Plenty of Mortal Kombat fans were disappointed with the series’ last outing, Mortal Kombat vs. DC. It wasn’t the DC comics crossover that fans were upset over, but the need to tone down the violence so Superman and his crew weren’t tearing heads off.

But Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon has heard the fans and he plans to give them what they want.

“People want an M-rated MK….dammit we will give them an M-rated MK.”

In a recent interview, Boon revealed that the MK team has been hard at work on the tentatively titled Mortal Kombat 9 and it will be crossover-free. This should mean that nothing can stop Boon and his team from letting characters rip out hearts, spines, etc. The disgusting possibilites are endless!

PSX Extreme

It appears that the European version of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe will feature an uncensored version of the Joker’s fatality sequence. For those not in the know, the sequence featured the Joker firing a trick gun (one with a flag inside that says “BANG”) at the victim, but then taking out a real gun and shooting them right between the eyes. The American version was censored, having the victim walk off-screen before the fatal bullet hits, in order to receive a “Teen” rating.

The European version will however feature the sequence in full, with the headshot in full view. This is because in Europe, the game will receive a “15/16+” rating, and can feature more adult content. In an interview, Hans Lo, the game’s senior producer, said:

You know, for North America we have a Teen rating, and teen really means 13 and above. Thirteen is pretty young, you have to admit. For Europe we have a 15, 16+ rating – so it’s a bit different.”

Any hardcore fans of Mortal Kombat out there who want to see the fatality in full for the US version (maybe you just want to see the Joker shoot Superman, but I’m not one to judge)? Personally, I’m glad that they decided to keep it in the European version, but I’m not sure it should be different in the US version. It of course depends upon the individual but I don’t really think a shot to the head is the worst thing a 13-year-old can possibly see. Let us know what you think in the comments.

Source: Videogamer

Uhhh, the quirky headline and image should pretty much say it all, but if you need a little extra explaining, I’ll do my best. Midway has revealed three new MK vs. DC Universe Fatalities that I thought needed a little side by side comparison to their breakfast cereal mascot counterparts — Snap, Crackle, and Pop.

That’s right, Sonya snaps a neck, Catwoman cracks a whip, and Sub-Zero makes a frozen body go pop. I’m going to eat some Rice Krispies while I try my best to hold back tears of disappointment. ESRB for me to poop on.

Hit the jump and watch the video.

In the midst of all the Metacrtic user score bashing, you may have missed out on some fairly important Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe news. The Joker’s Gag Gun fatality that took the internet by storm has been reworked due to ESRB Teen rating scrutiny.

If you have been following our coverage of the game here at Ripten, you already know that we had a chance to sit down with Hector Sanchez (the game’s producer) at E3. He walked us through the latest MK installment, and we spent some hands-on time with it as well.

Overall, my impression was positive, and I was looking forward to the game’s release. That excitement escalated further when I saw Hector unveil the Joker’s Gag Gun fatality in late August on GameTrailers TV. He wrapped up the segment by addressing skeptics.

“So for all the people that thought that this was going to be Mortal Kombat light, you’ve seen it here first on GameTrailers TV, the Joker actually blows Katana’s head off.”

The concept was vicious and yet the blood wasn’t persistent — something Hector explained to be a key requirement in order to achieve a Teen rating. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to be enough to convince the ESRB powers at be.

The Joker’s Gag Gun fatality that I fell in love with just two short months ago has been further “teen-a-fied”. Kotaku describes the new version after experiencing it first hand:

Joker still whips out his prank gun, a “BANG!” flag unfurling. Unfortunately, you won’t see the follow up of Joker shooting someone in the face; that actually happens off screen now, the headshot safely out of sight.

Meh. I’m disappointed. Personally, I find those damn Highschool Musical films more disturbing than a little non-persistent blood. It’s too bad. I’m holding out hope for Hector and the crew at Midway, but it appears that the ESRB has them right where they want them — drained, dazed, and ready for a finishing move of their own.

The trailer for the Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe collector’s edition comic, to be packaged with the release of the collector’s edition version of the game itself on November 16th, may offer a glimpse at four yet to be announced characters.

During the clip, John Tobias, illustrator and Mortal Kombat co-creator, talks about Midway’s request to get every character in the game into the 16 page comic.

“For this particular comic, the MK guys were interested in seeing all of the characters represented in some way in the book, and so it took a lot of back and forth to try to squeeze everybody in there.”

Taking his statement into consideration, it would lead one to believe that the characters shown in comic panel above (from left to right: Johnny Cage, Goro, Aquaman, The Boy Wonder) were “squeezed” into the book for a reason.

What do you think? Are you ready to summon flipper to finish off your opponent? I sure am. Check out the trailer for yourself after the jump.

Source: comicbookresources.com [Thanks Steve]

Some of the dudes working on the upcoming Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, namely Senior Producer Hans Lo and Associate Producer Hector Sanchez, put together a little video to help us all understand this crazy new fighting game.  Arguably, the most important factor in what makes a good fighting game is good fighting (no shit), and these producer fellas give us the rundown on how exactly we can beat each other’s asses.  It also showcases another one of the Joker’s fatalities (yeah!). Video follows.

Today has been busy for me to say the least. While I have not posted anything personally to this point, I have been hard at work on a site redesign. However, when news hit that the new MK vs DC cover had been revealed, I said “what would the GEICO caveman do?” Posting articles about cover art — so easy a caveman can do it.

Prior to Midway’s Leipzeig conference, Midway released a bunch of new screenshots that showed the Green Lantern and the Joker in action. After the Leipzeig conference, people noticed 4 new characters that hadn’t yet been announced, but were shown briefly in a Midway slideshow- Kano & Raiden from Mortal Kombat, as well as Wonder Woman and Deathstroke from DC Comics.

Previously announced characters also showed up in new screenshots that Midway released to the press earlier today. You can see the gallery of images below, including an image of The Joker smiling sadistically as he gets the crap beat out of him. Fantastic.

Here is an updated list for those who haven’t been keeping up with the game’s slow trickle announcements.

Mortal Kombat: Jax, Kano, Kitana, Liu Kang, Raiden, Scorpion, Shang Tsung, Sonya Blade , and Sub-Zero

DC Universe: Batman, Catwoman, Deathstroke, The Flash, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan version), The Joker, Shazam (Captain Marvel), Superman, and Wonder Woman

Mortal Kombat creator Ed Boon also stated that the DC characters would all follow a list of character archetypes, and thanks to Aeropause, we now have a list of archetypes matched up to the current roster.

Prototypical Hero: Superman
Speedster: Flash
Mystical Hero: Captain Marvel
Masked Vigilante: Batman
Military Hero: Green Lantern
Amazon Queen: Wonder Woman
Sexy Villainness: Catwoman
Crazy Villain: The Joker
Ninja Villain: Deathstroke
Archvillain: ?
Epic Villain: ?

There are still two slots left open for the DC Universe characters, and I’m completely puzzled as to who it could be. Who do you think would be the Archvillain or the Epic Villain? Darkseid? Lex Luthor? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Source: Aeropause

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Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe could just be the beginning of a movement that will have the Mortat Kombat fighters ripping each and every fighting game character limb from limb, if co-creator Ed Boon has his way.

Ed Boon recently sat down with the MTV Multiplayer blog to talk about their upcoming crossover. He stated that he had grander plans if MK vs. DC proves to be a success.

“In a perfect world, to me, I still think it would be cool as hell to see Ryu from ‘Street Fighter’ and Scorpion from Mortal Kombat. I just think it would be cool. To me, ‘Mortal Kombat vs. Street Fighter vs. Tekken vs. Virtua Fighter’ would be the coolest in the world. The reality is you’re going to have [the other development teams] on the other side of the world. So, who makes it? Who does what? It would be awesome. And who knows what they’re gonna say if this is big.”

I say let’s do it. I like Ed Boon; he clearly has a lot of passion for what he’s doing, and I’ve loved the Mortal Kombat series since I was a kid. Hell, why not throw Super Smash Bros. into the mix?

I’d give anything to see Johnny Cage knock Wario’s fat ugly head off. Or maybe Sonic can run around someone so fast that it creates a vacuum and their skin rips off? I’m getting ahead of myself (and also a little scary) but I like where this is going!

Source: PSX Extreme

Andrew, JZ, and I made our way into the Midway press lounge for some hands-on MK vs DC action with the games associate producer, Hector Sanchez.

We began taking turns kicking each others’ ass as we tried to master the game’s controls. There were a ton of “cheese moves” being thrown around early (mostly by me), but it didn’t take long for us to get the hang of the characters’ signature attacks.

The MK characters are fairly familiar for those who have played previous iterations of the MK franchise. The DC lineup however, had a more comic book feel (naturally) and offered up a nice complement to the MK Universe.

Playing as Superman lets you do cool things, like hover in the air while you fire laser beams from your eyes, and take deep breaths that suck your opponent towards you. This is a great way to set up more powerful attacks. Batman drops smoke bombs that transport him to another location on the screen, and zips batarangs as a ranged attack.

If you are not familiar with the way Midway is handling the DC and MK crossover “fatality” aspect of the game, this paragraph is for you. MK characters will be able to perform “fatalities” (fatal moves that kill the opponent), while the DC characters will perform finishing moves called “brutalities” (brutal attacks that seem to render the opponent unconscious).

While only a handful of the fatality/brutalities were available in the build we played at E3, what we saw looked very nice. Superman’s brutality utilizes successive downward fist smashes to drive his opponent into the ground like a nail, and hardcore fans of the MK series will be happy to know that Scorpion’s “Toasty” fire breath fatality is in the game, and looks pretty bad ass.

Many of the other brutalities and fatalities were still being worked on. We asked about whether or not Sub-Zero “Deep Freeze Uppercut” would make the cut, being that we felt it was the least gory of his classic fatalities, and were told that they were still in the process of trying to figure out how that could work.

Aside from the fact we all agreed the game was flat out fun to play, we couldn’t believe how much blood Midway managed to cram into a Teen rating. Hector explained, that while the blood is not persistent (it doesn’t remain on screen very long after impact), it certainly doesn’t feel like you’re playing a kiddie game.

MK vs DC is a mix of classic MK head to head bruising combat, with a few welcome twists. For example, moving in close to an opponent allows you to initiate a close quarters combat sequence. During that time you will need to follow on screen button queues in order to successfully block the blows being thrown at you. We had a lot of fun playing around with this feature.

In addition to the zoomed in hand to hand combat, you will also be able to smash your opponent through walls, and grapple with them as the two of you plummet into a new zone. Wall smashing is more of a button mashing task, while mid air battles also utilize a timed on-screen button sequence.

The combination of well animated character specific attack moves, impact generated blood, and real-time character bruising made for such a satisfying gameplay experience that we all ultimately agreed we would be picking it up when the game finally hits stores.

We realize that a large part of the MK lure revolves around the game’s long line of memorable finishing moves, so as we wrapped up our visit to the Midway lounge, we began to discuss whether or not hardcore fans would be satisfied with the MK vs DC fatalities/brutalities.

It is true that the MK finishing moves are deeply rooted in gore and over-the-top dismemberment, but beyond that there is a certain level of embarrassment dished out each time to the individual being finished off. That said, you need to ask yourself which of the two aspects hold more weight with you as a gamer: Are you satisfied with embarrassing your opponent, or do you need the over-the-top gore?

The reality is that the game has plenty of on-screen blood and persistent character bruising that takes effect in real-time upon impact, but it’s not the M-rated meat grinder fatality bloodbath some gamers may have been hoping for.

The finishing moves, while brutally embarrassing for those on the receiving end, do not go beyond that in a blood-filled, in-your-face graphic nature. If you can live with that, then this game will make a great addition to your gaming library.

Thanks to /film for sending this our way.

The biggest mistake that the creators of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe could have made, no fatalities, may have been avoided. Gamespot had a interview with the creator of MK, Ed Boon.

GS: Have you made any more headway on the fatality versus finishing moves?

EB: Yes we have. All of the MK characters and all of the DC villains will have fatalities. The DC heroes who don’t kill that often will have brutalities that will function just like fatalities but don’t actually kill the opponent.

My guess is that the fatalities that the DC heroes do could be similar to Liu Kang’s finisher from the first Mortal Kombat game were he performed a flip with a giant uppercut, avoiding any blood or guts. Hopefully this time around with a little more creativity.

Either way, Scorpion will be able to burn The Flash like the b*tch he is.

Source: Gamespot

The director of the new Mortal Kombat movie, “Mink,” talked to Moviehole about the upcoming third installment of the franchise. I wasn’t expecting much of anything from this film, yet after reading these comments, I’m somehow really worried.

Mink told moviehole:

“(the new movie will be a) re-envisioning(if that is a word) of the Mortal Kombat franchise from top to bottom. Todays audience is a savvy involved group so the film must be A plus plus in every area in order to capture the magic of the first film. It is taking the entire concept to the next level across the board in every area visual design, story, cast, FX, photography and most importantly the fighting scenes. The original Mortal Kombat game was born a child of many visual loves by the creators at midway so this latest version borrows heavily from that pioneering spirit and must be thought out and executed at the highest level in order for it succeed in today’s market place. This is no overnight task.”

As a child and a gamer, I loved the first Mortal Kombat film. However, now that I’m a grown man, I can fully realize how ridiculous and downright terrible it was (not to say that it isn’t still fun to watch). I don’t know if shooting to capture “the magic” of the first movie is the right move at all.

Via GoNintendo

For those who missed it, EGM (according to Editor Dan Hsu) was supposedly cut off from receiving preview and review copies of games by Sony, Midway, and Ubisoft due to what the publishers felt where unfavorable review scores and or practices.

While I can understand why Dan may have felt the need to call out the poor sportsmanship of Sony’s Sports Division, the low blow of Midway’s Mortal Kombat Team, and the stealthy exit of Ubisoft, I question his decision to do so, and can’t help but feel that an unnecessary trend is beginning to take place.

My feelings are that gaming sites, as well as printed publications, will now start to air their dirty laundry in an effort to proactively defend themselves, and reassure readers that they are on the up and up.

I sure hope that I am wrong, because while I am not saying that this is the case here with EGM, I really don’t want to be reading about how enormous publications/websites will now have to resort to buying games (just like their readers) in order to review them — Boo freaking hoo.

Most gaming outlets (including us) do not receive every game that they review directly from the publisher in advance, and at no cost. In fact, many purchase the majority of their games just like you do.

While I do not necessarily agree with the way the publishers treated EGM here, they are free to decide how they want to distribute their product. Below you will find a reprint of Dan’s editorial from the February issue of EGM via his blog page on 1up.com

Gamemakers have been taking issue with our reviews for as long as EGM’s been around (almost 19 years now). It goes with the territory: Be honest and tough with your critiques, and you’re going to piss just about everybody off at some point. But when I took over as editor-in-chief in 2001, I also wanted us to get more real with our previews. I was tired of the press-release rehashes our industry had become accustomed to, so I asked for more sincerity and opinions from our writers and editors. Naturally, you have to be fair — the products aren’t finished yet, after all — but judging from reader feedback, our opinionated previews have been a hit.

Except with some game publishers, of course. Less-than-totally-positive previews don’t sit well with those who are used to those press-release rehashes. Combine that with our candid reviews, and you can imagine the consequences that we have to face constantly.

For the time being, you’ll get little, late, or no coverage of the following products: anything Mortal Kombat (they didn’t like our reviews), anything from Sony’s sports department (ditto), and now, anything from Ubisoft (it seems our coverage of Assassin’s Creed was the last straw). So in case you’re wondering why you’re seeing so little of these games in our magazines and on our websites, now you know.

What do we do now? Nothing. We won’t treat these products or companies any differently, and we’ll just cover them to the best of our own abilities, with or without their support. Because, after all, we’re writing for you, the reader — not them.

In closing, while I agree that these scenarios do occur, I personally don’t think we should be bickering about them to our readers, and I truly hope that this does not become the norm.

Two teenagers have been charged with killing one of the pairs’ own 7-year-old sister using alleged Mortal Kombat imitation moves. The 16 and 17 year old teens were babysitting the child while the girl’s mother was at work when the incident happened.

The two teens reportedly hit, kicked, and body-slammed 7-year-old Zoe Garcia, causing “a broken wrist, more than 20 bruises, swelling of the brain, and bleeding in her neck muscles and under her spine”, the affidavits have said. Prosecutors are claiming the teens were imitating “wrestling moves” found in the Mortal Kombat video game.

The 17 year old Roberts claimed he was downstairs at the time, drunk and playing video games, but witnesses told authorities otherwise. One witness stated that according to Roberts, Zoe pleaded with them to stop wrestling with her, but he did not stop. When asked why he refused to stop, Roberts answered “I don’t know; I was drunk.”

There is no defense for this kind of crime. The pure malice you need in order to kill a 7 year old girl that brutally does not come, nor is there any evidence it comes from, video games. The fact video games are being dragged into this horrendous debacle is indicative of the current state of affairs and only reinforces the publics misconceived perception regarding the impact of videogame violence.

If the two teens are convicted, they face up to 48 years in prison.

Read the full story here.