IGN has posted an interview with Shaun Himmerick, who is producing Midway's upcoming PSP port of Mortal Kombat: Deception, Mortal Kombat: Unchained! In this interview, Shaun mentions the ease (or lack thereof) of the porting process, and also reveals a big change in the amount of available characters. From the interview:
IGN: How difficult was it translating Deception to the PSP? Were you forced to cut back on any features because of the jump to the handheld system?
Shaun Himmerick: The transition to the PSP from the PS2 was much harder than we anticipated. We didn't want to cut any corners on quality or features (in comparison to the platform version) so we took the extra time to make sure that if something worked on the PS2 it worked on the PSP, as well.
We also dedicated a lot of time to make sure this game ran at a solid and stable frame-rate; all modes now run at either 50 or 60 frames per second very smoothly.
IGN:The Gamecube version of Deception had Goro and Shao Kahn as newly included characters. Are there any new Kombatants included in Deception: Unchained? What's the total number of fighters this time around?
Himmerick: We added 4 additional characters, as well as Goro and Shao Kahn. We added Kitana, Jax, Frost and Blaze to the roster. However one thing we did that's kind of special is that we decided to unlock ALL characters from the beginning. Where the PS2 and Xbox had 12 characters locked and 12 unlocked at the start, MK Unchained has all 30 Kombatants unlocked right from the start. So not only are there six additional Kombatants in MK Unchained, but we also are giving players access to a lot of characters up-front that they probably never saw in MK Deception because they were so difficult to unlock, like Zombie Liu Kang for example.
In addition, Shaun goes into a brief description of Endurance Mode. From the interview:
IGN: Are there any new or exclusive features to Deception: Unchained?
Himmerick:We looked at how the PSP worked and how we thought the players would play MK on it. We wanted to add a PSP-specific mode designed for the PSP functionality, too. That new mode is Endurance Mode, you will pick a fighter and then progress one round at a time against opponents without your health rejuvenating after each round. When you beat one enemy you immediately are confronted with another enemy. You will get a couple health bumps at some strategic points, like after the 5th Kombatant and some later. If you are really good you'll be able to fight 19 Kombatants, and then get a small health bump before fighting the Dragon King as your 20th opponent. This mode has been very popular internally with the team and the testers. You can play a couple enemies, put the game to sleep, do what you need to do, then wake it the PSP, and continue to try to see how far you can get right form where you were.
In addition, IGN posted three new screenshots to go along with the new interview; the screenshots feature endurance mode, culminating with Sub-Zero "destroying" his sixth opponent, who explodes in a shower of blood and body parts.
To read the interview in its entirety, click here. To see the new images, click here.
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