters combat one another in true superhero style! Powered and gadget characters will find different ways to take advantage of mutual background elements, with vehicles, locations and destructable areas among the available options.
An initial roster of twenty-something characters is expected to be comparable to the Mortal Kombat playable line-up, with the promise of later additions through downloadable content options. The possibility of guest characters hasn't been ruled out. When asked about the odds of an appearance by one of MK's finest [via twitter], Boon offered a simple, "Anything's possible."
Characters will all possess the expected special moves to go with their trademark powers and general feats of manhandling. Super moves will take it to another level, with a measure of equivalency to MK, but a whole new mentality. Reports from various sources are already highlighting key changes, such as the implementation of holding back to block -- a standard used by games like Street Fighter and Tekken, overlooked in favour of a button, in MK. [via @jeffgerstmann]
As they say in the classics, keep your friends close, and your enemies closer! Mortal Kombat Online is expanding our scope to keep a close eye on the DC Universe! For news and discussion, visit the new DC Universe Injustice forum! For more, follow @MK_Online.
Speculation regarding NetherRealm Studios's next big project has run rife in the lead to E3, helped along a little by a recently added question mark avatar, from old Tweeting hypehound, Ed Boon.
Rumors can now be confirmed with the official announcement of Injustice: Gods Among Us -- a new DC Universe fighting game developed by the makers of Mortal Kombat.
With their establishment under new owners, and a new name and studio setup; NetherRealm were quick to express their hopes to expand into properties other than the hugely successful Mortal Kombat, for which they are best known. As their first dedicated departure from MK, Injustice is still staying well within the developer's wheelhouse, not just a fighting game, but also dealing with characters they've had plenty of experience with.
Mortal Kombat Online was, of course, with you to break the exclusive announcement of Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe -- a game that began the relationship between the MK, WB and DC initials, back in 2008. More recently, NRS received accolade for contributing support to the development of Batman: Arkham City, whilst taking full rein over its iOS spin-off, Arkham City Lockdown -- a game that included a cameo by MK mainstay, Kano.
When the heroes (and villains) of the DC Universe clashed with Mortal Kombat, the obstacle of narrative and super-powers was resolved with a simple high concept -- a mystic rage. As Ed Boon told Gamespot [below], this time the world of the heroes will receive a more attentive approach in gameplay, as characters are divided into different classes and given specific treatments accordingly.
Gadget and powered distinctions recall a vague, thematic appropriation of conceptual class seen in the MMO, DC Universe Online. The over-the-top nature of the game already promises plenty of super-human feats, with glimpses of arena interactions and character-specific attacks: vehicles as weapons, bodies hurtled through buildings, and a quick trip to the outer atmosphere.
Borrowing parallel universe tropes familiar to comic books, it seems the Justice League heroes themselves may be part of the threat, not just a victim of it. The trailer poses the question, "What if our greatest heroes became our greatest threat?" Whether this cribs from a particular comic book reference, or deviates into its own, remains to be seen. NetherRealm have been given license to reinvent the characters visually, though, to reflect a unique state based on iconic and current looks.
Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and Flash take another shot at the fight game, with Solomon Grundy and Harley Quinn also featured in gameplay snippets. Lex Luthor makes a brief cameo in CG custcene, taking a heat vision beating from his Kryptonian arch-nemesis, clad in his trademark powersuit familiar to MKvsDC and comics fans, alike.
Injustice is scheduled for an undetermined 2013 release, meaning more news is likely to be on its way. You can glean more from the official website, Injustice.com, and the promotional Twitter account, @InjusticeGame. Discuss the DC fighting games in our newly launched DC Universe Injustice Forum!
