By Kevin "Berserker" Hall

Player(s): 1-2
Memory: 60 KB
Hardrive Install: 6.5 GB
Extra Support: Online Multiplayer, Leaderboards

I have to admit, when Midway first announced that they were pitting Mortal Kombat characters against DC characters, I feared the worst. Not only were DC characters being placed into my MK but also the developers decided to tone down MK's trademark violence. Much like Sonya Blade in the Mortal Kombat movie, I started to smell something, but thankfully it wasn't what I thought since Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe has actually turned out to be a really great game. Sure the violence has been toned down, and I'll get to that later in the review, but overall, the DC characters provide a nice breath of fresh air from the usual MK characters and there is much more of a focus on the fighting system this time around, which greatly pleases me.

MK vs DC has the usual Arcade Mode that pits your chosen fighter against a legion of foes on your way up a pillar to the ultimate evil end boss. You can choose between fighting all DC characters or all MK characters or a mixture of both from the beginning. Story mode showcases the main plot of the game through the eyes of the DC characters or the MK characters, whichever you choose. Both sides will need to be chosen to experience the full story, so you'll want to play through it at least twice. The storyline of the main game basically deals with the DC and MK world merging through dark energy caused by a sudden merger of Shao Kahn and Darkseid. Characters from the two universes begin to meet up due to the merger and then a sudden rage usually overtakes one of them then a battle begins. That's basically the setup for each fight in story mode along with a cheesy one liner or other phrase before the battle.

There is also a Kombo Challenge mode where the game provides you with strings of combos that must be completed based on the character chosen. The showcased combos are not easy at all and require quite a bit of determination and overall practice with the chosen character. Each character has a unique combo challenge. Now that we have the modes out of the way, let's break us down some kombat!

MK vs DC has a six button setup once again - four attack buttons, one block and one 3-D movement button. The past three 3-D MKs have used the familiar up and down directions to move into the foreground and background, so at first, it was hard to understand why a 3-D MK would turn back the clock to a War Gods period and use a system where a button had to be held to step into either plane. Once again, pressing up jumps and pressing down ducks like in a 2-D game, and the 3-D movement button must be held down in order to sidestep. Regarding this, after playing MK vs DC for a while, I started to see something that was greatly pleasing to a fan of the 2-D MKs. MK vs DC once again allows the player to use jump attacks to juggle or add to a combo, so there is much more use to jumping once again.

You can easily jump in with a late attack and possibly follow up the attack with another move based on the character chosen. Once again Kitana can jump kick and toss a fan blade, which adds a lot more depth to her character compared to the way she was in Deadly Alliance or Armageddon. All characters can jump in with Attack 1 and chain that jumping punch attack directly into a combo. Much like the other 3-D MK's, I still had a few problems with hit detection at some points such as attacking with Deathstroke's sword in a corner or attempting to hit Dark Kahn with Sonya's bike kick while playing in single player. In a versus match against a human opponent, the hit detection problems become a bit worse since human opponents will move a bit differently. I found Sonya's bike missing a bit more often while in versus.

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