Mortal Kombat’s Ed Boon on MK1’s Khaos Reigns DLC

It’s been a year since NetherRealm Studios’ Mortal Kombat 1 has been released, and now that the final DLC fighters and cameos from Combat Pack 1 have been exhausted, it’s time for round two. Everything players know so far Mortal Kombat 1: Chaos Reigns Makes it sound like MK1’s version of Mortal Kombat 11: AftermathWith new history chapters and a New group of reverse MK Fighters and guest characters, such as Ghostface from screamThe T-1000 of Terminator 2and Conan the Barbarian.

Chaos reigns Adds fully playable versions of two previously cameo-only fighters, Cyrax and Sektor, along with Noob Saibot, to Mortal Kombat 1s roster. While including characters that are already featured in MK1 In some form, since paid DLC isn’t the most exciting addition some long-time series fans could imagine, it will undoubtedly be fun to get Noob Saibot’s shadow and portal combos again. Chaos reigns Also brings back animals for all playersA feature introduced in Mortal Kombat 3 But used surprisingly sparingly since.

Recently, Screen Rant Speaking with Ed Boon, co-creator of Mortal Kombatto discuss Chaos reignsPast games, the return of animals, what players should expect in Mortal Kombat 1s future, and whether Scorpion is still his favorite Mortal Kombat Character.

How Mortal Kombat looks back to go forward

Ed Boon discusses the past, present and future of MK

Screen Rating: Without spoiling too much, because there are people who might be waiting for Chaos reigns To come out and I do not want to talk directly about the end of Mortal Kombat 1But in the last section of the game there are a lot of randomized character mashups. Was there ever any thought about creating an Armageddon-Style Create-A-Fighter? Because it feels like it’s there on the back-end.

Ed Boon: You know, until you said it, I didn’t even think that was something to give players to do. It was always something we put together.

The challenge with Armageddon, at the end of the day, was that with a Mortal Kombat character, there are certain things that are expected of him, right? They have to have special moves, and now they have to have intros and a super move, but the big one is fatalities. And I think perhaps the biggest criticism we got with Armageddon was that every character didn’t have the classic two big showcase fatalities.

We made this thing where you can string together fatality moves and come up with your own fatality. And in the end, the main reason was because we couldn’t do two fatalities, I don’t know how many characters we had, you know, 50 or something like that, like 100 fatalities, let’s say. It was physically impossible unless we took another two years to make the game.

So, to make a true Mortal Kombat character, for Mortal Kombat 1, with the kind of kit-bash features that we have, it would be really challenging to make true fatalities for the Create-A-Fighter characters.

Screen Rating: I remember the Create-A-Fighter conversations that were happening way back when Armageddon Released. I always loved how you can chain them to get more and more [hits] How did you go on?

Ed Boon: I thought we had something going there. But if we added that as well as two fatalities, two real fatalities, I think it would be a little more comprehensive. I think a lot of players interpreted it as this feature replacing fatalities.

Ironically, every time we didn’t release two fatalities per player, like, you know, Deadly Alliance was another one. We only had one fatality for the character. It’s like, don’t mess with that. You can go to three, but do not go less than two. That’s just expected.

Screen Rating: Speaking of going to three, animals are coming back as a free update, not just for Chaos Reigns but for everyone. Can you talk a little bit about why you wanted Animate to come back, and also will the process be the same? As in, am I still going to have to make a mercy first?

Ed Boon: No, no, no, no. It was one of those, I wouldn’t call it a debate, but a difference of opinion that we had. The design team wanted to have all the criteria to do an animation. And I guess I made the call to say, no, They will only be like fatalities. You do the move, you get it off, because there are a lot of circumstances that have to [happen]To put the mercy and all that stuff. So it will just be, you just have to win the fight, and there is a third fatality, just as you described it.

Screen Rant: And so what was the idea [to bring Animalities back]? Because of what we’ve seen of the animals so far, it looks like it won’t all be the same animals that were in Mortal Kombat 3 And Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. And there are definitely some where… is it a scorpion that turned into a penguin and laid an exploding egg?

Ed Boon: I was literally, that was the next sentence I was going to say, they’re not all going to be the same. For example, Scorpio will not turn into a penguin and do an exploding egg. There are certain references to some of the older ones we made, and some characters turn in those [same] The ones they have.

It is much more of a spectacle, and just like a bit of a background with production, we have so much [holds two fingers up indicating a very small amount] Memory left to do all the animals in Mortal Kombat 3. And so we had to go down to 4-bit images, so everything was very low res, not many colors at all. It was very rudimentary. This time we really go all out. It is a great production for everyone.

And to your other question, in Mortal Kombat 9, we’re bringing back bubbles. And then in MK11, we brought friendship moves. So we’re just kind of digging into the past. And so bubbles, friendships, what else is there? Animals. So we decided to go all-out with these, to kind of show These are the animals we would have made If we had unlimited resources back in ’95 or when MK3 came out.

Screen Rant: And with the animals, will it be just for the base characters? Or will it also be for the DLCs and guest characters? Like, is homelander of The boys Will you have an animal?

Ed Boon: Yeah, everybody gets one. oh Homelander is crazy. It’s a reference to the show.

Screen Rant: [worriedly] Is… is it a cow?

Ed Boon: No, no, no.

Screen Rant: Oh, good.

Ed Boon: It’s…well, it’s certainly not a cow. But that was discussed. Yes, everyone gets an animal. The cameo fighters don’t, though.

Screen Rant: Considering Havik’s importance to the story of the DLC, as it’s all about Khaos and the “here-anything-is-possible” nature that was hinted at in the trailer for Noob Saibot, we’ll see more Deadly bond And deception –Period characters like Hotaru and Drahmin in the story mode just kind of peppered over?

Ed Boon: I don’t think you’ll see Drahmin and Hotaru. We’ve been talking about including them as cameos, but I wouldn’t guess in the coming year you’d see them.;

Screen Rant: Talking about all the different franchises that have been in Mortal Kombat Over the years, not just in MK1 But going back, of course it was Mortal Kombat Vs. DCBut it was really Mortal Kombat (2011) Who really kicked it off with Freddy Krueger and Kratos. Since then we have had Leatherface until now when we only talked about Homelander. Are there any [characters] Still left on a bucket list that you’d like to play with, but haven’t been able to find a way to get access to yet?

Ed Boon: All the time. We had a bunch, a bunch of discussions. Most of the time, the obstacle is the IP holder, whatever the circumstances are to whether they can license it, whether they want to license it. You know, all the obstacles you have, the hoops you have to jump through to make things happen. Usually these are the things that hold us back.

Plus the fact that we have way more ideas than we have slots to fill, so to speak. But we’re always chatting about, you know, Street Fighter or some other game, like we’re dipping with Kratos and what not, but it’s just like fun talk. As if you and I sat down and said, “What would be cool to put in a Mortal Kombat game?” It’s the same conversation.

Screen Rating: Speaking of characters, you’ve said many times over the years that Scorpio is your favorite Mortal Kombat Character. Is this still the case, even with this alternate reality that has seen, not so much the powers, but definitely the personalities, of all the characters shift over the years?

Ed Boon: My main reason that Scorpion is my favorite character, and probably always will be, is much more related to the origins of the first game, how we made it happen, the development process. In my head, there is a very clear memory of when we got the scorpion spear and got that running.

And when we got it running, it was a big, like, “Oh, this is what the game is going to be. These are the kind of wacky, crazy things that are going to be in this game.” And Scorpion was one of the earliest characters we did that really showed that. The costumes, the backstory, the special moves and all that. The story of Scorpion has kind of evolved over the years and in MK1 we just basically rewrote it.

But he still has the spear, the teleport, the drag mask, all those things. It’s just that [history]For me, is the main reason why he is my favorite character.

Screen Rating: I guess the last thing I want to ask is that, from talking about making the very, very first game, to MK3s”We just have 4-bit animations for an animal,“All the way to be able to provide the really massive, really detailed, flesh-world [in MK1]. What is the thing that you are most proud of Chaos reigns DLC launch?

Ed Boon: That’s a good question. I think the Khaos Reigns DLC launch is like the third or fourth time that we’ve done something like this, where we launch a game and then a year later we kind of relaunch it, add more characters, add more features, environments, just Really layer onto it. And to me, it’s a little bit more of a sign that players are continuing the ride with us. You know, we can have multiple releases of a game, just layering on features and what not.

And throughout the year we’re releasing characters and cameos and new features. But for me, I guess I’m most proud of the fact that it’s still known in the video game industry. And This is the franchise that will be around long after I’m gone. I think they will continue to make movies, I think they will continue to make games and what not. And I think Khaos Reigns exactly represents that.

As far as the features are concerned, for me, it’s great that there’s still an appetite for that in Mortal Kombat 1. New cameo fighters, new roster fighters, you know, the pop culture references are fun too. Just seeing things that we’re big fans of, the Scream movies, Terminator 2 is one of my favorite action movies of all time. Aliens is also, you know, we have aliens in Mortal Kombat X, and so it’s great to be a part of that thing that we admire so much. And then we are part of the same conversation, part of that kind of thing.

Screen Rating: When you talk about howThey’ll still be making Mortal Kombat games after I’m done,” do you have any other ideas for a non-Mortal Kombat Project that NetherRealm might work on in the future?

Ed Boon: Oh, yeah. I have a lot of ideas. We also did a DC game called Injustice, and we did a sequel to that. And there were other games that, you know, we just haven’t been able to find the time.

One of the things about when a game continues to do well, there is an expectation of another one. And for us, it would be a hard thing to sell to players, “Okay, we’re going to do this game, and then an unfair game or something. So you won’t see Mortal Kombat for 10 years. ,” right? Like, I don’t think this is going to be an acceptable scenario for our megafans.