New Mortal Kombat 8 will be dark, gritty, and completely reinvented fighting on Xbox 360, PS3 & maybe Wii in November 2008

5 February 2007

Posted by:Ferry

Mortal Kombat‘s co-creator Ed Boon was recently interviewed by Billy from GI about Midway’s current and next-gen fighting games. It’s there he made surprise revelations about Mortal Kombat 8.

Outside of must-have options such as online multiplayer, he makes mention of some really crazy ideas he’s been having in order to bring that early 90′s arcades feeling back, only this time in a “virtual arcade” lobby setup. Here are some choice quotes:

GI: How far into development is it?
Boon: The main thing we’re doing right now is the core technology. We’re using the Unreal 3 engine, and we’re getting our base, “How do display a character, normal-mapping, bump-mapping, shadows” all the things that are expected of the game. I have a bunch of ideas on paper in terms of things that I’d like to theoretically try, but it’s not like it’s in a playable state yet. — We’re doing something with the next game that’s unbelievably unexpected, and there’s going to be an announcement. I totally was told, “You cannot talk about this thing” I think it’s going to be rolled out.

GI: How has the experience been with the next-gen, and what are some of the nuances that you’re finding with the Xbox 360 and PS3?
Boon: Our goal, graphically, with this game is to be as gritty and (I don’t like to use the word “dirty,” because I don’t want to imply not-cool graphics but) a very dark, serious Mortal Kombat. Not vibrant, saturated colors, but more of a really down and dirty Mortal Kombat game. To me, when I saw Gears of War, I was like, “Holy sh*t! That’s the look that we’ve been talking about” Visually, that’s what we want to do. Gameplay-wise, I kind of attribute it to what we did with Deadly Alliance, where everything is thrown out. We’re not going to have three fighting styles, we’re not going to have the same punches and kicks and the same kind of control scheme. Everything is getting trashed. We’re reinventing everything from the ground up. We really think that’s needed — you know, we’re on Mortal Kombat 8, in a sense — to kind of wipe the slate clean every once in a while, and I kind of feel that now is the time. Our visual presentation and our game presentation and our thing that you’ll hear about very soon are all going to be new to this game. It’s going to be nothing like you’ve ever seen before.

GI: What’s it like to flush it all and start over?
Boon: It’s really scary. There’s some stuff that I thought really worked well in the previous three games, but I really feel that we can’t do any more of it. We can’t do the new fighting-style stuff. We need to do something different. A lot of people say, “How do they keep selling well?” And we really believe that’s one of the reasons. We’re not afraid to say, “That’s working, but it’s time to do something new because it’s been five years”

GI: Hypothetical time-frame for release. Are we talking 2008?
Boon: Yeah. I would guess — and I wouldn’t promise — it would be around the fall, Novemberish time of 2008.

GI: Across all three platforms?
Boon: We’re talking about that.

Update April 18th, 2008: Mortal Kombat 8 has been renamed to Mortal Kombat VS. DC Universe.

Categories: News

David

they really should bring back chameleon and khameleon in eight it would be soo much fun having both in one game.

here are some characters my friends and i want in 8
sektor, cyrax, smoke, reptile, tremor, and kitana
Taimat

i cant wait i have so many questions:
1. what are the levels
2. who are the characters
3.who is the boss
4.what is the opening video
5.ARE THEY GOING TO HAVE ANY SAURIANS????? (chameleon, khameleon)
Sub-Zero

I am the biggest fan of Mortal Kombat since i can remember. I have played all of them and I own all of the MK games. My favourite character is Sub-Zero so I was thinking in the new MK game you should put Noob and Sub-Zero together make them one character that would be great, it would make the character so, so strong. Bring back the fatalities that you just type in and watch. The assigned fatalities are way better then the create your own fatality in Armaggeddon. Get rid of all babalities, friendships etc. those things are just to kiddish. Make the new MK scary, very dark and very serious, no joking around. When you beat arcade with a character instead of showing a slideshow of their ending story make an actual video with good graphics showing their ending. I would like there to be more weapons in the game. Make the bloodwork more realistic and look real. In konquest make the story interesting and I would like it if you could do the story with every character. A different konquest for every character, and more moves and combos in konquest. Make more characters and take out any useless characters. I dislike that Mokap is choosable, that just makes the game look to silly. For the bigger characters such as Goro, Kintaro, Onaga etc. Make them strong and easy to use because in armaggeddon they suck. You cant use them they are to slow and have no good moves. Another thing if its possible you should make better outfits and more variety. More darker levels and arena fatalities. I love Mortal Kombat and I am so glad that you guys are coming out with a new MK game. Its time to make the best game ever, do everything you can to make me jump out of my seat when im playing. Remember DARK, GRIITY, AND GRUESOME. Good work guys keep up the great work!!
Nathaniel

I think that you show center the game on the surrian race make them very mad. Start of by Khemolen gaining all these powers and reptile plus chemolan, dragon king all on one side. Bring more the 60+ charcters i want to see 80+ fighters.Get rid of your fatalty system it sucks bring back old fatalties new story line bring by anamility and i own a ps3 and Wii but make t on ps2, Xbox for those who cant afford a new system and bring back chess combat
Nathaniel

ohh any questions e-mail me at ncpdemolay@yahoo.com
manos kallergis

I think new mortal kombat style need an new future the final content must approach the reality of ACTION-Offence (from player) AND REACTION-defence( from the opponent)in punches and kicks and vice versa(ACTION-defence and REACTION-offence.Like the fights from the movies of mortal kombat or like neo and smith( from matrix). i think this could be a revolution for MK8
DubbZer0 Destroyer Of Old Heads!

in response to…:
“I COMPLETELY AGREE WITH reptilexcq! WHY CANâ€™T BOON GET THAT THROUGH TO HIS THICK SKULL. THE 3D MORTAL KOMBATS HAVE ATTRACTED SUCH A STUPID FAN BASE NOW. ITâ€™S NOT LIKE IT USED TO BE WHERE YOU COULD TALK TO THE GUY NEXT TO YOU ABOUT MORTAL KOMBAT. NOW ITâ€™S MORE LIKE,â€YOU PLAY THAT GAME? WHAT A DORK!â€ IT HAS BECOME A JOKE AFTER MK3. THE BIGGEST MISTAKE WAS GETTING RID OF THE POPULAR ASIAN FEEL WITH AUTHENTIC LOOKING CHARACTERS! IF YOU GO 3D, GO REALISTIC AND AUTHENTIC RATHER THAN OVERWEIGHT MANIKINS! AND SCREW WHAT ANY MORTAL KOMBAT FANS THAT ARE YOUNGER THAN 24 WHO LIKE THE LAST 5 MK GAMES. THEY ARE NOT THE TRUE FANS WHO COUGHED UP THE QUARTERS BACK IN THE EARLY 90â€²S!!!! I WANT SOMETHING GOOD THIS TIME!

Comment by jeff â€” April 16, 2007″

ok so after reading this i was like, ok hold up wait a min, yall old mo f*ckas just dont kno.. just cuz u some 24 yr old super nerd whos been button mashing since a embryo dont make you some kind of guru.. i dont give a f*ck how old u are, the old MKs was sikk n the new ones is average, we kno this.. im 19 and i kno.. my brother is 13 and he knos

so stop and think bout wut u sayin b4 u say it foo!!
Skyward

PC hasn’t had Mortal Kombat for 10years now, so we PC players could definitely use another MK title.
BRENNEN

OK. SO HERE`S HOW iT`S GOiNG DOWN. MK 1, 2, && 3 KiCKED SERiOUS BUTT. THE REST DiDN`T. BUT WHY ? BECAUSE THE CHARACTERS DiDN`T HAVE THE SAME ‘FEEL’. iT FELT AS iF YOU WERE PLAYiNG WiTH OVER-SiZED MANiKiNS(SP?). PLUS, THERE iS A SECOND OR TWO DELAY BETWEEN HiTTiNG A BUTTON AND THE CHARACTER`S REACTiON. NO MORE BUTTON MASHiNG .. WHAT !? BRiNG THAT BACK PLEASE !! ALSO, iT WOULD NOT BE SMART TO GET COMPLETELY NEW CHARACTERS. SO i HOPE THEY DON`T.

P.S. GUYS, LET`S MAKE THE NiNjAS LOOK LiKE NiNjAS THiS TiME ..
Martin Brade

I was impressed with the fighting style in Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance and Deception!

I agree that it would not be good idea to have complete new cast, they introduced some good fighters in the later games and hope they don’t scrap them from the series, as it should be about expanding the story not complete closure, I would like to see lots of weapons, rocket launchers! Some scary battles!

and Kenshi who is one of my most bad ass Fighters…