There has been a definite drought of information regarding Mortal Kombat: Armageddon recently; however, our friends over at Midway know that interest in new information is strong. To that end, to give us a bit of a teaser as to what to expect, they've released to us seven exclusive load screen images! These loading screen images features grudge matches made popular in the games (and one from the movies!); they show Johnny Cage and Goro, Cyrax and Sektor, Kitana and Mileena, Reiko and Shao Kahn, two images of Sub-Zero and Scorpion, and Liu Kang (in zombie form) and Shang Tsung!

Over on the Midway Boards, Cinder has once again come through and posted some more koncept drawings from the soon-to-be-released action/adventure game Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks! This time, Cinder has posted two koncept drawings. The first is a color drawing of one of the two title characters, Kung Lao! The other is a koncept drawing of the Outworld female assassin, Mileena!

Midway has released five new screenshots from their upcoming action/adventure game, Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks! These five shots show a couple of interesting surprises, including Scorpion's UMK3 costume, Reptile giving an odd kick to Liu Kang, and Mileena taking a bit of a fire bath.

Two new pieces of concept art from Midway's upcoming Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks have been released. Over on the Midway Forums, an administrator going by the nickname Cinder has posted a pencil sketch of the three female Outworld assassins, Jade, Kitana, and Mileena!

The three ladies will be seen in their own boss battle in the game, where you have to fight all three simultaneously.

In addition, Cinder posted a "koncept render" of Kung Lao that was designed for the upcoming TV spot. In his post, Cinder says the full-size render "could make good wallpaper".

GameSpot has posted a preview of Midway's upcoming action/adventure game, Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks! According to the article, the game will be released for the Playstation 2 and X-Box platforms in late 2005. The preview also gives some information about what to expect from the game. From the preview:

Few hard details have been revealed so far about Shaolin Monks' gameplay or setting--the game looks to be a brawler-style action game, and it's a pretty safe bet that we'll be seeing plenty of places and faces from previous MK fighting games in this new action adventure. Mortal Kombat fans will notice Liu Kang, Kung Lao, Mileena, and the recently returned Baraka in the new screenshots, not to mention backgrounds like the portal and the tower from Mortal Kombat II. Interestingly enough, some screens show several Baraka-like characters fighting at one time. Perhaps we'll finally get some more background on Baraka's often-discussed race of Outworld mutants as Shaolin Monks' storyline unfolds.

The game will have both single-player and cooperative modes, and though the number of simultaneous players hasn't been revealed, it's worth noting that the screenshots don't seem to contain more than two classic characters onscreen at any one time. Like the recently released Mortal Kombat: Deception, Shaolin Monks will contain many backgrounds with interactive features like spiked ceilings, acid pits, and living trees (we appreciate the many nods to MKII that are apparently being included in the game). And of course, no Mortal Kombat game would be complete without a host of gory new fatalities.

The article also contains eight screenshots of in-game action. To see the preview in its entirety, click here.

In addition, GameSpot has posted a news article acting as an announcement of Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks. Of particular note is a statement by Midway CEO David Zucker concerning the release schedule of future MK games. From the article:

The other big change to the Mortal Kombat series is its frequency. In a statement, Midway president David F. Zucker said a new game in the franchise would arrive each year. “Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks is also our first step toward delivering something that Mortal Kombat fans have been calling for: a new game set in the Mortal Kombat universe every year," he said. "We are planning our Mortal Kombat release schedule with the expectation that we will deliver a new Mortal Kombat title annually.�

To read the news article in its entirety, click here. Keep checking back with us; as we learn more about Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, we'll be sure to report it.

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

The latest issue of Game Informer has hit newsstands, containing a four-page preview of Mortal Kombat: Deception! This issue sheds some new light on the game, and confirms some rumours that had been making the rounds. This article is more of an interview, with members of the MKD design team answering the magazine's questions.

The first point brought up is the character list, and John Vogel confirms that the boss is the Dragon King, and "he's been very 'deceptive'." Steve Beran confirms some of the returning characters: Baraka, Mileena, Noob Saibot, Smoke, Tanya, Ermac, Sindel, and Kabal are all returning. In addition, Luis Mangubat confirms that Liu Kang will be returning as both a ghost and a zombie. The reason for Sub-Zero's altered appearance is also explained, as they wanted to make him look more Chinese and distinct from Scorpion. Herman Sanchez also gives the names of some of the new characters, such as Kira (a female Black Dragon member, whose sketch is shown in the magazine; her costume looks similar to Sonya's), Dairou (a ronin samurai with a score to settle), Ben (a martial arts champion; possibly the source of the "Ken Masters" rumor?), and Ashrah (a mystical demon huntress).

In terms of gameplay, Ed Boon revealed that the characters will again have three different fighting styles, but that they will be even more distinct from one another this time around. Stage weapons were also touched upon, as Jay Biondo explained the stage weapons were much more powerful than standard weapons, but harder to get to. He explains that "getting these weapons will be a challenge, as they are placed near death traps, hidden in secret locations, and sometimes even encased inside other interactive background elements." In the realm of combos, Ed Boon explained that each fighting style and character will have more combos, but each character will also have "break out" moves (similar to combo breakers from Killer Instinct?). As he explains, "This should really even the playfield when fighting against someone who has mastered a character's combos."

They also discuss fatalities as well. Carlos Pesina confirms each character will have two "tasty" fatalities. In addition, he explains, "Unlike Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, limbs can be severed and there will be several Fatalities that take advantage of this new feature. One example would be the fatality in which the attacker rips the opponent's arms off and then beats him with them." A couple of new stage fatalities are also seen in the form of concept drawings. The first shows a multi-layer ice cavern stage, where characters break through floors of ice. If a character is knocked through the bottom-most one, he is devoured by the gigantic ice worm lurking below. In another, a large structure shaped like a dragon's mouth is at the side of an arena; when a character is tossed into it, it chomps down like a rock crusher and crushes the character within it. In addition, Mike Taran gives an idea of what to expect:

"... you will see opponents get buried in rock avalanches, smashed by giant steel presses, ripped to shreds with grinders, eaten by giant slugs, gored with spikes, shaved into chunks with spinning blades, boiled in lava, impaled on stalagmites, or cut to pieces by lasers... Awww yea!"

The article also covers Konquest, Chess, and Puzzle Kombat modes. Nothing really new is covered concerning the first two modes, but Nick Shin gives a bit of new detail concerning Puzzle Kombat:

"You select a character that's unique by their special move abilities. Some of them have offensive power moves that fill up your opponent's screen, while others have defensive moves to help clear our your own screen. Each background in this game mode is also unique in that you get to see Fatalities performed on the victim of a poorly played game. Oh yeah, both of these games modes will be playable online."

As always, we are not able to post scans of this article. However, this issue should be available at your local newsstands, so go on out today and pick up your copy!

Our thanks to all those who wrote in concerning this story, and especially forum/chat member GuiltyByDesign for providing us a copy of this article!