Mortal Kombat Nitro Edition (lost updated port of "Mortal Kombat" for Super Nintendo; 1992-1993)

About

Mortal Kombat Nitro Edition was a cancelled reedition of the eponymous game port on the SNES, following the commercial failure caused by the censorship that Nintendo ordered before the release, but it was cancelled due to the upcoming sequel, Mortal Kombat 2, which forced the developers, Sculptured Software, to start working into the SNES port of it almost inmediately.

The project remained in obscurity until Ed Boon mentioned about it during an interview in August 27, 2010. [1] During that interview, Ed Boon mentioned that the developers involved into the SNES port of Mortal Kombat 1 were working into a reedition which, according to his own words, had a lot more blood, allowed you to play as the bosses and that it also played faster. Even though he says that they had to cancel it due to Mortal Kombat 2 being close to being released, he stated that "There's a cartridge of that somewhere in the world".

Changes

Almost no information was released the following almost 10 years since that interview, until June 18, 2020, in which a Twitter account, named The On Blast Show, belonging to one of the employees of Midway at the time, started publishing several pages and concept arts about the cancelled project. [2]

As mentioned by Ed Boon, the game would had an option to change the speed from lowest to fastest, similar to Street Fighter 2 Turbo, the franchise's rival at the time. The game also featured an instant replay option, in which the player was able to see his previous battles on replay to learn from his mistakes against the AI. The option of two different trees in the battle plan also existed, in which the player could choose a "path of light" or a "path of darkness". Not a lot of information is said about this option, but apparently it would evolve into the "Choose your Destiny" option introduced in Mortal Kombat 3, among other options planned for this reedition. [3] [4]

Every character would have redesigns in their appearance, as well as changes and upgrades in their special moves.

Johnny Cage, for instance, had gold-colored shorts and silver wristbands, with the sash being the same color as his shoes, like how originally it is.

His special moves remained the same as how they are in the original game, however, they have cosmetical changes, for example, the Shadow Kick has a golden trail instead of the normal green one, as how it happens with his Shadow Ball.

He now had two new fatalities, which are mentioned as "death moves" in the pages. One involves turning the opponent into a golden statue with a punch, ripping his head off through an uppercut with blood spilling from both sides of the statue, "similar to a fountain". The other one would involve ripping the opponent's arm off, in which he would get his head off by his own arm through an uppercut animation, Cage would then throw the arm or hold it into the air. [5]

With this criteria, every character from the original game suffered changes on their look, special moves, and new fatalities to add a new feel separate from the original game. A lot of the finishing moves, special moves and mechanics planned for this release, like being able to switch between the old look and the new look of a character (an early example of alternate costumes), were eventually introduced in the later releases of the Mortal Kombat series throughout the years, after the reedition was cancelled, with some being introduced as late as the PS2 era of the franchise.

The developer also has a ROM of a prototype of the reedition, but it hasn't been leaked to the public since then. [6]

Gallery

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  Folder containing the pages and concept art belonging to the project.

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  First page describing the instant replay, adjustable speed and dual fighting trees.

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  Second part of the first page, describing the other main features such as playing as the bosses, new hidden characters, revisable character costumes, et cetera.

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  Page describing the changes done to the character Johnny Cage, as an example to the revision done to the other characters in the game overall.

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  ROM belonging to the prototype.