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New Mortal Kombat bloodier than ever


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New Mortal Kombat bloodier than ever

By Tom Lane

CNN

Sunday, November 24, 2002 Posted: 9:27 AM EST (1427 GMT)

(CNN) -- Mortal Kombat, one of the first video games to popularize the use of blood and guts to entice its audience, is back with a new version that is bloodier than ever.

Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance has fighters whose wounds bleed long after injuries are inflicted and blood is a constant companion. This makes for a very messy battleground at the end of the fight, but allows for interesting effects, such as combatants leaving bloody footprints on the ground.

The game also presents a plethora of ways of finishing an opponent: beheadings, ripping skeletons out of bodies or soul stealing.

Midway is banking on its latest version of Kombat to cash in on millions of dollars in video game sales this holiday season. The game is expected to join a long list of hot sellers aimed at adults, who make up half of all gamers, according to the Interactive Digital Software Association.

Turning the tide

In an industry where a single game can turn the tide -- just ask Take-Two Interactive Software, which saw its value more than triple in a year thanks to Grand Theft Auto 3 -- Midway is relying on its flagship Mortal Kombat franchise to replace blood red ink with black.

The company has taken a beating, falling from almost $25 per share in late 1999 to teetering around $5 for the second half of 2002.

Syndicated video games columnist Marc Saltzman said video games reflect the reality of the marketplace: sex and violence sells.

"Keep in mind those who played Pac-Man and Space Invaders in the late '70s and early '80s are now into their 30s and having kids of their own," he said. "Video games are a form of entertainment -- so it makes sense to have content that's appropriate/appealing to different audiences."

Tracing the bloodshed

To a large degree, blood defines the Mortal Kombat series. The original is famous for popularizing mature content in video games when it came out in 1992. A slew of similar games quickly flooded the market, but Mortal Kombat remained the 800-pound gorilla of mature software in the console market.

Still, programmer Ed Boon, who helped create the first Mortal Kombat, downplayed the violence in the game.

"The fact that it is targeted towards older players has a lot less to do with its success than the fact that there is a great story, state-of-the-art graphics, and a fun play mechanic for players to learn," he said.

It's been four years since the last version of Mortal Kombat was released. Midway, the company that produces the game, was shifting its focus from building arcade machines to creating home video games and researching ways to make their games more exciting, Boon said.

Mastering deadly moves

The fifth version of the game, expected to be released Friday, puts players in a 3-D universe with an army of fighters, each with an arsenal of deadly moves to master.

"What separates it from other games is the completely new fighting mechanic which gives each character three individual fighting styles that he can switch into during the battle," Boon said.

Deadly Alliance introduces a reward system called "kombat kurrency." Players earn coins for overcoming challenges and use them to unlock hidden secrets such as new fighters, hidden arenas, and artwork.

The game is available for Playstation 2, Xbox, and Gamecube consoles.

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yeah we do.

but Mortal Kombat sux imo  :)

Man good ol Mk kicked a**..i use to rock at that game...sub zero was the tighetest...

I do dislike the fact that they made like 15billion new versions of it.....but i do have to say this new one really caught my eye..sorpions living chian thing is sooo neet in this version......

looks to me like a really cool version of Tekken...

But this is coming from fighting game nut..sooo

hehe

:rolleyes:

=Drew

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More blood!  Yeah...that's what we need!  :)

I would have to agree with rick. See we all love games and love them bloody and shot them up and all that crap but when is someone going to stop and think about the kids that are young and cant tell the difference. Not trying to go off the track but myself and jerseygirl have debated this issue for months.

There need to be a new system of grading these games "even movies" and new laws need to be in effect.

For ex. im not sure if any of you saw "8 mile" but when we went there were 4 young young kids (7-10 years old) behind us. Yes there parent was with them but come on. Something should be done.

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