Midway Announces New Mortal Kombat, Romero-Helmed Gauntlet

Thanks to GameSpot for its first look at Midway's new PS2/Xbox title, Mortal Kombat: Deception, as "the recently announced sixth installment" in this long-running franchise officially debuts with a teaser trailer, heavily analyzed at Mortal Kombat Online. Elsewhere, Midway, who is trying to rebound from poor financial results, has announced a new addition to the Gauntlet series, and it's noted that "John Romero, the famous (and infamous) creator of Doom and Daikatana, will be developing the title", confirming earlier rumors to that effect.

Comments

Shout it with me!

[Anonymous Coward]

MOR-TAL KOM-BAT!

...cue cheesy techno music...

Gauntlet

[PktLoss]

I really enjoyed the Gauntlet series, played it a bunch in the arcade, and even picked it up for the X-Box.

I do however beleive that it could do well with some fresh blood in a high up place. While the game can be challenging in the arcade with the slowly diminishing life, it got overly easy and repetitive on the home console. Rather like Diablo without the story line or the challenge.

I know Doom wasn't really known for it's story line, but I think it is quite possible that he could pull the game in a new direction, or add some spin to the mix.

Another Gauntlet?

[MMaestro]

Considering what made Gauntlet fun was the insanely basic hack-and-slash system, its gonna be hard to argue that this new Gauntlet will be anything more than another medicore attempt at cashing in on a name that just won't die. The last two Gauntlet games (Legends and Dark Legacy) were nothing more graphics improvements with an extra button, what will they put into the next Gauntlet? Real AI? A level building program? A jump button? (In Gauntlet Legends, some of the "cliffs" were so thin you'd think your character would be able to step over them)

Romero?

[AuMatar]

Red Warrior is about to make you his bitch.

I Can See It Now...

[Umgawa71]

Granted, there are a lot of worse people to give Gauntlet over to than John Romero, but -after the whole Ion Storm thing- giving him control of a game as a means of stemming Midway's veritable flood of red ink is simply a bad financial idea all around. Actually, he's probably matured since Daikatana, and hopefully has learned a little something about marketing. If not, at least we can all look forward to this print advertisement:

"The Gauntlet Barbarian Is Going To Make You His Bitch!"

Why go public with that

[augmension]

Why on earth would Midway want to make public any relationship with the PR trainwreck that is Romero? I'd soon rather say I had a toddler with rabies working on my project then that guy.

Re:Why go public with that

[Anonymous Coward]

I hear Romero got a serious haircut (read: working for dirt), pending his proving himself with Gauntlet. There's no artist better than a hungry one, and that works for game designers too.

Romero has good game sense, but no ability to manage a project. With someone putting the screws to him on deadline as was the case when he worked with Carmack, maybe he won't muddle around with trying to develop half-baked longshot ideas. He'll look at his ideas, take the gems, sweep the rest, and that's what you'll see. It's his second game that I'd worry about, if he makes the cut and gets credibility and leeway back.

Re:Hmm

[Anonymous Coward]

Rumor has it that under Zucker (new CEO recruited away from Playboy Magazine), projects don't get late without managers starting to vanish. Now that accountability rests with the suits instead of the underlings (Neill was too much of a softie), you can expect change. :)

Zucker said MWY will be profitable by Q4'04 and stay that way, no matter what the cost.

Re:Midway needs a new franchise

[Acidic_Diarrhea]

Funny, I judge games based on their individual merit. You seem to be proposing judging games based solely on past precedence. So that once a series has a single bad game, the series must be abandoned. I think this is a rather silly stance to take, especially with high turnaround rates at development houses and the fact that different games in the same series are often done by different development studios.

If a new Mortal Kombat came out and every review you read of it said it was a great game, on caliber with Soul Caliber, etc., you still would say, "Well, MK4 was bad so I won't buy this"??

Here's something to chew on. I didn't enjoy Quake I but Quake II is one of my favorite games of all time. If I had followed your logic, I never would have played Quake II.

No, we should judge games not based on previous games in the series but rather on the actual game and how satisfying it is. That's why I would consider buying a Mortal Kombat game and that's also why when a Mario game is released, I don't automatically say, "I'll take it!"