Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe review (X360)

Packing in an impressive 22 characters (11 from DC and 11 from Mortal Kombat, including such characters as Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman and The Flash), three single player game modes and an impressively lag-free online mode, MK vs DC certainly can't be accused of lacking in content. The story mode provides a well written story of earth and an alien world existing in the same time and space, merging into one and causing the Superheroes (and Villains) and MK participants to teleport uncontrollably between the two worlds. To make matters more interesting, everybody is suddenly infected by 'Rage', causing allies to clash and heroes and villains to have their abilities enhanced or restricted. For example, Superman is no longer invulnerable to basic attacks and The Joker is no longer a joke in hand-to-hand combat. Comically The Green Lantern even admits to having a problem with his ring, obviously the Rage affects him in an entirely different manner.

This all helps to cleverly balance out otherwise awkward character-balancing issues. It wouldn't have been much fun going up against Superman and not being able to hurt him. Conversely playing as The Joker wouldn't have been a lot of fun if you couldn't hurt anyone without resorting to using a gadget or weapon. Surprisingly though all of these changes still feel natural, helped by the heroes and villains still having their usual personality and recognisable move-sets. The Joker may now be able to bash his foes brains out, but he's just as happy electrifying his opponent with a handshake or pulling out an extendable boxing glove and smacking them in the face. The cut-scenes also deliver the story well, with a suitable comic book style, although the voiceover work is far too cheesy at times, even for the source material.

Throughout the story you are assigned characters to play as which, as long as you play it through from both sides, helps ensures that you get to play as almost all of the characters available and helps keep it varied. It should last the average player somewhere between seven to eight hours to finish both sides of the story. The only real issue with this mode is that as everyone needs to remain alive, fights don't end with the opportunity of performing a Brutality or Fatality move, which may annoy MK veterans.

Who’s better: Batman or Superman?

Outside of the story and the additional characters, a few enhancements have been made to the combat. Two of the new enhancements, Klose Kombat and Free Fall Kombat, involve the attacker pressing a button to deal a blow, with the victim having a split-second to mirror that move if they want to reverse it.

Klose Kombat involves you grabbing an opponent and, unless one of the blows is reversed, punching them four times in the face. Free Fall Kombat is a little more advanced than that and only applicable to some stages. Having thrown your opponent through a piece of destructible scenery, you jump on top of them and as you both plummet to the new stage below, you have a chance to pummel them until you fill your super meter, which then provides the attacker with the chance to unleash a super attack. This move can deal up to 30% damage and some of them look fantastic. The trouble is, if your opponent reverses it, they take over at that point and if the reversal came just as the meter was filling, you're suddenly on the receiving end of a massive amount of damage. There's obviously a risk-reward system to this move, but when it can be triggered without meaning to, and with no way to interrupt it midway, it can sometimes result in an unnecessary loss. I also found that both Klose Kombat and Free Fall Kombat interrupted the fast-paced action and felt a little out of place.

The other two enhancements are Test Your Might and Rage. Test Your Might involves you ramming your opponent through a brick wall and pummelling on the buttons to inflict as much as 30% damage by the time you’ve reached the other area. It looks cool, and is more in-tune with the action, but there's very little skill involved. Finally Rage is a two-part meter that slowly fills as you deal and receive damage. Filling one bar enables you to use a Kombo Breaker, allowing you to block an opponents combination, while filling two bars fills the character with rage, enabling you to go on the attack without hits interrupting your flow (although your character still take’s damage). It's useful and has saved me from losing a fight on many occasions but I do wish the meter didn't fill so quickly as it's not uncommon to have at least two full Rage meters per fight.

New additions aside, the action is very much the same as it has been since the series moved into 3D. The only real issue is one that Midway had no influence over; the awful d-pad on the XBOX 360 controller. I've lost count of the amount of times I've gone to perform a super move, only for my character to jump in the air and punch or crouch kick instead. It's annoying and certainly has a big impact on the gameplay, but it's not really the fault of the developer. That said Midway made the bizarre design choice of having the analogue stick used purely for 3D movement, therefore your player won’t jump but will instead walk further into or out of the screen. At least being given the option to play with the analogue stick instead of the d-pad would have been nice and may have resolved some of the input issues.

Fight!

In addition to the main story mode, you also have the chance of taking any of the characters through the Arcade Mode. This helps to add longevity and provides a unique ending for each character, but I was very disappointed with how little effort had been put into this mode in general. The endings are often a little tenuously linked (one combatant has befriended another and they’re now travelling the universe together in search of foes or other such nonsense) and there is a complete lack of any unlockables. Not even an alternative costume or piece of concept art. For those of you still reeling from the shock of not being able to perform them in the Story Mode, you are at least free to use Fatalities or Brutalities in Arcade Mode.

Kombat Challenges round off the single player experience but due to the inaccuracy of the Xbox 360 pad, these soon become a chore. Inputting any of the super moves is frustratingly difficult to do at the best of times, but having to input multiple commands in order to pass the Kombat Challenge was just too frustrating for me. Control issues aside, they felt like nothing more than game-padding.

There is of course the standard multiplayer mode and surprisingly MK vs DC has a rather impressive online system. From announcing you in the room when you record a win or obtain an impressive streak, to online leaderboards that track all sorts of stats (win/loss records, etc.) the online structure impressed me more than I thought it would. Even more impressively I didn’t encounter any lag (apart from in one fight, but I’m certain that was my connection going for a bath at the time). It’s not groundbreaking but then it didn’t need to be. It’s functional and everything you need to enjoy it online is there.

Klosing Komments

And that rather nicely sums up MK vs DC. Not groundbreaking, not the best beat-em-up ever seen and at times fairly flawed, but it’s still enjoyable. I can’t say that I’d go back to the game regularly on my own. In all honesty I probably wouldn’t touch the solo modes again having spent 12 hours playing them over the past three days and having exhausted most of what it has to offer. But I will continue to take it online and it will certainly get an outing when friends come over for the evening.

I would certainly recommend MK vs DC, perhaps not at full price but at a sub-£20 price point I can’t see it disappointing many, and it actually does enough to deserve a seven. But the controller issues with the XBOX 360 version we were sent for review (solely down to the awful d-pad on the controller) make it drop a mark. So if you're considering picking up the PS3 version add a point to the final score below.