Mortal Kombat HD Kollection on the Way?
While Mortal Kombat co-creator and NetherRealm Studios lead Ed Boon recently spoke with Kotaku about the lengthier development cycle the 2011 installment in the series has been afforded and what may come next, there is a fascinating rumor surrounding what may await fans this holiday season.
Recently, a group of four European video game retailers had reportedly added a pre-order listing for a game called “Mortal Kombat Kollection,” scheduled for a November 2010 release on the PlayStation 3, with one boasting the inclusion of a demo for the 2011 title. That is, before all four are said to have removed the listings from their sites, possibly due to jumping the gun before Warner Bros. Interactive was ready for the announcement.
Mortal Kombat fan website TRMK claims to have independently confirmed with various sources within the industry that “Mortal Kombat HD Kollection,” a compilation featuring Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 with a high definition makeover “is indeed currently in development.” They make a point of adding that these are not simply upscaled versions of the original titles, “but sharp, crisp, awesome-looking High Definition graphics.”
The most immediate comparison one might draw is Capcom’s recent update of Street Fighter II known as the rather wordy Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, but word is that re-creating Mortal Kombat in HD is a trickier endeavor than redrawing the sprites from SFII. “In order to properly recreate the series in HD, Warner Bros. needed to film actors performing the moves like they originally did 20 years ago, just now with better high-definition cameras,” TRMK notes.
And while there is certainly the option of using hand-drawn characters or computer-generated models in the place of live actors, word is that it would not look right, and might “cause many fans to revolt.” And since the original actors would be about 20 years older now and likely no longer look right for the roles (not to mention the Daniel Pesina incident), new actors are said to have been hired and have been busy being captured at a Warner Bros. studio is Los Angeles, though some of the original actors are reportedly involved in some capacity.
TRMK expresses some skepticism over the purported November release date, depending on the level of work being done to the games, as well as the likelihood of it being exclusive to PlayStation 3, “unless some really good exclusivity deal was reached with Sony.” Nor are they sure who is developing the rumored Kollection; they note that NetherRealm Studios is busy with the next installment in the series, and suggest that perhaps Backbone– who developed the downloadable versions of Mortal Kombat II, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, and Super Street Fighter II Turbo– could be the developers, though they suggest that Backbone’s San Francisco HQ conflicts with the report of footage being shot in Los Angeles.
If this does indeed turn out to be true, one wonders if perhaps they would be kind enough to tone down the cheapness of the AI in the single-player mode. Is that too much to ask?
