It's telling that the two brands featured in 2008's Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe both were subject to major reboots in the years that immediately followed the game's release: Mortal Kombat with 2011's Mortal Kombat (often referred to unofficially as Mortal Kombat 9), and DC the same year with its "New 52" relaunch, under which the publisher canceled all of its ongoing comic series, jettisoned decades of in-universe continuity, and launched 52 new series all at issue #1.

These were at once narrative and economic gestures, attempts to streamline years worth of storytelling for hoped-for new audiences in a way that fundamentally altered the ways in which stories would be told within those universes -- along with the ways in which those narratives would be disseminated to consumers -- for years to come. For DC, that meant taking the first steps in embracing the comics industry's inevitable digital future. For the developers of Mortal Kombat, that meant publishing increasingly slick games with flashy downloadable bonus characters that screamed "corporate synergy."

Now, I'm not arguing this game is why these franchises deemed it necessary to reboot. Certainly, both had coughed up their share of dubious content since the early 1990s. Rather, MK vs. DC is a symptom of, at minimum, the perception of rot at the core of each of these brands in the late aughts: a rot that made rebranding necessary if these brands were to endure.

The game's script, by Jimmy Palmiotti, comes at the end of a decidedly "corporate" phase in the writer's career: it was immediately preceded by his work, in 2007, on comic book versions of Friday the 13th and The Hills Have Eyes. But whereas his Friday the 13th comic (while fairly by-the-numbers) at least evinced some meta-awareness of the brand, MK vs. DC plays its silliness ineffectually straight. Most encounters in the story begin with some random character slowly approaching another from behind and saying something like "Hi, I'm Catwoman," to which the other replies, "You DARE to enter my domain?!" Then one or both of them shouts, literally, "FIGHT!"

What inevitably follows may well be the aesthetic nadir of dial-a-combo fighting gameplay. It's mostly functional on a technical level, but it's so chunky and predictable that by the player's second fight, it's already the least interesting aspect of the game. This extends to the game's match-ending "fatality" moves (or "heroic brutalities," as they're called for the DC superheroes), which are conspicuously less gruesome than typical Mortal Kombat fare owing to MK vs. DC's "Teen" rating.

The game's lack of commitment to either DC's rich characterization or Mortal Kombat's uncompromising violence is especially striking given that, with their respective reboots just a few years later, each brand would become more like the other. Mortal Kombat 2011 went full superhero sci-fi, with an "aliens invade a major metropolis" plot that predated Marvel's The Avengers by a year; DC's "New 52" went full nineties grimdark for many of its new series (with the Joker graphically slicing off his own face by the publishing initiative's second week, for example).

By 2013 the brands had become virtually indistinguishable, at least in the video game world, with alternating releases (and frequent cross-promotional guest appearances) in the fighting-game genre. DC's sixty-issue adaptation of the game Injustice: Gods Among Us, about a violent Superman gone mad, was a critical and financial hit, paving the way for yet darker comics from the publisher and even to R-rated animated adaptations (not to mention 2021's live-action, R-rated The Suicide Squad). Meanwhile, the 2021 film Mortal Kombat wore its influence from superhero team-up films more proudly than ever in franchise history.

The narrative and aesthetic convergence of DC and Mortal Kombat may not have taken place fully in 2008, but their crossover fighting game clearly set the wheels in motion. That being said, I can't help but wonder at alternative histories. What different kinds of narratives might we have experienced from either brand if they had never met? To crib from The Dark Knight's lexicon, perhaps the dark and violent stories produced for us by these franchises aren't the ones we most needed; but, for as long as we continue to indulge in them, they're the ones we most certainly deserve.

Fucking hell I only played this for 4 hours and it had already given me a massive headache.

I know this game is infamous but I always thought that hey, maybe people are slightly overreacting... nah this game is ass.

The story is incredibly short, you can knock it out in 4 hours, it's also horrible and a complete mess. You play it from both franchises sides. So you can play the MK side first and then the DC side or vice versa. They're supposed to happen simultaneously but I could not piece them together at all half the time. Also the entire thing is just people constantly either misunderstanding each other or being taken over by the "Rage Force" or whatever, for 3 and a half hours until the very end where only two of the characters actually team up against the real big bad.

The gameplay is.... well I can see why they moved away from 3D arena fighters and back to 2D cause it's really not great.

Every character feels the exact same with slight variations in animations, that's about it. So many animations are just universally used and it's so weird.

Also, there are some serious balancing issues here, some characters are useless whereas others are OP af cough The Flash cough

Oh and not to mention the constantly fluctuating AI, they either just sit there and take everything or they become the most skilled player on the planet, juggling you for 30 seconds taking down almost all of your health, or they just stand back and spam the same move 5 times over. It became a fucking nightmare to play through.


The gamemodes are lacking severely.
In single-player all you have is Arcade, Story, Challenge and practise. No option for just 1 match fights against the AI or anything like that.

then for Multi-Player you just have... fight.

and then online

and that's it.

There's no extras, no collectables, no unlockables. well supposedly except two characters but either my game is broken or the game just lies to your face because when you beat the story modes you unlock Shao Khan and Darkseid... and yet if you check the character roster they are nowhere to be fucking found, it's so weird.

The voice acting is horrible and mostly terribly miscast, the character designs are okay, except for literally all three of the women characters who have the skimpiest outfits known to man for some reason, oh and also massive jugs because why not.



The few things I did like about the game?

The stage transitions are pretty neato. I liked most of the DC character designs, while yeah they are very basic they do give off a cool comic book feel. I like some of the Heroic Brutalities, I know it sucks we couldn't get proper fatalities in the game but the substitution ain't the worst thing in the world. and the gameplay, when the AI isn't suddenly on steroids, can be fairly entertaining.


however, again, after only playing this for four hours and beating the story, I am already fucking sick of it. I don't wanna see this again please and thank you.




Look, I know this game has a dark history as to why it's so rushed and bad, but that doesn't make it any less rushed or bad.

If you're interested in learning why this game... is.

I recommend this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrqXNdRUwXw

The guy covers the history behind the disaster very well :))

It seems like some franchises are not meant to cross over with anybody. Mortal Kombat is one of those franchises. For example, that Street Fighter x Mortal Kombat crossover that never was. Why didn't it happen? Because nobody wants to see Chun-Li being sliced in half by Kung Lao. Applying it to this game, nobody wants to see Wonder Woman having her spine pulled out in a bloody mess.

So if we can't have the DC characters being mutilated in a Day of the Dead-level bloodbath, then tone down the gameplay and fatalities until there's barely any violence. But, it's still a Mortal Kombat game, and what is MK without the violence and blood? Plus, there's nothing in this game that hasn't been done better in previous MK games.

Never mind the fact that it's DC, it could have been anybody else and it wouldn't make a difference. I love my crossovers fun and wacky (Capcom vs. SNK, Marvel vs. Capcom, etc.), but this doesn't feel like it's even trying.