A goal of Netherrealm Studios for the upcoming Mortal Kombat was to recapture the feel of the arcade with their online play mode. As such, they added a spectator mode with a special feature called King of the Hill; which allows up to 8 players to join a room and orderly play one another as they would in a live arcade. IGN has released a preview of this mode, interviewing team members Adam Urbano, Tony Smith and Shaun Himmerick.

Smaller, somewhat chibi-style Mortal Kombat fighters reminiscent of the fighters used in Mortal Kombat: Deception Puzzle Kombat mode will populate the spectator room in a theater-type setup. The characters will be able to perform actions such as cheering, booing or holding up certain objects such as a diamond, piece of cheese or throwing a tomato at the screen itself. The development team promised there would be other hidden actions that the avatars could perform through players testing the mode out for themselves.

An exclusive for Xbox 360 players will allow for use of Live avatars. This feature will allow players to use their own custom created characters to perform the same maneuvers as the in-game Mortal Kombat characters. PS3 and 360 players will both have access to a number of in-game avatars based on the MK characters themselves.

Players will be able to get their hands on the game themselves to try out this mode in less than a week! Mortal Kombat will be available for both the PS3 and Xbox 360 on April 19th; be sure to test this mode out with other members of the MK Online community!