Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

Jul 18, 2008

When Midway announced Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, gamers worldwide looked at each other and uttered that famed acronym: "WTF." We're doubtful it stood for "Well, That's Frightening." This is an awfully strange marriage of two licenses. We're not sure how DC fans feel about a new fighting game (the last one we can remember was 1995's Justice League Task Force, developed by Blizzard), but MK fans have been freaking out over the proposed "T"-rated crossover fighting title. After test driving it with Assistant Producer/Designer Brian Lebaron, it seems that MK vs. DC has some cool ideas about how to bring the MK franchise into another console generation.

The first thing Lebaron told us as he fired up the menu was that Midway's aiming for a deeper fighting experience than it's had in the past. It's hard to tell how much depth we'll be looking at, since only six characters were playable, and of them, only two had finishers. From the MK universe, Sonya Blade, Scorpion, and Sub-Zero were available. Superman, Batman, and The Flash represented DC Comics. Fighter damage was the first thing we caught as Lebaron kicked off a round. As your character's life bar turns more red than green, he or she will start to get more bruises, scrapes, and clothing damage. Yes, even Superman. It's actually a good indicator of much damage you're taking or giving.

We also noticed some real differences in presentation. When your character initiates a grab, it's not a cue to throw your opponent. Instead, it initiates a Rock, Paper, Scissors-style mini-game that lets you set up big damage. Once you lock in a grab, the camera zooms in and a button prompt pops up. You can tap any of the face buttons to inflict insult and injury, but if your opponent can accurately predict your next button tap, the action reverts back to normal.

There are also stage-specific mini-games. In past fighting games, like the Dead or Alive series, you could knock an opponent off a ledge and watch them fall several stories to the ground. In MK vs. DC, there are no canned animations for these moments. Instead, it's an opportunity to continue beating the crap out of them. Much like the grab mechanic, you can continue button-mashing on your way to terra firma, but in this case, a meter on the right indicates how much pain you're inflicting. When it fills up, if your timing's right, you can perform a super move, which dramatically increases your combo's impact. As with the grab, your opponent can also reverse it and pull the same move on you.

There are even more little moments, like the tug-of-war mini-game where a player can use his or her opponent to smash through walls (you might've noticed it above in Midway's trailer), but the most striking decision for us was Midway's decision to map certain fighter movements to the d-pad. MK vs. DC is still a 3D fighter at its core, but the team is emphasizing the d-pad to give it a strongly 2D retro feel. You can maneuver within the 3D plane using the analog stick, but overall, it feels and plays more like a 2D brawler, which is a satisfying change. Lebaron continuously emphasized that Midway's working hard to net hardcore fighting game geeks as much as comic book fans. The movement and mechanics work well in this regard, so far.

We played as each of the DC characters, plus Scorpion (who feels as familiar as you'd expect). So far, the combo system feels like familiar MK gameplay, and the DC fighters feel like rather well-melded composites of other MK brawlers. For example, Batman's batarang blades have small echoes of Kitana's fan in them. He's also got a smoke bomb-chucking teleport that's reminiscent of Scorpion's warp punch. Superman can punch the ground to create shockwaves like Jax, plus he can shoot out heat vision like Kano. He can also use his super-powered lungs to suck in air and pull an opponent closer for a combo. Of the three DC characters available, we really enjoyed The Flash, whose lightning-fast movements unleashed some visually appealing combos. In one of his attacks, he takes off at blinding speed and continuously punches his opponent until he or she is completely disoriented.

All of these tweaks are fine and all, but die-hard MK fans seem to be pretty upset about a toned-down MK. It's pretty evident that the Midway dev team can't exactly show gruesome disembowelment in a "T"-rated game (Acclaim tried that fifteen years ago with the console version of Mortal Kombat). There are definitely fatalities in the game, although DC Comics has mandated that its heroes can't perform them. MK characters, and DC villains? Smiting people up and down the screen, apparently. That means that Sonya or the Joker (supposing that he's in MK vs. DC) can kill people, but Batman can't. Instead, DC heroes get "brutalities." They're finishers that, for all intents and purposes, would cripple someone but arguably not kill them, we guess. We're not sure how Superman burying someone in concrete with his fists wouldn't constitute a fatality, but that's how it goes. Nevertheless, the finisher animations that we saw looked pretty cool, and we're not that worried about them.

Overall, we think that in its early stages, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe looks like a fun brawler that bridges the gap between bone-crunching fights and comic book lore for the first high-profile fighting game/comic book crossover in nearly a decade. Unless you absolutely, positively have to watch every single character in an MK game die in horrible ways, most Mortal Kombat fans should enjoy the gameplay. The 2D focus of combat looks to bring lapsed MK fans from the '90s back to the franchise, much like we're seeing Street Fighter IV attempt through its gameplay mechanics. We liked our initial taste, and you'll likely be reading more about MK vs. DC as we get closer to Comic-Con.