Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe is a fighting video game released for the Playstation 3 and developed by Midway. I love fighting games, but have never been a fan of Midway’s Mortal Kombat series because of its limited game play and cheap gore gimmick. Here we have that franchise combined with comic books, something I obviously love if you’ve read my other articles. I wanted to like this game badly, so how easy did Midway make it on me? Let’s find out.
Story : The story, incidentally, is actually pretty good and quite interesting. I didn’t mind it at all. I was curious to see how it would end up. I’ll be honest though, a lot of my admiration stems from the DC characters. These characters are 60 years old and have a ton of development already. Mortal Kombat characters, honestly, are one dimensional and suck. Bottom line, the story is good because of the DC characters.
Graphics : The graphics are excellent, despite some graphical glitches and errors. Most of the game, however, is flawless. The character models are all beautiful and fit together well. The attention to detail on the DC costumes is especially admirable, they look like costumes that a real person might actually be able to wear. The animations likewise are incredible, and they capture all of the DC characters’ moves quite well, bringing to life the fighting moves we’ve seen on pages for decades. An incredible game, graphically.
Sound : The game has your generic Midway sound effects that are overbearing and annoying. In addition, the music is your standard Mortal Kombat fare that wears on your nerves for after awhile. The voice acting is decent, but certainly could be better. Basically, the game is mediocre sound wise.
Game play : Alright, a few things to cover here. First, Mortal Kombat characters are awful. I don’t mean in the game, in general. So that’s a big turn off to me. The fact that half the roster of characters are essentially just a bunch of bloodthirsty morons really takes the game down a huge notch. The controls, unfortunately, are not very good. This game plays like every other Mortal Kombat game, stiff and unresponsive. Ditch 3d and embrace true animation, DC. Most of all, ditch Mortal Kombat as that franchise has been dead for a long time. The hit detection in this game seems random at best. Sometimes it looks like you whiff when you hit them directly and other times you punch them right in the face and miss! Quite annoying.
Re playability : Sorry, this game still just doesn’t compare to the great fighting games of all time, such as Street Fighter 2, Marvel VS. Capcom, Guilty Gear, Street Fighter 3. Midway’s fighting games have always been clunky with a focus on flash over substance, and this game is no exception.
Overall : 4/10. Mortal Kombat characters suck, the Mortal Kombat engine is slow and clunky, the sounds in this game induce headaches, and there’s far too many game play problems. Babality. Come on, DC. Team up with a different franchise.
