Mortal Kombat HD Kollection (lost build of cancelled PlayStation 3 remake of fighting game collection; 2011)

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Mortal kombat HD.png

The title screen for the original version of Mortal Kombat HD Kollection.

Status: Lost

Mortal Kombat HD Kollection was a planned fighting game remake developed by Other Ocean Interactive featuring three titles from Midway's Mortal Kombat franchise, namely Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 for the PlayStation 3. Though the conversion was scrapped and the developers would instead re-release the arcade versions, no playable build or gameplay footage of the remaster was ever publicly shown.

Development

The remake was to be a complete overhaul of the games, featuring brand-new digitized sprites for all of the characters across all 3 games, new sound effects, and a UI and asset overhaul to visually upgrade the game to modern standards. While the full scope of the project was to never see the light of day, the 3 games would be released in their arcade form to Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Windows PC as Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection.

Though the project was never formally announced until it was to be released as a digital-download set of arcade ports, listings for a retail-priced physical game were spotted on the online retailers GAME and GameStop. Both had claimed that the title was to be released in November 2010, less than half of a year before Mortal Kombat (2011) was to be released.

A development mock-up featuring Kitana's biography from MKII.

However, the listings were quickly pulled, and no news of the game would surface until it was formally announced in May 2011 as Mortal Kombat Kollection. With a press release alongside the announcement, it was then confirmed that the title would only be a port of the three arcade versions of the titles, and not an HD conversion as had been planned before. Though they were touted as "arcade perfect", certain sound effects not native to the original MK are still present, such as a high-quality applause sound effect for the Courtyard stage and Raiden's idle lightning crackles.

It is still unknown how far progress was made in the development of the original version of project, but given information from multiple sources who were, directly and indirectly, involved with it, many characters, stages, and other in-game assets across the trilogy of games were in progress completed before the HD conversion was scrapped.

Public Information and Pictures

In 2011, shortly after the announcement of Arcade Kollection, John Montenegro, an artist for Other Ocean, had posted some of his original mock-ups for the in-game menus and dialogues, including a proof of concept for a character biography, ending, and unlockable reward menu.

In 2012, TestYourMight user TimStatic published a set of images showing set photos for the MKII and UMK3 versions of the female ninjas (Kitana, Mileena, and Jade) and cyborg ninjas (Sektor, Cyrax, and Smoke) on the set for the project.

In 2013, Jeremy Kohar, a 3D character artist for Other Ocean posted another set of images to his personal website after the project had been long cancelled. Being assigned to do the sprite work for the Animality finishing moves from Ultimate MK3, he posted complete sprite sets for what was to be Stryker's, Cyrax's, and Liu Kang's Animalities from the HD version of the game.

A picture of a stunt coordinator directing the new Shao Kahn actor for HD Kollection.

In 2014, make-up artist Tanea Brooks published her own album of pictures showcasing her work with the new actors hired for the HD project. These images were the first to show the MKII versions of Shao Kahn and Liu Kang; along with the UMK3 versions of Sonya, Stryker, and Kung Lao.

In 2015, Ed Boon, series co-creator and current creative director for the franchise, had posted a tweet on his personal Twitter account, showcasing a screenshot of the project, promising an article in the future about the failed production of the title.[1] However, the picture in question may be a mockup or incomplete, as the screenshot features the MK Courtyard, MKII Liu Kang, UMK3 Sonya, and original sprites on the UI.

Gallery

See Also

Reference