]{0MBAT: Ed, I was wondering if it would be all right if I asked you a couple quesions about the new Mortal Kombat game.

Ed Boon: Sure.

]{0MBAT: All right.  I noticed a big improvement over Mortal Kombat 4.  Can I ask, were you heavily involved in this one as you were with the old Mortal Kombat games?

Ed Boon: Oh Yes.

]{0MBAT: You were?

Ed Boon: Yeah.

]{0MBAT: So you were the lead programmer as usual?

Ed Boon: I don't know if I would consider me the lead programmer, I mean I did the game programming so... but you know, there's 8 programmers on the team now so I don't think I could qualify as lead programmer.

]{0MBAT: Oh, okay.  Shang Tsung - I noticed his special moves haven't been implemented yet.

Ed Boon: Yeah, we have the special moves for Shang but we disabled them because we're still in kind of like a balancing phase.  Because it really adds to the whole mix and it's showing more of a skeletal version just to prove this concept of the changing styles and all that.

]{0MBAT: Like I noticed there's [Sub-Zero's] freeze in one of the trailers.

Ed Boon: Right.

]{0MBAT: But that's been disabled.

Ed Boon: Right, it's been disabled.

]{0MBAT: OK, now Shang Tsung's morphs - is he going to be able to morph?

Ed Boon: No, unfortunately, we can't load in - it's kind of like the problem with the old disk-based versions where morphing consists of having to grab a lot of data and you can't grab instantly on that.

]{0MBAT: So it would really slow it down.

Ed Boon: Right, exactly.  That would slow the game down so much we'll probably give him some other comparable special moves but not an actual morph.

]{0MBAT: So will he be sort of like Shinnok in the last Mortal Kombat game?

Ed Boon: Probably not.  I don't think we'll do that because like I said he's gonna have three styles of his own so it doesn't really make sense to really just have him just have like 30 different styles.

]{0MBAT: So he won't be able to do like Scorpion's Spear or Sub-Zero's Freeze or anything this time around.

Ed Boon: No, probably not.  He'll have his own distinct moves.

]{0MBAT: OK, I know my friend Scott over there wanted to ask a couple questions.

Ed Boon: Sure.

]{0MBAT: What about Johnny Cage, do you know is he going to be in it yet?

Ed Boon: Oh yeah, he's the top-left character, just shadowed out.  [Ed points to Johnny Cage's picture on the character select screen.]

]{0MBAT: Yeah, I've noticed a lot of the characters have been grayed out.  So you're not finished with them yet, right?

Ed Boon: Oh, no.  A lot of them are functioning and they work in the game but we just wanted to show the game that we have.

]{0MBAT: [Pointing to the screen] So there's, Cyrax, and Raiden.  Is that Kung Lao?  Or Liu Kang in a hat?

Ed Boon: On the bottom right, yes.

]{0MBAT: Is that Kitana next to him?

Ed Boon: Yes.

]{0MBAT: OK, then some of them I don't recognize - either their looks have been updated too much or they're brand new.

Ed Boon: There's a lot of new characters that we have.

]{0MBAT: OK, now who's doing the story for this game?  Are you doing the story, or is there someone else handling this?

Ed Boon: No, primarily it's John Vogel writing the story.  But as with everything it's like everybody's involved.

]{0MBAT: So everyone's contributing here and there to the stories.

Ed Boon: Yeah.

]{0MBAT: OK, what's Johnny Cage's excuse for being alive?  Do you know?

Ed Boon: What was that?

]{0MBAT: Why exactly is it that Johnny Cage is coming back from the dead?

Ed Boon: It's just by hearing comments and stuff from people, who they want to see come back.

]{0MBAT: Have you written a story for any of them?

Ed Boon: Oh yeah, we have a whole bunch of stories.

]{0MBAT: So that's finished pretty much.

Ed Boon: Yeah, the story part is pretty much defined.  We have this whole "Konquest" mode which is a long..it's kind of a like a combination of a Mission Caliber training and the Virtua Fighter.  It'll be a long sequenece that you play as single player.

]{0MBAT: So will there be FMV scenes [in Konquest Mode] or just only in the endings?

Ed Boon: There's FMV and endings as well.

]{0MBAT: OK, now are the endings going to be like in MK4 where the N64 had endings that were slightly different because the PlayStation and PC had upgraded versions - what I mean to say is, will all the endings be exactly the same on the consoles?

Ed Boon: Yes.

]{0MBAT: OK...and is there anything that you've done with Mortal Kombat that hasn't been shown yet at E3?

Ed Boon: Oh yeah, there's plenty of stuff.  I mean we have whole categories of stuff, we've disabled them here - we have projectiles; Scorpion has a spear, Sub-Zero has his freeze, there's a whole bunch of magic moves.  There's throws - that's a whole other category of moves that are in there.

]{0MBAT: We haven't even seen throwing yet.

Ed Boon: Throwing's going to be a huge part of the game, and counters too.  Some of the fighting styles will be a lot more radically different - like Judo's going to be all throws.  We're gonna have counters where you catch the other guy's leg or something, and so we're gonna have a lot more diversion.  We have the drunken fighting style and everything.

]{0MBAT: You are going to have drunken?  Awesome.  Everyone loves drunken.

Ed Boon: Yeah.

]{0MBAT: I had a question and I almost forgot...Oh yeah, how about Reptile?  It doesn't look like he's in.

Ed Boon: [points to Reptile's pic on the select screen]

]{0MBAT: Oh wow, that's him.  OK, and can I ask - who's this guy on the bottom left?

Ed Boon: Kano.

]{0MBAT: Oh yeah, the red eye.  OK, so we got Kano, Cyrax...

Ed Boon: Mavado.

]{0MBAT: Mavado, Reptile...who's that guy?

Ed Boon: That's the drunken guy.  Editor's note: Now named Bo Rai Cho.]

]{0MBAT: The drunken guy, alright.  Raiden...not sure who that is...

Ed Boon: That's a new guy.

]{0MBAT: Have you come up with a name for him?

Ed Boon: Uh no, we don't have a name. [Editor's note: We now believe it's Drahmin

]{0MBAT: OK, how about that guy on the right of him?

Ed Boon: He doesn't have a name either; he's a new guy also.

]{0MBAT: OK, and that's Kitana and Kung Lao.

Ed Boon: No, Female Sub-Zero and Kung Lao.  Kitana's on the top.

]{0MBAT: Female Sub-Zero, OK.  Does she have a name or is it going to be Female Sub-Zero?

Ed Boon: Oh no, she'll have a name.  We don't know yet, we haven't come up with a name.  [Editor's note: Now she is known as Frost.]

]{0MBAT: OK, the idea of a female Sub-Zero's been really popular, and you've said he [Sub-Zero] has a sister.  In Mortal Kombat Mythologies, I think you guys said he had a sister.

Ed Boon: They might have mentioned that, I'm not very sure.  But I don't think it's really going to be related to that.

]{0MBAT: Oh.  So you're just going to make a separate person, who's not related?

Ed Boon: Yeah.

]{0MBAT: Now what's the deal with the Runestone?

Ed Boon: The what?

]{0MBAT: The Runestone.  I heard that on the [Midway] website, I read something about a runestone.

Ed Boon: Well that's the first I heard of it.  [laughter]

]{0MBAT: I can't think of any other questions right now.  Well, thanks for answering them, it was good talking to you!

Ed Boon: No problem, no problem.

]{0MBAT: Are you gonna be here tomorrow?

Ed Boon: Oh yeah, I'll be here all 3 days.

]{0MBAT: OK, let me see if Scott has anything he wants to ask you, hang on.

==

]{0MBAT: Hey I asked Ed about your questions, do you have anything you want to ask him?

D'Arque Bishop: Not at this time...  Are there any plans for any kind of PC version?  'Cause there's been a LOT of requests for it on the site.

]{0MBAT: Oh okay, let me get down there...

==

]{0MBAT: Hey Ed, one last thing I wanted to ask you: Hidden characters, are they gonna be in there?

Ed Boon: Absolutely.

]{0MBAT: OK, also I just remembered.  A long time ago you said something about bringing back "Test Your Might", along with "Test Your Sight".

Ed Boon: Yeah, that's all in there.

]{0MBAT: OK, so how's Blind Kenshi going to do on the "Test Your Sight"?

Ed Boon: We don't know yet. [smiling]

]{0MBAT: Well he'll do okay hopefully.  And my friend, D'Arque wanted to know - is there going to be a PC version?

Ed Boon: Probably not.

]{0MBAT: OK.  All right, thanks a lot.

==

]{0MBAT: I thought of one last thing I wanted to ask you.

Ed Boon: [laughter]

]{0MBAT: I know in a lot of the old games, like the first three, I know they were fully digitized actors.  And in MK4, I know they were computer-built but you used a real face to base their faces on.  How have you done the new faces for the new characters and everything?

Ed Boon: They were modeled.  They're completely modeled, and they're not based on anybody's likeness or anything like that.  They're sculpted completely.

]{0MBAT: No real people at all?

Ed Boon: No.

]{0MBAT: Any word on Noob Saibot?

Ed Boon: Probably not for this game.

]{0MBAT: OK.  Good decision.  Well thank you again!