Warner Bros. Interactive and NetherRealm Studios' love-letter to Kombat fans, Mortal Kombat (9), has been out for a month now - meaning the developers have a laundry-list of user data to look-over.

As a result, Mortal Kombat is now set to receive an official stealth update - bringing a myriad of balancing tweaks to the online (and local) fighting arena.

Fighting fans might be hoping for a more aggressive update - to patch game freeze glitches and add the highly-anticipated DLC fighters Scarlet and Kenshi (as well as remove 2-1 on story mode battles); however, this particular update is all about character balancing - removing cheap exploits and adding more robust juggle links for certain characters.

Unlike their fighting game brethren, the Mortal Kombat team does not need to rely on patches to balance their latest title - as, previously reported, NetherRealm can alter damage, hit detection spreads, and recovery speed with a stealth update to the title - without the player ever noticing (at least until their favorite juggle exploit suddenly disappears).

Check out the full list of tweaks below:

  • Reduced some of Kung Lao’s combo and overall damage.
  • Reduced the damage on some special moves.
  • Increased the damage scaling after Kitana’s Enhanced ground fan toss.
  • Adjusted some juggle’s damage scaling.
  • Reduced the damage on some basic combos that were doing too much damage without using any meter.
  • Increased Sheeva’s damage output for several of her moves and attacks.
  • Temporarily Changed around some of Sonya’s fighting style properties to reduce her ability to lock someone down in block stun.
  • Changed Kano’s Towards Front Kick to a low block.
  • Reduced the recovery on Kano’s Upball to be closer to Johnny Cage’s Flip Kick recovery.
  • Increased the damage of some of Baraka’s special moves and attacks.
  • It is easier to juggle combo after hitting someone with Baraka’s chopchop on the ground.
  • Increased the damage scaling on a frozen opponent.
  • Baraka’s Away Front Kick, Front Punch combo is now a true popup.
  • Reduced some of Reptile’s combo damage.

The tweaks to Baraka and Kano are an especially welcome alteration - as the Tarkatan warrior did, in some match-ups, feel noticeably underpowered. Kano's upball recovery time was also a problem - allowing for devastating consequences in come cases.

Mortal Kombat Review

While balancing tweaks are a delicate juggling game - where one minor alteration has hundreds of potential consequences, it's good to see NetherRealm being liberal with their first stealth update - though we're still waiting on a fix for that Sindel exploit!

If nothing else, the update gives PSN gamers an excuse to hop back online and test out the new tweaks - as well as give anyone who picked the game up used an opportunity to take advantage of the temporary Online Pass waiver.

Follow me on Twitter @benkendrick and let us know what other Mortal Kombat exploits you'd like to see balanced.

Mortal Kombat is available now for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Source: Test Your Might