ven though the Mortal Kombat master himself, Ed Boon, stated that he didn’t believe that Mortal Kombat would make an appearance on the Wii, it’s amazing how things can change in a few months. Midway recently stopped by the Game Informer offices with a playable build of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon for the Wii to give us our first hands-on experience with their tweaked fighter. With controls adapted to the Wiimote and Nunchuck, how does Mortal Kombat for Wii fare? Not bad, actually.

While Boon’s Mortal Kombat team isn’t directly developing it, (they’re solely focused on the first next-gen Mortal Kombat title) JGI is the team in charge, and it’s led by Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks producer Shaun Himmerick. Boon and Himmerick have quite a bit of input on the development process, and both make sure everything about this Wii-centric title feels like it’s pulled directly out of the Mortal Kombat universe.

Since Armageddon only initially landed on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, Nintendo fans haven’t been privy to the latest Mortal Kombat title. Everything from the PS2 and Xbox versions will be brought over to the Wii version, except for online gameplay. Midway wanted to include online capabilities, but Nintendo hasn’t given out the online tools yet, nor is the infrastructure in place. While the Wii version will be highlighted by the Wiimote and Nunchuck functionality, the game can also be played with either the GameCube controller or a Wii Classic Controller. Even if you want to change up the controller setup in the middle of the fight, everything is hot-swappable.

Exclusive content for the Wii version of Armageddon includes a training mode to teach you the Wii-centric moves. Instead of just a vanilla training “do this move, and move on to the next move,” you’ll learn a number of different moves and then how to link them into a combo for maximum effect. An Endurance mode will also be included, where you’ll face off against fighter after fighter. One new move has been added, where combatants will now have the ability to lie down at will. While you’ll be able to avoid mid and high attacks while you’re laying flat, your fighter will still be susceptible to low attacks and slams. Finally, one additional fighter is exclusive to the Wii version of the game–Khameleon.

Before you think that Armageddon for Wii will have you constantly flailing your arms about, punching all over the place, have no fear. Motion controls are only used for super moves and fatalities. General moves, such as punches and kicks, are mapped to the D-pad, A is used for throw, Z blocks and C switches fighting styles. For motion controls, pressing the B trigger initiates the recording of the motion, and after you perform the gesture, the move is carried out by your character.

Midway’s goal was to keep everything simple and make any motion controls make sense and match the action of the move to be carried out. You might have to do a quick up-down or down-up motion, or left-right to perform a special. While the move set isn’t quite finalized, such things like Scorpion’s spear (left to right or right to left, depending on enemy location), Sektor’s teleport (down and then up), Sub Zero’s frost blast (left to right or right to left, depending on enemy location) and Bo’ rai cho’s puke attack (right then down or left then down, depending on enemy location) are easily pulled off with a flick of the wrist. Just like other Wii games, if you really get into it you can be over physical, but you generally don’t have to get too wild. While it takes a little while to get used to the moves, you’ll know you successfully performed a correct gesture with a sound effect from the Wiimote’s speaker.

Puke Away!