Indie development studio Eyeballistic has started a new petition on Change.org in an attempt to convince publisher Warner Bros. that the game has enough demand to warrant a remaster in 4K. At the time of writing, the petition has reached a total of almost 3,000 signatures.
The petition states that the studio previously reached out to Mortal Kombat creator Ed Boon who was supportive of the project, although Warner Bros. turned down the pitch as it believed that the game wouldn’t sell enough copies (100,000 as per what’s mentioned in the petition) to recoup marketing costs for the project.
The original Mortal Kombat Trilogy release packed all of the characters from Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 into a single package. Eyeballistic aims to soup up the game for modern platforms using Unreal Engine 5 and upscale the original’s sprites and environments to 4K. The developer will also make improvements to the music as well, as well as online functionality.
Eyeballistic is aiming to reach a 100,000 signatures before reaching out to Warner Bros. again with a pitch to use crowdfunding to procure development costs for the game.
“We’re planning to painstakingly recreate every detail of every stage and character in glorious 3D,” Eyeballistic writes in the petition. “Of course every fatality, brutality, friendship and animality will be there too. The characters and stages will get a face lift to 4K resolution and 60 frames per second gameplay action through the power of Unreal Engine 5. We’ll even remake all of the music by giving it a modern cinematic sound that incorporates real instruments.
“Target platforms for release would be Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series, PS5 and PC. We anticipate the game would cost $39.99 and it would include everything the original MK Trilogy had plus the standard online match making and world wide leaderboards. If you want this remake to happen, please show your support by signing the petition. When we reach 100,000 supporters we’ll approach WB with a plan to use crowdfunding to further demonstrate that the game will sell like crazy!”
The studio also provided screenshot samples of the project to DSO Gaming, which, while not the most palatable, are certainly an improvement over the original. You can check them out below.