Netherrealm details Mortal Kombat on PS Vita updates

NetherRealm's Ed Boon has opened up about the studio's plans to adapt Mortal Kombat for Sony's PlayStation Vita. Speaking with the US PlayStation Blog, the creative director said the 2011 fighter is in the process of being reworked for the handheld's unique capabilities, and will be far more than a straightforward port.

On the topic of content, Boon said the PS Vita version will ship with everything the PS3's single player campaign has to offer—DLC, exclusives, and all—as well as an additional Challenge Tower featuring 150 PS Vita-exclusive challenges that will make use of the system's unique features, including its accelerometer and touchscreen. Front touchscreen controls will also be a new option in battle, allowing players to tap out X-ray attack and slash the screen to pull off a fatalities, however rear touchscreen functionality is no longer part of NetherRealm's plans.

Turning to multiplayer, Boon noted the game will allow for one-on-one multiplayer modes over wifi, but said eight-player online fighting modes have been dropped and the version will not support four players in a single match, explaining, “Our focus was getting the core fighting gameplay and Wifi battles as solid as possible.”

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Still, while Mortal Kombat for PS Vita will be lighter on multiplayer, Boon insisted the studio isn't moving an inch when it comes to the game's overall performance, saying, “We wouldn’t accept any compromises there; we needed the game to run at the same framerate as the PS3 version. A number of our internal people proposed running it at 30 frames per second—'we could do this and this and that'—but we knew it would feel different. We didn’t want it to feel sluggish or unresponsive.”

Mortal Kombat is expected to rise for the PS Vita later this spring.