Gaming Website G4 has updated an extensive and deep interview featuring Ed Boon, co-creator of Mortal Kombat, in which they cover many different points concerning the development of the successful fighting game and the series in general.

In the interview, Ed Boon talks about Mortal Kombat as a competitive fighter for the likes of eSports-level platers, new characters, the success of the in-depth cinematic story mode, the real story behind the X-Rays, guest characters, cross-overs, Shao Kahn's powers, Mythologies and Special Forces, and the Mortal Kombat Legacy web series!

Also discussed are subjects such as the problem of keeping hidden features and characters a secret, YouTube as a source of teaching how to play the game, the RenderWare and Unreal 3 Engines, Mortal Kombat for PC, the creation of a Fatality, Street Fighter, potential MK spin-off for the future, the story behind the new studio name (NetherRealm) and the unused alternate names, and much more!

From the interview:

G4:Mortal Kombat 9 has the most in-depth story in the series to date. How do you feel this differentiates the franchise from other games in the fighting genre that try to incorporate stories?

EB: I think the main reason is the amount of effort that we put into telling the story. We have this completely cinematic story mode that no other fighting game has even attempted. I do feel that we set a bar with that. We’ve heard a number of our competitors acknowledge what we did with it and say that it’s a great thing for the fighting genre. I think the main way we were able to do it is to devote so much time and effort to create that story mode. It was millions of dollars. It wasn’t a minor side mission, it was one of our starring features of the game. I think it was the effort that we put into it.

G4: Mortal Kombat was intended to appeal a casual audience as well as eSports-level players for the first time. How did you strike that balance? How did it end up being received?

EB: That was part of our agenda when we started the game. To appeal to both calibers of players. The way that we did it was our designers are really into hardcore fighting and all of the mechanics that some of the more casual players don’t get into. I was kind of like the guardian of the casual players. I kept insisting that we don’t have features that are too complicated or that we retain the accessibility that Mortal Kombat has always had. There were certain guys on the team who would push one direction and others would push another direction. We had plenty of conversations with disagreeing that would end in trying our best to satisfy both camps.

G4: What went into choosing the new studio name NetherRealm Studios in 2009. Were there any alternate names in the running that you were almost called?

EB: Yes, when Warner Bros. acquired us, they wanted to give us an identity. We were only known as Midway before that, and that was part of a bigger studio. We decided that we wanted to come up with something that is related to Mortal Kombat, but not specifically Mortal Kombat. We didn’t want to be called “The Mortal Kombat Team,” so we messed around with all of the different worlds in Mortal Kombat: OutWorld, NetherRealm, Edenia, EarthRealm. We ran a whole bunch of those by our legal and NetherRealm was one of the ones that was okay and we went with that one.

Thanks to forum and staff members SubMan799 and Jerrod for submitting the news lead for this Article!

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