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Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe? Really? Sub Zero vs. Batman? Really? Apparently so.
We knew it was coming, on account of the leakage power of the Internet, but the assembled media at the Red Rock hotel in Las Vegas, us included, still thought it might have been a joke - April Fools overspill perhaps - until Ed Boon himself took to the stage and the game's debut trailer kicked in across three massive screens.
The decision to pair Mortal Kombat with Batman, Superman and co is at the very least a surprising one. It's hard to work out if it's one of the coolest crossovers in gaming history or simply a gimmick. Ed Boon is certainly convinced, as we found out during our post-presentation interview with the beat-em-up legend. "I've always wanted to cross MK over since about MK4, or something like that," he says. "I'm a big fan of all of the other fighting games, Street Fighter, Tekken. I always thought, wouldn't it be cool to have MK vs. SF and MK vs. Tekken. We pursued some of those ideas to the extent that we could but we always ran into some kind of road block and couldn't do it. So our marketing people knew that we were interested in doing those kinds of things so they presented the DC Universe idea to us. We weighed the plusses and minuses of doing it but in the end the whole idea, the whole magic of having Batman and Sub Zero on the screen at the same time doing their moves against each other, prevailed over everything else."
How the gaming community reacts to the marrying of the Mortal Kombat and DC Universes is, however, the least of Ed's problems. What is of more concern is the reaction to the reduced violence. Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe is going to be a teen rated game. Despite what you may have heard, there may well be blood in the game, just not streams of gushing blood as we're used to seeing from the series. But, and this is the biggy, there won't be bone crunching, spine shattering fatalities. Instead, Ed intends to include finishing moves, which will work similarly to fatalities in that they will be spectacular attacks designed to finish your opponent, but they won't involve tearing Batman's head off, or pulling Superman's heart out and showing it to him.
This is all down to the collaboration with DC Comics of course. Ed says that he's in negotiations with the ESRB, America's game rating body, about what exactly T for Teen means these days, and is pushing to see exactly how much violence, blood and gore he can get out of the rating. "There's obviously a line that can't be crossed," he explains. "We're basically looking for that line to see what we can get away with. We don't want to lose the spirit of what MK is, very brutal, very intense, there's a certain amount of violence that's associated with MK. It's MK vs. DC, it's not just a DC game, so we want the spirit of MK and the spirit of DC. We don't know exactly what the answer is now because the game isn't finished. But that's something we're constantly working on."
This redirection seems at odds with Ed's vision for a darker, grittier Mortal Kombat, with fewer saturated colours and over the top gameplay mechanics (more on that later). But as soon as the idea was presented to him, Ed always knew a Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe game would have to be much less of a gore fest than what's gone before. "We went into it knowing that that was going to be the case. I don't think we ever said, can we rip Batman's head off? We didn't even bother asking that." Much in the same way that car manufacturers are averse to allowing vehicle damage in racing games, DC Comics was never going to allow its standard bearers to have their limbs torn off by white-haired Gods.

The Internet, as you'd expect, has already delivered its verdict on the move, a bit like football managers ranting over a refereeing decision the second after the final whistle has blown. Perhaps as the dust settles on what is the eighth (has it really been that long?) game in the hugely popular Mortal Kombat series (the last game sold two million copies), and more gameplay details emerge, fans will begin warm to Ed's vision. Perhaps. But then, with a teen rating and the introduction of Batman and Superman, hardcore gamers, perhaps those who spent an unhealthy amount of time in grubby, early nineties arcades refining their six-string fatalities in front of a crowd, are perhaps not on Midway's demographic radar.
We're prepared to give Ed and MK vs. DCU a chance, a chance to convince us that improvements in gameplay will more than make up for the lack of gross violence. And that's because much of what Ed tells us makes sense. It makes sense to those who have grown tired of the series in recent years. It makes sense to those who played MK in its heyday - back when beat-em-ups ruled the world. It makes sense to those of us who thought the last MK game, 2006's Armageddon on the PS2, Xbox and Wii, was somewhat of a disappointment. Gone are the stance changes. Gone are the weapons. Gone is the high punch low punch combat system which has held true for so long. Gone are the masses of playable characters (Armageddon had over 60). And gone, to some extent, is the trademark gore.
In is a vastly reduced playable character roster ("Every single character is a known DC character, a known MK character. Because they're so iconic, we don't feel like we want to do the huge, massive roster. We just focus in on these core 20 characters"). In is a new combat system which sees switches in perspectives and controls. Take the Freefall Kombat, for example, which you can see in the game's debut trailer. Here two characters knock two lumps out of each other as they are falling from one level of the multi-tiered arenas to another. Then there's Klose Kombat, which involves another switch in perspective as the camera zooms up close and personal when you grab your opponent and drag them into a boxing mode. In is a tag team single-player mode that allows you to pick one character from the Mortal Kombat universe and one from the DC universe and see events unfold from two perspectives, in a story penned by comic veterans Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray. We don't have many details on the story, but what we do know is that both factions are brought together by a "cataclysmic force" and end up fighting each other while the real threat goes about its world conquering business. Hey, this is a beat-em-up. Story is never the point.
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Bloodstorm wrote at 00:37 on 19 April 2008
Not happy, i'm praying this a huge joke.
carl wrote at 20:33 on 19 April 2008
i agree with bloodstorm stupid idea
CWolf wrote at 18:37 on 20 April 2008
Bit harsh... Let us just see what happens. Ideas to improve the concept would probably be more welcome than a straight slamming.
It might be poo, like Nemesis was. It might be great - too early to tell.
raptor wrote at 01:07 on 21 April 2008
No fatalities, no money.
Simple as this.
gamer wrote at 01:43 on 21 April 2008
I have my doubts, but i don't think it can be slammed yet.
from the looks of it, its turning in to a Killer Instinct type of game. (I wasn't a big fan of it)
and ya no fatalities, but they will have finishers. before i go and say its going to be trash and anything like that, i'll wait till i see more of the game,
Inovation is always good to try out, if it don't work out for them this time, they may be able to build off of it later and make a worthy game.
Anonymous wrote at 04:52 on 21 April 2008
Dude...Green Lantern isnt a villian, hes a good guy
mike wrote at 08:02 on 21 April 2008
ed boon is killing off the series first with armageddon that game was a a let down & now with mk vs dc universe a teen rated watered down mortal kombat thanks for forgetting about the old mk fans thanks alot ed you screwed us again.
Randall wrote at 10:19 on 21 April 2008
massive thumbs down and a massive middle finger to boon. the points made in the article really do nothing to assuage my negative reaction to this game. no new mk fighters, teen rating, lame comic book characters, no fatals...then what is the point of calling it mk? give us a next gen mk with a new fighting system (of which mk is never even known for, anyways), realistic graphics, real unreal 3 graphics (didnt see em in the trailer at all), realistic gore, violence, and a darker game without bright colors. i play mk to release tension from a hectic job cuz its fun to rip your opponent apart. when i want to play a fighter the focuses on gameplay thats what i have soul calibur for. sorry, there is nothing cool about gray tights batman and a poorly designed subzero smacking each other as they fall down.
Jun wrote at 15:30 on 21 April 2008
I HOPE YOUR MOTHER DIES
awsum dude wrote at 15:58 on 21 April 2008
i think if they are going to make this game that they should make it a rated "M" style game with unimaginable amounts of blood and gore.... bcause there are several versions of the superheros universes in which it is a very grusome storyline sooo they should continue along the line of gore and use those versions of the heroes we know
Timmy wrote at 19:20 on 21 April 2008
This is a huge risk but i hope they have special moves and fatalitys....if not then i guess it isnt mk to its fullest. Either way its more like a spinoff of the mk series. They may still release a proper sequel.
Yahya wrote at 19:21 on 21 April 2008
I have my doubts about this one too, just because the two universes and their respective characters are very different. But no one, NO ONE, calls Batman, Superman, or any other DC character lame!
First of all, most of the MK characters couldn't even scratch Superman or keep up with Flash. Batman and Wonder Woman may work, but what of the other iconic DC heroes? in fact I never thought a DCU fighting game would really work on its oown because characters like Batman would be outclassed against Superman or Green Lantern in a fist fight, and you can't an iconic DC Universe without both Superman and Batman.
Second is how would the vicious MK fighters who often finish their enemies in a grusome manner fit with the DC Heroes, most of whom refuse to except even the idea that killing an enemy, under even the most dier circumstances, is an acceptable solution?
Cat wrote at 19:45 on 21 April 2008
The whole idea sounds crap, really. But nobody ( no fan ) played the game yet, so we must get some more infos and then decide if we like it or not. The trailer dosen't look too bad...
I am not a DC fan at all, but I am a huge fan of MK and I have ALL of them for PC and PS2. I don't think any MK fan would agree with the idea of Bathman kicking Sub-Zero like it does in the trailer....we know that is fiction...but a guy like Bathman would NEVER be able to fight against such a powerful Lin Kuei.
From what I saw so far Mr. Boon has already lost many fans. He promised us a darker and more brutal MK and we end up buying a game without " galons of blood ". Ed Boon personally said nobody would pay for reality,and he is right, we pay for blood,fatalities and brutalities...so taking these things off will make it only worst.
Plus that MK vs DC put an end for PlayStation 2, which is not very cool.. I mean not too many people would pay 300-400 USD for get a PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360. If they want to sale more they should get MKs for PC again.
So much with my comment... I will still remain a big fan of Mortal Kombat...but don't push us too much Mr. Boon!
mrplow8 wrote at 20:38 on 21 April 2008
I like what I'm hearing about this game so far. I was afraid it would be another Armageddon, where they just cram a whole bunch of characters in it and it sucks. Only adding 20 characters will give them more time to balance all of the characters out and make it a much better game.
And fatalities haven't been all that great since the 2D games. It's about time they tried something new. Even if the finishing moves suck, they can't be any worse than the fatalities in Armageddon were.
Dillan wrote at 21:07 on 21 April 2008
This game from my perspective is going to be one of the best fighting games that I've seen in a while. No other mortal kombat games have collided with any other games, and thats what makes it so unique. If they were going to put dc characters on here, they shouldnt be afraid to bring back fatalaities. Ed Boon should put a roster of 25 to 30 characters. The 15 that I think and many other fans think that should be on mk's side is liu kang, kung lao, johnny cage, jax, smoke,kitana, . milleena,sonya, raiden , kano, reptile,stryker,sindel,nightwolf, and baraka would make a good roster on this up coming video game. The roster for dc should also be of course batman and superman, the flash, jon, wonderwoman, green arrow, green lantern the joker, riddler, aquaman, penguin,bane,braniac,and bizzaro. This isnt a stupid idea but if boon wants to redeem his fans, he needs to come up with alot of work for this game. From the looks of it, many fans are dissapointed but some are eager for this game. of course I have been a fan of mortal kombat for many years and I think that this game should have 3 times and even more of what it had in Armageddon. Ed has always made his fans some what dissapointed but in the end he manages to make it work, so I believe that this game wont be a waste, it will be a phenomenon in the gaming industry.
Dillan Drake wrote at 21:35 on 21 April 2008
And another thing, if they aren't going to put fatalities on this game, boon and his team should work up on putting on stage fatalities, and if boon really wants this game to sell, he really should put back on fatalities, im mean come on Batman getting his head cracked big woof, its not like he dies in the actuall comics so the people who are sensitive shouldnt buy this game, or boon should make it so that players can choose weather or not the fatalities are on off just like a blood level on games, people can choose whether or not they want a max blood level or no blood level so I think thats what boon should do with the fatality system.
Last Czarnian wrote at 23:45 on 21 April 2008
Well, it may suck big time - but if Lobo is in the DC roster, I'm going to buy it :)
Phylyn51 wrote at 00:49 on 22 April 2008
Wow, this website is really stupid. This is another $60 dollars I can keep.
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