Game Rating: T
Console: PS3
Resolution: 1080p
Audio: Multi-Channel
Video Connection: HDMI
Audio Connection: HDMI



It’s a damned shame that Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe came out when it did; only a few months before the highly anticipated and critically acclaimed Street Fighter IV graced the console fighting arena. Any buzz that the game might have had was rendered mute in SF4’s shadow. Mortal Kombat, even at the height of its popularity was never the go-to game for “hardcore” fighting fans offering less depth than usually awarded to the Capcom and SNK devotees. And now, over 15 years removed from Mortal Kombat’s arcade debut, the gory sensationalism that made the series so controversial has long been surpassed by the go anywhere, do whatever you please sandbox games like the Grand Theft Auto series and a changing development in the collective mentality of what is no longer taboo.

What this ultimately means is that Mortal Kombat as a series is forced to evolve on its own and be judged on its own gameplay merits rather than how much media attention it has given to the games industry as a whole. In the latest entry, despite a departure in form, is both a step back and a step forward in that regard. It’s rewarding as it is frustrating, and as interesting as it is forgettable. As a game, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe is solid, as long as you don’t try to compare it to anything else on the market, but even then you might find your mind adrift to other games in other genres that you would rather be playing.

You might find yourself asking how a game such as MKvDCU can even pretend to have a modicum of originality to it in a world that already brought us X-Men vs. Street Fighter over a decade ago. The answer lies entirely in its presentation. Silly as any explanation could possibly be on how the universes would align themselves in order for the franchises to come together – and then have to fight each other as well – an actual story was created. Not just title cards, the story modes included here were written by long-time comic writer/artist Jimmy Palmiotti and while nothing terribly imaginative it isn’t altogether terrible. Raiden beats Shao Kahn and Superman defeats Darkseid simultaneously and open portals at the same time, thus merging him into Dark Kahn (How… original…) whose rage merges the universes and infects heroes and villains on both sides of the fence. So it’s not exactly Shakespeare, but on the flipside, it’s not exactly Final Crisis either, so I guess there’s a bright side to the whole affair as well. 

Playing the story mode (there are two) you are presented with a continually flowing story arc. So for the purpose of the DC storyline, you’ll start off as Flash taking down Deathstroke for being the jerk-off that he is. You’ll then go to Gotham to fight Catwoman, followed by Kano and soon after that you’ll find that the rage affects you and you’re forced into combat with your ally Batman. During this story mode, you won’t be doing any fatalities. You won’t even be given the option, which makes sense seeing as how it would be a story breaker. You pretty much wash, rinse, and repeat from that point out with the expected best-of-three matches. As a comic fan, I really enjoyed the way that the story flowed. It still is disappointingly full of clichés though (both fighting game clichés - “and now we fight” and superhero clichés – “we must join forces”) Beating the story mode rewards you with a fairly cool ending and the ability to play as Shao Kahn or Darkseid depending on the story you selected.

The enjoyment that you’ll get out of this game hinges on about three things. The first is how well you like the twenty characters that you can play as, on either side. On the Mortal Kombat side, you have Baraka, Jax, Kano, Kitana, Liu Kang, Raiden, Scorpion, Shang Tsung, Sonya Blade and Sub Zero. The awesome part of this lineup? Nothing but classic characters, all of these guys are from the original two arcade games. All of their classic moves are there, along with some updates. On the side of the DC Universe, you pretty much get the entire Justice League (or the important ones, anyway), plus some villains. Batman, Captain Marvel, Catwoman, Deathstroke, The Flash, Green Lantern, The Joker, Lex Luthor, Superman and Wonder Woman. This might seem like a small roster compared to what some of the previous console MK games have contained, but if you can look past that, you’ll notice that there are also no carbon copy duplicates. No two characters have the same movements or reach. For example Scorpion, Wonder Woman and Catwoman all have “chained projectiles” with their harpoon, lasso and whip respectively. None of these function in the same way. If you like mastering new characters, these new to the franchise characters will be fun to learn. 

This brings me to the big second point which is the fighting style, and for franchise fans, this might be a love-it-or-hate-it dealbreaker. There are no longer multiple fighting styles for different characters like there was in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance and Deception. This may be less hardcore, but I actually appreciate this quite a bit. No longer do I have to switch fighting stances to chain combos, this is more of the true arcade approach that I grew up with. Right down to the fact that a lot of the MK characters have the same button combinations to do special moves. I think that this approach allows accessibility to both older fans of the franchise, and an ease of entry for new fans. Now there are a few new additions to the actual fighting though. You can knock people off the edges of some parts of the arenas and beat the living bejeezus out of them in “Freefall Kombat” and if you grab your opponent correctly the camera will move up on the two of you for some “Klose Kombat” I haven’t noticed much of a skill involved in these bouts as they struck me as little more than button mashers, but they look awfully cool when you perform them.

But with the good comes the bad, and if you noticed that this game has a “Teen” rating, well it is seriously restrained from MK’s past. Of course, the DC super-heroes are above killing, so you’re going to be working with “heroic brutalities.” Don’t expect to see Superman use his heat vision to make Jax’s head explode or anything. He will however, beat him into the ground with fists of rage though. But it’s not just this, even the Mortal Kombat killers of old have had their fatalities neutered. There are zero decapitations, no limbs are ever severed and if you perform an explosion move like Sonya Blade’s kiss of death, the opponent will just blow up without leaving a drop of blood. If this we’re just a Street Fighter clone, I would be more forgiving of this, but this is supposed to be a Mortal Kombat game, why were they even aiming for a teen rating. If it’s the comic character aspect, someone clearly didn’t realize that the average comic reader is in his late 20s-early 30s, well old enough to buy some “M” content.

Aside from the Story mode there is an “Arcade” mode available (where you’ll probably spend most of your time), which is set up similarly to the Mortal Kombat II technique of climbing the mountain of opponents towards Dark Kahn. You have the option to populate your enemies with either a mixture of characters randomly selected, or you can fight only the characters from either universe. Aside from this, you have a practice mode to try out your combo skills, some of which are ridiculously tedious to pull off, and I doubt you would be able to in actual combat against a human opponent. 

Speaking of those human opponents, I guess the Street Fighter IV dominance has expectedly taken hold, because I got online looking to get my ass handed to me by some East Coast grade-schoolers staying up way past their bed times, but I had no luck finding a match. I did fight locally with a friend of mine though, and although neither one of us is excellent at fighting games, (I’m probably slightly more skilled, not that that says much) we found ourselves having a good time with it. Within an hour though, our interest waned. And I have to admit it took me a few days to get through single player which makes me recommend MKvDCU but only in small bursts. It will probably last you even less if you don’t have a friend/co-worker/roommate/classmate who wants to also get down with the beat down.

Another somewhat disappointing aspect is the removal of a great deal of modes that MK fans have been used to. There are no Puzzle or Chess Combat modes any more. While I can live without the puzzles, I did enjoy the overworld aspect that was present in Deception. It felt like there was more to do than just fight, and the challenges seemed geared to truly make you a more capable player. 

So ultimately, I guess I can recommend MKvDCU, but only if you have a preconceived notion that this is the type of game you might like. I doubt it will bring many new people into fighting games in general and it certainly doesn’t change the landscape of the future of the genre. But for what it does have, it’s definitely playable and if you really enjoy it, it’s easy to see a fan dumping dozens of hours online, if they can find someone to play it with. If you’re planning on going this alone though – don’t. 






Graphics – Both the in-game action and the cut-scenes are well done. Characters look real and battle damage shows on your character.

Sound – Every punch makes a sound, every special move sounds like you would expect, and the score is top notch. The score is awesome

Gameplay – A lot of fun, but probably best kept to short bursts.

Bugs/glitches/clipping – I noticed no such things.

Controls - The scaled down fighting controls reminiscent to MKII are very impressive but not as diverse as previous franchise entries.

Voice Acting – Also surprisingly well done. All of the characters have appropriate sounding voices. This ain’t no JRPG.

Re-playability – Entirely dependent on how into fighting games you’ll get. Some of the trophies might be attractive challenges for diehards

Adult Content Level – Rated Teen, Midway really held back on the blood and fatalities.

Story – Fun, but very, very clichéd.