We've covered Mortal Kombat throughout the previous generation on Xbox and PlayStation 2. If you've read our initial preview of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, you'll already know that we were really hoping for a next generation MK title. However, after sitting down with Ed Boon, co-creator of the Mortal Kombat series, to discuss MKA as well as the future of the Mortal Kombat series, we're content with a current generation MK, and can't wait for what the team at Midway has in store for us. In the coming weeks we'll share our discussion with Ed Boon, but for now, we'll cover our hands on time with Armageddon and how the Mortal Kombat series has evolved over the course of the current generation.

The main gripe we've had with Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance and Deception were simply that they were both too shallow. Coming from fighting games such as Tekken and Virtua Fighter, the amount of depth featured in the combat system of both previous MK titles this generation was lackluster at best. However, sitting down with Boon gave us a new outlook on where he was coming from. Boon himself is an avid Tekken fan, and when he has leisure time, he plays Tekken. With Mortal Kombat (especially the last two titles in the series) Boon wanted to create a fighting game that was easy for anyone to just to pick up and play.

From Deadly Alliance to Deception, the series has remained geared toward novice fighting game fans, while still adding bits of depth here and there. Deception added Kombo Breakers and death traps on top of the existing Deadly Alliance fighting game engine. Armageddon picks up where Deception left off by adding aerial combat and a new parry to the fighting engine. The game will still feature the ability to pull off three Kombo Breakers per fight, but this time you can also use a parry. By pressing back and the block button when your opponent attacks, your character will parry the attack, leaving your opponent vulnerable. This should add a bit more strategy to the battles, and keep players on their toes.

In addition to the new parries, aerial combat has returned from MK titles of the past. Aerial combat allows players to start a combo on the ground, knock their opponent into the air, then continue the combo in the air. We played around with this system a bit, but watching Boon and his development team show off some of the combos was what really caught our attention. Once mastered, the aerial combat system will open up a lot more combo options than what we've seen in the last two MK games. It will even be possible to start a combo on the ground, continue it in the air, then tack on even more hits on the ground.

One of the biggest additions to Armageddon is the ability to create your own fighter. We toyed around with this ability, and the options will allow for tons of combinations. Players will be able to set their appearance, including: gender, face, hair, helmet, torso, clothes gloves and more. You'll also be able to set your fighting style, the weapon you'll use, what special moves your character will have, and even extras such as your character's voice, slogan, name and origin. However, to ensure balance between the created characters and the default cast, there will be some limitations to ensure the created characters aren't overpowered.

Konquest Mode will also be bigger and better this time around. Boon and company have done what many fighting game fans have been hoping for. You will no longer be required to unlock all of the characters via Konquest Mode. In fact, you don't have to unlock anything via Konquest Mode if you don't want to. Konquest will feature the same adventure style gameplay found in Deception, but this time around there will be two types of fights, standard MK battles, and fights that are more akin to Shaolin Monks. Players will also have four special attacks they can pull off, as well as fatalities. Death traps will also be featured, but when you die in Konquest Mode, you'll start almost exactly where you left off.

While we're still eagerly awaiting the first next generation MK title (which we'll have information on shortly), MK: Armageddon is shaping up to be the must have MK title of this generation. The online play has been retained from Deception and remains unchanged, and there's a new mini-game that has replaced Puzzle and Chess Kombat. Unfortunately, Midway isn't ready to talk about it yet, but we'll have more on Armageddon and its secret mini-game before it releases in October.