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Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe
Publisher: Midway Games
Developer: Midway Amusement Games
Genre: Fighting
Release Date: November 16, 2008
Platforms: Playstation 3, Xbox 360
ESRB: T - Teen
Reviewer: Eric
 Combining
two franchises together is nothing new. Marvel and Capcom joined forces before
and even two horror movie icons faced off against each other. The next big
mash-up is Mortal Kombat and the DC Universe. Can Scorpion defeat Batman? How
about Sub Zero taking on Wonder Woman? Who will win the fight?
Ed Boon might have lost his mind when he told the world about this mash-up.
Having the Mortal Kombat Universe, an M rated franchise, take on the DC Universe
makes no sense. When more information was given out it was clear that this would
be the first Mortal Kombat game that anyone could pick up. Gone are the violent
fatalities that made the franchise known. The blood as been toned down to few
squirts here and there as well. This is not a Mortal Kombat game, but why is it
so much fun?
The story is simple. Both the Mortal Kombat and DC Universes are colliding
because of some super-being. Instead of the villains of each universe teaming up
we have friends and enemies teaming up to take on the unknown. The war between
these two rages from all fronts, but will anybody find out what is really going
on before everyone kills each other?
No matter how you put it the story in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe is lame. At
no point during each story mode did I feel like this mash-up was perfect. The
only good part about the story is the reasoning that was added to make sure that
Super-Man and his can be damaged by simple moves from the Mortal Kombat
Universe. I think it would have been a whole lot better if some of DC’s best
talent wrote the story, Boon and his team should have stepped aside while real
writers made this mash-up seem more realistic.
The signature fatalities that made the series popular are still here, however
they have been edited so bad that it hurts. Every character has two fatalities.
Mortal Kombat characters and DC Villains have fatalities while the good DC
characters have heroic brutalities. No matter how you put it the finishing moves
are pretty bad. Too many characters have moves where objects are thrown.
Whenever a real violent fatality is about to happen the camera shifts over so
you can’t see anything. The best part about all of this is Super-Man has one of
the more violent finishing moves.
 One
of the biggest improvements to the series is the absence of all those fighting
styles. It got real annoying how you had to switch between fighting stances to
pull of a decent combo. The series has gotten back to its roots and I could not
be so happy. Average fighting game gamers can pick this one up and have a lot of
fun. Everything is easy to pull off and enjoyable, this is how a Mortal Kombat
game should be.
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe does have all the necessary extras you’d expect
from a modern day fighter. You can practice your combos and play online with no
problems. Online play really feels like you are playing at an arcade but I
couldn’t help but notice that the chat function wasn’t working and the game is
how old now? This problem should have been fixed before the actual game came
out.
Even with all of the extras there is one problem. What happened to the
create-a-fighter mode that was seen in the last Mortal Kombat game? How about
the unblockables from videos to sketches? I really would have loved seeing a
create-a-fighter mode again, just so I could create some of my favorite DC
characters that didn’t make the cute. What in the world happened Ed Boon?
Final Verdict
In fighting game standards this is a fantastic game. The series is back to its
roots, playing a Mortal Kombat game is fun again. When you look at the big
picture though, there are a lot of problems. Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe could
have been so much better if a better team wrote the story. Maybe a few big
updates could make this game better, for now pick this one up if you are a
hardcore fighting game nut.
Rating
7.50 out of 10
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe Trailer
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