We'd be surprised if anyone saw "Mortal Kombat movie" in the headline and decided to keep reading, regardless, we will continue on, if only for our own amusement. Entertainment news site Moviehole recently had the ... opportunity, we guess, to sit down with the director of the third chapter in the esteemed "Mortal Kombat" film franchise, a grown man who goes by the name of 'mink'. Yes, if there were anyone we could trust to revitalize this already sterling series of movies, a man with a penchant for weasels and poor capitalization skills would be first on our list.

mink mentioned that the film (which is still in pre-production) will not actually be a sequel, but instead, a "re-envisioning of the Mortal Kombat franchise from top to bottom." He also promises that the film will be an "A plus plus" title to try and "capture the magic of the first film." We're not convinced -- between Christopher Lambert's oddly effeminate portrayal of Raiden and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa's frequent, impassioned delivery of "YOUR SOUL ... IS MINE," we don't think that kind of lightning is capable of striking twice.

We'll admit that when approached with the subject of art in video games, Midway is not the first company that comes to mind. Not to say that their games are not art, as we sidestep that land mine and save the explosion for another day, but Midway's titles have never come across as particularly driven by aesthetic style, making us all the more curious as to the contents of Midway's newly released art book, The Art of Midway: Before Pixels and Polygons.

A 160-page collection of concept art for some of Midway's top titles, the book is said to include 200 illustrations covering such games as The Suffering and Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy, to the more recently shipped Stranglehold. And of course you can bet there will be quite a few doodles from the Mortal Kombat franchise as well, with Baraka's toothy grin featured on the book's cover. However, what's more interesting to us are the unpublished works said to be included in the book from Midway artists such as Stephan Martinière, Vince Proce, Ben Olson, and Bruno Werneck. Our coffee table has been looking a bit barren lately, and this book would fit quite nicely next to the sweat ring and stack of back issues of People.

We haven't been this excited about Mortal Kombat since the first time Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 came out, and we've never had any reason to be excited about a portable Kombat. But this is just too cool. Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon told IGN that a version of the classic fighting game will be coming to the DS-- with online play. Attention, developers: this is how you do a port on the DS.

It'll also include Puzzle Kombat, the Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo clone found in Mortal Kombat Deception, which will also be playable online. The game will be out in November, and we look forward to eviscerating all of you at Game Night.

In the game, we mean. We aren't planning to come to your houses and eviscerate any of you. We wouldn't even know how.

X3F Achievements 101 is back, and on its regularly scheduled time slot of Sundays. Initial response to our first edition was rather positive, so we're glad you like the concept and hope you enjoy reading, and even participating in the column. Emails with Achievement tips also came in at a good pace, and I look forward to playing and trading with you. One particular email stood out, which came from Casey over at brains-N-brawn.com, and the steps he took to get Achievements in one of the most time consuming Arcade games, Bejeweled 2.

Those of you who enjoy your beat-em-ups will no doubt be pleased with the recent European PSN update. As well as a couple of trailers for upcoming PS3 games, Sony gave us Mortal Kombat 2. The full release list is as follows.

• Mortal Kombat 2 (£1.99)
• Colin McRae: DiRT trailer (free)
• Ninja Gaiden Sigma trailer (free)

Isn't it is nice to finally get some playable content with a name that doesn't start with "Go!"? MK2 is a worthwhile purchase, especially considering the low price. We reviewed it in May (back when the Americans got it), giving it a score of nothing-to-write-home-about out of ten. Things can only get better for the PSN though, with upcoming releases of Calling All Cars and Super Stardust HD. Will removing the spines of our friends over the internet keep us occupied until then? We hope so.

While this isn't as MORTAL KOMBAAAAAAAAAAT as, say, screenshots or video would be, we admit that we were pretty curious about how the moves in Mortal Kombat Armageddon were going to be pulled off (not curious enough to buy it, but certainly curious enough to read a thing on the Internet.) We knew waggling would be involved, but it's cool to learn what the specific waggles will be.

This totally reminds us of downloading Mortal Kombat FAQs from Compuserve and leaving them to print from our dot-matrix printer overnight. Sometimes we'd wake up in the morning only to find that our pet dinosaur had shredded all the pages, forcing us to start over.

[Via Joystiq]

Can you believe it? This week, we have a list of Wii releases -- an actual list, which means more than one title. Brilliant! At least, it seems that way until we head out to the shops and peer into our wallets, which immediately shrivel in the face of the epic list of games we want to buy. But we're greedy like that.

So what's it for you this week? Will you bear the brunt of multiple game purchases? Are you going to wait awhile before making any decisions?

• Mario Party 8
• Mortal Kombat: Armageddon
• Surf's Up
• Tamagotchi: Party On!

Sony has announced that tonight they are releasing the SOE remake of the arcade classic, Rampage World Tour, through the North American PLAYSTATION Store. Priced at the standard rate of a mere $4.99, the downloadable title allows you to play as any of the three classic Rampage characters as you tear down skyscapers and generally terrorize the city. The game also offers multiplayer action for up to three people, online or local - no word on if it supports voice chat though.

I'm pretty stoked about this title myself. I liked Mortal Kombat II a lot, but Gauntlet II was kind of lacking in the fun department. Rampage looks solid though, graphics held up surprisingly well and something about the simple, destructive nature of the gameplay of the original always entertained me.

[Via Press Release]

It's a little weird to release new screens of a port that looks pretty much identical to the versions that have been out since October, but that's okay! We're following Mortal Kombat Armageddon with interest, just because of the waggle. We are very curious about trying a waggle-fortified fighting game.

One thing is certain from these screens: Nintendo is definitely not insisting on replacing the blood in this game with viscous grey sweat. Unless they're saying that in the Outworld, people sweat red-- by the gallon, out of gaping neck wounds. We've posted a gallery containing new screens-- FINISH THEM! Uh, by which we mean LOOK AT THEM!

The Wii version of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon producer Shaun Himmerick has confirmed that the title will have no online functionality whatsoever. This is despite previous versions of the game having online play (on PlayStation 2 and Xbox One) and despite the developer's wishes to include online play.

The reason, as Himmerick explains in an interview with Advanced Media Network, was not a technology issue but that "Nintendo didn't have their online system ready for us when we would have needed to implement it," he said. Himmerick said they instead focused on improving the single player aspect: creating an Endurance mode, including a new character and fine tuning the Wii remote controls.

The news comes as further anecdotal evidence that Nintendo is not letting third-party developers put online in their gameplay. Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, takes out its aggression on the Wii on May 29.

[Via Nintendo Wii Fanboy]

Today gives us the opportunity to look at the reviews given to the PS Store's downloadable Mortal Kombat II. Before we get into our impressions, we'll do as we always do and cite the big-name review sites. Their scores for this game were surprising. There aren't too many reviews on the game, though. Without further ado, here are some of the scores given to MKII.

• IGN: 7.3 / 10
• GameSpot: 7.9 / 10

What we noticed in these reviews is that the reviewers didn't actually review the title as what it is, rather, as what it was. "Oh, this game was great in 1993!" were slapped over both reviews, listing what the game offered back then and how it still does all those things. What our impressions were entailed how that doesn't matter two kicks of the donkey -- the game as it is now really sucks. Read on to listen to our reasoning, or just flame away for no reason now.

So it would seem the release of Mortal Kombat II on the PS Store actually contributed to helping out Midway's Q1 numbers. We'll be reviewing that title this weekend and here's a teaser -- we aren't pleased. Sales for Midway this first quarter were a reported $11.1 million, down from the previous quarter's $15.4 million. Their net loss is teetering on $19.8 million, which is better than last year and better than anticipated. Most of Midway's killer titles are due out later this year.

CEO David Zucker was pleased, saying the company's performance "exceeded our expectations during the first quarter primarily due to the continuing sales of our holiday 2006 releases and other catalog titles." Heck, those random-number-generating analysts snidely remarked that Midway would only see $8 million in sales by the end of the first quarter.

Still, Midway isn't making that many games -- they're creating a few new titles on the PSP and DS, but the Wii will be getting a remake of MK: Armageddon, the 360 will snag Hour of Victory, and continued sales of Lord of the Rings Online will probably bear the brunt of sales for the rest of the year. We'd like to see more from these guys on the PS3 -- maybe a new IP. We'll keep you posted if anyone gets talked up, but for now, we'll just continue to shrug at these numbers.

What happens when an undisclosed number of game developers stop making the same blood-drenched fighting games and start getting real? A terrible Real World special. That's what. After Armageddon, MK creator Ed Boon said the next title in the franchise will be more realistic-looking and "not going to be like jokes." Indeed. It'll be an edgier move, grittier, dirtier. Darker? Whatever they plan, they're planning from scratch. Other than the idea of it being a fighting game, anything after that is open for consideration. No kart-racing, please.

Boon added this about the upcoming (read: end of 2008) game: "We're not putting any restrictions like we HAVE to keep weapons or we HAVE to keep fighting styles and stuff like that... we're going to... try to introduce as many new characters as possible, new features, new stuff like that and take advantage of the amazing presentation, graphics that all of a sudden you can do, things that are a lot more real." New characters are always welcome, really. As far as features go, Boon and his Boonies (teehee, it's like Goonies) will try to incorporate the SIXAXIS controls in there and use the next-gen consoles as fully as possible. We look forward to seeing what gets revealed... next year.

Oh yeah! This brings back the old-school memories. Button mashing never got any better than Mortal Kombat II, and now you can experience it all over again on your PS3 this week. From the press release:

"Get ready to re-live all of the classic arcade action that made Mortal Kombat II a beloved classic. Brought back and available for download exclusively on the PS3, re-experience the classic head-to-head fighting game featuring classic characters such as Sub-Zero or Goro. Players will fight their way through the Outworld and defeat Shang Tsung or battle hidden characters including Jade and Smoke!"

Ten new levels, online multiplayer and smack-talk inducing leaderboards will likely make this the best $5 you've spent in a long, long time. Get ready to download it on the PLAYSTATION Store this Thursday. And try not to break your SIXAXIS ... that thing is not made for prolonged thumb attacks.

When Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 appeared on Xbox Live Arcade this past October, folks cried out for the prequel, Jax Vs Mile- err, we mean, Mortal Kombat 2. Playstation 3 owners win this round as Sony Online Entertainment will be bringing classic kombat to the Playstation Network this March.

Mortal Kombat 2 will be available for $4.99 and is being handled by the team behind UMK3 for Xbox Live Arcade, Digital Eclipse. The site for the game itself is slim on details, but if we're to believe this preview from CES, it will support online multiplayer and a 720p resolution.

Enjoy the screenshots and the quick-look strategy guide provided above.