I remember playing Mortal Kombat on the Game Boy growing up. Ed Boon and his team are bringing back the portable Mortal Kombat to PlayStation Vita this spring.

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announced today that Mortal Kombat will ship for PlayStation Vita in Spring 2012. The game will be developed by NetherRealm Studios and delivers an experience designed specifically for on-the-go gaming with brand new gameplay features and content developed exclusively for the handheld device.

“The NetherRealm team is committed to making sure that we follow up the success of 2011’s Mortal Kombat with an equally compelling experience on the PlayStation Vita,” Ed Boon, Creative Director, NetherRealm Studios, said. “The original game content and new features we developed for the PlayStation Vita will provide gamers with the best fighting game experience available on the new mobile platform.”

What came as a surprise to many after previous Mortal Kombat games failing to really ignite sales or critics, the game’s return to stardom saw it selling more than 3 million units worldwide in 2011. It became the highest selling fighting game of the year and won numerous “Best Fighting Game of 2011” awards from Spike TV’s Video Game Awards to Official Xbox Magazine.

The game was notable because it returned to what made Mortal Kombat a household name and congressional enemy in the 1990s by supplying over-the-top fatalities and new X-ray moves that showed bones shattering upon successful hits.

The latest game brought the series back to a 2D fighting plane for a more refined fighting experience. It also introduced a number of new features including Tag Team, Challenge Tower and new for the series, a story mode worth caring about.

The new features being deployed in the PlayStation Vita version of the game will be revealed in the coming months.