Recently, Game Informer caught up with series co-creator Ed Boon and touched on a subject unknown to most. Following the release of Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks Paradox Studios was slated to do another game featuring rivals Scorpion and Sub-Zero called Mortal Kombat: Fire And Ice. The game apparently would have played somewhat similar to Shaolin Monks, but due to funding the concept was eventually abandoned.

"When they finished [Shaolin Monks], the guys at Paradox were gonna do another one called Fire & Ice. It was gonna be a co-operative Scorpion and Sub-Zero game," Boon said. "They actually started the early stages of that game, but they couldn’t do it in time and under budget, so the project was canceled and kind of went away."

The interview goes on to ridicule the much maligned spinoff Mortal Kombat Special Forces, to which Ed Boon admits the game probably shouldn't have been shipped. Several months ago, Ed mentioned this mysterious game on his Twitter account with the simple message of "Fire And Ice!", a clue to this then unknown entity. To read the full article on Game Informer, click here.

Thanks to forum member -NIGHTWOLF- for the word on this story!

It looks like James Kozanecki over at GameSpot Australia had the chance to interview Hector Sanchez from the MK design team at NetheЯRealm Studios! Here’s a little bit of what he had to say:

Hector Sanchez: “We’re opening up the frame windows a little bit more to link combos together... We’re not doing the dial-a-combo thing that Mortal Kombat’s had before. The combos are actually customized for each one of the characters and as you play more, you’ll be able to discover different combos that work together. It’s not just ‘Okay, hit these six buttons in a row’ and then some canned animation plays. Everything actually flows together, the animations open up on certain frame counts. We’re really trying to get that more in-depth – pay attention to what’s going on, get your timing together, and stuff. There’s a lot of cool surprises. I’m sure soon enough, just like with any other game, the fans are going to discover things that even we didn’t think of. We’re giving the fans the tools, and we’ll see what kind of painting they can come up with the tools.”

To watch the video in its entirety, click here and fast forward to about the 4:40 mark. A big thanks to fellow MK fansite Inside Mortal Kombat for the word on this update!

Last week it was revealed that the upcoming Mortal Kombat game would be making a featured appearance in Australia's Hyper magazine. Today we report on the material covered within this magazine. Though not much new is mentioned, the magazine contains several images featuring the likes of Sektor and Reptile as well as a high quality artwork of Raiden. In addition, there is a timeline of Mortal Kombat's history.

Ed Boon (on secret characters): I wouldn't want to give anything away this early in the campaign, but I'm hopeful that long-time fans of the series will be pleased with the choices we've made in regards to the character roster. We're doing our best to keep the elements of Mortal Kombat that have made it as successful as it has been at the forefront of our minds during development. Secrets are definitely a big part of that.

Ed Boon (on influences): We've been inspired by all sorts of media in making MK. Many movies like Enter the Dragon, Bloodsport, and Star Wars have inspired us. Comic books have also inspired us over the years as you saw with our last title that had the DC characters in the roster. Obviously, we need to mention Street Fighter and Karate Champ as great inspirations. Those games really put the fighting game genre on the map.

Please remember that we do not permit scans of the magazine on our forums, nor do we allow offsite links to scans or the requesting or advertising of scans. This is done with a legal purpose in mind, not to keep content from our users. We will do our best to report on these magazines as they are released and we ask for your cooperation in our scan policy. We ask if at all possible, you make a legal purchase of Issue 202 of Hyper.

The official Mortal Kombat Facebook site updated with a few renders of characters from the upcoming Mortal Kombat game posing on the front of EGM and Hyper magazines. As noted earlier, Mortal Kombat was in the most recent issue of EGM and was featured on the cover. The Australian gaming magazine Hyper will be running a story for the game in their August 2010 issue. Scorpion appears on the cover, giving fans a larger glimpse of his look first seen on the select screen during E3.

The EGM magazine, as noted previously, had an alternate cover featuring Raiden. Below is an image of that.

Thanks to forum member Vash_15 for the lead on this story!

Another interesting interview from E3 2010 has surfaced, this time featuring Hector Sanchez of Netherrealm Studios taking the questions from IG. He was able to confirm a few small details regarding the character roster and the gameplay modes. Below is a list of what is confirmed in this interview:

• Raiden will be playable
• Shang Tsung is heavily implied to be in the game
• Each character will have an unlockable alternate costume
• Konquest mode will not return
• More modes featuring the 2D kombat engine

Hector, similarly to Ed Boon when asked the question about new characters, dodges it by saying that the game will be a retelling of the first three games in the series, but not everything will go as it did the first time around. This continues speculation that there will be characters from Mortal Kombat 4 and on or possibly a new character within the game. He also says the roster is finalized and that he knows all the characters that will be in the game.

To watch the interview in full, click here.