Sup people? Just thought I'd share this new interview with GamePro Magazine. the date on the magazine is "September. 27, 2004" It had some interesting facts that I think were left unknown to most of the public and left most (if not all) of us wondering. Check it ouuuut.
Mortal Kombat: Deception
"Exclusive Hands-On Preview from GamePro Magazine"
"It's been two years since the last Mortal Kombat was released, so we traveled to the windy city to catch up with the men behind the Mortal for a look at what could be the biggest MK yet."
One of the most enduring fighting games in the history of the game is Mortal Kombat. Born in the arcades, Mortal initially turned heads with it's gruesome, graphic, violence and digitalized fighters (it was also responsible for an epidemic of misspellings of the word 'combat'), which had parents and politicians screaming. Mortal Kombat 2 upped the ante with a more in-depth play engine and even more violence.
Each successive MK game was a hit in its own right, and the phenomenon spawned a couple of side games (Special Forces & Mythologies: Sub Zero) outside of the fighting genre, two motion pictures, comic books, and a slew of other media and merchandise. But as the arcades dried up, the development team set out on home-console systems. Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance was the first MK fighting game designed soley for the home market from scratch, and it brought the fighting series back to its roots with more of an emphasis on fighting and fewer gimmicks like Babalities, Friendships, and Anamalities.
" FIGHT! "
The latests Mortal Kombat, 'Deception', strives to be the biggest one yet.Not only does it retain the one-on-ne fighting style and play of Deadly Alliance, but it also features a host of additional modes - Puzzle, Chess, and Konquest - and most modes in the game will support online play.
Tucked away on a dead-end street in Chicago is Midway's Midwest development headquaters, where MK creator and Project Leader, Ed Boon - and his team, dutifully apply the final polish to the many facets of Deception.
"Deadly Alliance already featured a solid 3-D fighting game engine, and Deception retains the core elements while adding some key techniques. One of the comments that we got from the last game was the role of the combos is kinda high, says Boon. So we added ways to break or get out out of combos. When fighting on the ground, you can knock an attacker away in the middle of a combo by simultaneously pressing into them and pushing the 'Block' Button (forward & Block, simultaneouly). The jury's out on countering air juggles, though. "We are still toying with the idea of making the juggles uncounterable", says Boon, "as our juggles are elaborate here than they were in Deadly Alliance."
" FINISH HIM! "
Fatalities - perhaps the most popular MK trademark - have been expanded. Whereas each character in Deadly Alliance had one fatalitiy, Deception adds an extra finisher per fighter along with a new suicide move. At the end of a second round, when a fighter is defeated, the beaten character can execute himself in a gory way, thus depriving the winner of a fatality. "The fatality window is erased", says Boon, "so now it's a matter of who's the quickest to input the fatality or suicide command." Sub-Zero, for instance, can chill himself into a solid block of ice that falls over and thus shatters his whole body.
The fighting stages themselves also provide a way to gruesomely finish off an opponent. Players can be knocked into grinders, presses, beds of spikes, and other harmful surfaces any time during a match. One stage is set high atop a circular platform where the edges slowly erode (crumble and fall off) and force the two fighters closer and closer together. "You can turn off the death traps, and that will be an option for online play, too", says Boon. "When you add something that radical to the whole mix, you don't want to force people into that if they want the more traditonal fighting."
Another notable feature is the mutitiered stages - something that was introduced in the 2-D MK3 but has been taken to a greater degree here thanks to 3-D space and more interactive objects. Combatants can be knocked through walls, windows, and ceilings, and land in completely different rooms. One stage starts on the deck of a ship, but a well-timed blow can send an opponent through the railing and onto the deck below where several dangling corpses can bump into the fighters.
" PUZZLES AND UM, CHESS (THAT'S RIGHT - CHESS) "
If "anytime" stage fatalities are considered radical, then what are players to make of Puzzle Kombat? "One of the games the guys on the development team really enjoy is 'Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo", says Boon. "So we took that premise but with Mortal Kombat characters." Of Deception's modes, Puzzle Kombat is the most addicting, and gamers who don't even like Mortal Kombat could fing themselves engaged in this contest of block clearing for hours. You choose any midget-version combatant and start the match with a one-ton weight suspended over each player's head. the objective is simple: clear out blocks to keep your side as clean as possible. Clearing rows in rapid succession dumps depris on your opponent, but each player has a 'Super' that gradually fills as well; once it's full, you can execute a nasty move on your opponent (for instance, jumble their blocks). When one player's area is so full of pieces that no more can fall, the one-ton weight... well, you get the idea.
Chess Kombat is loosely based on the actual board game: Pieces can move in the directions you expect, but there'sa fighting element to the game, too. When two pieces move onto the same square or one piece tries to take another, the action switches to a retro MK background for a one-on-one battle (more powerful pieces have longer life meters). each player can place one hidden bomb on the board, some pieces can cast spells that can help or hinder, and two green squares in the middle of the board restore health that's lost during a fight.
" KONQUEST "
Konquest is a third-person fighting adventure and the only mode that doesn't FULLY support online play as it is sharply focuses on the one-player aspect. You start out as a young man who can explore six realms of the MK universe. You can talk to characters, collect Koins, and find hidden treasure chests. The loot you collect ranges from extra fighting stages to instructions on how to perform fatality and suicide moves. Kombat training plays a key role: As you encounter various fighting masters and train with them, your character can learn a series of special moves and techniques. When you complete Konquest, you cna take your character, Shujinko, to the online arena and battle it out with other fighters in cyberspace. Although Deception seems online-heavy, downloadable content (for instance, fighters and stages) will not be available for Deception, but Boon hinted that these features might be available in the next Mortal Kombat game.
" FINAL ROUND "
With all of Deception's varied games and modes, some aspects of Deadly Alliance were left on the sidelines, such as the 'Test Your Might & Sight' intermissions during Arcade mode. "Puzzle Kombat and Chess are kind of like our hyper versions of Test Your Might and Test Your Sight," says Boon. "We had them in the game for a while, but there were so many different things that we didn't want the fighting game to become, say, one of 30 different games." The Krypt, where you can spend your hard-earned Kurrency, will return, albeit with a new graveyard setting and various MK characters running around and hiding behing things. "That's what we're most excited about - there's a ton of content that we have piled into this game," says Boon.
"We didn't have to spend as much time building a fighting engine - we enhanced it, but we spent a majority of our time on content, this time.
Some other info was also provided in this preview.
- The big reward for finishing Konquest is unlocking the 'old-man' version of your character. You can then take that charcter to online Kombat.
- Puzzle Kombat may be the only Mature-rated puzzler ever released.
- One intriguing stage takes place on a tropical desert island with the time constantly changing from day to night. "There are two different versions of 'ring out' in this stage," says Boon. "During the day, it's like Virtua Fighter where you're floating in the water; at night, piranhas attack you."
- When asked if there is any other type of genre outside of fighting he'd like to explore with MK, Ed Boon smiles and says "big time - we really want to expand Mortal Kombat way past fighting games."
- Deadly objects surround some of the fighting stages, and a ring-out could mean instant death.
- The game contains rendered cinema cut-scenes.
- Seeing that this is a Mortal Kombat game, you cna expect plenty of 'carnage' in Deception.
- "Noob Saibot & Smoke are two characters that are kind of fused into one," says Boon, so they're going to have all these weird juggle-combos with their different fighting styles."
- Some stages are littered with weapons that can be put to good use.
- Each fighter retains the THREE 'stances' (different sets of special moves and combos) from Deadly Alliance, and one of them is weapon-based. Some have more.
- The only game featured on the cover of GamePro magazine the most was Mortal Kombat. Mortal Kombat has been the main image 12 times. That's a whole year of issues.
- "The final boss in Deception, Dragon King, is easily the coolest boss we've had so far in a Mortal Kombat game." - Ed Boon
- Diehard MK fans and video game kollectors should keep an eye open this October when Deception is released as a limited number of special editions which will be available for the Xbox and Playstation 2. As a two-disc set, the limited edition will feature the complete Deception game on one platter and an arcade-perfect port of the first Mortal Kombat game, developer interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, 25 character bios, the history of MK, and more on the second. An exclusive serialized character trading card wil also be included. The Playstation 2 version will be dubbed "Premium Pack", while the Xbox version will be dubbed "Kollector's Edition". They will have FOUR seperate covers, each featuringa different character. Both versions will retail for $59.99