It seems that a new sense of optimism has finally hit the Mortal Kombat community; optimism that a fifth instalment of such a fighting game may bring the legendary franchise back to life. The question now, is whether such a game will be able to compete with the likes of Dead Or Alive and Tekken.
It was last year that a large piece of the MK pie was taken away with the departure of John Tobias, David Michicich and Josh Tsui; all who had key roles in the development of the previous Mortal Kombat games. With Tobias’ departure, it was suggested that another Mortal Kombat game was ‘impossible’.
Impossible or not, Ed Boon is readying for yet another instalment in what has been commonly described by the critics as ‘the fighting game that just won’t die’. Already, ideas about making the game ‘widescreen’, complete with interactive arenas and advanced graphics have been processed. So far, only Scorpion has been confirmed as the character to return to the series.
A new advanced fighting system will be implemented into the game. Weapons were first introduced in Mortal Kombat 4 with mixed results. It is expected that each fighter will now have up to 10 to 15 attacks with each weapon. Remember “Test Your Might” in Mortal Kombat II? It seems that a new “Test Your Might” challenge may be implemented in the fifth game.
In a recent interview with the MK Development Team, new pictures of Rayden were accidentally revealed to the public suggesting his presence within the game. Like it or not, MK is coming back in a big way. There are many hurdles that the series will have to cross however, before it can impact the arcades by 2001.
There are no confirmations that this game will arrive onto the PlayStation2 or other consoles at this time, but Todd Allen did mention the possibility of seeing such a game for the Dreamcast because of it’s 2D capabilities for artwork contained within the game. At the same time, Allen continued to mention the lack of polygon performance with the Dreamcast, hinting at another platform that could handle both a high polygon count along with two-dimensional graphics. Can we say, PlayStation2?