Let me start off by saying that DC Comics is a pretty redundant title. That being said, they’re responsible for some of the greatest Superheroes (and Villains) to ever moisten the pants of nerds everywhere.
Mortal Kombat, on the other hand, has served to produce some of the funniest and most outstanding fighting games (imo) across the multi-platform board.
In Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, these two elements come together to form (possibly) one of the greatest fighting games I’ve ever played. For someone who isn’t a huge fan of such games, I realized the other day that I sure have a lot of them–from the original Mortal Kombat Trilogy for Playstation One to this latest opus…with the odd Street Fighter, Def Jam, Dragonball Z, Tekken, Smackdown and Facebreaker game thrown in for good measure…I’d imagine it would be impossible to claim that I don’t like fighting games at all.
The only problem with them (in general) that I have is that there’s no other reason to play most of them other than sheer boredom; or that once-or-twice-in-a-lifetime event when a visiting friend boasts that he/she can kick your ass at Street Fighter and I have to hang my head in shame.
Don’t get me wrong…Street Fighter IV looks like a FUNtastic game, and I’ll probably own it in several months; however, I am looking forward to an interesting single player mode as well.
The problem with my delusional opinion is that fighting games were probably never meant to have a decent single player mode. They’re specifically designed to be games to play with friends; but how many rounds can you go without getting bored retarded?
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe is, in theory, a wonderful exception to the rule. I’ve never been a huge comic-reader (aside from Spawn, The Tick, and anything weird, independent, or Adults-Only), but I was excited to play as these characters. The Heroes are so diverse and fun to fight with that it completely makes up for the fact that we’ve all been playing as the same Mortal Kombat dudes for most of our young lives.
But let’s get technical.
The graphics are beautiful, but that’s coming from someone who played Mortal Kombat: Armageddon on the Wii for about an hour before chucking it away to collect dust. The characters are all very detailed and vary greatly in terms of appearance and moves.
The replay value is fairly high for several reasons.
First, you can play through a STORY MODE taking either Mortal Kombat‘s or DC Universe‘s point of view of the same story line–and both are equally entertaining.
Second, the ARCADE MODE takes the classic Mortal Kombat approach of fighting through a pillar of opponents. At the top of the pillar are the two top baddies of the game, and then you are treated to an ENDING cut scene featuring the character that you chose to play as. Typical, but still fun.
Third, the new super-moves are fun to learn, and the old familiar moves are easy to perform. The old school Kombat team have their classic FATALITIES, the Heroes have HEROIC BRUTALITIES, and the Villians have new FATALITIES. There are some complaints about the Mature rating of Kombat dropping to Teen, but…come on…for fuck’s sake…there’s still blood, death and destruction. Quit your bitching.
Fourth, it’s a fighting game with 2-player battles that don’t get too boring too quickly.
The voice acting may or may not be that great…I don’t know. From my point of view, it seemed decent. I can’t complain about the script because it’s a Superhero and Mortal Kombat game. I didn’t expect it to be fucking poetry.
Quick Wrap-Up: I got this game for Christmas, so I didn’t spend $60 on it…Therefore, I can’t encourage anyone else to. I would, however, recommend the game. Rent it, or buy it Used and see what you think. It never takes long before fighting games are on the USED shelf…which seems to give my opinion slightly more validity.
–alexG.
