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More Mortal Kombat HD Remake Retailer Listings Surface

PS3-exclusive compilation headed to retail this November... maybe.


It hasn't been officially announced, but that certainly won't stop these guys from letting you pay them for it. 
It hasn't been officially announced, but that certainly won't stop these guys from letting you pay them for it. 
It's popped up a couple of times now in Europe, but now GameStop's making it domestic. Leading Mortal Kombat fan site, TRMK, noticed a retailer listing for something called "Mortal Kombat: HD Arcade Kollection" as an M-rated PS3 disc with a retail price of $39.99 coming from Warner Bros. on November 16.

The rumor has been floating around for awhile now, with TRMK also digging up a similar listing in a US-focused distributor database earlier this month. Most of the speculation and unofficial info seems to peg the package as a collection containing remakes of Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3.

Much like the rest of the project, it's not known how, exactly, one would make these 2D games over in high-resolution. Much of the original footage shot for those first three games isn't in a suitable quality for anything more than some basic upscaling. Going back to TRMK yet again, the site is also reporting that the footage is being reshot with new actors. The whole idea sounds crazy in a way I can totally get behind. In fact, if they need someone to play Stryker, I think I've got the "out-of-shape cop" look down to a science. Just putting that out there. I'll send my headshot over, cool?

Also of interest is the fact that all of these retailer and distributor leaks have only listed the PlayStation 3, never the Xbox 360. This could point to some sort of exclusive deal... maybe since Sony's so keen on getting 3D support into the proper Mortal Kombat sequel due out next year, it's also throwing some additional oomph (and by "oomph" I suppose I mean "dollars") in Warner's direction for some exclusive arcade classics?

Either way, the retailer listings and specific information about this rumored project have picked up enough that it certainly sounds legit. And GameStop isn't exactly in the business of inventing products to include in its database. From a business perspective, maybe this makes great sense as a way to get people re-excited about the next MK by showing them how it all began?

But if this game's really going to come together and ship in mid-November, it's a little surprising that it hasn't been announced yet. That's really the only part that bothers me about this whole thing. Either some secret team has been toiling away on getting emulated arcade code to play nice with new graphics for quite some time, or this thing's going to be some sort of rush-job. Or, heck, maybe it doesn't actually exist, right? 
 
(Special thanks to ThePhantomnaut for pointing me at the latest developments.)
Jeff Gerstmann on Google+

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TechHits

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Edited By TechHits

So I guess that with MK9 coming out soon this game is MIA, so vapor ware?

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dichemstys

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Edited By dichemstys

I want this! ONLINE PLAY BITCHES!

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CharleyTony

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Edited By CharleyTony

for me this is an automatic purchase. If it came out on 360, I would buy it for that console but if it is a ps3 exclusive, I wont shed a tear, i'll just buy it anyway.
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deactivated-6157afb2b3c07

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Yeah, I would totally pick this package up at some point.
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honeycut1

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Edited By honeycut1

Why PS3 exclusive?

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unsolvedparadox

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Edited By unsolvedparadox

I would be totally down for this.

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Wildfire570

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Edited By Wildfire570

I hope when they announce its also for the 360. I want to perform fatalities too! >.<

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LiquidPrince

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Edited By LiquidPrince

I'd buy this game if Jeff was in it.

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deactivated-633355e1dd700

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Come on with a Steam release goddamnit.

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Quacktastic

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Edited By Quacktastic

I have this image in my head of high res clean looking actors doing stilted stop motion and it's amazing.

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agentboolen

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Edited By agentboolen

I like the sounds of re-shooting it, make a Xbox 360 version and I'll be considering it.

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KeepThisKoupon

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Edited By KeepThisKoupon

No 360 version /cry

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Dryker

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Edited By Dryker

This sounds cool. Too bad it's lookin' like no LIve play. PSN'll have to do.

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TheLastNeo

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Edited By TheLastNeo

FUUUUCK YESSS!!!

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mccarron

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Edited By mccarron
@Gertso said:
" This is totally going to look like Dark Presence isn't it?     "
Having seen a few fan created mockups of what this game could look like, they all look better than Dark Presence does. Here's one and here's another. They both take a lot of different directions than I expect the MK HD remasters to go, but cool none-the-less.
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MutenMiller

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Edited By MutenMiller

Totally using the wallpaper I made as the image for this newspost on the homepage.
 
*cool guy face*

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Gertso

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Edited By Gertso

This is totally going to look like Dark Presence isn't it?    

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mccarron

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Edited By mccarron
@blah37 said:
" @mccarron: Cool, thanks for the info and speculation.  It's both weird and awesome that digitized graphics still exist in the year 2010.  Now we just need HD remakes of Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game, Pit Fighter, and Jackie Chan in Fists of Fire for digitized graphics to make their complete and glorious comeback. "
I was as surprised as anyone else when I heard the HD Remake of Mortal Kombat was using real actors, but I think they wanted to maintain the look and feel of the early games in the transition to HD. Replacing the actors with hand drawn or sprites made up of 3D models would just upset the hardcore fans.  
 
I doubt you'd see a major A+ title doing digitized graphics. It's one thing to replacing a set number of sprites with newer graphics, but it's a whole other monster to create a new game that uses thousands of unique digitized frames in all their animations like Dark Presence is aiming to do. Their whole game was told to me to be over a Terabyte of storage currently!  That pretty much promises it'd be arcade only if/when they finally ship the product.
 
The use of 3D models make that work so much easier especially when all they need to do is go back and motion capture a new animation and it's pretty much ready for the game for any given character they want. No need to call back in an actor to refilm some new ideas you have, or be forced to reuse as many frames of animation as possible for anything you want to add. You can see the amount of re-use that was done in Mortal Kombat in the arcades for Fatalities and such that were added later. 
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august

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Edited By august

This sounds crazy and awesome. Crazy awesome.

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blah37

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Edited By blah37
@mccarron: Cool, thanks for the info and speculation.  It's both weird and awesome that digitized graphics still exist in the year 2010.  Now we just need HD remakes of Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game, Pit Fighter, and Jackie Chan in Fists of Fire for digitized graphics to make their complete and glorious comeback.
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Sanious

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Edited By Sanious

Don't understand why they're releasing it on the inferior console first.

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warchief

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Edited By warchief

time to dust off the old ps3. 

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knoxt

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Edited By knoxt

I'm gonna say that this is probably not going to last as a ps3 exclusive. Because nothing does.

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Sergotron

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Edited By Sergotron

Call me crazy, but I actually really enjoyed the 3D last generation Mortal Kombat games. I know it is a small fan base, but I am proudly one of them.

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mccarron

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Edited By mccarron
@blah37 said:

" I'm really hoping any HD MK remake will look better than Dark Presence (what ever happened to that game?). "

I actually saw Dark Presence first hand a month or so ago, it does look better than the screenshots show. But they have a LONG WAY to go, and are being REALLY ambitious in some of the game design which does nothing but force the game to take longer to produce. Really great and nice guys, actually just opened up an arcade in the last few months which sadly is taking time from their already delayed games. 
 
As long as the  MK HD project keeps it's look close to the original, it should still look good in HD. I see no need to make changes beyond upscaling the graphics. If it remains close to the original as possible, it'll look WAY better than the stretched and scaled arcade resolution does just more crisp and clean. We should see something more soon I'd imagine. 
 
As far as the price goes, the UK leaks seemed to all claim this release also includes a demo of Mortal Kombat (2011). GameStop doesn't have details beyond platform and date, so it's very possible this is another reason it's not just downloadable and costs a bit more. 
 
Patrick McCarron, from the aforementioned TRMK
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TheHakku

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Edited By TheHakku

Well, I dived in and preordered whatever it is for PS3 on Gamestop. Yep.

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MerlinGLX

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Edited By MerlinGLX

Is it sad that no matter how many times this game is released\re-released I will still pick it up? Probably sad.

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MeatSim

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Edited By MeatSim

Kollection, ha

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lordgodalming

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Edited By lordgodalming
@SpiritOf: "  Shouldn't it be "Mortal Kombat: HD ArKade KolleKtion"?" 
 
Yes it should.
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Digbert

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Edited By Digbert

Sounds really cool

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Romination

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Edited By Romination

What? It's not the Arkade Kollection?

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Phished0ne

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Edited By Phished0ne

YES! CALL ED BOON, TELL HIM YOU HAVE AN IDEA FOR A NEW MK CHARACTER, 
 
DR TRACKSUIT

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MrRojan

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Edited By MrRojan
@Korwin said:
" @MegaGoat said:
" Dr Tracksuit as a secret character? "
From the character select screen hit down, back, down, forward, block+ punch.  This unlocks Dr. Tracksuit and the Toobin' mini game in UMK3 HD. "
What is his finishing move?  Does he have a friendality?
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HydraHam

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Edited By HydraHam

I will wait for a 24.99-29.99 price tag, 40$ is just ridiculous to me.

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illmatic19

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Edited By illmatic19
@Derachi said:
" Wait, 40 bucks? Let's add this up: UMK3 was 400 points on XBLA. (5 bucks) MK2 is, what, 5 bucks on PSN? Those two together is like 10 bucks. Is MK1 really worth 30 dollars? "
They are supposedly HD remakes, not the XBLA/PSN games. But I'm not sure that justifies the $40 yet, we'll have to see.  
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derachi

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Edited By derachi

Wait, 40 bucks?
Let's add this up:
UMK3 was 400 points on XBLA. (5 bucks)
MK2 is, what, 5 bucks on PSN?
Those two together is like 10 bucks.
Is MK1 really worth 30 dollars?

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Blueprint12

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Edited By Blueprint12
@icytower38 said:
" Xbox 360 release and I'm in "

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killer_meatballs

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Edited By killer_meatballs

Not sure about this.  Just bring on the next MK.

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ObsideonDarman

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Edited By ObsideonDarman

Please let this be true! for the love of God please let this be true!

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InuFaye

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Edited By InuFaye

Yay. For not having to drag out old consoles. 

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TheUnsavedHero

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Edited By TheUnsavedHero

Sounds great. Time to get my Cyrax and Kano on.

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Tophat666

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Edited By Tophat666

Please be true.

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phrosnite

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Edited By phrosnite

If this HD version comes to the PC I'll shit my pants from excitement.

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icytower38

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Edited By icytower38

Xbox 360 release and I'm in

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Akeldama

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Edited By Akeldama

Sold.

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BeautifulSpaceCowboy

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$40 is not bad price if they are redoing the animations/actors so a better HD product can be put out. I look forward to finding out more.

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s10129107

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Edited By s10129107

The idea of new actors makes me a little sad...

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get2sammyb

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Edited By get2sammyb

SOLD!