Whenever we get news from Twitter, we usually get mere hints, rumors, and minor teases. But in his Twitter page, Mortal Kombat's Ed Boon was quite direct when it came to the violence they're gonna be packing into Mortal Kombat 9. For the MK fans out there - here's an encouraging bit of news: there will be blood and lots of it.

"The best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry" - famous words by poet Robert Burns. Ed Boon of Midway can probably identify with that. The father of the Mortal Kombat series had always wanted to make a crossover game. Thing is, his original idea didn't quite come to pass. Find out why in the full article after the jump.

In the later part of an interview with IGN's Matt Casamassina, Midway's Ed Boon said that  Mortal Kombat: Armageddon for the Wii could have had online play, only if the Wii had something in place to support it. With the Xbox, they had Xbox Live. With everything else, they had GameSpy.

So while the Nintendo Wii had Wi-Fi capability and the Connect24 feature in place, they didn't have the service that mattered: game matching. If there was any, Midway would have had included multiplayer easily, because Armageddon already comes with online play capability.

But since Nintendo seems to be hush-hush about their dealings with GameSpy and their plans for online multi-play, it looks like the Wii version will remain a hot seat versus game instead. But Midway is not giving up hopes on Mortal Kombat Wii multiplayer.

Ed Boon answered a question regarding a sequel with online play support with: "If there was [multiplayer support] in place, of course we would definitely support it." Story of the Wii-gamers lives, isn't it?

GameSpot's shotgun interview segment, On the Spot, had Ed Boon, Creative Director of Mortal Kombat, and Sean Hendrick, whoever he is, demonstrate how the Wii controls of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon should redefine your brutal fighting technique. With the ability to adopt through the classic controller, the Wiimote, the Wiimote and nunchuck, and even a GameCube controller, you should be able to pull off your special moves and Fatalities easily.

And that's exactly what they want to introduce to fighting game fans: instead of having to panic and button-mash your way to a hasty recovery, the new gesture system for Mortal Kombat becomes basically second nature or instinct to the MK gamer. That said, gamers can now just focus on the strategy of the fight, instead of preparing themselves mentally for the button-mashing combo they must execute next.

Additionally, if you've had only a few characters in your move knowledge-base repertoire, you can now add even more characters to your options because their moves are also easier to learn. This way, character selection becomes a rock-paper-scissors choice against your crafty foes. View the full videos split into two parts right here, kudos to 7827003894908740 from Youtube.

Mortal Kombat: Armageddon On the Spot Live Demo - Part 1

Click on Full Article to view the second part of the On the Spot live demo of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon.

The game Mortal Kombat has developed such a large following that a movie was made. Unlike some of the other games turned into movies, this had a certain pair of movie critics give it a "two thumbs up". Unfortunately, the second movie didn't receive as much acclaim as the first. The third movie hasn't even been started because of certain problems.

Threshold (the people who hold the rights to MK) had to wait for their contract with New Line Cinema to expire. They are apparently blaming New Line Cinema for the less than stellar performance of the second movie. Another reason for the delay has to do with the script.

The people at Threshold and the director have been constantly writing drafts which they send to Midway (the makers of the game). This is to ensure that Ed Boon (the creator of the game) can give his inputs on the draft. Only after all of those steps will the script be passed on to the studio. It's pretty understandable why the movie is taking long.

With all of the said people lavishing attention on this, we hope that it turns out more like the first movie and not the second. You can see the director's comments on the movie via the read link.

If Digital Battle, the source of this, is as skeptical as we are, we can't blame them. They say they found that what-the-heck in the rumor section of the Official Xbox Magazine, April issue. Yeah, "Happy April Fool's Day" is a potential theory.

Digital Battle points out that this might be a long-shot possibility, though, citing what Ed Boon said last year in the annual Fight Night Chat: "Mortal Kombat 8... will also go in a direction that nobody is going to expect" (MMO? We could imagine an RTS Mortal Kombat where you Zerg Liu Kang clones...).

We still want to to lean more in the direction of "Happy April Fool's Day"... although the concept behind a Mortal Kombat MMO isn't that too hard to imagine, if martial arts-themed games like 9Dragons are any clue. Still, it looks like the two most-spammed skills in such a game will be Fatalities... and Resurrection.

Sorry if this is on the late-ish side, but perhaps it was because people have been focusing on Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, this might have slipped under the radar... until CVG brought it up recently. And we're still wondering WHY this slipped under the radar until now.

Don't over-react: starting from scratch isn't necessarily a bad thing. "Everything is getting trashed. We're reinventing everything from the ground up. We really think that's needed," Ed Boon tells GameInformer back during MGD '07, about the Midway Games MK team's concept for the next-gen Mortal Kombat 8. "We're not going to have three fighting styles, we're not going to have the same punches and kicks and the same kind of control scheme."

Never mind what it doesn't have: guess what it will have, according to CVG: Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3. Yes, Ed did a Squeenix. And there's one game to blame - er, to credit for MK8's new look. "Our goal, graphically, with this game is to be as gritty... To me, when I saw Gears of War, I was like, 'Holy s***! That's the look that we've been talking about... Visually, that's what we want to do.'"

If that chainsaw ever makes a cameo as a Fatality... Well, you now know who or what to turn to when the blood starts to fly in MK8. Boon gives a "Novemberish time of 2008" estimate for the next-gen Kombat to kick in. (As there are no known specifics yet about which console/s it will appear in, we've gone and dropped it in all three next-gen consoles, to be sure. Please put all debates on hold until we get firmer reports about 8's destination.)

Mark Rein must be tickled pink into a Babality.

Trust us, not even a long and detailed interview with pictures beats an actual video demo. And when Midway Games thought of bringing Mortal Kombat: Armageddon to the Wii, gesture control became de rigeur in gameplay, someone has to show how to throw Scorpion's spear. Enter Ed Boon, this time not talking to Gamespot, but to you, via this MKA advert recently seen in YouTube. Now Boon, show us how to do it:

Er, we'll pass on Grandma tearing our hearts out, thank you. Now, for those who feel that not even motion-sensing beats the joystick, there's always the GameCube controller or the Classic Controller. And while turning the Wiimote into Scorpion's spear was definitely the first thing that must have jumped into everyone's thoughts when they heard of Mortal Kombat on the Wii, with a little extra passion, absent a tight grip on the Wiimote, and a dose of Wiidiocy, the TV might not appreciate it...

Mortal Kombat, the popular fighting game series originally created by Acclaim Entertainment in 1989, will have its final battle between good and evil as creative director Ed Boon made some startling announcement: Mortal Kombat: Armageddon (on Xbox and PS2) will be the final chapter of the story. Boon said, "This is the last Mortal Kombat on this generation of consoles, and we also wanted to end this kind of fighting mechanic for Mortal Kombat."

But this doesn't mean the now-coming to Wii title is the final game for the series: Boon did say that Mortal Kombat will have another next-gen game, this time on the PS3. Sad news is that some characters will be eliminated for the upcoming PS3 Mortal Kombat. But you guys shouldn't be spilling tears for them as they will be replaced with new characters, along with a new fighting system. The Mortal Kombat team has plans of taking advantage of the cool features of the next-gen console and provide players with new presentation and new graphics. Every aspect of the untitled Mortal Kombat for PS3 is going to be totally brand new.

Boon, however, didn't gave the list of characters who will be eliminated and retained. However, the new characters are surely something to look forward to, right? By the way, the image above is not the actual next-gen image but we will definitely keep our eyes peeled for spanking new images for the upcoming title of Mortal Kombat on PS3.

Midway Games and GameSpot is giving Mortal Kombat fans a chance to claim their 15 minutes of fame.

The duo recently announced "The Ultimate Mortal Kombat Fanatic" contest, a competition which allows fans to create unique, hilarious, and creative short films that will shout out to the whole world why they are the biggest Mortal Kombat fan. The prize?

The fan who gets away with the most convincing short film will receive a trip to San Francisco, California, and the chance to challenge Ed Boon himself at Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. The game is scheduled for a 2007 First Quarter release for the Wii, Midway promises to give more info about it in the coming days and weeks.

The contest is scheduled for September 18 to October 6. So if you're a big fan of the game (or filmmaking), warm up those digicams and creative juices, and show them what you got.