Fighting games have never really been my thing. Sure, I enjoyed Tekken Tag Tournament as a kid and have had some jolly good times with Smash Bros., but the steep learning curve and inherent repetition generally fills me with an uninterested "Meh..." when asked if I'm gonna buy the latest in the genre. When MK (9 I guess) came out last year -- the addition of a full fledged story and other interesting modes, such as the Challenge Tower and the Krypt -- it was only Portal 2 and my limited budget that prevented me from picking it up. Then, when I heard that it was coming to Vita with all the DLC included it would have been stupid to not wait.

After dicking around with the different training modes, trying to get a grip on some of the characters and the general feel of the game, I dove into the game's story. The transition from cutscene to gameplay is silky smooth, which helps in giving the game a sense of flow lacking in most fighting games (and most games in general). The only downside with the Vita version is that it is very apparent when it goes from pre-rendered to in-engine graphics, and some of the textures look really flat. This is only really a problem when seeing characters up close, and almost unnoticable once the fight has begun. The entire premise of the story seems far-fetched as fuck, but it has a certain charm that prevents it from being unengaging, and the voice-acting is pretty solid overall.

The gameplay of MK isn't as hard to learn, nor as punishing as something like Street Fighter, and the moves list is pretty manageable. The accessability is a definite plus in my book, and almost a neccessity given that you only play as one fighter for three or four fights before moving on to a new one. During certain fights you have to fight against two opponents (a tag team if you will), which can be really hard, but you only have to win one round as opposed to two. I'm using the Vita's D-pad which can feel a bit iffy at times, but the analogue stick makes it incredibly hard to not jump accidentaly, but the pad works fine.

I may or may not write more about this, it all depends on how much time I spend with the game and if the content I've yet to play is interesting enough.