The characters of Mortal Kombat have always been major attractions for the fighting series. In the build-up to the latest game, we were intrigued as fighters new and old were introduced in fully rendered detail. With Mortal Kombat X officially out now - you can now see the komplete kast as they appear in the game's loading screens!

Fans who've purchased The Kombat Pack officially have access to their first perk! The early download of Samurai Pack skins has been available for the past day to anyone who has confirmed their Kombat Pack access!

To mark the release of Mortal Kombat X Mobile [full story], the AppStore has featured official character render artwork of Kenshi! See it below:

Mortal Kombat X is less than two weeks away - but if that's still too long to wait, IGN have a 25 minute preview of the story mode. Note: The preview is a walkthrough of Chapter 1 and will contain extensive spoilers! Continue at your own risk:

Updates to the Mortal Kombat X: Premium Edition bundle on Xbox Marketplace have revealed artwork for the first wave of downloadable content skins - the Samurai Pack!

Droid Gamers went hands-on with Mortal Kombat X Mobile at last week's Game Developers Conference. The footage shows some basic gameplay, including recently revealed return kombatant Kenshi.

During last week's Game Developers Conference, various press members were granted a hands-on preview with Mortal Kombat X and the first chapter of its exciting new Story Mode! Early word revealed Kenshi & Johnny Cage's playable involvement but with embargoes lifted, new details are flooding in from all sides!

Character speculation will be one of the last topics to die, especially with downloadable content beyond the horizon! Polygon has one of the best previews, revealing the ambitious scope of the game that awaits: "There are battles with hundreds of non-player characters and Mortal Kombat cameos, Urbano said, on a scale that NetherRealm just couldn't pull off before."

Among the "hundreds" of cameos are some expected returns. Johnny Cage, Sonya Blade, Kenshi, Raiden & Fujin reportedly lead the fight for the home team, while undead revenants of Jax, Sindel, Stryker, Kabal & Smoke battle under the control of Quan Chi. This continues the plot initiated during the last game, where the defeated warriors' souls were seized in the Netherrealm. IGN notes an appearance by Nightwolf, who was also among the dead fighters, as well.

It's the Netherrealm's invasion that is the subject of story mode's opening chapter. This refers to the expected continuation of the new timeline, revisiting the original plot of MK4. We saw glimpses of invading villain Shinnok and his struggle with the heroes in the Story Mode Trailer and again in the Cage Family Trailer. According to IGN, Shinnok is the final battle of Chapter 1.

No one has been able to distinguish the playable roster from the story mode cameos. Shinnok and Jax both appeared in one-on-one fights - each with 3 variations, according to Hardcore Gamers. IGN notes, "We have no idea yet, but there are a bunch more slots on the character select screen that need to be filled..." Polygon adds, "... we did see a couple of unannounced playable fighters, including Erron Black, in the game's attract mode."

Migrating from challenge modes in Mortal Kombat (2011) and Injustice: Gods Among Us into the story are "quick time events". Simple inputs determine the outcome of conflict that doesn't fit into traditional side-to-side kombat. GameInformer have a particularly evocative description of their experience, which explains the continuing sequence involving Johnny Cage and a notably heroic Kenshi:

"They’re en route to Raiden’s Sky Temple, where the lightning god is making a last stand against Shinnok’s forces. Whirring over the on-the-ground action sounds like a pretty great plan until the windshield is pierced by another familiar sight: Scorpion’s chain-blade. The soldiers in the back of the helicopter look around frantically, when Scorpion surprises the crew by appearing in the rear of the aircraft. There’s a battle, of course, and I’m paying such close attention to it all that I miss an unexpected quick-time event. It doesn’t kick me out to a game-over screen, but the action immediately shifts to show Johnny Cage blowing a series of blocks and taking damage. I do a better job of keeping up over the next few sequences, and Johnny reverses the course of the fight. He more than holds his own until Sub-Zero joins the party, freezing a couple of attackers’ heads and shattering them against each other."

MTV have an exclusive preview of this Wednesday's print edition of Mortal Kombat X #1 from DC Comics!

With a US retail price of $3.99, the print version is solicited at a hefty 40 pages. The MTV preview is a fine illustration of the substantial format differences between digital and print - the latter encompassing three of the digital chapters [99c each].

Questions of medium and format weighed heavily when Mortal Kombat Online took a critical look at Chapter One.

The story follows Kenshi and his son Takeda as they go on the run from Hsu Hao and the forces of the Red Dragon Clan. Alluding to untold tales, Kenshi seeks the refuge of Scorpion and his new Shirai Ryu Temple. Also featured in the issue: Sub-Zero, Kano and the curse of the kamidogu!

After months of anticipation, Mortal Kombat X comics have finally arrived!

Only the first digital chapter is available thus far [purchase], which Mortal Kombat Online will be reviewing here. For the full print issue, you'll have to hit up your local comic shop January 14th! If you haven't pre-ordered, make sure you show your interest for future issues!

DC Comics' first foray into the Mortal Kombat comics business has had a lot of time to build interest since it was announced at October's NYCC. If you download Chapter One looking for all the answers to your every question - you're not playing with fair expectations. That said, if you pay the 99c expecting some substantial answers, it may be the comic that comes up short of the title on the cover.

As seen in yesterday's preview; Kenshi takes centre stage in a cold opening set in the Himalayan wilderness "many years ago". It's an action sequence that would've played better in a pre-credits crash for television, but where it isn't informative in detail, it is very indicative of the type of read that follows.

The beats are kept remarkably simple, as if designed to fit into 16-bit text on a home cartridge, rather than a 40 page comic: Kenshi has been working undercover with the Red Dragon Clan [for the Outerworld Investigation Agency, we're forced to presume]; his cover was blown; Sonya Blade called to tell him he has a child in Thailand; the blind sword saint was too late to rescue mother from the Red Dragon; he has the boy and is on the run.