I was quite surprised when I played last year’s Mortal Kombat reboot, like Johnny Cage nut shot surprised. As a hardcore Street Fighter fan, the complete presentation of MK made me realize that Capcom could learn a thing or two with how to improve their fighting games by taking a good look at this. When I had the opportunity to review the game, I gave it a 5 out of 5; calling it my favorite fighter of 2011. 1 year later, Mortal Kombat has been ported over to the highly powerful PS VITA; but how does it fair when compared to its console big brothers?

Outworld still looks fantastic in this VITA port.

The game has had a slight downgrade in the visuals, it seems the developers used the console assets and put them in a video format on the portable so the story presentation is not lost. The change in visuals becomes apparent when the game goes from the video to the actual fighting engine as characters have less of a defined look and backgrounds seem less animated. Still, the presentation on the VITA’s screen looks fantastic.

Johnny Cage doing his David Caruso impression and good example a of the visual downgrade.

Mortal Kombat does suffer from some slight frame rate drops during battles, but thankfully it only happens during the X-RAY cinematics which is non user controlled anyway. The in-game audio seems to be somewhat quiet compared to other games on the portable, even on full volume. I would definitely recommend head phones if you really want to hear the music and other bone breaking sounds. As with any fighting game, responsive controls are a must and the PS VITA’s button layout is more then fit to do the job. The D-PAD easily response to half circle motions and other button movements needed to pull off moves. I’d say this is the most responsive portable fighter since Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max on the PSP and that’s a huge compliment.

A Dead Or Alive 5 guest appearance would do great things for Sonya’s career…

All the features included in the console version of Mortal Kombat are here in this version including online multiplayer, the game does support local infrastructure multiplayer mode for two players as well. The port adds support for the touchscreen, motion sensor, includes most of the DLC from the consoles versions as well as 150 new challenge tower missions; which is a welcome addition to those who have already played MK.

ROUND 1…FIGHT!

This is the definite version of Mortal Kombat to play, if you don’t mind the graphical downgrade. The ability to play this fighter anywhere with almost the same presentation of its console brothers, shows that the PS VITA can be a true portable contender when put in the hands of the right developers.

Mortal Kombat for the PS VITA gets a 9 out of 10.

For those of you who want to see my thoughts on the console version, please see my video review below: