It's Not The "T"-Rating That Hurts It...

The one thing that really hurts Mortal Kombat VS. DC Universe is not the fact that Midway made the surprising and controversial move to neuter the violent content of the franchise, it's that the game is really no different from any typical fighting game on the market. Now I'm sure the game's violent content was toned down to appease DC Comics sacred cows rather than generate more sales, but the move kind of took away one of the only appealing aspects of the franchise: the over-the-top violence. So instead of graphically violent finishers, we now have DC comic characters as the tent-pole of the game. As far as cross-overs go, MKVDCU actually works out well. It really calls back memories of Marvel VS. Capcom, which was a highly successful fighting game crossover back in the day.

The story behind the cross-over (why the MK world crosses over into the DC Universe) is rather dumb, but I suppose there has to be an explanation why we have the cross-over to begin with. While I won't spoil WHO in each world is responsible for why the two worlds are merging, let's say that the end result has Shao Khan and Darkseid combined together to form ... Dark Khan. Characters from both worlds are also influenced by "the Rage", which seems to occur when either a character from an opposite world crosses paths with each other, or when a character gets enraged by some event in the game. Yeah, it's as stupid as it sounds. At least the dialogue given for The Joker was actually pretty good.

The gameplay is what it all comes down to for the title, and if you've played any Mortal Kombat game since Deadly Alliance back in 2002, you pretty much know what to expect. While the style branches have been removed (which was something I could do without), a couple of new elements have been added to at least make the matches more interesting. You can engage in Close Combat, which is a grappling event that brings the characters close together in a mini-game where you press buttons to inflict attacks to your opponent in close range. You can counter the attack if you happen to press the same button as the opposite character. Test Your Might returns, except this time you're ramming your opponent through walls as you mash buttons to cause more damage to your opponent. Finally, you can throw an opponent out of the arena and attack them as you both fall. Similar to Close Combat, you press buttons until one cancels the other, or the fall ends. Each of these elements make the fights seem entertaining at first, until you realize that the frequency of these events make a fight seem like a series of minigames than actual combat. As for the combat itself, the fighting engine hasn't really evolved since Deadly Alliance. Everything really moves and plays the same as it did back in 2002, and the rage and minigame gimmicks really don't do much to change that.

Another problem that hurts the game is the incentive to actually keep playing. MK Deadly Alliance and MK Deception had the Krypt full of unlockables, and that ensured gamers that they would have to play more of the game to unlock new arenas, characters and costumes. There really is nothing in the way of secret content other than unlocking Shao Khan and Darkseid, and that only requires the competion of the story mode on both sides. Seriously, you could see and do everything in MKVSDCU in about a five-day rental. Not even online play is a draw, since other games such as Virtual Fighter 5 and Soul Calibur IV do so already. Sure, there are achievements, but I honestly don't feel like going through 10 stages of stringing combos for 5 Gamerscore. I've got better things to do, thanks.

Visually, the game looks fine, but against the likes of Dead Or Alive 4, Virtua Fighter 5 and Soul Calibur IV, MK seems like it's still in the last generation. The arenas look fine, but not astounding. The character models are a little more improved since last generation, but they still look too shiny and action-figure like. What's interesting is that the game abandoned the Renderware platform in favor of the Unreal Engine, and yet the models still have a plastic look to them. I think this far into the Xbox 360's lifespan we can do better than molded-plastic hair.

The sound is good, but again, not that exceptional. You probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the music used in this game and what was used in Deadly Alliance, Deception or Armageddon, but it's not bad. The voice overs are actually pretty good, even for the Mortal Kombat characters, but the dialogue given for the voice actors is campy at best.

In the end, MK VS. DC Universe is not an awful fighting game. The T-Rating does take away what made Mortal Kombat somewhat appealing in the first place, but the DC crossover is a nice addition that does work in the long run. The major problems of the game is the fact that almost nothing changed since 2002 in terms of the game engine, and there is no real incentive to play the game for more than 5-6 hours as there's almost nothing to unlock. It wouldn't be that much of an issue if the game was $20-30 cheaper on it's release. But for $60, we need more than this.