In 2007, someone at Midway Games looked at Marvel Vs Capcom, and said “What if we did that, but worse.” I’m sure that wasn’t actually said but on November 16, 2008, Mortal Kombat Vs DC Universe was released for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. That’s an extremely long title and from now on I’m going to abbreviate it as MK vs DCU. The game had an extremely rough development cycle and that may be the cause of it’s just as rough gameplay. There were plans for paid DLC, or downloadable content, but it got scrapped due to not enough budget and time constraints.

So they had the rights to the DC heroes and villains with each of their designs not looking too bad, but things weren’t completely perfect. The game was lambasted by bad reviews from players and good reviews from critics who I believe were either bribed or didn’t play the game at all. I’ll let you be the judge of that. And even though I personally like MK vs DCU, I can see why people don’t. A lot of attacks don’t feel like they have a lot of impact and some of the characters’ motives don’t feel fun like Lex Luthor or Kano for example. And since this game was rated T for teen, there isn’t a lot of blood, which Mortal Kombat is known for, and the fatalities shouldn’t even really be classified as fatalities. I understand the rating choice though because let’s face it, it would be pretty weird to see Batman get decapitated or for The Flash to get his arms ripped off.

There are 20 playable characters right off the bat and 2 unlockable boss characters for completing the MK side of the story mode and the DC side as well. All of the fan favorite characters are here, except for Johnny Cage for some odd reason, and the combat is pretty basic on a face level. Each character has special moves that can be done by doing special inputs. There’s also a mechanic called RAGE where a yellow aura surrounds your character and gives you super armor that allows the opponent’s attacks to have little effect on you. The kicker though was the 3D movement. You could also side-step to avoid projectiles or command grabs. This helps to relieve the stress of someone constantly pressuring you.

This game was clearly a response to Capcom’s highly popular series, Marvel Vs Capcom and I don’t think it was a good one at that. Marvel Vs Capcom feels like it has character and it feels like it was made with love and care and MK vs DCU doesn’t feel like it was made with just the same amount of passion. Like I said, this game holds a special place in my heart and that might be because of my remembrance of it as a kid, but I don’t care. As a personal score, I give it a 7/10. It’s a fun, awful mess that’s good to play if you’re not taking it seriously. On a critical, non-nostalgia score however, I give it a 4/10.

Fun Fact: I’ve had 4 copies of this game and I can’t for the life of me remember why