Mortal Kombat PS Vita Review
Mortal Kombat
Playstation Vita Review
Developed By NetherRealm Studios / Published by Warner Interactive
Release Date: 04/05/2012
Price: £34.99 – £39.99
Reviewed by Aaron Seddon
Mortal Kombat has had a funny history, i checked out of the series on a personal level a long time ago (the last one i really enjoyed was MK2 on the SNES / Mega Drive) but i have kept a keen eye on the series just out of interest. This is classed as the 9th game in the series but i’m pretty sure that number doesn’t include some funny and weird versions with game-breaking characters (MK Trilogy), Adventure games (MK Mythologies: Sub Zero and MK: Shaolin Monks) and a comic book crossover game. This game however, gets rid of all the strangeness and makes it concentrate on the one thing that matters … The fighting. It keeps some of the good things that makes MK stand out, such as Fatalities, and gets rid of the sillier things introduced in later games like Babalities, Friendships and Animalities to give you the most back-to-basics version of MK yet. Here we have the Playstation Vita version, and while the Vita is currently suffering from a lack of games since it’s initial launch in February, it’s nice to see a game released that was fantastic to play on it’s big brother console make it pretty much intact on the Vita, but with even more content to play with.
It’ll be better to give you an idea of what you’re gonna get with this title, this is basically the version that was released last year on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 which has a blistering 27 characters to choose from, plus all the DLC characters (Rain, Skarlet, Kenshi andFreddy Kreuger) which cost the console users an extra £10-15, plus the PS3-exclusive Kratos character from the God Of War series, with a few more bonus costumes to play with and with 150 more missions to do on the Bonus Challenge Tower which utilises the functions that the PS Vita has, including the Gyroscope and Touch Screen, and they use them in really interesting ways. The game weighs in at a hefty 3gb when purchased through the PSN Store, which is almost as big as Uncharted: Golden Abyss which was also a big game which is comparable to it’s console counterpart.
The game starts you off with many things to choose from, you can do the basic ‘Arcade Mode’ which lets you play the game like you used to play the original MK games, by going up the tower of characters on a range of difficulties and eventually making your way to the main bosses like Goro and Shao Khan. Then you have Story Mode which walks you through a lengthy story mode which lasts nearly 6-7 hours, then there is the Challenge Tower found in the original console game which consists of 150 Challenges which start off easy and become a lot more difficult, and as mentioned before, the new Vita-Exclusive Challenge Tower which uses the Vita’s various functionalities.
The basic fighting in the game is absolutely rock solid, this is probably one of the best fighting games i have ever played mainly due to its easiness to get to grips with. It is in full 3D similarly to the more recent games but is still played from a 2D plane likened to the classic MK games, so there’s no free roaming in the environment like a Tekken game. The controls are the usual front / back punch and front / back kick moves on the face buttons, with movement dictated by the D-Pad (or analog, but you’d be crazy to use that) and moves are executed by tapping specific directions and then a face button, which for the classic MK games is a standard. You also have a block button which is the R Button and the L Button is a grab move (also done by pressing two face buttons together). The move set can be found in the pause menu, which details pretty much every move for your chosen character. I have found that moves are a lot easier to execute than previous games, and the Fatalities are a LOT easier to perform compared to older MK games, as most of them are quite generous with how far away you have to be from your opponent, which was a big problem with some of the older games. The best new addition to the fighting has got to be the bone-crunching ‘X-Ray’ grab moves that every character has, this is basically MK’s equivalent to the ‘Super’ moves found in newer Street Fighter games, which has you building up a bar at the bottom of the screen in order to unleash your special moves. Some of the X-Ray moves and Fatalities are absolutely BRUTAL, it definitely pushes the boundaries of it’s given 18 certificate. This game gives some of the SAW movies a run for it’s money. I’d like to point out that one addition i like is that instead of pressing the triggers to activate the X-Ray move you can simply press the bar when it’s full on the Vita to activate, which for me is handy as it is much easier to do that.
The game plays at a near-solid 60 frames per second which, in a fighting game, is pretty essential. Seeing a handheld game go at such a high framerate is extremely impressive and the power of the Vita is to thank on that front. The fighting backgrounds are very detailed and have quite a lot going on in the background, whether it be birds flying past a brightly coloured moon or other opponents battling on a far away bridge, it is visually impressive for a handheld game. However with this being a handheld version on a system that isn’t as powerful as the console the game originally came from, they have had to scale back slightly. For one, the character models themselves can look a bit blocky and muddy when they are zoomed in on the characters’ bodies or faces, but once the game zooms out of these close-ups and the fighting begins, the characters look a lot better. The Vita is capable of some excellent handheld visuals as seen in the likes of Rayman Origins or Uncharted Golden Abyss but I predict that some of these concessions to the visuals were made to keep the framerate of the action up, which i would personally justify. If you’re new to the game you won’t notice this as much.
The best thing about this game by far is it’s shockingly deep Story Mode, Fighting games have always had a thin layer of story riding underneath them with a silly ending video clip tagged on once you beat the final boss, but none of them have gone as far as MK to make it so prominent and so appealing to just play. The story has 16 chapters which has you weave through each characters story about how and why they are in the Mortal Kombat tournament and some characters even get closure on their bit parts. You get to learn the relationships between each character and how they conflicting with each other, and it makes for something no fighting game has ever achieved before, an interesting story that is easy to understand. Each chapter of the story has you concentrate on one character at a time and has you doing 3 to 4 fights against different characters. One of the more impressive things about the story is that it gives you a good illusion that it never seems to cut away from either the gameplay, which basically equates to no basic blank loading screens with nothing happening. The loading screens are cleverly hidden behind the videos playing in the foreground, which you would never notice. More games could do with doing this more often, it works very well and is extremely impressive.
As mentioned previously, the game features Challenge Towers which is a nice change of pace from the usual fighting, these basically give you mini-challenges for you to complete which range from beating opponents using only one move, or defeating enemies with no arms, or defeating a horde of Zombies that are attacking you. With there being over 150 challenges to play you’ll not be bored any time soon, plus ontop of that the Vita version has an extra 150 exclusive challenges to play which have you doing similar sort of challenges but with using the Vita features, like wiping blood off the screen with the touch screen, or using the touch screen to do Fatalities, or using the Gyroscope to do ‘Test Your Balance’ tasks or just simply playing a MK-themed version ofFruit Ninja (well, they’ve ripped it off basically) – The Touch screen stuff is a nice touch, the challenges add a bit more variety to an already huge game.
Also in addition to all of this is the Multiplayer, which can be accessed via local Ad Hoc matches or by online versus modes via WiFi functionality. The online multiplayer modes were 80% of the time lag free and as of writing i didn’t have much trouble getting into plenty of matches, and it also features full voice chat with the Vita’s built in microphone, which is a welcome addition to the Vita’s online features as the Vita system itself is lacking in a few decent online games.
All in all, this is a cracking game and probably the most fun i have had with the series since the second game in my youth. The graphics may have been toned down slightly from the brilliant visuals found in the original console game but it is still a great looking Vita game and maybe one of the best games on the system.
Rating: 5/5 
Buy from Amazon here.