REVIEW: Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

photo from http://worldscollide.com

Sometimes Christmas isn't really Christmas without a fight. Even better if it involves performing a neck-snapping fatality on your Granny.

This Christmas I got myself Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe on the Xbox 360. Admittedly, I bought this purely for Batman's appearance in the game, and expected a pretty mediocre beat-em-up fueled only by the dual franchise incomes. What may surprise you, and it did me, is the game is actually quite good.

The worlds of the Detective Comics and Mortal Kombat are colliding and with them have spawned a new creature called Dark Khan. And with Dark Khan's presence comes "The Rage", a supernatural disease which causes the afflicted to take our their anger on the nearest friend or foe. Very soon characters from both Universes, The Rage running through them, are battling against each other.

The game features a great selection of characters from both franchises. Of course there is Batman, Superman, and Joker but even some lesser known characters such as Deathstroke make an appearance. On the MK side of things we have Sub Zero, Scorpion and femme fetal Sonia. I really had forgotten how much of the MK mythology I remember from my Sega Mega Drive days.

As you'd expect from Mortal Kombat (a series which helped to demonize video games in the eyes of the media) there is a the expected violence and gore. There's a whole bunch of new thumb-bashing 'fatalities' to learn (and 'brutalities' for the kill shy Superheroes) as well as a free falling battle mode.

The story mode is quite fun, especially when you play it from the point-of-view of both worlds. But there are a few frustrating things missing. In single player mode you can't customise your own "vs." match - you can only play through an arcade simulation or story mode where you have no control over your opponents identity. This is such a basic feature which is in every other game in the genre I've played. Get it sorted!

Overall, it's a good fun game, and while it's nothing ground-breaking, it was a lot more fun than I was expecting.