Mortal Kombat on the Vita is amazing to
say the very least. Which is great for us Vita gamers that have been
dying to play something on the system that hasn't already been out
for a couple of months. Nothing new has gotten firm release dates and
we're unfortunately running out of new games at a rapid pace. So when
Mortal Kombat came out I had to dive in. I'm not exactly a fighting
fan (although I did spend quite a bit of time in Super Street Fighter
IV [all version minus the newest Arcade version that hit consoles not
too long ago]), but I need something new to play and well Mortal
Kombat recently hit the weakening Vita line-up. I will spare the rest
of this discussion for a later date. On to Mortal Kombat for the
PlayStation Vita!
NetherRealm Studios released a re-boot
of the franchise last year for the PS3 and 360 to great applause.
Critics and fans alike loved the move to hit restart on a franchise
that was becoming an eyesore. How much of that was the fault of the
(now) defunct Midway Games or just the talent behind the scenes had
really lost the magic they had during the nineties? Well considering
the team at NetherRealm consists of the former Mortal Kombat guys...I
think it is clear who was at fault for the terrible PS2 gen MK
titles.
I want to get the negatives
out-of-the-way now. Graphically this game is great...that is until I
went into kombat. The character models in the cut-scenes looked
fantastic, however that ended once the battle began. These characters
look awful when NOT in motion. I say not in motion, because they do
improve when the battle is raging (or I just didn't notice the
badness when I started playing). Going from tremendous near HD
cut-scene graphics to slightly better than mid-gen PS2 graphics is
just tough on the eyes. The textures are bad and the four most
terrible character models were Kratos, Baraka, Shang Tsung and
Scorpion.
 |
| Looks even worse with that weird thing in the bottom right corner. I kid. |
Now with the graphics behind this
reviewers focus I can talk about the great aspects to Mortal Kombat
on Vita. NetherRealm has crafted Mortal Kombat into one of the best
(if not the best) handheld fighting game ever. The combat (spelled
correctly, sorry Ed Boon) was silky smooth and when the action gets
fierce there was no lag. I'm pleasantly surprised that the Vita (this
early into the life-cycle) is holding up so well. From Uncharted:
Golden Abyss, Super Stardust Delta and now Mortal Kombat I have yet
to see the system struggle to keep up with the intense action that
fills the screen. And with MK the action definitely gets very intense
as moves (and characters) fly across the screen with fury.
Vita gets to have exclusive content
like a brand new challenge tower full of 150 challenges and comes
packed with all the DLC content that released for the PS3 and 360
versions of the game throughout the past year. However, Vita players
will also get to play as Kratos who was the exclusive character to
the PlayStation 3 version of the game. There are also some Vita only
mini-games that feel gimmicky, but were fun. These modes are “Test
Your Slice” which is basically Fruit Ninja and “Test Your
Balance” that tasked the player with...maintaining your balance by
using the gyroscope in the Vita.
 |
| Oh second thought....can Mortal Kombat ever be called "good looking".... |
Another interesting feature is using
the touchscreen to perform fatalities. I don't know about other
people who live fighting games, but pulling off complex moves is
challenging. Maybe the touchscreen just made the input too easy, but
I enjoyed being able to end the lives of these characters with
minimal effort.
The Vita was in desperate need for some
firepower and it got it out of Mortal Kombat. This is a very detailed
fighter that had me going for a long time. I enjoyed learning the
characters and was overjoyed when I stumbled across a hidden X-Ray
attack. I highly recommend picking this game up.
SCORE:
9 / 10
Comments
Post a Comment