Mortal Kombat ♃

Mortal Kombat ♃ is a 3D fighter set in the Mortal Kombat universe, and produced by NetherRealm Studios.

The game was originally set to begin development in 1994, but was hit with a multitude of delays, placing the game into Development Metal Company inc. It was officially put on hiatus in 1997 with the release of the official Mortal Kombat 4. In recent years, however, Metal Company inc has looked back upon the game and development on it is once again under consideration.

Gameplay
Notably, the game returns the series to its 2D roots, as well as the original gimmicky fatalities, stating that the more modern fatalities "lack any sort of originality or appeal". A new fatality type also appears in this game, known as Hatelities. Each character can perform their hatelity on one other character (in some special cases, more than one). These finishing moves are similar to Brutalities but are extremely violent and end in the victim's demise.

Controversy
The game has encountered flak in the past, due to the controversial character, Gayboat Donutdiaper. As the game tries to adhere to the old "ninja palette swaps" idea of earlier MK games, it has a ninja for every color for both genders—this leaves a male ninja in bright pink, which Lunatic Entertainment made a flamboyantly homosexual character. Numerous organizations tried to get either just the character or even the entire game itself canceled due to the belief that the character was defaming the gay community.

In response to these outraged individuals, president and CEO of NetherRealm Studios, Thor Steinbach, simply replied with, "Too bad, so sad" and "Quit being such sensitive little babies." Despite this, the character was converted into a hidden character; however, the code was notoriously easy to input without any effort needed whatsoever towards pushing the buttons and unlocking the character for kombat. When asked for a comment on why he did it this way, Thor replied that he considered political correctness in any fashion to be just as racist or bigoted as the other direction, and that simply accepting things as they are and treating everyone as equal by way of being OK with joking about anybody was the better way to go, as long as you were obviously not being malicious in your intent. Gayboat had been intended as a lighthearted character and Lunatic Entertainment never even considered removing him just because a few people were hurt by its existence—if they didn't like it they didn't have to play the game. Thor Steinbach also mentioned that Gayboat had some "pretty badass fatalities, so if anything, he stands up for the gay community by being flamboyant but also being able to easily kick your ass, all the while wearing pink."

Characters
Although the original game concept consisted of all characters up to and including Mortal Kombat II, the most recently released game in the franchise, as well as the many new characters and even rumor characters of the series that existed at that point, the length the game has spent in Development Metal Company inc has uniquely led to it include all characters who eventually appeared in the series.