Scorpion and Sub-Zero going face to face with Batman and The Joker – what more could you ask of a fighting game?
The game is easy to get into but be prepared to walk around with sore thumbs from all the vigorous button pushing. This isn’t exactly the type of game that will have you playing week after week for months, consumed with the need to finish. It simply lacks the depth of its predecessors. The inclusion of Klose Kombat where the player has to mirror their opponent’s moves and Freefall Kombat in which you fight while plummeting toward the ground, are great additions which give it an interesting variation.
There are 22 characters, 11 from each universe and gameplay is similar to the Mortal Kombat games of late, with quite a steep learning curve. Kombo challenge enables players to learn ten combos for each fighter which will benefit you in battle and there are a few options that enable you to customise the controls to your liking. However, button-bashing also seems to be a viable option and results in a fair share of wins.
The Story Mode is a bit disappointing and will only take you a couple of hours to complete. To start you choose a side, either MK or DC but then you have to play characters from that side the whole way through and can’t switch to the other team.
The graphics are very good and reflect the merging worlds of MK and DC perfectly, sometimes with a beam of energy down the middle. You will get to visit the familiar arenas of the MK realm as well as locations such as the Batcave and Superman's Fortress of Solitude among others and best of all, the never-seen-before combo arenas where the two universes merge.
On the down side, the Fatalities that we loved in the other Mortal Kombats have been toned down quite a bit this time around; each character has only two options. The DC characters that are opposed to killing can perform Heroic Brutalities instead.
Mortal Kombat fans might be a bit disappointed, but DC fans are in for a treat and this game is being hailed as the best DC fighting game since Blizzard's Justice League Task Force. We found it a rather enjoyable even though it was lacking in the features department.