Mortal Kombat Vita Launches In North America

The new Mortal Kombat reboot is now available on PlayStation Vita. The fighting game, previously released on the Xbox 360 and PS3 last spring, can be purchased through PSN or retailers in North America. The European launch is scheduled for May 4th.

The Vita Mortal Kombat contains all of the content of the console edition. It runs at 60 fps, just like the PS3 iteration, albeit with a lower polygon count. New features include touchscreen fatalities and a new set of tower challenges.

"Developing new and inventive missions for the Bonus Challenge Tower was something our talented Design team at Netherrealm Studios jumped at," producer Hector Sanchez said on the PlayStation.Blog. "It allowed us to not only come up with unique and innovative scenarios that took advantage of the numerous PS Vita features (such as the touchscreen and the accelerometer), but also a long-awaited opportunity to create challenges based around the DLC characters that released after the launch of the PS3 version. Yes, that means Freddy Krueger missions!"

NetherRealms Studios provided a few examples of these new challenges today. In one mission, players take on the role of Reptile and must use his invisibility in order to avoid being hit by Sektor. The "Arrow Pong" mission, meanwhile, tasks you with deflecting an arrow that gets progressively faster.

The reviews for MS Vita have been pretty solid thus far. That's good news for Sony, who's hoping that sales of the Vita will rebound. Currently the handheld is being outsold by the PSP in certain territories. Solid third-party software will go a long way in convincing people to bring home a Vita.