There's no plot or story to get in the way here, just punching, kicking, and unholy fire from beyond the grave.

Mortal Kombat's undead ninja, Scorpion, can never seem to catch a break. All he wants to do is get revenge on his hated rival Sub-Zero, but there always seems to be someone in his way. Fortunately - for him that its, not so much for his foes - Scorpion is packing a pretty big sack of hurt, and he's not afraid to share.

Leaving behind the exposition of his earlier plot reveal trailer, this time round Scorpion is just beating the stuffing out of anyone and everyone that gets in his way, whether they're movie stars, scantily clad demonic princesses or some kind of bipedal man-lizard. Interestingly, there's also a snippet of tag team gameplay, which shows Scorpion teamed up with non-other than Sub-Zero, whose ninja hiding skills are clearly beyond compare.

It looks like the experts that NetherRealm brought in to tweak the combat did pretty decent job. It's striking is how fluid the gameplay looks, with Scorpion chaining together flurries of kicks and punches, sometimes with an actual chain. There's no Marvel vs. Capcom 2-style 100+ hit combos, I wouldn't be entirely surprised if skilled players rack up some very impressive numbers, especially with the assist mechanic in play.

Mortal Kombat is due out next year for Xbox 360 and PS3.

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badass

PSN being hacked killed this game for me. By the time it was back up, I'd lost interest.