Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe : A fighting game featuring characters from both the Mortal Kombat fighting game and DC comic book franchises, in a combination that could only make sense to fellow gamers who’ve seen Capcom do it before with Street Fighter and Marvel. For all intents and purposes, all of the franchises involved are being riding on the coattails of The Dark Knight, as evident by Batman’s prominent appearance on the box art over actual DC mascot Superman.
Story : …will sound very familiar to anyone that has read a comic or watched a Saturday morning cartoon at any point in their life. Two parallel universes are merging and a bunch of guys from both universes are going to put a hurting on each other before realizing they have to unite to fight the real bad guy. Spoilers be damned, I’ll tell you right now that the final boss is Darkseid and Shao Kahn merged together to form DARK KHAN. Along the way, they’ll throw at you one hackneyed excuse after another to explain certain anomalies, like how Superman developed a weakness to fists or why there’s this new gameplay mechanic called “Rage” or why Batman and Superman are yearning to hurt each other. The whole damn story is hokey as hell but its better presented here than in most fighting games.
That story, by the way, has its own mode. This mode lets you choose either the Mortal Kombat or DC side and presents the storyline from said point of view. In a nutshell, it’s just cutscenes thrown in between fights, but that’s really all you can hope for out of a fighting game when you think about it; the more you try to tinker with the in-game engine for the sake of a single-player campaign, the more things get screwed up (think Soul Calibur). There’s also the typical arcade mode where you just wail on a bunch of guys before you get an ending comprised of still shots. To be fair, you can only choose to fight enemies from one franchise, so it’s entirely possible to play most of the game and not have to look at a Mortal Kombat character.
And to also be frank, I don’t think anyone out there was laying on their lawn chairs, soaking in the sun, sipping a martini and thinking to themselves “I wonder what would happen if Sub-Zero fought Catwoman.” This does feel like too much of a page ripped out of the Capcom playbook. Not that the logic behind any of the Marvel vs Capcom games made a world of sense either, but the justification in those games was that Capcom had already made Marvel-based fighting games, as well as games that were actually …well, you know, good!
The good news for DC video game fans (and if you actually are one, you must be a masochistic fellow) is that your precious heroes have been done justice. This isn’t Justice League Task Force all over again; Superman will actually fight with laser eyes and ice breath and Captain Marvel will yell out “Shazam!” a lot. For better or worse, the DC characters will fight like they’re DC characters and not a generic fighting game character archetype with tights on. All of the game’s 23 characters are certifiable fan-favorites; no Shuma-Goraths here, so unless you’re an avid supporter of Kabal or the Wonder Twins, no one is going to be whining and complaining about so-and-so being absent. Yes, that means that all of the Mortal Kombat characters present are from the first two games, and considering how lame the last couple of MK fighters have been, that’s just fine in my books.
Speaking of which, one of the game’s strongest points is that it acknowledges that the last three Mortal Kombat games had a lot of excess crap. All that nonsense about multiple fighting styles that made no difference is gone, along with the unnecessary puzzle mini-game, chess mini-game, kart-racing mini game and lame-duck story mode. All of that is gone. Each fighter has one single fighting style and basic dial-a-combos now only have 3 or 4 button presses. So on the surface, the game seems to be a bit more accessible.
However, Mortal Kombat creator Ed Boon continues to struggle with the idea of depth in fighting games. It seems that his notion of skill comes from memorizing long combos, inventing combos the developers never intended the game to have, and otherwise finding ways to “break” the game and make a cool Youtube video out of it. This idea is even promoted in a separate mode, “Kombo practice”, where the game lets you rehearse several of these ridiculous, game-breaking combinations. Depth comes from trying to outthink your opponent, countering them and their fighter-of-choice’s tactics with your own. That’s not quite the case here, as just like in every Mortal Kombat game of past, every character has the same height, weight, attack speed, reach, strength and so forth. Every regular attack has the same properties, give or take, so if you have some kind of delusions of grandeur of playing this game at any kind of competitive level, then you’re in a shock as you find yourself bowing to whatever character has the longer combo or the slightly longer leg sweep distance. Even special moves have to be questioned sometimes; it seems that all of The Flash’s special attacks involve him just running forward.
No sooner did I realize this than when I started playing the game online, against other people fighting with DC characters (and sometimes Scorpion.) When I was playing with fellow novice players, the experience was actually pretty solid. The game rarely lags and the matches actually sometimes seem like dynamic battles. But when you fight someone that knows what they’re doing, then the fight is over sooner than it took for you to find an opponent in the first place.
Though I guess this game is meant to be a visceral experience rather than a tactical one. Get knocked over a ledge and the characters will fight each other in a completely dumb mini-game to simulate punching each other during the fall. There are indeed a couple of small and silly mini-games like that within the fighting arenas, and they all look cool, but looking cool only goes so far when you considering the hundreds of rounds that someone will play in throughout their time with a fighting game, or at least a good fighting game. And just in case you haven’t heard yet, since it seems to be the biggest news story emanating from this game, the trademark Mortal Kombat violence is slightly toned down, as there’s no gore in the fatalities. You can cry foul if you like, but the shock and entertainment value of the Mortal Kombat fatalities evaporated a decade ago, so I don’t consider this to be much of a loss.
For what it’s worth, this is the best Mortal Kombat fighting game devised since the series went 3D, and the best DC-related video game that I can think of. The mash-up isn’t as unintuitive as one might think. The game makes a decent weekend rental for most people, unless you thought the last three Mortal Kombat fighters were great and in that case, you’ll find a shower of bliss in this game. Or perhaps you’re the type of person that likes to “defy” the system and look for hidden, game-breaking combos to exploit. You’ll find something to tamper with here too. But in my mind, and the minds of others, fighting games are meant to be learned, practiced on, and ultimately pit against other players in what can legitimately be considered a test of skill. And in that arena, Mortal Kombat vs DC’s might doesn’t test itself well.
Pros : Hearing the trademark Mortal Kombat announcer proclaim that GREEN LANTERN has won the match.
Cons : The rage meter business is dumb. As you get beat up on, a meter fills, and once full, you gain temporary invulnerability. This whole idea breaks the flow of the fight, as the counter to this is to just run away until it wears off.
3 stars
I couldn’t think of a better title for this review.
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