Midway promises new Mortal Kombat every year

Mortal Kombat is to become an annually updated franchise, publisher Midway Games has revealed, beginning with a new action-adventure title called Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks which is due out on PlayStation 2 and Xbox in autumn 2005.

That follows on from Mortal Kombat: Deception, a more traditional beat-'em-up flavour of Mortal Kombat, which is due out across Europe in mid-November having enjoyed a fairly positive response in the States since its release there.

Although details on Shaolin Monks are scant for now, early screenshots give the game the look of a 3D scrolling beat-'em-up, and we're told that the game will support single-player and co-operative modes, that the environments will be interactive to some extent, and that characters will still be able to make use of fatalities.

Screenshots also reveal that Liu Kang, Kung Lao, Mileena and Baraka are already present in the code, although Midway has yet to reveal the full line-up, or even any particular specifics as to how the game will work - other, that is, than labelling it an action-adventure.

President David Zucker didn't have much else to say about Shaolin Monks, but he did confirm the company's plan to up the frequency of releases in the beat-'em-up series, arguing that it was something fans had been "calling for".

"Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks is also our first step toward delivering something that Mortal Kombat fans have been calling for: a new game set in the Mortal Kombat universe every year," he said in a statement. "We are planning our Mortal Kombat release schedule with the expectation that we will deliver a new Mortal Kombat title annually," he added.