Mortal Kombat creator Ed Boon has revealed he's planning a "down and dirty" visual style for the eighth game in the series, citing Epic's Gears of War as the "look" he's aiming for.

"Our goal, graphically, with this game is to be as gritty... To me, when I saw Gears of War, I was like, Holy shit! That's the look that we've been talking about... Visually, that's what we want to do," he explained in an interview with Game Informer.

Epic's Unreal Engine 3, which powered Gears, is being used for Mortal Kombat 8.

Speaking further about the sequel, Boon promised that "we're doing something with the next game that's unbelievably unexpected," adding that gameplay-wise it's a complete start-over for MK8.

Above: Imagine Mortal Kombat characters with this sort of gritty detail. Will the curb stomp be a new fatality?

"We're not going to have three fighting styles, we're not going to have the same punches and kicks and the same kind of control scheme. Everything is getting trashed. We're reinventing everything from the ground up. We really think that's needed," he said.

Boon gave a possible release date of "Novemberish time of 2008" for Mortal Kombat 8.

February 5, 2007