14 DAY TRIAL // Despite the rivalry between fans of the Mortal Kombat series and those supporting rival franchises like Street Fighter or Tekken, one leading developer believes that the current renaissance of the genre is good for all the companies working within its boundaries.
Hector Sanchez, who is the franchise producer working on the Mortal Kombat franchise at NetherRealm studios, told Gamasutra that, “I know there are some of the hardcore fans that stay loyal to their one brand, but we play all fighting games.”
The increase in popularity for the genre, which has seen a slump before the launch of Street Fighter IV, has been associated with the increase in connectivity options for home consoles, which allowed players to quickly challenge and fight their friends.
A similar connectivity boom is now linked to handheld hardware and NetherRealm plans to profit by launching a tailor-made experience for the new PlayStation Vita from Sony.
Sanchez added, “The essence of competition in bite size... is really, really good, because not everyone has twenty minutes for a FIFA match, but a fighting game can be over in a couple of rounds. It really fits in this on-the-go generation coming up right now.”
The Vita version of Mortal Kombat, which was rebooted in 2011, will include more Challenge Tower content in order to give players more options for quick games against a variety of opponents.
The reward system for the game has also been re-designed, allowing players to quickly get new items and costumes, keeping them interested and coming back for more.
Capcom is now also working on a PlayStation Vita version of its recent release Street Fighter x Tekken, which will come complete with more characters than the home console version of the release.
The Vita version for Mortal Kombat launches on May 1 in North America and three days later in Europe.