It was one of the craziest rumors surrounding Midway's Game Event yesterday and while
nothing "official" has been confirmed, it seems as if signs are pointing to the next installment
Mortal Kombat is 'Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe'.

Yesterday, on Ed Boon's website noob.com, the countdown clock ended and a blurred picture
of what appeared to be Scorpion appeared, with some scrambled text underneath.
Unscrambled, the text appeared to say "Embargo Lifts Tomorrow".

The folks over at MortalKombatOnline.com
have posted a picture prior to the 'embargo' being lifted on Batman facing off with Sub-Zero.
The website is being swamped with hits so its hard to get through. Thumbnails can be seen at
TRMK.org

It seems that the official unveiling will be today's Midway event at 4 Pacific.

Thanks to TRMK.org for their work on this developing event.

The timer is running out on the countdown clock on [url]noob.com[/url]. Assuming the teasers are correct that today will be the day that some details (and maybe even a hands on build??) will be unveiled about the next installment of Mortal Kombat, "next gen style".

How willing am I to believe that this game will be what Ed Boon claimed a while back: all new, new characters, new stories, etc? Ehhh...

The last game, Mortal Kombat Armageddon was that. Armageddon on the gamer. A broken game to no end. And an unglorious way for the series to go out on the last gen systems. The game tried to harken back to Trilogy with the insane number of characters to select (everyone in the MK universe, as Trilogy did with including everyone that had been in a MK game up to that point). But the game was slow and uninspiring.

An idea Midway should have taken to heart was what is happening with other stories 2D franchises, like King of Fighters. Take this series back to 2D. Let the 3D world be for who is good at it: Virtua Fighter, Tekken and Soul Caliber (though I have never been a Soul Caliber fan). The releases of UMK3 on the DS and Live and MK 2 on the PSN have gone over well. Take a hint and take Mortal Kombat back to where it really lived.

Mortal Kombat, as a series, was never the same once MK4 came about. Deception and Deadly Alliance were okay forays into the 3D, but nothing compared to the glory of Ultimate. Or, maybe, that's just the nostalgia in my head?

I know going back 2D probably wont happen, but a brotha can always have the audacity of hope.

More to come once Midway's events are over.

More gems you may not have heard of...

The Blood Brothers

Brotherhood, honor, betrayal. One of the best Shaw Brothers movies ever.

Blood Brothers (Shaw Brothers)




Legend of a Fighter

In the same vein as Fists of Fury and Fist of Legend... hard to come by in the US but worth the hunt.





Chinese Super Ninjas

Who knew there were so many ways to die? Leave it Chang Cheh to find them all...





3 Evil Masters

Train hard... get revenge.





Boxer from Shang Tung

Rags to Ruthless





More to come...

On the heels of Mr Wilsons great post on the upcoming SNK Arcade Classics Volume 1, I want to talk about another great another great SNK disc coming soon: Samurai Showdown Anthology.

At the GDC, the SNK rep showed some of what was coming stateside. Video can be found at GameSpot:

- King of Fighters 98 Ultimate Match
- King of Fighters Orochi Saga (includes 94 and regular 98 in addition to 95, 96 and 97)
- Fatal Fury Battle Archives V 2 (The Real Bout games)
- World Heroes Anthology (all the WH games)
- Metal Slug 7 (for the DS)
- SNK Arcade Classics Vol 1
- Samurai Showdown Anthology (1-6, including 5 Special)

They also showed the same footage of KoF 12 and the new 3D Sam Sho.

Sam Sho 2 is among the best 2d fighters ever released and I spent many a day dropping quarters at Break Point in the VCU Commons as a sophomore playing the game. I am super juiced to hear this was coming to both the PS2 and Wii.

SNK has really been coming through with releasing the classics in the US. Now can I get some Garou: Mark of the Wolves?

What the WWE Smackdown series has lacked is a consistently good Legends roster. Sure, from year to year, you finally get play like as someone like Rick Rude. You could always toil with the CAW and try to do it yourself. But I would like to see the WWE expand their Legends roster equal in number as the current wrestlers. The WWE Hall of Fame is something that the company trumpets each year as Wrestlemania approaches and, until recently, the WWE had a line of Legends action figures. Why not pull from both these pools?

You could have legit versions of Jimmy Valiant, Demolition, Bruiser Brody, The Big Bossman, IRS, The Wild Samoans, Big John Studd, Tully Blanchard, Arn Anderson, Bam Bam Bigelow, Harley Race, Kerry von Erich and the list goes on and on. The WWE certainly has gone through the years and bought out the competition. Why not use what you have purchased and put it 2009?

While, they are at it, why not expand the match types? Barbwire matches? Chain Matches? Scaffold Matches?

Its time to give us a truly next gen wrestling experience.

Insane news from this article on Reuters that ProElite MMA fighting (see the Kimbo Slice post below) is coming to CBS with three to four live events on Saturday nights starting in May. Better, these will be primtime slots, not the old Saturday Day Night's Main Event slot NBC used to use back in the day for the WWF. In my post yesterday, I talked about Slice stepping up into the 'big time' and while ProElite is still not the UFC, getting your name and brand out on a major non-cable network is a huge step in the right direction.