Midway plans to eviscerate PlayStation 2 owners this September, bundling together the previous three Mortal Kombat titles as a single $30 box set. The compilation, dubbed the Mortal Kombat: Kollection, will include 3D fighters Mortal Kombat: Deception and Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, as well as the under appreciated action game, Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks.

According to Midway, the set is designed to let players "refine their skills" prior to getting to clobber the Man of Steel this holiday. However, considering that Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe plays more like Mortal Kombat 3 than any of the more recent 3D fighters, we're not exactly sure how many of those skills will actually make the transfer.

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.

Atom Films hosts Kung-Fu Election, a Mortal Kombat knock-off fighting game starring Republican and Democratic primary front-runners. While the game is fairly deep -- boasting three attack buttons plus special moves -- the intro video snared us. Who knew Obama could shred like that?

See the non-embeddable video, play the game, then tell us how far you fared in the democratic primary tournament.

[Via AdRants]

Facing off against Washington State, the University of California, Berkeley's Golden Bears needed to show their might, their strength, and their willingness to perform a fatality if given a chance. During their half-time show, Cal's marching band performed a medley of video game songs, complete with gaming-themed drills (i.e. the band forms a giant Triforce and Master Sword while playing music The Legend of Zelda).

Keep an ear out for Zelda, Mortal Kombat, and various Mario tunes, among others. The Golden Bears went on to defeat Washington State 20-17, thus ending their three-game losing streak. Video is embedded after the break.

As firefighters battle to control ongoing wildfires in Southern California, almost 1 million people have been forced from their homes in what Bloomberg deems the largest evacuation in California's history. The blazes have also affected businesses, with GameDaily BIZ reporting that Midway employees have been asked to leave the publisher's San Diego offices (one of many spread across the world).

In response to less sensitive gamers asking, "But what about mah gamez?!" Midway has provided assurances that its development schedules remain unaffected and that the company's Mortal Kombat, Strangleholds and so forth remain in the hands of employees dutifully tinkering at home.

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.

Though much of last night's hubbub was about the will they/won't they delay of Unreal Tournament 3, Midway also let a few other game releases slip in their financial report. One was an upcoming Mortal Kombat, which we already heard about, but Midway also confirmed that they were working on a new entry in the X-TrEmE football series, Blitz. You no doubt remember Blitz for its steroid juicing and the ability to send hookers to the opposing team more than for, say, the football part.

Though we're happy for any series that helps make EA want to put an effort into Madden, we can't help but be bothered by something. In a world where Chad Johnson celebrates touchdowns by finding Jimmy Hoffa and shooting fireworks from his fingertips, O.J. Simpson is on a nationwide crime spree and Michael Vick eats dogs whole, how much more extreme does football need to be?

We don't know how much stock you should put in this one, but it is a lot of fun to think about. TRMK.org is reporting a rumor they're working to confirm that the next Mortal Kombat game will include characters from the DC Universe. TRMK says that they've confirmed the VS. angle with their sources, but haven't been able to nail down the DC angle. What do we think? Well, how kind of you to ask.

Pretty much the only info we have to go on about the next MK comes from this interview with series chief Ed Boon. He has gone on record as saying the next in the series would be more "serious", which wouldn't seem to fit the men-in-tights vibe. But he's also said that will be a very different sort of MK. So we guess that makes it a wash on the probability scale. For our part, we can't stop wondering if we'll finally get to see Noob Saibot fighting Mister Mxyzptlk in the reverse linguistics battle of the century. ... Anybody?

There are probably quite a few things that can prepare you for this. Midway has announced a pint-sized punch-a-thon in Ultimate Mortal Kombat, slated to hit, kick and likely do something completely uncalled for to the Nintendo DS in November. The game will offer the traditional fighting and fatalities of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (currently available on Xbox Live Arcade) along with the block-dropping Puzzle Kombat mode, as seen in Mortal Kombat: Deception.

Nintendo Wi-Fi multiplayer is also supported by the title -- just remember to exchange friend codes before exchanging blows.

While we're not sold on using the Wiimote for traditional fighting games -- and neither is Midway, you can play the newly released Mortal Kombat: Armageddon with the classic controller or GameCube controller -- the mere thought of Wiimote-enabled fatalities has us all bloodthirsty giddy with curiosity. We perused the list of moves conveniently hosted in PDF format at JOEyGADGET, and selected our three favorites, ranked in order of offensiveness to your grandparents:

Between this and Manhunt 2's Wiimote-enabled depravity, the Wii is becoming the console of choice for not only the octogenarian cruise ship crowd, but the graphic simulated violence crowd as well.

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]

A couple of years ago, a group of students released a set of images depicting a Street Fighter/Mortal Kombat-esque fight sequence in front of a chalkboard. Now the team has released a stop-motion video utilizing over 3,000 photos and several hours of post-production effects. No chalk this time around, but the video game-meets-Dragonball Z-meets-real life theme is all there. Check out the video after the break.

[Via Insert Credit]

Ed Boon is done joking around with Mortal Kombat. We don't know what that means, but he seems so serious about it, we can't help but be a little intimidated. He put on his business face in an interview with CVG about the next game in the series, saying "we're not going to joke around in this one, it's not going to be like jokes." Does this mean we can't expect Babalities? No more Johnny Cage crotch shots?

Boon goes on to expand on his vision for the new, more mature MK, (or will it be MC?) calling it more realistic and grittier, with the designers feeling no obligation to bring back favorite fighting styles or weapons. He stops short of saying he'll bench favorite characters, presumably to stem the tide of "If joo dont bring bak ScOrPiOn ILL cut your brak lines" emails that are probably just making love to "GrEEdo didnt shoote 1st dumba$$" emails somewhere just waiting for their moment to strike. Boon said the title probably won't be available until the end of 2008, and we're (pun incoming!) seriously excited to see this brave new world of spine removal.

When we last reported on Mortal Kombat II for the PlayStation Network, we said it was coming out in March. Obviously that didn't happen as we're now deep into April and you have yet to punch someone in the crotch with the power of the internet. To make up for it, here is a fabulous joke that is guaranteed to mortify your opponents online.

What is Liu Kang's favorite drink?

...

WATAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Hilarious. The ball breaking goodness arrives this Thursday as Mortal Kombat II will be available on the PlayStation Network for $4.99. It comes complete with online play, so be sure to brush up on your Mileena for when you run into jerks like us who just want to play Jax all day.

Either Midway realized they went too far the moment Liu Kang was turned into a zombie, or they just want to cash-in on a current cinema trend. Regardless, the Mortal Kombat series could stand a serious reboot. Especially after the previous game, Armageddon, featured a dead Johnny Cage split-punching every known kombatant ever in the crotch.

Should the new film ever make it to theaters, director Christopher Mink says it will be a retelling of the Mortal Kombat universe, a la Batman Begins. This would also fall in line with MK co-creator Ed Boon's vision of a completely redone fighting game for the eighth sequel in the series. With scripts being thrown in and out of Threshold, Midway and another, unknown studio, progress is still being made albeit slowly.

In other Oscar worthy news, Mink told IMDB readers that he has met with former Mortal Kombat stars Robin Shou and Christopher Lambert. For Raiden, we expect no less, for there can be... only one!