Mortal Kombat creator Ed Boon talks current & next generation gaming

17 March 2006

22 Comments

Posted by:Ferry

Game Informer (GI) Magazine’s February issue, had an interview with Mortal Kombat series creator, Ed Boon.

When Mortal Kombat: Armageddon was announced, some people cried out because it was for the current generation of consoles. What was the reason behind going with current-gen instead of next-gen?

Ed Boon: The main thing was timing. We have always introduced Mortal Kombat games to established systems and while we’re totally jazzed about doing 360 games and doing PS3 games, our concern for doing it so early was that it would have been a launch title for PS3 and the 360 would only had been out for about a year. We really wanted a bigger install base of players. Second, the idea of doing a Mortal Kombat game with all of the characters on the next-gen would have been too much content because we already had a head start with Deadly Alliance and Deception. So we just thought to fill in all of the ones we haven’t done and do the entire roster as one of the big features in the game.

Did that make it easier for you to stay on current-gen?

Ed Boon: Well we already have other stuff in the works. We have been studying PS3 and Xbox 360 in the offices. We have been hacking away at those for quite a long time now. We’re definitely into the next-gen stuff, but there’s some guys doing next-gen stuff and some guys doing current-gen stuff.

So why did it take so long to get all of the Mortal Kombat characters together?

Ed Boon: Well, we kind of did with Mortal Kombat Trilogy. I didn’t want to release Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 on Nintendo 64 and PlayStation. So we decided to go with Mortal Kombat Trilogy, which combined the first three games and was all we really had at the time. So at the time, that was all of the characters, which is far less than now.

Why it took us so long to do this now is because we were busy working on other games and going into next-gen like I said before. So I think it was perfect timing for it.

Have you announced if Motaro is making the cut yet?

Ed Boon: He is absolutely making the cut. We actually really regret not including him in the large render that appeared in your magazine. I was actually curious as to how many people would have pointed out that he wasn’t in there. And I was surprised at how many did. That was the big thing that everyone would ask about. We are considering redoing that render and adding him in there to hopefully clear up that question, but hopefully this interview will too.

There are characters in Armageddon that are making a transition into 3D for the first time. Which ones are you most excited about and who was the most difficult to transition?

Ed Boon: I think the ones that I am really excited about are the big crazy boss guys like Motaro. Some of them had to undergo some changes because they were so big and clunky and awkward that they would have been uncontrollable. So we made some modifications to make them more agile. I would say the big crazy boss guys like Kintaro and Motaro and having them fight in the same world as the more agile guys that can jump around is cool.

I know you’re a fan of the PSP and now you have Unchained coming out. What was it like working with that hardware?

Ed Boon: Well Unchained was developed in Santa Monica by a company called Climax. So we didn’t develop the game here in Chicago but there were a lot of issues that we wanted to address. We really wanted to keep the framerate very high. So we went in there and helped them optimize their code and the Wi-Fi linking – we really wanted to make sure that was tight. We did have a lot more exposure to the hardware than we normally would have when working with a third party, but the main work was done by Climax.

What do you think about Xbox Live and Xbox 360 and what that could do for you and how you guys implement online play?

Ed Boon: I have a ton of ideas and I definitely want to do as many community features a possible. Whether it’s finding people or virtual world’s maybe that you run around and you have that method of connecting up with people. I’d like the world to be more of an immersive thing. Something like a 3D world you exist in and interact with as opposed to just menus.

What do you think is going to be the key to the next-gen fighting game?

Ed Boon: You know, you can add smart AI and stuff like that but it’s always more fun to play against real people and the only way to really get that experience all of the time is online. If you want to play at three in the morning, your friend is not going to come over at that hour, so you play online.

So do you think that we will see more from the Shaolin Monks franchise?

Ed Boon: Absolutely. It won’t be called Shaolin Monks but more of the action and adventure with fighting and those play mechanics.

Check here for the full Ed Boon Mortal Kombat series interview.