Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe Review - Xbox 360

Whether it’s a decade-late answer to the Marvel/Capcom team up games or an off-the-cuff boardroom joke gone wildly too far, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe is destined to make just about anyone's shortlist of bizarre videogame team-ups. Still, sometimes two disparate things can merge to create a unique synergy that makes the melding work, however unlikely it may have seemed at the outset.

Crisis on…well, two Earths

The story concerns an interdimensional accident in which Mortal Kombat bigwig Shao Khan and DC tyrant Darkseid get fused into one bundle of bad attitude creatively named Dark Kahn. He’s also notable for having one of the most uninspired designs in fighting game boss history. You’ve got Shao Khan and Darkseid to work with and you come up with a big flamey skullfaced dude? C’mon, guys.

The Mortal Kombat and DC universes start to merge, causing all kinds of mix-ups as various characters from one universe pop up at horribly inconvenient times in the other. It also causes the champions of both worlds to want to kill people, thanks to the weird glowing yellow rage that infects them. This leads to a lot of fights between allied characters. It’s also the explanation for why there are so many fatalities being thrown around by the DC crew, even though no fatalities are present in the story mode.

You can pick either the Mortal Kombat or DC side of the story and play through using various characters to the end. The story is pretty bad, to be honest, and even with the Rashomon-style two-sided approach, it still feels like there are parts missing, most likely to be found in the inevitable comic book tie-in from DC. You don’t get to choose your characters; you’re simply assigned them as the story progresses. For individual character endings, you must complete Arcade mode with each one. Other than that, there's a serviceable online play mode that suffers from the same shortcomings and lag that all online fighters do, and...that's it. No minigames, no adventure mode, only a couple unlockable characters.

Just Us League

The character roster on either side is robust and impressive, but there are a few weird omissions and alterations. Several major Justice Leaguers are absent in favor of characters like Deathstroke and Catwoman. Second player colors for the DC heroes are disappointing, mostly falling into the “paler version of 1P’s color” category. It would have been great to have the alternate color for Flash be Reverse Flash or the alternate Superman be Bizarro, but it remains a missed opportunity. What’s there is very good, though, especially visually. The characters on both sides look better than ever in videogame form, and the tearing outfits and battle damage adds a lot to the presentation.

The gameplay is the familiar Mortal Kombat style. You’ll find lots of tapping, dial-a-combos, and uppercuts. New to this one are Freefall Kombat, in which you pummel one another while falling to a lower part of the stage, and Klose Kombat, which occurs when a grapple is used. They both use a "guess which button the attacker is pressing" system to determine who wins the tussle, which is a bit too random for its own good.

Many of the special moves are clever and look extraordinarily painful. A few characters feature unorthodox fighting styles that make them lots of fun to play, particularly the Joker. Even with these high points, though, it's oddly bland. The fighting feels more fluid than other Mortal Kombats, but the dial-a-combos are too canned to be satisfying. A Kombo Trial mode teaches advanced juggles and such, but they're so picky about timing for so little bonus damage that it's generally not worth the effort.

Finish Him! Carefully!

Finally, the T-rating means the fatalities are severely hamstrung, with no blood or Scanners-style head popping to be found. Most kills feature internal injury and bone snapping, with little to no visual injury apparent. Since the DC heroes don’t kill, they simply have "Heroic Brutalities" in which they do something that should really kill someone but apparently doesn't. Sure, Liu Kang’s still moving after Superman pounds him into the asphalt up to his shoulders, but I’m willing to be he’ll be on the Shaolin equivalent of disability for a decade or so.

In the end, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe is a fun weekend rental you and your comic geek friends can enjoy and then forget about. The groundwork is laid here for something truly interesting and special if a follow-up is made, but this initial outing is merely average.

Article by: Matt Keil