New Mortal Kombat will have finishers

Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon has "every intention" of keeping finishing moves in the latest version of the long-running beat-'em-up.

All the talk about there being no blood was a bit overblown, according to him, although you'll no longer see bodies split in half and all the innards falling out.

"There was never any statement on our part that fatalities will be gone or that finishing moves will be gone," Boon told GameTap.

"We did acknowledge that we won't be able to do the same kinds of outrageous moves, like tearing someone's head off and the spine being attached to it."

"My response is that, no, we're modifying fatalities. But I have every intention to keep finishers. You know, to let gamers do a really cool secret button combination and follow with a really outrageous finishing move to end the match," he added.

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe features comic-book heroes like Superman and Batman, each matched with their equivalent from the MK world.

Matching the powers of someone such as Superman against others has been an issue, explained Boon, but one overcome with a pinch of dramatic licence.

"So, remember that cataclysmic event which merges the [MK and DC] universes? The source of that is magic. When you mix that in, that explains why Superman - who can move a mountain, who can push a planet - is, in this scenario, weakened a bit. It explains how the other MK characters are strengthened a bit, which levels things out," said Boon.

Boon went on to reveal that his vision of Batman was not from the movies or from the Adam West telly show. Instead, a hybrid version has been created to have similarities to the "Alex Ross and Jim Lee versions".

"We worked for quite a long time with our design of Batman and came up with one that's dark and brooding and that fits in with Scorpion and Sub-Zero," said Boon.

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe is due out at the end of the year on PS3 and 360.