It appears that two MK fans are working on an unofficial HD Remake of Mortal Kombat Trilogy. This project aims to overhaul all of the game’s sprites and characters. NOSTALGICK and Interloko have been working on this for quite some time, so let’s take a look at it.
For those wondering how such a thing is possible, the simple answer is AI. NOSTALGICK and Interloko have used AI to remake in HD the 2D sprites of a few characters.
Right now, the duo has enhanced the 2D sprites of ten characters. All of the male and female ninjas have been improved, as well as Baraka, Rayden, Sheeva, and Nightwolf. They have also enhanced two stages: The Bank and The Roof.
As I’ve said multiple times, this is the best way to remake older titles. By using AI, modders can remake older classic titles to look like modern HD games. This is exactly what a lot of MK fans have been waiting for.
If I had to guess, I’d say this is a MUGEN MK Trilogy game. The reason I’m saying this is because the team has been working on it for a while. Three months ago, they were experimenting with some other 3D models, in what appears to be a different Mortal Kombat MUGEN game.
So, if they are indeed using MUGEN, they will also have to make some slight adjustments to the gameplay and game mechanics. I’m saying this because you can find online some incredible, but also some awful, MK MUGEN games. For instance, their previous attempt had major gameplay issues. Thankfully, in this particular case, most of the combos look similar to those of the Arcade Edition. The movement also feels the same as that of the Arcade Edition. So, things are already looking great.
Now, I know some purists will be like “Arcade Edition or GTFO”. Hear me out, though. It’s almost impossible to mod the Arcade version for MAME. So, unless Warner Bros gives the green light for an official HD remake, we won’t ever get one. Thus, MUGEN is the only realistic option we have.
The good news here is that it’s really easy to replace 2D sprites in a MUGEN game. So, by creating HD versions of each and every frame, modders can create HD remakes of a lot of classic 2D fighting games. Yes yes, some may say it’s AI slop, but this is really faithful to the original 2D sprites. From what I know, there aren’t any other projects like this in active development. And that’s a bummer. Imagine Hyper Dragon Ball Z or Street Fighter 2 with this kind of graphics.
There is currently no ETA for when the first public version of this fan-made HD Remake of Mortal Kombat Trilogy will come out. Naturally, though, we’ll be sure to keep you posted.
Enjoy the video!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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