Mortal Kombat began life as a fighting game in 1992. Released solely as an arcade title, it became one of the most popular games of all time. The premise was something similar to Street Fighter. The story focused on a monk named Liu Kang and his journey to save Earth from the evil sorcerer Shang Tsung. Their final confrontation was in the tournament known as Mortal Kombat which is where the games take their name from. It wasn’t until the arrival of Mortal Kombat 3 in 1995 that the games migrated to consoles like the Genesis and Super NES. Mortal Kombat 4, which dropped in 1997, was the last of the series to be released to the arcades; all of the games that followed were released to both Xbox and PlayStation. The latest game to be released was Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe back in November 2008. A promising crossover game for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, this was the eight in the series and proved to be one of the most popular games of 2009. Along the way there were also quite a few spin off titles that were more adventure based than fighting based and featured various stories from the Mortal Kombat timeline including the origins of Sub Zero and Jax. These weren’t as well received though and last week, Warner Brothers announced that a new Mortal Kombat title is due to be released on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2011.
Promising a return to the gore heavy fight-fest that was present in the Mortal Kombat games of old, the new release will feature the return of The Fatality, one on one matches as well as several new additions including four player tag team and co-op arcade modes. Whether or not this new Mortal Kombat will be as popular as its predecessors is left to be decided, since the basis of a good fighting game relies heavily on the precision of its controls. It’s safe to say that here at the @rcade we’re looking forward to it almost as much as we were looking forward to Super Street Fighter 4.
Also released last week was a short seven minute film entitled Mortal Kombat Rebirth. Created by Fame director Kevin Tancharoen, the film would appear to be a pitch to the movie studios that it is very possible to bring this movie to the big screen without having to douse it in cheese and ridiculous one liners. The short clip presents us with a prisoner being interviewed by one Captain Jackson Briggs (Michael Jai White) or Jax as he is better known. We get a nice introduction to Scorpion and it also gives us some background history on two antagonists in the form of Reptile and Baraka. As well as all that, we get a look at Sonya Blade (Jeri Ryan) and a fight scene featuring Johnny Cage, plus if you keep your eyes peeled you’ll spot a flash of Sub Zero too.
Knowing how disastrous some previous attempts at game to movie transitions have been (our first episode of Player 1 vs. the @rcade examined that!) it goes without saying that we took a look into this with no hope of being impressed. For anyone who doesn’t have the misfortune of remembering, the previous Mortal Kombat movies were almost as abysmal as the live action Street Fighter movie! Yes we’re talking about the one with Van Damme and Kylie Minogue! Plagued with bad acting, cheesy dialogue and poorly constructed plotlines, those films were shockingly bad representations of an incredible franchise.
However, everyone we’ve spoken to so far is definitely impressed by this new short film and looking forward to seeing what else the creators have to offer. Like the recent Street Fighter Legacy short film by Joey Ansah and Owen Trevor, it shows a promise of accurate portrayals of characters, a decent script and a plot that makes sense! Unfortunately, there is no major motion picture in the works just yet. Warner Brothers have been locked in a legal tangle for a while now that has prevented them from beginning production on a third instalment in the Mortal Kombat franchise. It looks like Mortal Kombat Rebirth is a standalone piece for now at least, but rest assured, as soon as word breaks on the new game or a new movie, the @rcade will be the first to let you know!
