We’re less than three weeks away from Mortal Kombat’s extremely promising return to form, and many gamers are chomping at the bit to start ripping heads off like it’s 1993 all over again. If you’ve had a chance to check out the demo, you've probably already noticed its great controls, beautiful stages, and cringe-inducing violence. With a roster of series greats and the return of many elements that made the series infamous, fans have a lot to look forward to on April 19th. Read on to get up to speed on all things Mortal Kombat.

The Story

Mortal Kombat has always focused more on colorful characters than a particularly deep narrative, and this new entry will tread familiar ground. Rather than continuing past the events of the PS2/Xbox-era entries, this one is looking to the past in more ways than just gameplay. Here's how series co-creator Ed Boon describes the plot in an interview with IGN:

Raiden is about to be killed by Shao Kahn, and just before he delivers the last blow, he [Raiden] sends a mental message to his earlier self, and the camera rewinds back to Mortal Kombat 1. The Raiden from Mortal Kombat 1 then gets the message and experiences a premonition. The game then spans Mortal Kombat 1, 2, and 3, retelling the story with an enlightened Raiden who has changed the course of events. Eventually, everything you've seen happen before – Liu Kang winning, the guys turning into cybernetic ninjas, has been altered. You might see a cybernetic character who wasn't before, and a different version [of events].

This retelling of events explains why the whole roster and numerous classic stages from MK 1-3 make their return in this new installment. Speaking of classic characters...

The Roster

This new Mortal Kombat brings together a dream team for longtime fans of the series, just as long as you forget about Stryker's inclusion. Every confirmed character has been from the first three games, although an altered version of at least one character will appear if a supposedly leaked image is to be believed. Here's what we know about the roster thus far:

Confirmed

Liu Kang

Scorpion

Sub-Zero

Johnny Cage

Kano

Raiden

Sonya Blade

Baraka

Cyrax

Sektor

Kung Lao

Mileena

Kitana

Reptile – Unmasked version.

Unmasked version. Ermac – Features his appearance from the 3D games, not the color swap version from Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3.

Features his appearance from the 3D games, not the color swap version from Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Stryker

Jade

Jax Briggs – Equipped with his metal arms that debuted in Mortal Kombat 3.

Equipped with his metal arms that debuted in Mortal Kombat 3. Kabal

Quan Chi – Only confirmed character who didn't appear in one of the first three MK games.

Only confirmed character who didn't appear in one of the first three MK games. Nightwolf

Noob Saibot – Able to split apart and double-team opponents.

Able to split apart and double-team opponents. Shang Tsung – His young version has been seen in action, and his old version has possibly been seen in the background of one image.

His young version has been seen in action, and his old version has possibly been seen in the background of one image. Goro (not confirmed to be playable)

Shao Kahn (not confirmed to be playable)

Kratos (PS3 exclusive)

Likely

Sheeva

Human Smoke

Cybernetic Sub-Zero

Rumored DLC

Scarlet – R ed version of Kitana/Mileena/Jade, first appeared in a glitch in Mortal Kombat II.

R ed version of Kitana/Mileena/Jade, first appeared in a glitch in Mortal Kombat II. Kenshi – Blind ninja who appeared in several of the 3D installments. Possesses telekinetic powers.

Blind ninja who appeared in several of the 3D installments. Possesses telekinetic powers. Kintaro – Four-armed sub-boss from Mortal Kombat II. Essentially a tiger-striped version of Goro.

Read on for info about Mortal Kombat's gameplay and gruesome Fatalities.

The Gameplay

What has fighting fans most excited about this MK reboot is the return to the classic 2D plane. Installments like Deadly Alliance, Deception, and Armageddon were solid, but switching to 3D arenas slowed down the trademark fast-paced gameplay of the original trilogy. Like the originals, this reboot will be heavy on jump kicks, sweeps, and special moves that mostly feature two directions and an attack button to pull off (down-left-high punch, back-back-low punch, etc).

Many of the 3D games in the series featured fighting styles that you could switch between on the fly. This resulted in several different stances you had to recognize, and unique combos for each. To simplify the gameplay and minimize the memorization aspect of the gameplay, this reboot keeps everything lumped into your default fighting style. Previous games had a specific stance for weapon-based fighting, but this will now be incorporated into the basic combos. We haven't seen an awful lot of swords and knives appear thus far, but Sub-Zero occasionally pulls out his ice sword mid-combo.

As you perform attacks on your opponent, a meter in the corner of the screen will fill up. This meter allows you to activate three different abilities -- enhanced moves, breakers, and X-Ray attacks. Enhanced moves are basically super-powered versions of special attacks, and they'll take one bar out of your meter. Sub-Zero's ice projectile turns into a torrent, Johnny Cage throws two energy balls instead of one, and Scorpion throws dual flaming spears. Every special move will feature an enhanced version, and these are a great way to mix up your offense and surprise your opponent.

Breakers are meant to be a defense against combo spammers. If someone is cornering you and relentlessly pounding away, you can press block and forward at the same time to break through their attacks. It's not as flashy as the other two meter abilities, but it should prove invaluable against online spammers.

If you fill up the entire meter, you'll have access to your character's devastating X-Ray attack. These slow down the action, zooming the camera past the skin and onto your victim's skeleton or muscles. Take a look at a montage of these attacks below.

Tag matches will be making their Mortal Kombat debut, and these feature four-player support. Trailers that show off tag gameplay seem to demonstrate combos between characters. For example, you could conceivably uppercut an opponent into the air, only to swap in your tag partner and juggle him with more moves before he hits the ground.

Finish Him!

Fast-paced gameplay and colorful characters are just a couple of reasons why gamers love Mortal Kombat, but it's the series' fatalities that brought it to its particular level of infamy. These match-ending moves have been around since the very first installment, and they're definitely the water cooler moments of the franchise. They'll be performed just like in the original trilogy, meaning you need to be a specific distance from your groggy opponent as you input the specific button commands (which can be viewed from the pause menu). For those that have had difficulty learning these distances and inputs, a fatality trainer has been included in the new Mortal Kombat.

If you were turned off by the castrated fatalities in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, this reboot should satisfy your bloodlust. We've seen a good amount of them, and they're filled with gruesome decapitations and dismemberment. Stage fatalities are making their return, and we've seen victims run over by trains and taxis, heads dipped in lava, bodies eaten by living trees, and the classic spiky death of The Pit.

Mortal Kombat II and 3 introduced goofy Friendship, Babality, and Animality finishers to the fold. Ed Boon doesn't totally discount the possibility of a goofy finisher or two, but he wants them to be a surprise if they exist. When I talked to him several months back, he told me "If we were gonna have friendships or babalities or something like that in the game, it would certainly be something that I'd prefer to not even talk about. To me it would be cooler if it was an actual hidden feature as opposed to something where we just told everyone 'yeah, there are friendships in the game!' It would be something that people would discover."

Take a look at some of the fatalities from the demo below:

Continue to the next page to read about Mortal Kombat's various modes.

The Modes

Many wacky modes have found their way into the Mortal Kombat series over the years, from puzzle minigames to go-karts to chess. The new Mortal Kombat not only brings back the original minigame, but it adds several variations:

Test Your Might -- The first Mortal Kombat minigame ever makes a return. This will test your button-mashing abilities as you attempt to break materials of increasing density.

Test Your Sight -- This minigame first appeared in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, and requires you to keep your eye on one particular object as they're getting shuffled around. This time, those "objects" are actually severed human heads. One of these contains an eye, and you'll be greeted with Nightwolf's tomahawk to your head if you choose the wrong one.

Test Your Strike -- At first glance this appears similar to Test Your Might, as it features your character standing in front of several objects on a chopping block. However, it appears that you'll need to keep your strike power within a specific target zone rather than simply getting a meter above a line. Not much else is known about this minigame at this time.

Test Your Luck -- With this minigame, you'll be placed in an arena opposite an opponent. Prior to your fight, several slot reels will begin spinning that determine which modifiers will be applied. So far, the following modifiers have been confirmed:

Armless Kombat

Headless Kombat

Dream Kombat (hazy effect)

Zombie Kombat

Floor of Flame

Jumping Disabled

Rainbow Kombat (multicolored confetti explodes out of enemies when struck)

Explosive Kombat

Dark Kombat

Double Damage

Screen Flip (the entire screen is flipped, forcing you to fight upside-down)

Challenge Tower --This lengthy mode takes the form of a tower with 300 separate, increasingly difficult challenges. What you'll be doing in these varies wildly, and some of the stages don't even resemble a fighting game. One features a cemetery with a steady stream of zombies, and you'll be tasked with performing special moves as a revolving door of characters to send them back to the grave. Another is a standard fight, but it starts because Scorpion won't accept the teddy bear Mileena made him as a gift. "Orange You Glad To See Me?" puts you in control of Scorpion and Sub-Zero as they battle Shao Kahn. He'll change colors from blue to orange, and you'll have to utilize the appropriate ninja for the situation. This mode wraps up with an extremely difficult mission called "End Game," and it features a huge reward upon completion.

Take a look at IGN's video below for a look at the Challenge Tower:

Read on for info about Mortal Kombat's stages and secrets.

The Stages

Mortal Kombat features some of the most recognizable stages in fighting game history, and all of your favorites will be returning in April. Any fan of the series knows these areas aren't purely cosmetic, as many of them feature fatal traps that serve as the perfect end to a brutal fight. From what we've seen, these stage fatalities won't be available mid-match as they were in Mortal Kombat: Deception. Rather, they all seem to be triggered at the fatality prompt just as they were in the original trilogy. Here are the areas we know of at this time:

The Pit II (stage fatality: uppercut into spikes)

Kahn's Coliseum

The Living Forest (stage fatality: eaten by tree)

The Dead Pool (stage fatality: acid bath)

The Armory

The Bell Tower

The Cathedral

The Courtyard

Evil Monastery

Goro's Lair

The Graveyard

The Desert

Hell (stage fatality: lava swirly)

The Rooftop

Shang Tsung's Gardens

Shang Tsung's Flesh Pits

Shao Kahn's Throne Room

Soul Chamber

The Street (stage fatality: decapitated by taxi)

The Subway (stage fatality: train slams into head, then runs over victim)

Throne Room

Training Room

You can see the stage fatalities for The Subway, The Living Forest, The Street, and Hell starting at 1:23 in the video below.

The Secrets

From Reptile hanging out in the bottom of The Pit to a hidden game of Pong, the series has historically been one of the best when it comes to Easter eggs and secret unlockables. If you were a fan of Dan Forden's "Toasty!" appearance in earlier games, you should be pleased to see his head awkwardly pop out of the corner once again after the occasional uppercut.

Reception for Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance may have been mixed, but one thing no one complained about was the wealth of unlockables. Its Krypt area featured 676 coffins that could be opened with in-game currency. These included concept art, alternate costumes, funny videos, comic books, and even coins for more coffins (sorry, "koins for more koffins"). This was cut down to 400 for Deception and 280 for Armageddon, and omitted from MK vs. DC Universe entirely. Completionists should be happy to hear that the Krypt is making its return in the new Mortal Kombat, although the number of unlockables isn't currently known.

Final Tidbits

Recent rumors suggest that the game may require an online pass for multiplayer over XBL or PSN. This is not confirmed, but a supposedly leaked email claims that a $9.99/800 MS Points pass is necessary.

Rumblings of a new Mortal Kombat actually started about a week before its E3 debut last year. A fan-made short featured actors Michael Jai White and Jeri Ryan in a more realistic, gritty live-action depiction of the series. It turned out to have no official ties to the game, but it was good enough to get the green light for a web series.

The game is releasing in three forms: Standard, Kollector's Edition, and Tournament Edition. The Kollector's Edition comes with Scorpion and Sub-Zero bookends, as well as a 110-page art book and alternate costumes. The Tournament Edition comes with a special MK arcade stick designed by the team at NetherRealm Studios.

While Kratos is confirmed as a PS3 exclusive, the possibility of a 360 exclusive character is still up in the air. In a recent interview with Giant Bomb, Ed Boon made it sound likely. He says "There's nothing that we have ready to announce, but we love our 360 players and we love our PS3 players and I think everybody's gonna get something that they'll be happy with." No hints as to who this may be, but tweets from Ed and Epic's Cliff Bleszinski have fans buzzing over whether or not this character will be from the Gears of War universe.

One thing's for sure, and that's the fact that Ed Boon and his team at NetherRealm are doing everything possible to make longtime Mortal Kombat fans happy. Speaking as a hardcore fan ever since I first played it at a gas station arcade machine in 1992, I couldn't be more thrilled. Anyone who's ever enjoyed the franchise's colorful cast of characters, fast-paced fighting gameplay, or gruesome fatalities should definitely circle April 19th on their calendar.