After 20 years in the pop culture landscape - Mortal Kombat isn't exactly an unusual touchstone. Broad references to ninjas, special moves, and fatalities are so commonplace - we couldn't possibly report on them all. An unusually specific reference during a sketch on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon has stood out from the pack. See if you can catch it:

The folks over at ScrewAttack Have put together a list of what they perceived to be the top ten worst Fatalities in MK's history. In addition to general gripes about Babalities, Frienships, etc. as well as 18 skulls and 32 ribcages in the style of the MK3 era of violence, there are specific finishers they find issue with. Here they are:

10. Tanya's Neck Breaker Fatality (MK4)

9. Kabal's Face Scare Fatality (MK3)

8. Sindel's Swan Dive Hara-Kiri (MK Deception)

7. Kenshi's Telekinetic Destroyer Fatality (MK Deadly Alliance)

6. Quan Chi's Neck Stretch Fatality (MK Deadly Alliance)

5. Raiden's Dual Electrocution Fatality (MK Deception)

4. Reptile's Chimpanzee Animality (Ultimate MK3)

3. Motaro's Head Pull Fatality (MK Trilogy)

2. Liu Kang's Cartwheel Uppercut Fatality (MK1)

1. MK vs. DC overall.

To see the video of the list in its entirety, click here.

ScrewAttack has posted an in-depth article concerning the various mini-games that have been found throughout the history of the Mortal Kombat series. Since the early days of the series in the 1990's, Mortal Kombat has always included fun bonuses to entertain players. It began with the Test Your Might mini-game in MK1 and continued with in game versions of Galaga and Pong. With the evolution of the sixth-console generation, the MK team began to expand these games from simple time passers to full fledged modes of their own. Our first taste of this was in 2004's Mortal Kombat: Deception which gave us both Chess Kombat and Puzzle Kombat. Motor Kombat came with Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. The side adventure game Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks had a special versus mode apart from the main game as well. From the article:

The long running ScrewAttack show on GameTrailers has posted a list of their favorite 10 fatalities from the Mortal Kombat series. The list spans from Mortal Kombat 1 through MK: Shaolin Monks release wise and features the likes of Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Liu Kang and Johnny Cage. Below is a recap of their top 10:

Microsoft has announced that it will be dropping online play for their original Xbox systems effective April 15, 2010. This means no more Xbox Live for the following Mortal Kombat games:

• Mortal Kombat: Deception
• Mortal Kombat: Armageddon
• Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict (featuring Raiden)

Additionally, Microsoft has announced that original Xbox games that have been formatted to work on the Xbox 360 will also lose the ability to be played online.

To read the original story in its entirety, click here. Thanks go to samus_aran3900 for the tip on this story!

Recently, Mortal Kombat series co-creator and project lead Ed Boon has been bitten by the Twitter bug. Due to Ed's plentiful updates with Mortal Kombat information as well as images, this thread is being created to house all the material in one, convenient location for the fans to easily access. With each new image added, this topic will be edited accordingly. When new additions are made to this news lead, it will be moved to the top of the thread listings. The most recent change will be listed first, while older material will be categorized by type and date originally released. Also, be sure to follow Ed Boon on Twitter yourself!

This issue of Game Informer should hit newsstands on or around September 20th. A shout out goes to member Manuel Williams for the news.

The latest issue of Game Informer has hit newsstands, containing a four-page preview of Mortal Kombat: Deception! This issue sheds some new light on the game, and confirms some rumours that had been making the rounds. This article is more of an interview, with members of the MKD design team answering the magazine's questions.

The first point brought up is the character list, and John Vogel confirms that the boss is the Dragon King, and "he's been very 'deceptive'." Steve Beran confirms some of the returning characters: Baraka, Mileena, Noob Saibot, Smoke, Tanya, Ermac, Sindel, and Kabal are all returning. In addition, Luis Mangubat confirms that Liu Kang will be returning as both a ghost and a zombie. The reason for Sub-Zero's altered appearance is also explained, as they wanted to make him look more Chinese and distinct from Scorpion. Herman Sanchez also gives the names of some of the new characters, such as Kira (a female Black Dragon member, whose sketch is shown in the magazine; her costume looks similar to Sonya's), Dairou (a ronin samurai with a score to settle), Ben (a martial arts champion; possibly the source of the "Ken Masters" rumor?), and Ashrah (a mystical demon huntress).

In terms of gameplay, Ed Boon revealed that the characters will again have three different fighting styles, but that they will be even more distinct from one another this time around. Stage weapons were also touched upon, as Jay Biondo explained the stage weapons were much more powerful than standard weapons, but harder to get to. He explains that "getting these weapons will be a challenge, as they are placed near death traps, hidden in secret locations, and sometimes even encased inside other interactive background elements." In the realm of combos, Ed Boon explained that each fighting style and character will have more combos, but each character will also have "break out" moves (similar to combo breakers from Killer Instinct?). As he explains, "This should really even the playfield when fighting against someone who has mastered a character's combos."

They also discuss fatalities as well. Carlos Pesina confirms each character will have two "tasty" fatalities. In addition, he explains, "Unlike Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, limbs can be severed and there will be several Fatalities that take advantage of this new feature. One example would be the fatality in which the attacker rips the opponent's arms off and then beats him with them." A couple of new stage fatalities are also seen in the form of concept drawings. The first shows a multi-layer ice cavern stage, where characters break through floors of ice. If a character is knocked through the bottom-most one, he is devoured by the gigantic ice worm lurking below. In another, a large structure shaped like a dragon's mouth is at the side of an arena; when a character is tossed into it, it chomps down like a rock crusher and crushes the character within it. In addition, Mike Taran gives an idea of what to expect:

"... you will see opponents get buried in rock avalanches, smashed by giant steel presses, ripped to shreds with grinders, eaten by giant slugs, gored with spikes, shaved into chunks with spinning blades, boiled in lava, impaled on stalagmites, or cut to pieces by lasers... Awww yea!"

The article also covers Konquest, Chess, and Puzzle Kombat modes. Nothing really new is covered concerning the first two modes, but Nick Shin gives a bit of new detail concerning Puzzle Kombat:

"You select a character that's unique by their special move abilities. Some of them have offensive power moves that fill up your opponent's screen, while others have defensive moves to help clear our your own screen. Each background in this game mode is also unique in that you get to see Fatalities performed on the victim of a poorly played game. Oh yeah, both of these games modes will be playable online."

As always, we are not able to post scans of this article. However, this issue should be available at your local newsstands, so go on out today and pick up your copy!

Our thanks to all those who wrote in concerning this story, and especially forum/chat member GuiltyByDesign for providing us a copy of this article!