What you see above is Sub-Zero kicking Scorpion in the forehead, in the same way that Hushgush kicks chavs in the forehead, every chance he gets. It also happens to be a mock-up (trailer below shows the action on the top scrren) of the upcoming Ultimate Mortal Kombat, headed to the DS in November. Ed Boon, in an interview with IGN, promises an arcade-accurate rendition of UMK3, which will come with Puzzle Kombat. Lovable chaps, that Midway.
As someone who grew up on the Mortal Kombat franchise, I’m delighted by the prospect of having my childhood re-packaged, re-processed, and re-sold to me. I’m also kind of disappointed that it’s MK3, as oppposed to say, Armageddon. I don’t mean to say that MK3 was bad — it was actually the exact opposite. But, if you’re going to port a Mortal Kombat game, why not the one with the entire cast?
Whether I like it or not, Boon also has an answer for that: “I’m not entirely sure we would be able to fit all of MK Armageddon on a DS cartridge.” Well, if you cut out Kart Kombat and Konquest, I’m sure you kould have. But enough whining about a game I’m not going to get — let’s look at the positives here, shall we?
First of all, Midway doesn’t seem like they’re going to try to shoehorn touch-screen equivalent of waggle controls into UMK:
“We are also working on some ideas for the touch screen. However, since the player’s hands will be busy with the direction pad and the attack buttons, we probably won’t do something crazy like having the player touch the screen for punches and kicks.”
Oh thank God.
Also, online play will be either local or via WiFi. Boon also mentioned that the original team (minus, unfortunately, John Tobias, who left Midway in 1999) will be working on the DS version. For optimists, this means that the possibility of sloppiness is relatively low. In any case, read the rest of the IGN interview over here, check out the gallery bleow, and hit the jump for a short teaser.
[Thanks to Reeper for the tip, and to huge props to Atheistium for getting out of the cage long enough for the ‘shop]
