Mortal Kombat - a brilliant game to beat friends at when they don't know how to block attacks. How enjoyable it is to continually punch their helpless character square in the face until the immortal line "Finish Him!" appears onscreen. And it looks like next-generation console owners get that opportunity again soon, according to Midway.

After the developer had confirmed plans to deliver a new entry into the long-running series in a recent financial report, creator Ed Boon explained that the new title would be built from the ground up for the new range of hardware:

"The only thing I can say at the moment is we are going to do a reset, we're going to throw everything from the previous Mortal Kombats, we're going to start from scratch and try to introduce as many new characters as possible, new features, new stuff like that and take advantage of the amazing presentation, graphics that all of a sudden you can do, things that are a lot more real", he explained.

Sounds tasty, no? Boon added that players could expect the new Mortal Kombat title towards the end of 2008.