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Review: Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe is actually not bad
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For the last several years, the Mortal Kombat franchise seemed to have been suffering from a creative lull. Although the game play remained the same and the games did well review and sales-wise, the introduction of new characters, stories and fatalities really didn’t seem to excite anybody anymore. There was a buzz missing. So the announcement of the Mortal Kombat universe uniting with the DC Comic universe was a shot in the arm that the franchise needed. The results are actually pretty decent.
Of course you have the arcade mode where you can select a character from the eight Mortal Kombat characters or eight DC characters and work your way up the tower. The story mode consists of only two stories – a DC perspective or a Mortal Kombat perspective. You don’t actually get to choose your character, but the story chooses it for you. It’s a pretty good idea considering the story mode involves all the characters and give you the opportunity to fight at least a few matches with every character. The story isn’t too in-depth or riveting or anything. The Mortal Kombat Universe is melding with the DC Universe and in the process all the characters are being possessed with “Kombat Rage,” which makes them want to fight each other as well as do stuff out of character like Superman wanting to kill everyone. The story is interesting enough to play through, plus if you finish both stories you unlock new characters.
The gameplay will be familiar to those that are familiar with Mortal Kombat. You have your two basic low and high punches and kicks on the face buttons and you throw different variations by using the analog stick or directional pad. While the analog stick allows you to move around the 3D environment to dodge flying fireballs and spears and what not, the directional pad allows you to jump and crouch. If you hold the left trigger, however, the pad allows you to move within the 3D environment.
Every character has their own special moves and attacks which is great and gives you a variety of fighting styles to play with. Of course the Mortal Kombat crew have their old favorites like Scorpion “Come Here!” spear and Liu Kang’ crazy bicycle kick madness, but they also have a few new ones tucked in there as well. The DC universe have great attacks as well from Flash laying an array of quick body punches to Superman having heat vision and freezing breath. You won’t get bored learning to pull off all those moves.
Along with the basic fighting, you also have Free Fall Kombat, Test Your Might, Klose Kombat and Kombat Rage through a match. The Free Fall Kombat happens when you throw your opponent off a ledge (or he throws you) and you start fighting in the air. If you’re on top, you press a variety of buttons to attack and if there’s a succession of 3 or 4 hits, you can hit him with a finishing move by pressing the right bumper. If you’re on the bottom however, you have to guess and press which button you think you opponent will press. If you succeed you will end up the aggressor and get flipped on top. It’s actually pretty fun. Klose Kombat is pretty much the same thing, except it turns into like a boxing match with the camera up close. Test Your Might involves you or your opponent tackling your enemy through walls. While this is going on, you press all the face buttons as fast as you can to determine how much damage the person being tackled will take. It can range from 1 percent to 30 percent. Under your health bar, is a meter for Kombat Rage. When that meter fills up, after taking damage and pulling off super moves, you hold both triggers to go into Rage mode. Until the meter is empty, your character can attack with being knocked down. You will still take damage from your opponent, but you can attack him through blocks and combos.
The graphics are colorful and fit the comic book theme very well. There are 14 different arenas to fight in and they’re also well-designed with breakable environments. The other mode is the Kombo Challenge which requires you to pull off a string of combos during a fight. It’s a great way to learn all of the moves from your favorite characters. The only down part of the entire package is only two unlockables – Darkseid and Shao Kahn. That’s all you get, along with achievements of course, but after beating the story modes, it’s hard to want to play solo anymore. Still, if you’re an achievement or trophy whore, there’s a lot of playing time you’ll get out of this one.
Q’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5
1up.com: B-
GameDaily: 8 out of 10
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