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A Konversation With Mortal Kombat's Ed Boon

interview
by Jeff Cork on August 27, 2010 at 04:13 PM
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Ed Boon has been a part of Mortal Kombat since the series began. He programmed the first game, back when a team of four could realistically tackle such a project. As creative director for NetherRealm, Boon is charged with overseeing the latest installment in the series, which is simply titled Mortal Kombat.

We sat down with Boon at last week's Gamescom, and talked about his pinball past, the evolution of the series, and how the Internet marked the beginning of the end of gaming secrets.

Game Informer: Now, obviously Wikipedia is the greatest source around for background research and fact-checking. Anyway, on Wikipedia it says you did the voice of Rudy from the pinball game Funhouse. Is that true?

Ed Boon: Yes. Yes it is. They actually gave me one of those just for doing Rudy.

GI: Was that voice all you, or was it electronically enhanced?

Boon: No, it was just me. Back in the day, I did voices for about 10 pinball machines. At the time, if someone else at the company [Williams] needed a voice, they didn’t hire actors at the time. I was just somebody who could do different voices, so they’d say, ‘Oh, come in and do this James Cagney voice.’

GI: Do you miss pinball, particularly the fact that so few tables are being made?

Boon: Yeah, it’s kind of a drag that there’s only one company making them. It would be a shame to see it extinct.

GI: No doubt. So I guess we can talk about Mortal Kombat, too. First off, I know it’s important to the degree that it’s included, but honestly, how important do you think a storyline is to a fighting game?

Boon: You know, in terms of the repetitive back to back, fight fight fight, who’s going to win it, it doesn’t play a big part. But I think that certainly for Mortal Kombat, there’s this other component, which is our ongoing soap opera. The first Mortal Kombat game was the first one that really had a bio for each character, and I think that contributed to peoples’ connection with the characters. To me, it’s like what are the special moves they do, how cool is their costume, and what’s their back story? I don’t think it was the main reason—they played them because they played cool—but those things made more of an emotional bond. And then we extended it so far with full-motion video and actors that it became cinematic.

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  • by Friday, August 27, 2010 at 04:35 PM

    I was wondering if there would be animalities...but i guess not =(

  •
    by Friday, August 27, 2010 at 04:57 PM

    Is Mileena mid-fatality or does she not have a mask now?

  •
    by Friday, August 27, 2010 at 05:18 PM

    I can't wait for Mortal Kombat

  •
    by Friday, August 27, 2010 at 05:27 PM

    Can we please learn how to get rid of the stiff animations please? This has always bothered me about the 3D versions and this new game still has them!

    I'm still excited about this game even though I am the kind of gamer who spends months learning one character. Mortal Kombat never had that depth to me. When I was younger MK Trilogy on the PS1 was the best fighting game ever made and I was totally fine with spamming one move and one combo. Now I can appreciate how complex Street Fighter and Tekken really are and I hope I can get into this new MK past the silly fatalities.

  •
    by Friday, August 27, 2010 at 05:49 PM

    "But the look that we have now, I’m pretty excited about. It’s 3D, but it looks kind of photorealistic."

    Ehh...no, it doesn't, Ed.  It looks animated.  Nothing wrong with that, if that's the direction the game's going, but I don't think you should be defending animated graphics by saying they're "kind of" photorealistic.  There's no need to defend the graphics here.  They're great.  But they're not photorealistic.  Not at all.

  •
    by Friday, August 27, 2010 at 06:36 PM

    im superrr psyched to play this, MK2 was the first game I ever played and is still one of my favorite games of all time.

  •
    by Friday, August 27, 2010 at 07:04 PM

    If anyone can make Mortal Kombat relevant again, it's Ed Boon. Of course, that didn't work so well with MKvDCU (which I enjoyed), but I have high hopes for MK9.

  •
    by Friday, August 27, 2010 at 07:18 PM

    LMAO @ "Konversation" that actually tickled me I wonder if Ed Boon had a problem growing up putting K's in place of C's.

    "Yes, I konnected with my klassmates and konsidered it a kool experience."

  •
    by Friday, August 27, 2010 at 07:24 PM

    no animalities. . . ..  ;_; but whyyyy

  •
    by Friday, August 27, 2010 at 07:32 PM

    I'm so happy a 2d MK game is coming out!

  •
    by Friday, August 27, 2010 at 07:50 PM

    I just hope we will see that MK movie that was on youtube.

  •
    by Friday, August 27, 2010 at 08:57 PM

    I want more pinball too.

  •
    by Friday, August 27, 2010 at 09:35 PM

    I wouldn't mind seeing more interviews like this and the Warren Spector one. Good job GI.

  •
    by Friday, August 27, 2010 at 11:10 PM

    pinball hall of fame is my total favorite ps3 game of all time

  •
    by Saturday, August 28, 2010 at 12:19 AM

    Stoked for this game.

  •
    by Saturday, August 28, 2010 at 01:10 AM

    I think my favorite aspect of this game so far is the art style. The game's look has a dark animated feel to it which I think sits perfectly with the MK style. I'm intrigued about the combat system. It sounds like they've made it so it'll be easy enough to pick up and play but that there will also be enough meat to it that players who want to master a character can have some pretty spectacular fights.

  •
    by Saturday, August 28, 2010 at 01:48 AM

    I will never forget the first time i saw Mortal Kombat 2 in the arcades.

    I distinctly remember someone was playing Liu Kang and wiping the floor with everyone crowded around the machine. The first level i saw was the eerie forest level and he did the fatality where liu kang turns into a dragon.

    The story of the game doesn't matter to me. In fact, with mortal kombat, i prefer that there is less story. I want to see my favorite characters all come back unchanged with better graphics, new fatalities and maybe a new move or two.

    Cant wait for this game.

  •
    by Saturday, August 28, 2010 at 03:49 AM

    Personally, I actually liked some of the newer Mortal Kombat games, Deadly Alliance specifically. I actually found the style-change not only added a lot of depth to the combat, but also to the characters themselves. It just made a lot of them seem a little more "trained".

    Also, if they bring back Kabal, I REALLY hope they include his un-masked version as a secret oostume. I believe it was in Deception, you could get a small glimpse of Kabal before he had to wear the mask, and he just looked awesome.

  •
    by Saturday, August 28, 2010 at 01:06 PM

    Great interview man :)

    Since MK9 is going back to MK 1 2 and 3 I know Noob Saibot will make an appearance, you want to know why, Noob Saibot was a hidden character in MK 2.

  • by Saturday, August 28, 2010 at 01:58 PM

    Nice interview, the new Mortal Kombat looks awesome!

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