It doesn't exactly reinvent the wheel but it does everything Mortal Kombat and it does it well. It's fun, it's fast and it's good ol' MK mean. Vita and handheld fighters seem to be a fine pairing and MK adds to the catalogue of options well.
Mortal Kombat hits Sony's new handheld and it's immediately full of pick up and play goodness. From the get go, the graphics are fantastic: not only are the menus nice and bright but within the game itself there's an almost 3D effect to the characters against their backgrounds (who needs 3DS when you have a Vita screen?). In-game, character animation is smooth and of high quality and it's really only some of the dodgier designs that let down the cut away sequences, with characters sometimes appearing cross eyed or in Sonya's case, just plain odd.
This edition of the game comes crammed with ways to play (as well as Freddy Kruger), including the well structured story mode. It plays very much like a movie, everyone arrives at the tournament and you play as different characters as the story progresses. It very much works within the realms of the game's history, the twists in plot feel very cinematic and even though if this was ever a movie it would probably suck due to the game-y nature of it (it doesn't feel all that unlike D.O.A in terms of acting and excuses to fight) I found it an enjoyable way to play though Mortal Kombat (but then I enjoyed the D.O.A movie as well). The straight forward arcade 'FIGHT' option is pure Mortal Kombat, the seemingly endless 'Challenge Tower' is so much fun and in some cases a real challenge and the 'Training' option was fast paced, to the point and only had a few issues where I was doing the exact instruction on the screen but it wouldn't let me pass to the next objective. Move lists are also available at the press of the 'Start' button mid fight, so you can try out new moves as you play the game rather than trying to remember them all from the training. All of this made me want to delve deeper into learning moves and combos and all the grimy nastiness Mortal Kombat has to offer and I soon found myself cobbling together the old skills from the original Mortal Kombat arcade I sank way to much money into as a teenager. In addition, the Vita touch options makes X-Ray attacks as well as fatalities a far simpler way of pulling off the devastating moves. Also on the Tower challenges, the Vita's touch screen and tilt system are utilised in enjoyable, clever and even fun ways. Wiping blood off of the screen is nothing but smile inducing.
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Generally the game is a fluid fighting experience. Sometimes I didn't feel as if an attack had connected, even though the opposing player flies back with a stream of blood pouring out of their faces but this was generally only with aerial attacks. The button bashing held up well on the Vita controls, the new Vita additions are lots of fun and either add something new or optionally enhance what we already love about Mortal Kombat. Also there's a good selection of trophies, arriving either with some straight forward moves or after achieving elements within the story and tower modes.