Mortal Kombat’s new arcade cabinet made for one lucky person in the UK

arcadehero March 11, 2011 7

Newsfeed 1015 viaThe Stinger Report

Another arcade classic is being rebooted in the console sector and the anticipation for it seems to be running higher than ever. That would be the new Mortal Kombat by Warner Bros. Interactive. Everybody knows that Mortal Kombat got it’s start in arcades and it was a strong arcade title until MK4 came along and we haven’t seen it gracing our sector since. Now Warner Bros. used to be involved with arcades back in the 90’s too, with their acquisition of Atari Games which for a time was known as Time Warner Interactive. They seem to be taking the arcade roots seriously enough to have produced a Mortal Kombat Arcade cabinet, to be given away as the grand prize for an MK tournament being held in the UK from March 14th to April 11th by GAME and Gamestation. As you can see from the image above, it’s not coin-operated and the panel looks like one of those pre-fabricated MAME controllers that lacks the traditional MK button layout but the general idea is there. Read more about that @ Joystiq.

So in lieu of this, let’s discuss a special Arcade Edition of Mortal Kombat. Yes it is true that there are many locations which wouldn’t touch a red label arcade title as this certainly would be. But at the same time those that would would benefit from the hype that is being generated by this release. I believe that arcade fighters can be a hot item right now, someone just needs to push it and not undermine it via consoles. Fighter fans can be picky about the kind of balancing and features found in each version and I think that an arcade edition would serve operators best if it had some superior features that wouldn’t be released as DLC in the future (always a hanging sword for us arcade ops). We’ve already got an example of this with the Super Street Fighter IV kits coming around soon and I think that they will be big, at least until Capcom kneecaps them with console DLC. Street Fighter IV has pretty much revived the fighter genre out there – I have experienced this from feedback I have got from Street Fighter fans in recent weeks. Some of those people have fond memories of Mortal Kombat in arcades as well. I know it’s anecdotal but I seriously believe that it’s worth looking into as the enthusiasm I have seen from fighter fans far surpasses anything I’ve seen for light-gun or racing games. Warner Bros. seems keen enough on the idea by producing this cabinet as a prize, I’m sure if one of you arcade manufacturers out there approached them about producing a special arcade edition (with some changed features, extra characters and levels that are exclusive to arcades, a screen that features as little lag as possible, etc) then it would be worth the investment. In fact, let’s do a poll to see what our readers think about this:

Should there be a New Mortal Kombat Arcade Edition?

View Results

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EDIT: As RJay points out in the comments, the realism found in this one could pose a problem in regards to violence so that would probably be something addressed in the Arcade Edition with adjustable settings. I’m not saying scrub it squeaky clean, there have been plenty of games that feature not just violence but also gore in arcades but the realism found in the newest MK may prove troublesome for certain locations.

7 Comments »

  1. Kamran March 11, 2011 at 10:20 pm - Reply

    Arcade Edition with exclusive content please!

  2. Joseph Meyer March 12, 2011 at 11:24 am - Reply

    Very cool, but the button layout on that cab is garbage.

  3. RJAY63 March 12, 2011 at 8:07 pm - Reply

    I voted ‘YES’ but I’m not sure a new MK would be practical in a public arcade setting. Main reason: the violence level. While you could get away with the gore in previous MK games, I’m not sure you could with this version with its detailed graphics. I guess you could edit the violence but that would defeat the whole point of the MK. If they did make an unedited version, maybe the UK model would have to rated by the BBFC.

    • arcadehero March 13, 2011 at 8:44 am - Reply

      That is a good point. I haven’t seen much of the violence in this new one yet, I guess if it’s over the top then perhaps some different levels (more than just blood/gore on/off) would be appropriate so operators can set it accordingly.

  4. nestlekwik March 15, 2011 at 11:41 am - Reply

    GameStop is also giving away an MK arcade cabinet in the U.S. as part of its Epic Rewards Giveaway for the month: http://www.poweruprewards.com/EpicReward

    I found out Galloping Ghost Arcade is also looking to build two custom MK cabinets for its location. One will be traditional, but Doc said he had plans to build a four-player cabinet to utilize the 2-on-2 tag mode as well.

    Otherwise, I’m sure arcades in certain locations would be able to do well with a special version of MK.

  5. dgarces3 May 18, 2011 at 3:14 pm - Reply

    i voted yes and if there were to make this new version for sale i would buy one beign a business owner. it would help small business.

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