Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe Review

Image from Google

Fighting games are a franchise that was held in the highest regards during the nineties. People lined up around the block outside the local arcades to take their chance at beating the best of the best at games like Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Killer Instinct, and SNK’s King of Fighters series. The game that was given the most controversial skepticism was of course Mortal Kombat. All fighting games are brutal in their own way, but Mortal Kombat was the first mainstream video game fighter in the arcades that actually allowed you to kill your opponent in a gruesome gory way. This became known as the iconic fatality, and has been shown to have impacted our culture in many ways, as parodies and real-life cases have come to show the Mortal Kombat series as an iconic time capsule that will be seen as one of the most important fighting games of our time.
The newest installment in the series is called Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. The idea is not a new one for the fighting franchise, crossovers are more common than not. The Marvel vs. Capcom series should be a prime example of how this is an old dog doing old tricks, but it looks pretty and new. Let’s now go into the review for Mortal Kombat vs. DC Univserse:

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe is a prequel game set between Mortal Kombat 2 and Mortal Kombat 3. The game’s story mode can be played by either the DC side, which brings you into contact with the heroes and villains of that world such as: Batman, The Joker, Deathstroke, Superman, Shazam, and Lex Luthor. The other side can be played by Mortal Kombat characters, and takes place in both Earthreal, the Neatherrealm, and Outworld. DCs side plays out mostly in Metropolis, Gotham City, and of course the Fortress of Solitude.

Image of Captain Marvel from DC fame.

Ok, so the gameplay is one of the best of the series. Unlike most fighters, the button mashing stays the same, but the team at Midway put some thought into revamping the fighting system so it flows well on the Playstation 3. I was not too fond of this mash-up at first, but after playing several characters, I sense how they put lots of detail into the game, and even adding an element It lacked for so long: the double tap dash, which means you hit the directional but twice to make the character sprint. This is present in almost every fighting game, and was a much needed improvement.
The klose kombat addition, where you can pull your opponent in and take pop shots at their face was an excellent, and sometimes a much welcomed break from the brutality of the match. Despite this game’s Teen rating, which is a major step down from the Mature rating the series is used to, the punishment the characters take can be unbearable to watch as they’re tattered and torn apart. The detail to ripping costumes, and scarring is a beautiful attention to detail. Free-Fall Kombat is similar to klose kombat, and does massive damage. Midway also brought back the classic test your might style back into certain levels, where you crash your oppenent through a series of walls, and button mash to add damage. All these great additions play well into the gameplay.

Image from Bat Blogger
I did not feel the Kombo Challenges were done well, , and just makes you throw the controller down, and go back to arcade mode. The new pro moves system is a pain to pull off. Pro moves are like a free extra couple of hits on your opponent. When pulling off a special move, say Sonya’s upward bicycle kick manuver, if you hit the action button, in the case for the PS3, It would be the circle button, she will then do this move twice. These moves are truly for pros, as timing is essential, so newcomers to the game will have a hard time figuring out how to pull them off. With some time, and some quick fingers, the moves will become like second nature. This is although a frustrating part of the game, a very much welcomed edition to the genre, as it forces you to strive and become a better player.
Although you can do all of the combo challenges to earn achievements or trophies ( accomplishments for completing tasks in the game.) and you can play arcade mode on hard to better your skills, the only way to learn how to master the game, is to get some experience in through online play. Online play is very simple, and I feel that it is fun, but like other games in the past, the game play is lagged a bit, and counters done to an oncoming attack can hurt both players, so when say one character is doing a chain combo of hits, and the other character does a special move, both parties are hurt in the exchange. In Mortal Kombat: Deception and Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, I had the same lag issues, now I know this may be a server issue, so why did they not fix their servers, or at least update them? It’s like they said: “Well, it’s broke, so let’s not fix it”.




Despite lag, and a simpler game room layout from the previous game, Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe has a good online system. It could be better, that is true, I’ve only played it on the PS3, so maybe Xbox Live has less bugs. The game play online is at times like arcade mode, but because of the online play, you can have spammers, hackers, and other infringements on the game that can change a camera angle, or hurt game play. This takes away from the accuracy and fairness of the online matches, and may frustrate many a players testing their abilities against the best.
Overall, the game is a great addition as a fighter, but the story mode, the combo challenge mode, and even the online mode need to have been looked over once more, because they flaw the game. The story mode should have been longer, despite it already being lengthy; due to the ability of playing both the Mortal Kombat and DC Universe side. The lack of in-depth plot shortens the experience of what is supposed to be a six-hour game. To be honest, for the casual gamer, this game is not worth your money, perhaps more a glorified rental title.
If I had to score this game, I’d give it a 7 out of 10. The game is a great fighter, but all-in-all this is a game that needs to have been combed over once more. I hope that if they go this route again with a mash-up title, they fix the glitches in the final game. Although it is not as glitch-y or as bad as Armageddon, hopefully the next game in the franchise is more back to the bloody roots that started it all.