A former Acclaim developer recently partnered with the Mortal Kombat YouTuber tabmok99 to give fans their most in-depth look yet at the cancelled SNES update Mortal Kombat Nitro.
Mortal Kombat Nitro, in case you've never heard of it, is a version of the game that was being worked on at Sculptured Software following the disappointing response to the Super Nintendo's Mortal Kombat port and was intended to be a less sanitized take on the classic fighter.
The goal of the game was to be a more gory alternative to the SNES port (which famously replaced the fighters' blood with sweat) and to throw in a bunch of additional improvements and bonus features. This includes the ability to play as new characters (Goro, Shang, Reptile, and Kung Lao); the option to choose between multiple costumes and fatalities; and the possibility to unlock both good and bad endings, depending on how you played.
It never ended up coming out, however, with Midway apparently pushing back against the release, as it was getting to release Mortal Kombat II in the arcade.
Over the years, details of the unreleased game have been revealed in interviews and social media posts, with the ex-Acclaim employee James Fink publishing a design document and concept art for the game on Twitter back in 2020, under the name "TheONBlastShow". But now, the developer has gone a step further, granting the Mortal Kombat fan tabmok99 permission to film some footage of the game in action, to record this legendary lost chapter in the iconic fighting series.
Speaking to tabmok99, Fink said the following about the title:
"So basically MK Nitro is the version of the game that when the first one came out and it was released, there was one particular bug that bothered me, which was how the game played. The other one was the sanitising of the blood. For the Super Nintendo specifically, it didn’t turn out the way I wanted and, believe it or not, Ed Boon didn’t like it either. So I brainchild’d the Mortal Kombat: Nitro version and from that, I decided I could expand maybe. Since there was a gap between Mortal Kombat 1 & 2, it would go over great. But, unfortunately, it didn’t."
Interestingly, back when Fink shared the documents for the game, he had previously stated that he was unable to release it publicly as he had made "a promise" to someone not to, but at the end of this video, it seems his stance has potentially softened in the time since.
Talking about the possibility of releasing the game today, he told tabmok99, "Maybe down the road I'll dump it. I'd like to see somebody get their hands on it and finish it. It would be kind of cool."
Here's hoping he has it backed up at least, as it would be a shame to see this incredible piece of video game history vanish for good.