Happy Halloween!

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FINISH HIM!

Mortal Kombat's Kenshi Doesn't Need to See Your Ass to Kick it

Eyes. Who needs em? Mortal Kombat cares very little for eyes, as evidenced by attacks such as Reptile's and Baraka's X-Rays. But what good will those attacks do to a character to has no optics in the first place? Yup, here comes Kenshi. 

A blind monk who whips around a bitching sword with telekinetic ease, Kenshi is on deck as your next kombatant. Netherrealm promised a full slate of four fighters this summer, and after last weeks release of Skarlet - who is bloody fantastic - Kenshi hits the tournament next Tuesday, July 5. Two weeks between the first two downloadable characters, and I hope this pace keeps up. I'd love to bring the fatalities with Rain and the yet unannounced mystery character by time early August comes around. I hope Capcom is taking note with their handling of Marvel vs. Capcom 3's characters.

Will Kenshi justify the $5 buy in? Decide for yourself after laying your precious little eyes on this trailer. 

Skarlet Joins Mortal Kombat Next Week

Mortal Kombat is steadily solidifying itself as the best fighting game of the year thus far. Why? Post-release support that moves as quickly as Marvel vs. Capcom 3's entire cast of characters combined. Burned!

IGN has confirmed the much-teased female ninja Skarlet will officially join the tournament's kombatants next week, June 21. The perpetual menstrual cycle uses the blood of fallen warriors and some wicked-sharp kunai to put her enemies to shame. Sorry, was that period joke in bad taste? Well it fits perfectly, so I don't care what you think! 

Skarlet will run you a $5 buy in, as will be the case with each following DLC. You bet your ass, more downloadable characters! Following the blood-ninja-with-boobs will be Kenshi, the blind swordsman. And after Kenshi comes Rain, ninja-prince of his realm, who dons the color purple. The correlation never occurred to me until about 5 minutes ago. Oh Ed Boon, your sense of humor never fails me! One last fighter for the summer has yet to be revealed. Any bets on the identity of this mysterious kombatant? I'm drawing a total blank, though Mortal Kombat lore is not my strongest suit. 

Now you may be asking, how will online play work with these characters? Simple: each paid DLC will release alongside a free DLC which will not only patch the game - allowing you to play online against anyone who has purchased a character - but will also include a free set of character skins. The free patch releasing alongside Skarlet's update will bring Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 skins for Cyrax and Sektor. No word on who gets the new skin treatment with Kenshi and Rain, but as long as those packs keep being free, I'll be a happy gamer. 

PS. Try not to take offense to the period quip, wimp.

REVIEW: Mortal Kombat

To be frank, I haven't cared about Mortal Kombat in a long time. The last game in the series I had in heavy rotation was the very underrated Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, and Mortal Kombat Trilogy before that. There was a certain je ne sais quoi missing from most of the sequels that followed the original trilogy, which ultimately led to a decline of interest. So why does the latest entry in the series, titled simply Mortal Kombat, inspire more thoughts of combos and fatalities than the past 4 or 5 installments combined? Could be because not only does this title kick ass, it rips your head off and splits your torso into five easy pieces.

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Mortal Kombat: Legacy Has Quite a Bit of Gunplay

Well folks, here it is. Mortal Kombat: Legacy, as envisioned by Kevin Tancharoen. Watch it more than once, like it, share it with your friends, tweet about it, retweet about it. Tancharoen seems to be taking this in the right direction, and the Mortal Kombat films are certainly due for a reboot. Let Warner Bros. know that we stand unified behind the directors vision, and hopefully they'll green light a feature film down the line. Though for now, these webisodes will have to do. 

You can find episode one at Machinima's YouTube page. Along with today's installment Machinima has also released a little teaser of what to expect in the coming episodes, which I will embed here for your konvenience. Though episode one is mostly about building the foundation, and hi-tech guns, the glimpses shown of upcoming action is decidedly martial arts, decidedly badass, and decidedly Mortal Kombat.

Make sure you check back next week for the next exciting chapter of Mortal Kombat: Legacy.

Ed Boon Must Feel Like a Boss Right Now

The other day, while walking out of my work place, a boy no more than 10 years old ran to his father, who probably just left work as well. They embraced in a hearty hug, the type fathers give their sons, with a lift off the ground and all that cliche stuff. Just another day as a family man, except I was not prepared for what the tween said. "I want to watch Mortal Kombat again! But not the second one, it sucked." Well, I guess you can't win 'em all. Still, I was surprised that the Mortal Kombat series, game or otherwise, had left a lasting impression on a child of that age.

So somewhere, Ed Boon -- creator of the Mortal Kombat universe -- is sitting in his Shao Kahn throne cackling like the Lord of Outworld himself. Children who are half as old as his creation sing the praises of the original Mortal Kombat films. Mortal Kombat, the latest addition to the fighting game series that has gamers' moistening their undergarments, releases next week. And as of tomorrow, Mortal Kombat: Legacy, a new web series directed by Kevin Tancharoen (of Fame fame) debuts on Machinima.

Yes, Ed Boon must be living the life right now. But more importantly, Mortal Kombat: Legacy, the series stemming from the 7 minute epic released last summer, will finally be released to the ravenous masses. A clip below shows a little of what we can expect. It feels like an early 90's action movie, which is both good and bad. What catches me is that it doesn't seem to have the 'grit' (for lack of a better term) that last year's trailer oozed. However, for Mortal Kombat I'm willing to make an exception, and prevent myself from already damning this production to the Netherrealm. 

Visit Machinima tomorrow to catch the first episode of Mortal Kombat: Legacy. If deemed a flawless victory, I'll remind you to visit Machinima every week thereafter to watch the following episodes. If it can come anywhere close to its potential, gamers need to let Warner Bros. know by way of clicks, comments, and social buzz. Then maybe Tancharoen will be given the keys to create a full-length film, as he should have originally, and Ed Boon will continue to rule Outworld like a boss.

According to Shang Tsung, Your Soul isn't Really Yours

Poor Johnny Cage. When he's not busy getting his ass beat in his own trailer, he's getting his ass beat elsewhere. Case in point, Shang Tsung's shine in the latest of the trailers for Mortal Kombat. The age-changing soul thief sees fit not only to kill poor Mr. Cage, but to kill him in one of the most humiliating ways possible. 

Don't worry Johnny, you still have fans. I don't plan on choosing you, but I know people will. And when they do, I will chuckle at your hijinks. Shang Tsung though, looks thoroughly nasty. In case you didn't know, your soul is his. 

Test Your Patience! Mortal Kombat's 300 Challenge Tower Mode

Mortal Kombat, aside from being the grandfather of game gore, will always find a way to add something funny and funky into its games. Friendships, Babalities, kart racing, battle chess, or Reptile and Scorpion talking the parts of Liu Kang and Kung Lao, always something funky I tells ya.

The Tower Mode in the upcoming Mortal Kombat, aside from offering an incredible challenge by way of having to pass 300 freaking challenges, is going to infuse NetherRealm's gorefest with its quota of wackiness. Fight armless, fight headless, fight upside down, throw grenades into a bucket, play the slots or Three Card Monte with severed heads. What haven't Mr. Boon and company thought of? 

If you're a member of the illustrious handful of PSN Plus members, you'll be able to try a demo of Mortal Kombat on March 8. That's tomorrow, bitches! Don't fret, for those of you who aren't plus-rollers, you'll get the demo next week, March 15. 

Sorry Xbox 360 owners, no set date for your demo yet. Suckers!

Awesome Mortal Kombat Trailer to Become Awesome Web Series

Do you remember the above video? It caused the interwebz to spontaneously jizz their pants sometime in the middle of last year. As a project pitched to Warner Bros. to test the interest for a new Mortal Kombat feature film, apparently it failed. How could something so good fail, you ask? Simple; because the movie industry is complete shite. However, Warner Bros. was not stupid enough to completely dismiss the project. Thankfully, it has been salvaged into a 10-part series of webisodes, to be released whenever the hell it's ready. 

All we know thus far is that the lead role of Jax will be reprised by Michael Jai White, one of the most bad ass mo'fuggas on the planet, you best believe. Other appearances will be made by Shang Tsung, Liu Kang, Sub Zero, Kabal, Kitana, Mileena, Shao Kahn, and of course, old white-eyes, Scorpion. 

Bloody Disgusting, via Kotaku

Get Over Here, Watch Scorpion Break Faces

Initial looks at the latest Mortal Kombat installment have been pretty impressive. Now, NetherRealm Studios wants you to get reacquainted with the fan favorite, Scorpion. So enjoy one minute of Ol' White Eyes putting the beat on various characters, culminating in some X-Ray views of Kung Lao's skeletal structure turning into a bag of Doritos Bone Chips.