Review: Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe
Midway Games, Midway Amusement Games
Available for Playstation 3 & Xbox 360

From the moment Midway announced their plans to develop the strange fighting game mash up, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, I have been watching the game progress with curiosity and some fear as this seemed like a possible recipe for disaster. When any two franchises are brought together, one can always expect the results to be either very good like in the case of the Lego Star Wars or very bad like RoboCop versus The Terminator, and MK vs. DC had many of us wondering what Midway was planning with this concept. Luckily for them, this game has some really cool concepts and managed to fly even without the traditional fatalities system.

In Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, the brutal combatants of the Mortal Kombat invade Metropolis and the rest of the DC Universe after Raiden destroys Kahn by blasting him through a portal and at the same time on Earth, Superman defeats Darkseid by blasting the super villain with his heat vision as he enters a teleportation device. These acts do not destroy either of them of the villains, but merges them into an entity known as Dark Kahn, and this causes the DC Universe and Mortal Kombat universes to merge.
The game's Story Mode recounts this crossover invasion from both the DC and Mortal Kombat perspectives, as the DC heroes suspect another Darkseid plot and their Earthrealm counterparts fear another Outworld assault. Infecting both sides is the mysterious rage energy that overwhelms their senses, causing them to see friends as enemies and supercharging their fighting abilities.


In addition to the Story mode, the game also offers a more traditional Arcade Mode featuring the standard Mortal Kombat 10-fight contest from years past. Players can chose to play Mortal Kombat only, DC only and mixed fights, but in either case the ultimate villain is Dark Kahn.

The game features 20 combatants, 10 from each universe, with two unlockable characters. The Mortal Kombat side features Scorpion, Subzero, Sonya, Shang Tsung, Kitana, Jax, Liu Kang, Raiden, Kano and Baraka, while DC is represented by the Joker, Catwoman, the Flash, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Deathstroke, Lex Luther, Captain Marvel and Green Lantern. The unlockables are Darkseid for the DC side and Shao Kahn for Mortal Kombat.

While the Mortal Kombat characters were able to slide through this series with their fatality finishing moves still intact, the DC heroes were given a series of brutality moves which keep with their “Thou shall not kill” attitudes. Keep in mind though that this is a teen rated game so don’t expect to play your favourite MK character with the idea that their finishing moves are going to end in glorious blood and gore because that doesn’t happen. Jax still crushes a skull or two with his big mechanical arms, but their heads do remain intact as they fall to the ground.


The game has online and local versus play which held up pretty well on the Playstation network. The online play had you choosing from a list of 100 people in the a chat room to compete against. You could issue a challenge or wait for someone to issue you one and then either accept, decline or ignore the challenge. The chat room allowed for voice or text chat amongst the other players and you could play against friends but you would have to choose the room to play in before you logged online. Apparently the Xbox 360 version had better player and ranked match system for their online play for those gamers with a choice between the two systems.

While each character’s moves were pretty easy to pick up after a couple hours spent practicing, I found it especially annoying that the finishing moves were only available online and not found anywhere in the game manual or in the in game instructions. Though most people have the internet nowadays, it still seems pretty silly of the developers to assume that all players will be able to track down the control sequence online to pull off the finishing moves for each character. Would it have killed them to publish it in the manual?

Being that I haven’t play a Mortal Kombat game since the third instalment came out in the arcades way back in the day, I was actually a little giddy to finally sit back down with the franchise. The graphics are so different from the video screen shots used on the original Mortal Kombat game and the environments though still so terrifying, have come along way from the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo’s 16 bit screens. Each character and environment reflected the energy of the storyline and had that spectacular comic book feel. I especially loved some of the arenas like Wonder Woman’s Themyscira and Shang Tsung’s Island that had the two worlds actually merging into one as the two combatants fought. Brilliant.


Finally the audio is always fantastic in the Mortal Kombat games with appropriately intense music and the loud cracks of hand-to-hand combat. Moves like uppercuts and ground slams are accompanied by some great, deep bass that will shake your surroundings if you're appropriately equipped. While there's plenty of great new sound, there's also some old stuff like Scorpion's "get over here” and the announcer’s “Fight” & “Flawless Victory” which both sound like they are straight out of the old games.

While I was unsure at first about this weird, little mash up of the Mortal Kombat series, I am happy to say that my favourite fighting franchise is still as wonderful as ever. Though my fatalities may not be as brutal as I want them to be and my Joker isn’t voiced by Mark Hamill, I can push those tiny flaws aside to enjoy the fact that Mortal Kombat is still an amazing fighting game which great characters, wicked combos and a good storyline to finish it all off. Fans of the series will be happy with what Midway had done to renew the series and hopefully some DC fans will come over to embrace the series as well.

Rating 8 out of 10
Buy it!

Midway Sends Season's Greetings from Wheelman

Though an actual card in the mail means so much more, it's still nice to receive a little holiday love from your favorite game companies.

Midway was kind enough to send me a lovely holiday e-greeting from their jolly badman, Vin Diesel. How festive! Nothing says Christmas like violence driving.

Click the picture for the full view.

Review: Unreal Tournament III

Unreal Tournament III
Midway, Epic Games
Available for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC

This week I had to step up and finally play with the big boys to review this first person shooter. No hiding in the safety of the easy campaign mode because in Unreal Tournament III by Epic Games, you either play multiplayer or you don’t play at all. Sure there is a single player mode, but the Unreal Tournament franchise has always been about the multiplayer frag fest and if I can’t spend several days reviewing that portion of the game, then I may as well not review it all.

Unreal Tournament III is the next instalment in the Unreal series after Unreal Tournament 2004 and it runs on the famous Unreal Engine 3. Though the game does sport a single player campaign mode and co-op campaign mode where you follow a Ronin mercenary named Reaper who is out for revenge after his home planet is attacked, those storyline modes are really only exercises in preparation for the real draw of the game, the multiplayer mode.

The multiplayer mode gives you the chance to create your own character from several different teams like the Ronin, the Necris, Thunder Clash, etc. which each have their own special abilities. From those teams, you can choose from several different members, male or female to play as. Once you choose your character, you then get to choose your game type: deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag, duel, warfare, and vehicle capture the flag and how to want to seek out players: ranked match or player match. Most of these multiplayer matches are won by gaining the most kills before the other team, but capture the flag and warfare offer variations on the kill point wins.



As I’ve stated many times before I am not a good FPS player and tend to get dizzy after playing for more than an hour, but this game I actually fared well in. I admit I played the single player campaign on easy to avoid spending several months trying to finish this game, but when I jumped into the multiplayer games; I actually walked away with 7 to 14 kills each time in “50 points to win” games. I surprised even myself.

I have to give credit to Epic games to creating a game with easy to use controls. Previous games like Call of Duty 3, I always found myself dying before I could even get my weapon aim at my enemy, but Unreal has me dodging and aiming like a mofo. I love it.

The weapon selection is wicked with a grand arsenal of futuristic weapons to blow your enemies to chunks of man meat. I especially like the bio rifle because you could carpet an area with its neon green slime balls, plus it reminded me of the mutagen from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The both single and multiplayer also allow players to jump into vehicles like hoverboards, tanks, ATVs, etc, but they tend to you vulnerable when riding around in them. I preferred walking around on foot.

I was very impressed with the response time in multiplayer and with the quality of the game play and graphics. Everything ran smoothly and not once did I get kicked from a game or have it freeze on me mid-play. I was disappointed to see there was no voice feature in the game. I tend not to chat with non-friends online anyway, but I never once heard anyone talking when I was playing or sitting in the lobby waiting for a game to start.



Being that this game comes from the same studio as Gears of War, I expected amazing graphics and that’s exactly what I got. This game is visually stunning from the first cinematic where you watch your character die to every little piece of man meat that goes flying during the in-game battles. Did I mention this game is mature rated? The characters are strikingly similar to those from Gears of War which I did find a bit silly. Is Epic becoming like Square Enix now and making all their characters look like cousins?

Character acting is the game was solid with a great cast to voice all the players in the campaign storyline as well as all the banter during game play. The music, sound effects though are your standard epic battle sounds with mass bombing noises and grand musical overtures.

Now I got to review the Xbox 360 version of UT III and this version came packed with 5 new maps, a two player split screen mode, some new characters and a new trailer download for Gears of War 2. Not sure if that makes a different in a purchase for some people, but I figured I better throw that fact in there if it did.

This is probably one of the few first person shooters that I actually liked playing and can easily recommend it as a great game for any gamer to play, even the newbies like me.

Rating 8 out of 10
Buy it!

Midway Release Character Roster for Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

Midway announced the complete cast of characters in its newest epic fighter, Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe this week. Rounding out the final line-up are the villains Shao Kahn, Darkseid, Baraka and Lex Luthor.

I was hoping to see Johnny Cage on the Mortal Kombat side and apparently I'm not alone. A lot of people are disappointed to see Johnny Cage missing and this is not a good move on Midway's part. Killing off Johnny Cage is pretty much what bombed the second Mortal Kombat movie, so what does a missing Johnny mean for MK vs DC?

Mortal Kombat
Scorpion
Sub-Zero
Sonya
Jax
Shang Tsung
Liu Kang
Raiden
Kitana
Kano
Baraka
Shao Kahn

DC Universe
Batman
Superman
Catwoman
Green Lantern
The Joker
Shazam
The Flash
Wonder Woman
Deathstroke
Lex Luthor
Darkseid

The game hits store shelves this November on the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.

First Look at Scorpion's Fatality Move

Midway released new pictures of Scorpion's new fatality move in their upcoming title, Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe.

Very similar to Scorpion's past fatality moves, it looks like Scorpion will tear off his mask revealing his true face, a skull and then deliver the fatal blow, a devastating fireball from his mouth to set his enemies a blaze.

I think true Mortal Kombat fans will be happy to see Midway resurrect this classic fatality.

X'08 Hands On Impressions: Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

Midway was on hand at X'08 to show of a couple of their upcoming games including the much anticipated Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe. While Midway is still keeping the storyline behind this crazy mash up title to themselves, I'm guessing it has something to do with the general premise for the whole Mortal Kombat series: the Emperor comes to the DC Universe wanting to take over the realm and who better to compete in tournament to save the world but the super heroes from that world?

Even though Midway did sent a rep to over see the demos at the event, Reid wasn't exactly familiar with MK vs DC, so I had to feel my way through the demo. It was nice to finally meet the guy behind all my press releases though.

Midway has only released a partial list of the available characters in the game and only a small portion of those characters like Superman, Scorpion, Batman, Sonia Blade were playable characters in the demo. I chose to fight with Catwoman because she's my favourite baddie in the DC universe.

My first fight was against Scorpion and he was really easy to take down. Almost too easy. You’d think the demo was set on easy "journalist" mode or something to make us feel like experts at the game. Most of the moves are pretty straight forward - kick, punch, jump, round kick, etc, and catwoman could scratch at her opponents and use her whip on them.

When you managed to send your opponent flying over the edge of the level, your character would jump on top and continue to fight on the way down. This fighting was accomplished with a series of buttons that you plugged in as they popped up on the screen. Get them in right and you land on top of your opponent when you both hit the ground, but get them wrong and you become the landing pad.

Some levels allowed you to do this more than once and other levels changed the falling sequence with smashing through a series of walls. You still had to follow the series of buttons though to come out on top.

My second and third opponents were Superman and Sonya Blade which were much harder than Scorpion to defeat. Sonya as my third level enemy actually managed to defeat me in a round and that's when I gave up the controller to someone standing behind me.

I didn't manage to uncover any brutalities or fatalities, nor did my rep know how to active them, but they are included the game. Each character has a normal finishing cinematic with a basic defeat: Catwoman cracked her whip after each time I finished off my opponent with a normal kick or punch.




I was quite impressed with the game visually and how it played. The characters are quite detailed and Midway has been working with the DC artists to make sure everything is just right about each character. MK fans will be happy to know that some characters like the Joker do have fatality moves as seen in the newest video released by Midway.

Expect a full length review later when the game is released in stores.

Midway Releases Lineup for E3 2008

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe
(PLAYSTATION 3, Xbox 360, Fall 2008) -- For the first time ever
Scorpion, Sub-Zero and the Mortal Kombat warriors battle with Batman, Superman
and other popular DC Universe super heroes. Choose your side and challenge your
opponents with a new fighting system including Freefall Kombat and Klose Kombat along with dynamic multi-tiered environments. Plus, pick your favorite character from MK or DCU and pursue a fighting adventure in the new single player mode with an intertwined storyline and two unique perspectives.

Wheelman
(PLAYSTATION 3, Xbox 360, PC Fall 2008) - Combining spectacular Hollywood-style stunts with a gripping storyline, Wheelman provides an adrenaline-fueled, cinematic thrill ride guaranteed to leave you breathless. Vin Diesel stars as an undercover agent and highly skilled driver who must infiltrate the Barcelona underworld to gather intelligence surrounding a covert heist. Posing as a driver-for-hire, he ends up caught in a crossfire of corruption and chaos while trying to stay one step ahead of local law enforcement and rival gangs.

TNA iMPACT!
(PLAYSTATION 3, Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 2; September 2008) - TNA iMPACT! is the exclusive Total Nonstop Action wrestling game based on the top-rated weekly television show, "TNA Impact!" Choose the wrestling style, custom move set and clothing to construct the ultimate champion. TNA drenches the player in moves and match types that allow amazing acrobatic and aerial feats along with the bone-jarring crush of hard-hitting impacts. The game also features top wrestling talent such as Kurt Angle,Jeff Jarrett™, Rhino™, Samoa Joe, AJ Styles,
Sting, Christian Cage, Abyss and more to deliver all of the excitement and action of thetelevision show!

Blitz the League II
(PLAYSTATION 3, Xbox 360 Fall 2008) - As the sequel to the more than one million unit selling and award-winning football experience, BLITZ: THE LEAGUE II, continues the franchise legacy as the ultimate alternative to the watered-down, licensed competition. In addition to an all-new story mode penned by Peter Egan (ESPN's Playmakers), BLITZ: THE LEAGUE II features include: Precision-Aim Tackles, player-controlled touchdown celebrations, an enhanced on-the-field Clash Mode, online multiplayer capabilities, expanded rosters with all-new personalities, and the return of a cornerstone of the Blitz franchise...Late Hits! Football legend Lawrence
Taylor returns as the game's cover-athlete and star linebacker for the New York Nightmare, Quentin Sands, along with a star-studded supporting cast.

This is Vegas
(PLAYSTATION 3, Xbox 360, 2009) -- When a ruthless businessman begins turning Vegas into a family-friendly tourist trap, you must start your own powerful empire and resurrect the famous adult playground. Party hard at the hottest clubs to make VIP connections. Grow your bankroll by hitting high stakes tables. Race the fastest cars on the underground circuit to raise your reputation. Fight off enemies with fists and firearms to prove your strength. Where you go and what you do is your call. Whether counting cards, seducing dangerous women, cruising the strip or starting bar brawls, there's lots of excitement on the way to the top.

Unreal Tournament 3
(Xbox 360 July 2008) - Unreal Tournament 3, the world's premier PC first-person shooter makes its debut on the Xbox 360. Unreal Tournament 3 unleashes the full power of Unreal® Engine 3, taking graphics, gameplay, and challenge to a whole new level. Players engage in intense battles with other human players online, or against Unreal artificial intelligence that sets the industry standard. With the most powerful futuristic weapons and vehicles available, this is FPS action at its best!

Game Party 2
(Wii, November 2008) -- With 11 games in all, Game Party 2 for the Nintendo Wii
includes fun to play games that will provide hours of enjoyment with friends and family. Game Party 2 features new games like Bean Bag Toss, Horseshoes, Lawn Darts, Puck Bowling and more. Each game, including classics like Skill Ball, Darts and Hoop Shoot has exciting new features like four player mode, customizable characters and tournament play, making Game Party 2 the ultimate party game for all ages and skill levels.

Touchmaster 2
(Nintendo DS, September 2008) -- TouchMaster 2 returns with a collection of 20
new exciting card, action, strategy and puzzle games with some of your favorite classic games from back in the day. For the gamer and non-gamer alike, TouchMaster 2 offers pick up and play, addictively fun, mini-games that everyone will enjoy. Kill some time by playing a quick round to beat your high-score or find some real competition against other players. TouchMaster 2, the personal arcade that fits snug in the palm of your hands.

Mechanic Master
(Nintendo DS, September 2008) -- With over 100 levels! Mechanic Master uses the
stylus as a weapon to rid the Earth of alien invaders that have scattered across the planet. Become the ultimate Master of Mechanics by creating crazy contraptions to free humans, keep the mechanics in motion and defeat those pesky foes. Test your skills. Creative-thinking is key to clearing the level.

MidwayArcade.com
(Online, Available Now) -- Fans of Midway's classic arcade and Touchmaster casual
games will now be able to download their all-time favorites and play them on their PC. More than 25 classic titles, such as Defender, Joust, Spy Hunter, Root Beer Tapper and Mahki, are now available at www.midwayarcade.com, starting for as little as 3 games for US $5. Compete for bragging rights against players from around the world and battle for the high score in each game

Review: NBA Ballers: Chosen One

NBA Ballers: Chosen One
Midway
Available for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360

Like the previous games in the series, NBA Ballers: Chosen One, is a fast-and-loose basketball game with one-on-one games played on a half court instead of the usual five-on-five game on a full court. Midway also remove a lot of the rules and threw in some of their own to spice up the game.

Chosen One follows the story of an unknown, up-and-coming street baller as he works to make a name for himself by participating in a fictional, off-season basketball tournament full of the sport’s biggest names. The tournament is broken up into six episodes, each with five chapters; starting with the newbie’s introduction to the high-profile event and ending with his eventual supremacy.

Before you hit the court though, players are tasked with first creating their custom basketball player. The create-a-player system, while not as good as what you’d find in Tiger Woods Golf series, still works on nicely for the most part. You'll pick a nickname, assign an allotment of attribute points to get your career rolling, and then hit the court for the very first time. Attribute progression is handled a bit differently in Chosen One, as the game auto-assigns these points based on how you played the game, rather than let you perform your own point allocation. I personally am not great at sports games and found the auto assign feature perfect to even out my player’s skills, but hardcore basketball fans may not agree with me.




Each episode is broken up into chapters, each of which has a fighting game-like ladder of matches you must win to proceed. Most of these are pretty standard, though the game starts throwing in special rules later on, like games where you have to pull off a bunch of combo moves before you win, or games that can only be won by performing a certain move right at the end the game. While the rules keep the game interesting, your AI opponent doesn’t even trying to pull off these game ending moves, which tends to make these challenges less than, well … challenging.

My other problem with special rules games was that if I couldn‘t figure out how to complete a move and the manual didn‘t tell me how to either, I was stuck button mashing for hours just trying to figure out a move or in one example, trying to get a crowd member to pass you a ball, just so you can make a basket to finish a game. Stuff like this frustrates me and made the game more work than fun.



One cool addition to the series is baller introductions where you get to see each basketball superstar arrive in style to each match. This really adds to the fun of facing these boss ballers in the game, but unfortunately, the intros are limited to just a few players, and you only find them in story mode. Now, give every player his own intro like wrestling games do and that would be cool.

Online play is available and playing some real people actual provides more of a challenge for anyone finding the single player modes to easy, however if your opponent doesn’t know how to block level three super dunks then you might find this mode boring for you too. I know I lost to a lot pros online because I failed to block this move in time.



As far as basketball games go, NBA Ballers may not be the best game for true fans of the b-ball, but if you’re looking for some b-ball that goes a little more off the beaten path, then NBA Ballers is that game. Its multiplayer experience is perfect for a night of beers with the boys and the intro videos are worth a rental alone.

Rating 6.5 out of 10
Rent it!