A few weeks ago, Lindsey and I rented Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe for our Xbox 360. We generally like the vs. series of games (Marvel vs. Capcom, Capcom vs. SNK, etc), so we had high hopes.
We were severely disappointed.
The problem with Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe does not lie with the graphics. there are some characters that do not look quite right, but overall, the graphics are very nice. The problem comes from the gameplay, the story, the overwhelming introduction of a plethora of new powers and abilities, and the seeming laziness with which the game was programmed.
Gameplay first. The gameplay is very uninteractive. In Mortal Kombat: Deception, the Konquest mode allowed you to navigate the world en route to your next Mortal Kombat as a part of the story. In MKvDCU, you are treated to a cutscene followed by Mortal Kombat…followed by a cutscene followed by Mortal Kombat followed by a cutscene followed by Mortal Kombat followed by what the fuck is wrong with Midway.
The story is another point that sticks in my craw. Yeah. I’m so miffed that I’m resorting to using a ridiculous idiom to express my displeasure. The story, as I was saying, is awful. There is no real introduction to why people are fighting, or what’s going on. Dialogue is sparse. New interactions usually consist of one or two sentences, followed by “FIGHT!”, followed by Mortal Kombat, followed by one or two sentences, followed by “FIGHT!”, followed by goddammit, I’m doing it again. The story eventually unfolds to reveal that because of the actions of Superman defeating Darkseid, and Raiden defeating Shao Kahn, the two have fused into Dark Kahn (Lindsey and I prefer Shao Side). As a result of this, the two universes are merging, causing havoc with shit that I really don’t care about.
Many of the characters come jam-packed with a ridiculous number of new abilities and powers. Some of these powers and abilities are stolen from other characters. Wonder Woman has moves from Sonya Blade. Scorpion can apparently create a levitating duplicate of himself before teleporting, etc. I miss the original Mortal Kombat games when characters had distinct powers and abilities, and they stuck with what the knew.
Laziness! After a defeat, each character has their own little move to get back to their feet before the next round of fighting commences. I’m sorry, did I say each character had their own move? Actually, only two or three moves were programmed into the entire game, and the characters just share. Green Lantern, Sonya Blade, and Wonder Woman all share the same stand-up between fights. There are other laziness issues that I can’t remember, given the time gap.
As you can see from the pictures, the graphics are not awful. Some of the character representations are very good, actually. On the other hand, some don’t really look like who they are supposed to be, but I guess you can’t expect complete perfection.
For some reason, MKvDCU has been selling ridiculously well, which boggles my mind. The game was awful. Save your money and buy Tatsunoko vs. Capcom for the Wii.
-[insert revolutionary thinking here]
