New Mortal Kombat Artbook Faces Backlash for Apparent AI Upscaling

Mortal Kombat: Flawless Victory, a new artbook authored by Ian Flynn dedicated to the visual history of perhaps the most iconic fighting game franchise, hit the shelves earlier this week, and while it has received mostly positive reviews, it has also raised more than a few eyebrows over on Twitter for its apparent use of AI-upscaling on some character sprites.

First spotted by Uppercut Editions, AI-upscaling was seemingly used in an attempt to "enhance" the original pixelated character sprites from the OG Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat II from the '90s. Disregarding the debate over whether it's ethical to leverage AI instead of hiring a real artist or simply illustrating the book with the original sprites, what stood out most was how poorly the upscaling turned out, with Sub-Zero's mask merging with his face and the kombatants' eyes looking more disturbing than Baraka without clothes.

As it stands, it remains unconfirmed whether the portraits were butchered by AI or if something went wrong during printing, as Mortal Kombat: Flawless Victory's publisher, Insight Editions, has yet to address the debacle. What can be confirmed, however, is that the photos shared by Uppercut Editions do indeed come from the artbook, appearing on pages 35, 55, and 61 (thanks, The Artbook Collector).

Previously, Front Mission 3: Remake, made by the obscure team MegaPixel Studio, faced a similar controversy when it was discovered that it relied heavily on AI upscaling to "update" the game's visuals, producing results that ranged from weird and uncanny to outright nonsensical.

Don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform and our new Discord server, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, TikTok, and Threads, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.