Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe: Beat Up Batman

The story of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe revolves around some kind of cataclysmic event, a major rift in space and time which causes Batman to run into Scorpion at the grocery store, and then they fight, but Batman doesn't kill him because he has to bring him to justice.

Alright, that may not be entirely accurate, but that's not the important thing. The important thing is that Mortal Kombat vs. DC isn't terrible. Despite the Teen rating, there are still fatalities, and plenty of blood, and some relatively interesting moves. Watching the Flash repeatedly zip from one side of the screen to the other, juggling an enemy with punches, was sort of funny. That's what I would do if I was the Flash.

On the MK side of things, Scorpion looks like Scorpion, and still uses the most awkwardly infamous video game weapon known to man, like the Gordon's Fisherman from hell. Sonya does her thing, kicking and punching and being the only human of the bunch. Mortal Kombat is so weird.

Much has been made about the DC hero characters' lack of fatalities. As Batman, a Midway rep demonstrated a "brutality," which consisted of the Dark Knight pounding Sub-Zero into the pavement, up to his ears in cement. Even though Batman didn't kill him, I knew he was being evil, because his Bat-eyes were glowing yellow.

The DC heroes and villains will of course have special abilities that reflect their super powers. Superman has his laser eyes, and Batman fires off Batarangs. In the latter case I was able to check out the game's cloth modeling, dicing up Scorpion's suit with Batarangs and tearing off his mask, cuts and wounds being formed on the fly.

A grapple button has replaced throws. Grappling will engage both fighters in close combat, with one of the four face buttons available for various punches or kicks. The defender has a one in four chance to counter with the same face button, turning the tables on his opponent. A similar system is in place for sequences where the fighters battle whilst falling from a cliff. It is very dramatic.

Fatalities are still hard to pull off. New "pro" moves, such as the Flash's juggle, will be tricky to pull off. This is still a game about knowing the moves. Batman may be the world's greatest detective, but even he would probably be annoyed to be looking up fatalities on GameFAQs in this day in age.

Nothing about the gameplay or the DC licensing has resold me on the series, but maybe somebody out there will get a kick out of this game.

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe is slated for a November 17 release on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.