Mortal Kombat might be a return to 2D form for the notoriously brutal fighting game franchise. Now it's looking as if the upcoming title not only mines the original Mortal Kombat trilogy for characters and story beats - but the lesser of two-evil finishing moves as well.

According to leaked footage, babalities are back in Mortal Kombat.

Given some of the hilarious game-altering set-ups in the recently unveiled challenge tower (we're looking at you headless mode), it shouldn't come as a total surprise the Ed Boon and the team at NetherRealm Studios have also included tongue-in-cheek finish movies as well.

A batch of leaked Mortal Kombat footage confirms the return of babalaties - leaving one question what about friendships and animalities? If the Reptile videos are any indication, which features four finishing move slots in the "moves list," one confirmed fatality and babality as well as two "Locked" slots (one of which will be a second Fatality), than it's very likely that the developers could include another type of finisher as well.

Check out the videos below for footage of Raiden, Reptile, Scorpion, Cyrax, Kano, Kitana, and Shang Tsung babalities - as well as Kintaro gameplay (as an added bonus):

Reptile Babality

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRFK9PllqCI&feature=player_embedded

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Raiden Babality

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2jx95DnUJU&feature=player_embedded

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Scorpion Babality

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxuC2OhDt2w&feature=youtu.be

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Cyrax Babality

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BikcYYP2cQc&feature=youtu.be

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Kano Babality

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QatB2uqBpGI&feature=youtu.be

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Kitana Babality

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaYSIAkMl_I&NR=1

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Shang Tsung Babality/Kintaro Gameplay

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naJD4Xk0mss&feature=player_embedded

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Much like the more cinematic Mortal Kombat fatalities, the babalities are getting a unique visual boost this round as well: instead of the defeated kombatant erupting in a brief flash of fire and reappearing as a motionless infant version of the character, the new babalities appear to play-off each specific character a bit more as Reptile hatches from an egg and Raiden scrambles around fearful of the bolts of lightning that surround him.

Assuming that one of the lock slots represents another type of finishing move, I'd rather keep the love-fest going with friendships over animalities. However, it's certainly possible that the final finishing move unlock slot could just be each character's "Pit" fatality button sequence.

That said, in the land of online patching there's always a possibility for even more "Finishing Moves" added via DLC. In the mean time, don't forget to check out our choices for the Top 10 Best Mortal Kombat Fatalities.

Follow us on Twitter @benkendrick and @gamerant and let us know what other finishing moves you'd like to see return in the new title.

Mortal Kombat is set for release on April 19th 2011 on Xbox 360 and PS3.

Source: Reviewsonq