Mortal Kombat Vita: Tap The Screen To Rip Sub-Zero's Head Off

After all, NetherRealm were discussing Sony's next handheld before it was even a thing. Clearly the title's been on the back burner for some time.

But now the Scorpion's out of the bag — so to speak — NetherRealm's gone live with a bucket full of gameplay details. First thing's first: the graphics. While the portable title won't be identical to last year's PlayStation 3 release — the number of polygons in the environments and characters have been reduced for example — NetherRealm promises that the clarity of the PlayStation Vita's screen will make it difficult to tell the versions apart. Oh, and it's running at 60 frames-per-second too, of course.

While Mortal Kombat's gameplay is already well suited to handheld play — especially the Challenge Tower for example — the PlayStation Vita release will boast a whole bunch of new features specifically designed with the handheld in mind. Headlining the new content is an entirely new Challenge Tower designed to showcase the PS Vita's unique inputs, such as the touch-screen and accelerometer.

In-game, you'll also be able to use the touch-screen to pull off X-Ray moves and, of course, fatalities by swiping in the appropriate directions.

Mortal Kombat on PS Vita will feature online and local multiplayer in one-on-one variants, but sadly there won't be any cross-platform play. We suppose it would break the balance of the game if handheld players were able to initiate moves using the touch-screen, while console players were restricted to the DualShock. Honestly though, we could do with the handicap. People are really, really good at Mortal Kombat.