In recent years, Mortal Kombat, a name once synonymous with great fighting and overwhelming sales, has almost dropped off the map. With many people considering Mortal Kombat 3 to be the last great entry in the series, it’s been over a decade since the release of an MK game truly worth playing. Enter Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, a game hoping to rekindle the series by using a completely new fighting engine and adding well known characters from popular comic franchises.
From the start, it has been facing an uphill battle: with the advent of DC characters, the game sports a Teen rating, which means no spine-ripping, skull-exploding, blood-gushing fatalities. To classic Mortal Kombat fans, this may come as a disappointment, but the rest of the game suffers little from this decision. In fact, there’s still a surprising amount of blood for a Teen-rated game, along with bruised faces and tattered uniforms. The neutered finishers are still a let-down, but would you really want your childhood idol having his heart ripped out by Sub-Zero?
Besides textures swapping when characters get too much of a beating, it is worth mentioning that the models look great (especially the faces), though the backgrounds tend to look last-gen. This game still has that Unreal Engine gloss to it, but it manages to hide it most of the time behind brightly coloured uniforms and set pieces. Presentation-wise, my biggest pet peeve is the loading screens between menus. I understand the need to load from one fight to the next, but why is it necessary when I just want to cycle through character bios?
While the loading times can make it frustrating to access them, MK vs. DC does have a lot of modes to enhance the core game. Beyond the standard “Arcade,” the game offers a story mode, online play (with no lag!), character biographies, different endings, a practice mode, and a Kombo Challenge. The story tells a much more direct tale than most fighting games, and while it is plagued with overacting, I actually felt compelled to finish it. It feels like a great episode of The Justice League.
Unfortunately, after finishing the story, none of the other modes are particularly compelling. This mainly has to do with the unbalanced fighting engine. While there are intricate combos, they’re so hard to pull off that most players (especially online) find spamming Flash’s tornado spin just as effective. You may see one or two cool juggles, but this is definitely not the next tournament fighter.
What it lacks in balance, though, it makes up for in flash. Each character’s special moves are easy to pull off and are well-suited to their persona. Also, every stage has multiple areas that one can reach by running their opponent through walls or hurling them over a railing. These offer fun scenarios of back and forth button mashing until one player gets the best of the other. They don’t make it fun to play through Arcade twenty times, but they do distract from the lack of balance and keep the game lively when playing with a friend.
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe takes a number of steps in the right direction. It is by far the most fun I have had with an MK game since Mortal Kombat 3. It still has a way to go if it wants to compete with the top tier, but it provides a fun time by coupling a few unseen fighting styles with familiar characters. It isn’t for everyone, but for those who have fond memories of DC or MK, it might do enough to rekindle your interest in the franchises – it definitely has mine.
