IGN have launched a special featurette taking players inside the practical and stylistic development of Mortal Kombat's exciting new special feature, X-Ray attacks!

The featurette includes sitdown talking heads from inside NetherRealm Studios, with first-hand discussion about the inspiration and intent behind the new attacks from Lead Designer, John Edwards; Director of Art, Steve Beran; and Art Designer, Carlos Pesina. They take us inside the development process, from conceptual stages, to the practicalities of CG model building, motion capture, animation, and the finished product.

Amongst the bone breaking, internal organ bursting mayhem are glimpses of various characters confirmed, but yet to be seen: CG resources reveal skeletal components for Baraka and Goro, the latter seen administering his X-Ray special along with previous confirmation, Ermac, in a previously unseen stage. Also seen for the first time in 2011 form, Mortal Kombat's traditional champion, Liu Kang. Appearing as a victim in some sequences, MK3 alumnist, Stryker. Also glimpsed by eagle-eyed viewers, Jade!

The video demonstrates some of the variation available during X-Ray attacks, as discussed in the Official UK Xbox Magazine's recent preview of the game, which praised the multi-faceted special system for it's potential complexity. The demonstrated X-Ray attacks show off a variety of hand and kick strikes, chops, grapple slams, weapon attacks, combo segues, and variations on specials.

Highlights include: Kitana's fans driven into an opponent's skull or eye sockets; Scorpion stomping on a fallen opponent; Goro lifting an opponent with one set of arms, while the other set crushes their skull, before flicking them in the air for a slam that smashes their head on the floor and cracks the skull further. Ermac features a similar motion, using telekinesis to raise his oppoent in the air, and drive them head-first into the ground, following into an elbow drop. Cyrax opts for an aerial fixed piledriver, for another devastating skull blow.

Each act of violence strikes with the certainty of a game leaving behind it's brush with PG [in Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe], to return to the smashmouth, hyperstylized Kombat fans want, know, and love.

You can find the full video embedded above, or at IGN.com. The article also lists the US April 19 release date along with April 30 for the UK, and December 31 for Germany and Australia. The latter may simply be a place holder for an undetermined 2011 date. For more information about the PAL European release, which includes exclusive Ermac DLC, follow our story.