Facepalm: The team behind Mortal Kombat missed a golden opportunity to celebrate the franchise's 30th anniversary earlier this month. A leak from August suggested a ho-hum anniversary bundle was in the works but on October 8, all we got was a 90-second anniversary video posted to YouTube.
Fortunately, the gaming community has taken matters into its own hands.
Mortal Kombat+ is a project that involves taking the first three games in the series - Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 - and disassembling their code to fix known issues that Midway never bothered to correct.
Each game has its own set of issues but all are receiving improved factory user settings, better CPU AI, updated audio and new characters. MK1 and MKII are also getting combo meters, 2v2 mode plus a tag-team mode and will have all levels unlocked.
MK1+ is currently in development with a beta release expected sometime by the end of 2022. A beta (version 2.8.50) is already available for MKII+ and Ultimate MK3+ (version 2.0.0) for those interested in giving it a shot. Files are available to download for MAME and Fightcade over on the project's website.
Ed Boon, one of the franchise's original creators, was recently interviewed by PlayStation Blog ahead of the 30th anniversary. In it, he said one of the secrets to Mortal Kombat's sustained success has been that each game brings something new to the table. Things outside of the games, like movies, animation and merchandising, have also helped to keep the series in the public eye.
Boon also touched on Acclaim's famed Mortal Monday, the $10 million advertising campaign that coincided with Mortal Kombat's release on the Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Game Boy and Game Gear.
As for what is next, Boon said they haven't made the last MK game yet but could not reveal any more. A sequel to the Mortal Kombat movie reboot is also in the works, and Boon confirmed the project was progressing nicely.