IGN has just published a new interview with series creator Ed Boon along with a CGI trailer from the upcoming Mortal Kombat game. Below are a few excerpts from the interview.

"Well, right now we're getting ready for the PAX show. This is going to be the first time that the public gets to play, and we're excited about that. We have a number of these events, shows and things that we're planning for. So we do that while at the same time kind of advancing the game forward in general, but our most immediate goal is getting a version ready for PAX."

"[At PAX] There's going to be all the characters from E3 – which I think there were six or eight – with the addition of Kitana from Mortal Kombat 2 and Cyrax from Mortal Kombat 3."

"And now, we're coming back with a vengeance. As aggressively as possible in all those categories that I talked about. To me personally, I'm confident that the people who play are going to walk away totally psyched to buy this game."

The trailer is comprised of the characters silhouettes fighting one another as shadows. Scorpion materialises out of his shadow engulfed in flames. The song accompanying the trailer is by rock band Disturbed - Another Way To Die.

This Interview and the new trailer can be viewed over at IGN right here.

Our friends over at TRMK have just posted some images of the Mortal Kombat 2011 Arcade Cabinets. Whilst the purpose of them isn't entirely known yet, We may get some more information regarding them at the Gamestop Managers Show which began today.

Also according to TRMK's sources who are attending the event. There will be a playable demo of the game for the attendees' and also a Tournament event which will be held from 6pm to 9pm CST tomorrow.

Staying within the humour element of Mortal Kombat. Photo oppurtunists can smile for the camera by placing their heads in cut-out holes of Mileena and Sub-Zero boards where the characters are performing a fatality.

We will provide you with more information of this event as it becomes available.

To read the original story at TRMK, click here.

IGN Editor Greg Miller has posted an exciting blog inviting players to join him in a private playable demo of Mortal Kombat in the Warner Bros booth at the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) which begins this Friday.

For your chance to be one of the chosen seven players to get your hands on the game simply send him an email - gmiller@ign.com with PAX MK as the subject.

To view his blog post please click HERE.

The folks over at ScrewAttack Have put together a list of what they perceived to be the top ten worst Fatalities in MK's history. In addition to general gripes about Babalities, Frienships, etc. as well as 18 skulls and 32 ribcages in the style of the MK3 era of violence, there are specific finishers they find issue with. Here they are:

10. Tanya's Neck Breaker Fatality (MK4)

9. Kabal's Face Scare Fatality (MK3)

8. Sindel's Swan Dive Hara-Kiri (MK Deception)

7. Kenshi's Telekinetic Destroyer Fatality (MK Deadly Alliance)

6. Quan Chi's Neck Stretch Fatality (MK Deadly Alliance)

5. Raiden's Dual Electrocution Fatality (MK Deception)

4. Reptile's Chimpanzee Animality (Ultimate MK3)

3. Motaro's Head Pull Fatality (MK Trilogy)

2. Liu Kang's Cartwheel Uppercut Fatality (MK1)

1. MK vs. DC overall.

To see the video of the list in its entirety, click here.

For this week's Fatality Friday, the MKCommunityManager has revealed the top choice of the community for favorite fatality from the legendary Mortal Kombat II. After being notably snubbed by GameTrailers, Kung Lao's vertical hat slice fatality took home the top prize! The classic fatality is slated to make a return in the upcoming game as part of one of Kung Lao's fatalities.

Be sure to follow Mortal Kombat on Twitter and participate in the weekly questions posted by the community manager. The page is located here.

Thanks to KingofKings97 for notifying us of this story!

Today Game Informer has released a new interview with Mortal Kombat creator, Ed Boon. Little new information regarding the game is discussed within the interview, but Ed seemingly puts to rest the rumored inclusions of both Friendships and Animalities.

GI: Does the new Mortal Kombat have some of the silliness of the older games? Like Jax’s giant foot stomping down?

Boon: I think in every Mortal Kombat game we put a touch of silliness in it, because we’re not taking it seriously. When we say, ‘Kung Lao cuts your head off and then cuts you in half and then you split like this,’ we’re not like [mock serious tone] ‘Good job.’ It’s just so ridiculous that you would do that to somebody, that for us we need to remind everybody that we’re not being very serious. So we’ll have the ‘Toasty’ guy or have someone turn into a baby, but we’re not going to go crazy with that. We’re not going to do animalities or friendships or the over the top humorous stuff, but we are going to have funny elements.

To read the interview in full, click here.

Our thanks to forum members Ninja_Mime and BADASS6669 for the heads up on this news lead.

Kotaku has posted an intriguing article where they interview Ed Boon about the future of Mortal Kombat, Life after Midway Games and what's in store for Netherrealm Studios. Below are a few excerpts of interest.

"First, the developer has to wrap up work on its new Mortal Kombat fighting game, due sometime in 2011. Boon estimates an arrival in the first half of that year, giving the team at NetherRealm Studios more time to polish the game than it had been at failed publisher Midway.".

"We're going to have a Krypt. It's going to have a really elaborate and sophisticated unlocking system," Boon says. "We'll have really deep online stuff. Not to say that we're never going to do [those over the top bonus modes] again, but this game's not going to have a puzzle game or chess game. This is really us focusing on those first three games".

"Warner Bros. made it pretty clear when we came on, that there's a lot more than can be done with Mortal Kombat," Boon says. "Not 'a lot more' as in, 'Let's release two games a year' and beat it into the ground. A lot more in terms of other media—movies, comic books, TV shows, stuff like that."

This Interview also discusses plans for another Spin-Off game and the potential ressurection of the Arcade game The Grid amongst other tidbits. To read the Interview in full, click here.

Chicago Now's own GameSmith (Ryan Smith) has conducted an interview with Ed Boon (presumably after Boon's return from GameCon in Germany). From the interview:

GameSmith: It seems like there is a lot of buzz from the media and fans about this new reboot of Mortal Kombat.
Ed Boon: Yeah, there's this whole resurgence, retro thing going on. Street Fighter just recently had a lot of success going back to its roots. Sonic the Hedgehog is coming back. And now MK. So in a way I feel like the planets are aligned. We just happened to want to do a reboot at the same time. There's sort of a lightning strike situation going.

To read the original interview, click here.

Canadian gaming site Console Creatures has posted an Interview with executive producer of the game Shaun Himmerick from the Microsoft event X10. Below are a few interesting points made during the interview:

"[Internal Skeleton System] The heart, The lungs, The brain; The tongue. We can separate the model from the neck or even the jaw, So you can see the tongue flapping around, The brain can fall out"

"Hidden Characters that didn't even exist. We're gonna make sure they exist now".

"You look at Babalities, Animalities; Friendships. We're not gonna bring all those back, But I promise you we will bring at least one of those back".

Shaun also touches up on Online with a King of the Hill Mode and Stringing Combos among other tidbits. To watch the Interview in full, click here.

CVG recently caught up with producer Hector Sanchez at Gamescom and decided to touch on an all too familiar subject: Mortal Kombat vs. Street Fighter. The two fighting series often cited as the birth of the mainstream fighting genre have been rumored to join forces several times over the last decade. Mortal Kombat series creator Ed Boon has stated multiple times he would love for the project to come to life.

Hector used the word "inevitable" to describe the game, but stated that it largely depended on the success of the upcoming crossover title Street Fighter vs. Tekken. Though the obvious problems such as which company would produce the game and how Capcom would feel towards Mortal Kombat's higher level of violence would need to be addressed. This is obviously not a confirmation any new progress has been made, but it at least shows the continued interest of NetherЯealm Studios to pursue this title.

The idea for this game was featured in a recent poll on GameFAQs with several other options, competing competitively in the results and bringing in over 20% of the vote.

To read the article on CVG, click here.

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

Shacknews has posted an informative hands-on preview article from the Microsoft event X10 concerning various aspects of the latest installment of Mortal Kombat. Below are a few interesting excerpts from the article.

"Each level is designed to have at least one unique feature. The newest level I was shown featured rolling sandstorms that grew as matches progressed. The effect can sometimes blind the action but never in a way that disrupted the combat".

"Fatalities return as a demonstration of how brutal the series can be. Sub-Zero's final move, for example, freezes an enemy from the waist-down before the masked fighter rips the torso from his or her body. Blood and guts are back, ladies and gentlemen. In its current state, Fatalities are a simple two-button combination of buttons. Producer Urbano says that will change but notes the team isn't against keeping it extremely simple in the final version. Personally, I'd prefer it simple".

"As for the game's story mode, players will run through a "much longer" narrative that was present in MK vs. DC. In the mode, players will play as multiple Mortal Kombat characters. According to Urbano, the "story" component of past Mortal Kombat games usually get ignored by players in favor of arcade action. They'd like to change that this time around."

This preview also mentions plans for Online, Game balancing and tweaks aswell as how Kitana and Cyrax play. To read the article in full, click here.

Over on the official Mortal Kombat Twitter page, the fans were challenged to give their favorite fatality for the original Mortal Kombat arcade game, as part of what was tagged #MortalMonday. The votes are in, and today the winner was announced as part of #FatalityFriday. The winner, unsurprisingly. is Sub-Zero's spine rip!

Undoubtedly more #MortalMondays and #FatalityFridays are on the way; once we learn of them, we'll report it here!

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

Mortal Kombat is making the rounds today as coverage of Gamescom in Cologne, Germany has gotten under way! German fansite MKUniverse is covering the event and are reporting that the two characters alluded to by Ed Boon are the Princess of Edenia, Kitana and the yellow cyborg Cyrax. The two arenas mentioned by Ed are both from Mortal Kombat 3: The Bell Tower and Jade's Desert.

Undoubtedly more news will surface throughout the day, but these much anticipated confirmations have made their presence known fairly early on.

Update #1: An image bundle has been released by Netherrealm Studios showing us six high resolution images including the newly announced characters Kitana and Cyrax as well as the newly re-imagined Bell Tower and Jade's Desert arenas. An additional community-exclusive image of Scorpion using his spear on Johnny Cage is also available.

Update #2: Also IGN has published a Hands-On article of the game which describes one of Cyrax's fatalities. "Cyrax takes his saw blades and sheers the opponent's body into five pieces that stay together, finishing him up with a body-shattering kick."
Also described is the previously seen Stage Fatality. "The Pit II – a recreation of the same stage in Mortal Kombat II – gives winners the opportunity to uppercut the losers off the ledge onto spikes below, but the twist is much more grotesque, with endtrails shoved up out of the body and sticking to the spires." You can view the article in it's entirety right here.

Update #3: Game Informer has just posted an online Article stating that the game is "Built For Post-Launch Balancing". The article states that the game has been designed to accomodate future tweaks and to fix inevitable exploits over looked during development. Their full Interview Transcript with Ed Boon will be available on their site next week.

Update #4: Kotaku has just posted their impressions for the game. The article talks about how Cyrax and Kitana play aswell as listing Kitana's fatality and Cyrax's second. Kitana's fatality comprises of chopping the arms of her opponent then severing their head. Cyrax's on the other hand has a "more powerful net that he can throw at opponents, one that passes through their bodies like a razor wire mesh, slices off limbs and head and, in general, fucking them right up." You can view the article in full right here .

Update #5: Spanish gaming site Meristation has posted a hands on preview of the game as well. New tidbits such as the return of the Krypt are alluded to and new details regarding the difficulty system of the game are revealed, including that currently the AI is set on the same level. Upping the difficulty increases the amount of damage done to your character. Thanks to MK Online forum member Shinomune for providing translation. MK Universe.de has posted their interview with Ed Boon as well. Click here to check it out.

Update #6: A new Ed Boon video interview, one from GameSpot . The most exciting piece of information seems to be the mention of a new challenge mode in single player, although the full details haven't been officially announced yet. To watch the GameSpot interview, click here.

Update #7: Another Ed Boon interview from GamesCom is up, this one from GamerLiveTV. They mostly discuss video game violence as well as the fact that MK (2011) is a return to the first three MK games. Check it out here.

Update #8: The folks over at MKUniverse.LU have posted an interview with both Hans Lo and Ed Boon. They ask about multi-tiered stages, the return of Dan "Toasty" Forden, Test Your Might, and more. You can watch part 1 of the interview here. (Part 2 should be available soon.)

Update #9: Another Ed Boon interview from GamesCon 2010, this one from GameTrailers. Not a whole of new information at this point, but check it out here.

As the event has come to a close, this likely concludes coverage of Gamescom 2010. We will keep an eye out for any additional material that may surface in the coming days, however.

Our friends over at TRMK have just posted a pretty amazing bombshell: according to their sources, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment is in the process of developing a re-release of Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3! However, this collection will have more in common with Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix than Midway Arcade Treasures. Entitled Mortal Kombat HD Kollection, the game will be a high-definition remake of the first three Mortal Kombat arcade games. From the article:

Unlike Capcom's Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix, which required new character drawings, remaking Mortal Kombat in high definition is not as easy. In order to properly recreate the series in HD, Warner Bros. needed to film actors performing the moves like they originally did 20 years ago, just now with better high-definition cameras. Resorting to hand-drawn characters, or using 3D models in place of real actors would just not look right and cause many fans to revolt. However, things are not as simple as that. Since the previous actors are now 20 years older and - in most cases - wouldn't look to be the right age in high definition, Warner Bros. has hired new actors for the various roles and have been busy capturing them over the past few months at a Warner Bros. Studio in Los Angeles. TRMK has also heard that some of the original cast is involved in the filming in some capacity as well.

...

Since we know the filming was taking place as recently as earlier this month, the latest rumors placing it's release to be before Christmas is questionable. While it is possible, the rumored release is fairly unlikely unless the replacement of the character sprites is one of the final steps left in development. It just seems too close to be possible given time needed for testing, certification, etc. We also doubt that Mortal Kombat HD Kollection is only for the PlayStation 3 unless some really good exclusivity deal was reached with Sony, as currently fighting games for both systems sell fairly well unlike the previous generation of consoles which favored the PlayStation 2.

TRMK also notes that they're not sure who is developing the game, as Netherrealm Studios is neck-deep in the new MK game. Their guess is Backbone Entertainment, but that is not certain, especially given that filming for the game is taking place in a different city than Backbone's offices.

We'll definitely keep an eye out for this game; as we learn more, we'll be sure to report it here!

To read the original story at TRMK, click here.

We are happy to announce that the upcoming game Mortal Kombat will be showcased at both the Cologne Games Con and PAX 2010 in Seattle. Several responses on Twitter by WB representatives confirm as much. Also confirmed is that several new characters will be announced at these events, so stay tuned in the coming days as we get our first taste of big news since this year's E3.

NinjaBoy66: More characters will be announced at GC. Listen to Ed's comments about the roster during E3 interviews it will reveal clues. Can't say more 1:29 AM Aug 11th

GamesCon runs from August 18-22. PAX runs from September 3-5. Thanks to forum member Tyrant-Cenobite for acquiring this information!

ScrewAttack has posted an in-depth article concerning the various mini-games that have been found throughout the history of the Mortal Kombat series. Since the early days of the series in the 1990's, Mortal Kombat has always included fun bonuses to entertain players. It began with the Test Your Might mini-game in MK1 and continued with in game versions of Galaga and Pong. With the evolution of the sixth-console generation, the MK team began to expand these games from simple time passers to full fledged modes of their own. Our first taste of this was in 2004's Mortal Kombat: Deception which gave us both Chess Kombat and Puzzle Kombat. Motor Kombat came with Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. The side adventure game Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks had a special versus mode apart from the main game as well. From the article:

I'm a big fan of puzzle games. I believe that Tetris Attack is possibly the greatest puzzle game ever made, and I once skipped school to beat someone's score in Popcap's Alchemy so they would stop bragging. So it should be a surprise to no one that I viewed Puzzle Kombat as an equal to the Transformers delivering me gold bars while I'm accepting honors for writing the greatest novel in history - and watching Black Dynamite at the same time. I loved this game, and I still do.

This mini-game takes the idea of tradition chess and takes lots of liberties. You still have differing pieces, but the pieces are very unusual. You have your usual pawns then sorcerers, shifters, champions, and a leader(king). A round of Mortal Kombat is played each time two pieces meet in a square, and that's where a lot of the differences in pieces show up.

Shaolin Monks' Versus Mode was the closest thing to taking MK to true 3D. The process behind it is simple: Shaolin Monks takes the best of MK to open 3D, non-round combat. The Versus Mode takes SM(Shaolin Monks), narrows it to an arena - or stage - and brings back traditional, best of three combat. The best way to describe this is to compare it to the cult classic fighter Ehrgeiz.

The last yet most recent mini-game I'm going to mention is a ripoff of a very famous franchise but still ridiculously fun: Motor Kombat. Take Super Mario Kart, restrict the number of tracks(it is a mini-game after all), add in the madness that you expect from Mortal Kombat, and you've got a badass mini-game. Motor Kombat features special moves, death traps, multiple characters, shortcuts and more.

To read the article in full, click here.

The long running ScrewAttack show on GameTrailers has posted a list of their favorite 10 fatalities from the Mortal Kombat series. The list spans from Mortal Kombat 1 through MK: Shaolin Monks release wise and features the likes of Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Liu Kang and Johnny Cage. Below is a recap of their top 10:

• 10) Reptile - Face Eat (Mortal Kombat 4)
• 9) Quan Chi - Leg Rip/Beat (Mortal Kombat 4)
• 8) Dairou - Rib Rip (Mortal Kombat: Deception)
• 7) Cyrax - Trash Compactor (Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance)
• 6) Kano - Skeleton Rip (Mortal Kombat 3)
• 5) Baraka - Stab Lift (Mortal Kombat 2)
• 4) Scorpion - Spear/Head Rip (Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance)
• 3) Johnny Cage - Nut Punch Combo (Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks)
• 2) Liu Kang - Dragon Morph (Mortal Kombat 2)
• 1) Sub-Zero - Spine Rip (Mortal Kombat)

To watch the video in full with commentary, click here.