Ed Boon: MK’s gesture system controls, new gameplay mode

January 23, 2007

The Kreate a Fighter feature in the Wii version of Midway’s Mortal Kombat: Armageddon is one interesting factor of the game and probably a good way to release some deep seeded anger you have for some people. Anyhow, the game’s executive producer sat down and talked with Gamespot about their future plans for game which includes gesture-system control scheme and a new gameplay mode.

The interview is quite long so we’ll jump right into the more interesting parts. When asked why they opted to bring MK: Armageddon to the Wii and not make an original installment, this is what Mr. Boon said:

Armageddon is such a hit with the fans, and what better game to bring to a new console than a game with every character from the history of MK in it? Any “new game” would have fewer characters; we wanted to bring them all to the Wii to bring as much kontent as possible to the Wii.

The full article awaits after the jump!

The Kreate a Fighter feature in the Wii version of Midway’s Mortal Kombat: Armageddon is one interesting factor of the game and probably a good way to release some deep seeded anger you have for some people. Anyhow, the game’s executive producer sat down and talked with Gamespot about their future plans for the game which includes gesture-system control scheme and a new gameplay mode.

He also mentioned that the hardest part of developing for the Wii is the controllers. He said that “the controllers have been the biggest challenge, and as such, have been the focus of most of our design time”. So it isn’t surprising that the game will support traditional control setups and the lesser known, but seemingly more exciting, gesture system. Speaking of the gesture system, the producer filled us in on how this would be used in the game:

When you play it, you will notice that every single super move in the game is controlled by a Wii gesture system; also, the fatality systems will use the gesture system. For example, to do a move like throw Scorpion’s spear, you will swing the Wii-mote away from your enemy and then bring it back toward your enemy, as if you are throwing the spear yourself toward the enemy, in an “away-toward” motion. It makes all of the moves feel more visceral, and it feels like you are more directly doing the action over just button presses. We want the controls of MK: Armageddon to be the biggest feature of this game on top of all of the content it already has.

For the record, if you aren’t excited with the gesture system using the Wiimote and nunchuk, you could also use the Wii Classic Controller and the GameCube Controller to slug it off is MK: Armageddon. As for Wii-exclusive original content, he mentioned that there are a couple of things exclusively for the Wii, but he delved on the “Endurance mode” game feature which aims to enhance the single-player experience.

As such, it is no surprise that there would be no online functionality for the game. The reason behind it, said Boon, was that “the online components of the Wii were not ready for us when we would have needed them in the development cycle”.