Platform: Xbox 360/PS3

Reviewer: Alex

A polished and fast-paced return to the Mortal Kombat universe, this time with popular, if bland DC superheroes along for the ride. While the story premise is ludicrous fanfic, the Unreal engine at itâs core gives the fighting a meaty wallop. It looks and sounds great and plays in an entertaining fashion, providing old favourites like fatalities and new twists on the âtest your mightâ mini game.

It’s genuinely nice as a long-time comic fan to batter DC characters up and down. Batman in particular has some really brutal moves that feel authentic. Superman and the Flash do move sluggishly in comparison to their classic counterparts and you have to remind yourself that this is for reasons of balancing. After several weeks of blinding speed twitch-fighting on SFII HD, however, I found closing the gap between any characters to just move in and pound on my opponent to be like running in glue. It’s a different dynamic, based on methodical timing, rather than button hammering. This did not stop Paul beating me by mashing the buttons like a madman, though the fact that he was playing as the buxom Catwoman may have helped distract me.

Unfortunately in order to broaden the appeal the gore is muted and does not compare with past MK efforts. More pertinently, in this age of Youtube, is there much to be gained from memorizing three dozen button-kombos for the kid-friendly fatalities? Also once youâve pounded heads for a week or so in story and arcade mode there is little to bring you back. Tonyâs theory is that one on one fighters have lost their relevance and I have to admit that after this, Soul Calibur IV and the last Tekken and Virtua Fighter offerings only the
impending release of Street Fighter IV can save this old, exhausted genre.

Rating 6/10