User reviews

As someone who played Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe, I feel this game gets too much of a bad rap, especially when compared to later MK games like Mortal Kombat 2011 or Mortal Kombat X.

It is true that the gore is toned down, but that was mainly because of the DC Comics license. As DC Comics had restricted Midway (now Netherealm Studios) from being too graphic, the trademark gore is toned down to the point where the game is Teen rated, which angered a lot of MK fans. Also, while the Mortal Kombat and DC Villains were allowed to have Fatalities, the DC Superheroes had to have a new finishing move called "Heroic Brutalities" because DC Comics said Superman and Batman do not kill.

While that basically subtracts points in a franchise standpoint, it however does not detract from the gameplay. The game is basically a 3D fighter like Deadly Alliance, Deception, and Armageddon before it, but it does change the mechanics up. Gone are the ability to switch between fighting styles and the Kreate-A-Fatality mess that ruined Armageddon to me, and instead, we get new mechanics like Free-Fall Kombat, which allow you to pummel your opponent to fill a super meter, with the opponent also has a chance to block an attack and turn it around in his/her favor, and Klose Kombat, which does a close-up of the two fighters and whoever did a grapple would start attacking the opponent until a certain amount of hit or the fighter being attacked manages to match the attacker's button press, allowing him to dodge and end the Klose Kombat with a Kounter Hit. There is also a two-gauge that fills up as you take damage, with one allowing you to perform a Breaker as seen in Deception and Armageddon, while a full meter activates Rage Mode, in which the fighter goes into a Kombat Rage that makes him/her do more damage and be immune to being launched for a short time.

And instead of a Konquest mode, we get a Story Mode which explains the events of the game and why these two properties are fighting with other. It has two different sides of the story, the MK side and the DC side, each showing different sides of the conflict. However, the one thing harming this mode is that it's pretty much straight forward: just beat the opponent to move on.

Another thing that can also hold this game down is some of the finishing moves. As I mentioned earlier, the DC license basically forced the game to be toned down to the Teen rating. While they do return some classic Fatalities in good form(like Scorpion's famous Toasty fatality, which just burns the opponent until his/her body is completely black, as well as Liu Kang's arcade machine drop from MK3, complete with the MK1 arcade machine, even though it does not crush the opponent to a bloody mess), some have not been done well, and new Fatalities that do look bad (like Jax's Head Clap causing the opponent's head to be flattened in a Looney Tunes-like fashion, and one of Kano's fatalities has him just jump on his opponent's chest like he thinks he's Goro). Also, the Heroic Brutalities are a good way to keep the DC superheroes in character, but some of them basically look like actual Fatalities (especially Green Lantern and his energy sphere of bone-crushing death).

Despite these problems, Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe is still a good game, and while it was the final game made by Midway before the company went bankrupt, Ed Boon and the rest of the MK team would be acquired by Warner Bros, and move on to make Mortal Kombat 2011, which would return the series to its roots, and Injustice, an all-DC fighting game that would have Mortal Kombat fighters as part of the DLC roster.

The other Mortal Kombat games I have played have really lacked in the fighting category, this one the fighting was really good and fluid. The finishers are not quite as deadly and bloody as earlier incarnations, but I did not mind all that much. I just enjoy the opportunity to do a finishing move, I do not really care if it is ultra bloody. This one includes DC comic characters, hence the reason it is less violent, and I rather enjoyed their inclusion. It was fun and they actually explain during story mode that all the things that were happening were affecting the powers of say Superman and Captain Marvel, hence why they simply did not dominate all the other characters as they probably should have. I hate fighting games where everyone can face everyone and have an equal chance at winning with no explanation as to why. This one is also a lot more fun than an earlier game featuring Marvel characters called Rise of the Imperfects. This one trumps that game in that it has multiple endings in the arcade mode and a lot better fighting. Which sucks as I love the Marvel characters and enjoy them better than those of DC, yet Marvel seems to have complete boneheads doing their writing and such these days. The main problems I had with this one is that in the two story modes every character that is playable does not have a chapter. In the DC side of things Catwoman and Deathstroke get left off and three or four are left off the Mortal Kombat side. That and you can not use finishers in the story mode, though I guess it would be strange to kill someone and then have them return for a later segment, still it is a game so who cares? All in all though it was fun, it has a lot of replay value in it.

First, i would like to express my angry about this game, this mortal kombat looks like for children, because in mortal kombat there are intense violence, blood, gore, etc. it was a terrible idea to put mk with dc, dc is very imaginative and mk not. The history is too short and boring, besides the mortal kombat games is for adults no for children, i don't know what ed boon was thinking, the fans of mk as me, will hate this game, but don't worry because ed boon finally listen us, and there will be another mk game more dark, violent as the other mk games, i repeat and i insist that put mk with dc was a terrible idea and that's the reason that I put this game 1 star of 4.