Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (PS3) Review

Posted by Mark Salmela on 01.06.2009

Can Midway recapture the magic set by Mortal Kombat 2 and Mortal Kombat Trilogy or does Midway’s latest fighter fall victim to the 3rd dimension?



Mortal Kombat’s history cannot be denied. Ever since the original was released in arcades Mortal Kombat has been a crucial part of the video game industry. Hell, it’s often credited for the formation of the ESRB. Personally, Mortal Kombat 2 and Mortal Kombat Trilogy stand out as the best of the franchise. I seriously want to ask the folks at Midway why they keep porting Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 to consoles such as XBLA but they constantly forget about the far superior Mortal Kombat Trilogy *a lot more characters, more moves, more fatalities, ect*. Honestly, I highly doubt it would cost Midway a lot of money to make a new version of Mortal Kombat Trilogy. Hell, take the existing game, clean up the sprites, and add in more characters and my friends and I would gladly pay whatever amount of money Midway would charge for it *and I think we’re all aware of Midway’s financial state at this point*. But we don’t live in a perfect world and so we are left with Mortal Kombat vs. DC. How does the game hold up? Let’s find out.



Graphics


The god of thunder vs… some douche who uses lame lightning attacks.


I must say, considering how bad the graphics have been in all of the previous 3D MK games I am quite surprised at how MK vs. DC turned out. MK vs. DC sports some pretty nice looking character models *although not superb* and while I do not find the backgrounds all that interesting, at least they also look good. Animations are rather smooth and besides a few minor problems *mainly with things like Free Fall Kombat* MK vs. DC is nothing to sneeze at. Of course some people will be pissed that The Joker doesn’t look like Heath Ledger but in my opinion it’s not that big of a deal. Most of the characters look good and sport some nice moves to boot *minus Wonder Woman, I hate her*.



Gameplay


Looks like even Superheroes use performance enhancing drugs.


Well, MK vs. DC is a fighting game. If a fighting game doesn’t control well, it’s bound to fail. While MK vs. DC won’t set the world on fire, it’s not that bad. Some characters have moves that are fun to pull off *Green Lantern* while others are just clunky and stupid *Shao Kahn*. MK controls like any other fighter, face buttons are attacks, L1 and R1 block, and R2 and L2 are reserved for special situations *Close Quarters Kombat and Rage*. When I first heard about MK vs. DC and found out that up would be jump again and down would be crouch, I was praying that Midway had made the right decision and made MK vs. DC a 2D fighter with 3D graphics. Sadly, I was wrong. Hold L2 or use the analog stick and you once again move in 3 dimensions, making ranged attacks such as Shang Tsung’s fireball useless to skilled players. MK has no right to be in the third dimension, here’s hoping Midway gets it right with the next game.

New to the series is the Rage mode, which is explained via the story mode. Basically Rage mode makes your character supercharged, and is activated via filling up a meter at the bottom of the screen. While you can still take damage in Rage mode, you character cannot be caught in a combo and does extra damage with every connected strike. It’s not a terrible addition, although I do think it’s unnecessary *basically once both characters have a full Rage meter it’s useless* and I wish there was the option to take it out of the game.

Another new addition to the game is the Free Fall Kombat and Close Quarters Kombat. Free Fall Kombat is specific to certain stages *about half of the 14 stages* and is activated by hitting an opponent while near the edge of the screen. Close Quarters Kombat on the other hand is activated by pressing a button *I believe R2 but it might be R1* right next to an opponent. Both in-game mini-games basically boil down to trying to outguess your opponent, as the player on defense will have to guess what the player on offense will press and if done correctly will either end the mini-game or reverse positions *offensive player becomes defensive*. Again I appreciate what Midway was trying to do in adding variety to the game but I wish I could have removed it, as I didn’t find it all that fun.

Finally there is the Test Your Might in-game mini-game where players can knock an opponent against the wall in Superman’s stage which will start a mini-game where players button-mash to determine the amount of damage done. And just like the other mini-games I don’t like Test Your Might and wish it could be turned off.

Overall MK vs. DC is a decent fighter although I am not a fan of any of the new additions to the series and wouldn’t mind seeing them all taken out in the next MK game *assuming there will be another one*. Hell, I hope this is the last time Midway does a versus game, as personally one of my big complaints with the game is the roster. 22 characters are simply not enough and both rosters suck. The MK side is missing classic characters such as Johnny Cage *an original*, Smoke, Noob Saibot, Quan Chi *although he’s in the story he’s not a character*, Reptile, and many more while DC is missing characters like The Watchmen *it would have been an awesome movie tie-in*. I mean come on, who was itching to play as Wonder Woman or Princess Kitana?



Sound


The only character in any fighting game who should be allowed to use a gun is Stryker.


The good old angry MK announcer is back and as pissed as ever. He makes his presence known without over-doing it, and he’s probably my favorite announcer in any fighting series. As for the characters themselves no one comes to mind as terrible or annoying although I wasn’t overly impressed with anyone either. Considering they were trying to build an epic storyline the voice actors all did their jobs well enough but none of them will be up for any awards. The stage music gets its job done, although MK has never been known for having the best soundtracks to their fighting games *I might even argue MK 1 has the best stage music of the series*. The sound effects in MK vs. DC also get the job done. Every hit sounds bone-crunching and helps get the feel of an actual fight across. So overall nothing is done terrible well, but nothing was offensive either, just like every other MK game.


Lasting Appeal


Raiden’s best move.


In my opinion the lasting appeal to MK vs. DC will depend upon how much you want to play this game online. Personally, I have already moved on from MK vs. DC and in fact have moved back to playing MK Trilogy for the PS1 *a far superior MK game*. The online mode is done well with little lag *given that both players have decent connections* and the rooms are rather large so you won’t have to fight the same people again if you don’t want to. While I will always prefer to play my fighting games locally I do recognize that there are people who don’t have that option, and for those people MK vs. DC will provide a fun multiplayer experience.


Fun Factor


It might not be Heath Ledger but at least they gave him a lot of awesome moves.


For the most part Mk vs. DC is an awesome game. If you are a fan of the genre or have friends to play with *especially locally* than you should pick this game up. For example my friends and I picked this game up, played around with characters until we found our favorites, and for the most part we’ve had a great time. There are some balancing issues with certain characters such as Shang Tsung *just mash the square button to win* and Lex Luther *his missiles are too powerful, especially his homing missile and straight missile*, but they’re not game ending bugs necessarily. Most people have complained about The Flash being invincible online, but to be honest I have yet to ever lose to The Flash, so I don’t know what they’re talking about.

One thing that I do want to bring up however is the violence. Call me a sucker, but if I’m playing a Mortal Kombat game, I want violence. If you had told me ten years ago that I’d be playing MK for babies with some of the worst Fatalities in history, I’d laugh at you. MK has traded the violence for a comic license, and I’d have rather seen Babalities than the Fatalities in MK vs. DC. Hopefully the next game will bring back honor to Mortal Kombat.


The 411


Ok that’s pretty sweet.


MK vs. DC actually managed to bring two different universes together rather well. While I initially hated the concept *and still do* the storyline especially considering that this is a fighting game was done well. Completionists will have to beat both sides of the story mode *which runs for 2 to 3 hours each* to get every character and then run through the basic arcade mode with all 22 characters to see every ending which makes for a rather long fighting game. One final complaint I have about the game *and boy this is a nerdy complaint* is that the storyline that has been built up for the past several MK games has been completely ignored in MK vs. DC. In the last couple games Scorpion has been in a war with Quan Chi but in this game he is actually working for Quan Chi to battle Sub Zero despite the fact that Sub Zero has moved on from Scorpion and is involved in a war with Noob Saibot and Smoke *both of whom are unforgivably absent from the game*.

In my opinion the decision as to whether or not to pick up Mk vs. DC relies on two questions. Can you pick it up for a reasonable price *$60 is too much* and how big of an MK fan are you? If you can find MK vs. DC for a discount and if you’re a fan of the series than MK vs. DC is a worthy pick-up. For everyone else, just go find a copy of Mortal Kombat Trilogy, it blows every fighting game for the current consoles out of the water.

Graphics	8.0	The characters themselves look pretty good although nothing is done amazingly well.
Gameplay	7.5	Almost every character has a couple of cool moves to pull off but too much garbage like Close Quarters Kombat gets in the way.
Sound	6.0	While nothing is offensive there aren't any award winning performances. The sound effects are well done.
Lasting Appeal	8.0	The single player is actually pretty long for a fighter and if you have friends to play with or enjoy fighers online than you'll get a decent amount of enjoyment out of MK vs. DC.
Fun Factor	6.5	The violence has been toned down and the game is missing some of the series' best characters like Reptile and Noob Saibot which makes this reviewer very angry.
Overall	7.0   [ Good ]