Ed Boon from NetherRealm Studios stopped by IGN’s E3 2014 booth to give a sneak peek behind Mortal Kombat X.

Boon started off by clarifying that the “X” in Mortal Kombat X is not the Roman numeral for the number 10, It’s X as in the letter. He said it was symbolic of the word “next”, as in next in the series or next-gen.

Four new characters made their debut in the demo; D’Vorah a female fighter that has insect-like qualities, Katal Kahn who is an Aztec inspired warrior, Ferra/Torr who is a large brute of a fighter with a small woman who rides around on his shoulders and gives him orders, and finally Cassie Cage, the daughter of Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade.

The biggest new addition to the series is the ability to choose a variation for your fighter. Each character will have three different variations that can be selected, and each variation comes with its own unique set of moves which will increase the potential match-up strategies exponentially.

The environments themselves will also play a role in Mortal Kombat X. Fighters will be able to interact with different elements of the stages. In the game play demo that was previewed there were characters swinging from tree branches in a forest level or running up the side of a ship to leap over an opponent in a shipyard stage. There was even an instance where Cassie Cage grabbed a barrel in that same shipyard stage and hurled it at her foe.

Boon said that Mortal Kombat X will retain many of the elements that made 2011’s Mortal Kombat (often referred to as Mortal Kombat 9) so successful.

Mortal Kombat X will see the return of the three tiered meter system from the previous entry in the series. This meter gave players the options of breaking combos, putting extra power on special moves, or performing a bone-crunching X-Ray attack. Boon also verified that the single player story mode would return as well, and that it would “take place across different eras of time”.

And of course, no Mortal Kombat game would be complete without the series’ signature finishing moves. Fatalities will be coming back in full next-gen glory. Boon even said that they will have fatality meetings at the office to brainstorm ideas for the finishing moves.

Boon capped off the interview with some thoughts on the success of the series and its ability to endure for so long.

“We are not afraid to change things up and introduce new elements to keep things interesting, and at the same time maintaining the DNA of the game.”

Mortal Kombat X is scheduled to release some time in 2015 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC

Check out the entire interview with fifteen minutes of game play footage below:

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