MK vs DCU: A testing ground to pave the way to MK9?

While making stuff on Photoshop, I thought about something: What if Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe wasn't really supposed to be a core MK game? What if it was simply an opportunity for Netherrealm Studios to test new features they wanted to put in a future game? Here's I'll explain the way I see things and point out similarities between MK vs DCU and MK9. Note that there will be much speculation because only the boys at Netherrealm would truly know the how and why of MK vs DCU's development.

First, why DC Universe? Why not another fighting game? My answer to this is that Midway had financial problems that led them to be bought by Warner Brothers so they needed to make sure the game would sell. Maybe Mortal Kombat, despite being popular, didn't sell enough to keep Midway floating? So, they could have made a deal with DC Comics for their next game, knowing Iconic characters like Superman and Batman would make even non-MK fans flock to the stores and buy the game. And it seemed to work, since it's the MK game that had the most pre-orders and it was the sixth most rented game of 2009. So, the idea of a cross-over was probably a way for Midway to make sure the next game would sell and help them avoid bankruptcy. It was also an opportunity to try new things, maybe they thought their fans would be more forgiving if the new features were on a crossover rather than a stand-alone game.

Now, why DCU? MK is the most gory fighting game around so the crossover needed a franchise that would fit with Mortal Kombat, albeit with some adjustment. Killer Instinct would have been a perfect match, except the franchise belongs to Rare, who have been bought by Microsoft, thus, making a MK vs KI game would have been Xbox-exclusive, which would limit the audience Midway wanted to sell to. Tekken, Dead or Alive and most Capcom fighting franchises wouldn't really fit since none of these games had any gore. Finding a popular fighting franchise that could be integrated in Mortal Kombat's gory formula would have been next to impossible and we'd have been lucky if they included fatalities at all in MK vs Tekken ...

DC was a pretty good choice. Though the comics weren't known for their gory content, those who saw Superboy Prime's psycho rampage in Infinite Crisis know that Superman's universe if not only a "hero puts villain and prison and everyon's happy) kind of place, with Prime decapitating an opponent, ripping another's arm off and chopping another guy in two with his heat vision after beating up Earth-1's Superboy. Add to that Deathstroke and the Joker's tendency to kill a lot of people and there, the most fitting franchise Midway could get their hands on! Although it made for some tame (but bad-ass) fatalities, the two franchises could be merged into a single crossover game. Basically, this was the only way to sell to two fanbases while still including fatalities, I can hardly imagine what kind of finishers Tekken contenders would have (they'd probably be even lamer than the DC cast's).

So, now we got our two franchises together and managed to have them fit despite having to tone down the violence. People will buy it either because their DC fanboys or just because they're curious. MK fans will probably buy it but most of them will be disappointed by the "T" rating. that doesn't mean the game will need to be a complete failure, even if it doesn't sell as well as predicted. It's an opportunity to try some features. If Midway's gonna go, it's gonna go with originality and if its employees ever manage to stick together under a new banner, at least they will know what worked and what didn't. Well, that's pretty much what happened, Ed Boon and his team became Netherrealm Studios and are now working with Warner Brothers.

Next post: Similarities between MK vs DC and MK9 (please do not post next to this, I'm sorry for double-posting but it's for a good cause. ^^' )

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[The Joker]

Similarities

So, know we know why Midway did a crossover game and why they choose the DC universe. I'm pretty sure MK vs DC was barely anything more than a testing ground for some features we would see in MK9, features that would be improved to make the best MK game they could, to make up for some of Midway's failures.


Graphics

Now, we can't say the graphics were mindblowing in either games but you can't deny MK vs DCU was a pretty beautiful game, even if it doesn't rival most fighting games of the time. It was a huge improvement over Deadly alliance/Deception/Armageddon, in the models' department at least. Basically everyone in Armageddon had the same base models and looked like that base model was re-skinned (That's the impression it gave me, at least). In MK vs DCU, the models were better, proportions were okay and the animation was decent. MK vs DCU was Midway's first attempt at making a Mortal Kombat game on the new generation and so, they were testing the waters. It only got better in MK9, even if it still didn't have the quality others games had but the gore effects were great.

Super Bar

The Super Bar was a neat addition in the MK franchise, although in MK vs DC, it wasn't that useful except for kombo breaking and the Kombat Rage. There hadn't been that kind of bar in a Mortal Kombat fighting game since Mortal Kombat Trilogy and Ed Boon surely wanted to include a more elaborate bar à la Street Fighter in future titles and MK vs DC Universe provided a good opportunity for that. The idea was improved and included in MK 9, being used for improved special attacks, breakers and the new X-Ray move. Who knows, if the MK team hadn't tried it on a sub-par MK game before putting it in the next big thing, it would have been just as useless?

Return to the 2D plane

Okay, so in MK vs DC, it's wasn't really 2D plane only but any player bothered with going in the foreground or background? I know I didn't, Midway wanted to go back to the 2D era and it shows, since the lateral directions didn't take as much place as it did in previous MK games. Pressing up would make you jump, pressing down would make you duck and you had to hold one of the triggers if you wanted to move sideways. So, MK vs DC was pretty much a 2D plane at its core, much like MK4 which also used lateral movements but was more of a 2D fighter. This led to MK9, in which they removed the laterl movements entirely.

Story Mode

You all remember the Konquest modes in Deception and Armageddon? You also remember how enjoyable but sub-par they were, too. They didn't even focus on the main cast, we had to follow a new guy's story and I gotta say Shujinko wasn't a great protagonist. Taven was a bit better but still wasn't as kool as, say, Liu Kang. In DCU, they tried a story mode that would focus on the game's main cast and divided it in two, making a story for the MK fighters and one for the DC heroes and villains. I found it enjoyable, even if on the short side. Netherrealm took the formula and tried it on MK9, which made for an interesting story mode that still didn't take that long to finish but managed to show us how the original tournaments happened, albeit with some twists.

Conclusion

Well, we all know MK vs DCU was a pretty good effort overall but, as a MK game, it's was below every fan's expectation, with lack of content, toned-down violence and a pretty short story mode. But I see it as a necessary step, since some great features that were tried in MK vs DCU actually made it to the next game with some improvements. I think it was a needed "ou of the box" idea that, if not enough to please the fans, would help Ed's team to get a good foothold on the current market and allow them to make the solid fighter that was released in 2011. So, next time you think MK vs DCU was a crappy attempt to get in to DC fans' pockets, just be glad they made the mistakes in this game to better fix them for the fabulous MK9! :)

So, what do you guys think?

[Jonnyrp]

I actually think the same way. So you resumed my thoughts with a well elaborate text. I think that MK Armageddon was sort of a dead end in the MK story no matter how promising the new characters and plotlines were during the times of MK4 to MKD. With the financial problems ahead of them during these times to add to this?

I would never have went as deep as to compare both MK vs DC and MK9 in terms of gameplay, engine or anything but i think MK vs DC as provided a good "Test" as you said for warner to take a franchise that was on the decline and then first mix it up with their own to have an idea about MK's potential. Yeah, if warner should have refused to make the crossover back then, let say there would most likely be no NRS team with them at the moment.

To be honest, even after Armageddon i was still convinced about MK's potential, i would have done the same thing warner has done and helped them out. Why? It benefits both Warner and NRS despite some bad reviews or bad statements from the purists of both MK and DC. But above all things, Warner now owns New Line Cinema and so they own NRS and probably a decent part of what they'll release in the future, that after helping MK get out of its dead end. So, why not keep it that way for as long as NRS games work well in terms of sales?

I also take for granted that Ed (Boon) really seems happy that now, he and his crew are provided the chance to work on different things. MK should remain the priority though. I'm not impressed with NRS doing stuff like the Arkham City ISO. The Lockdown version is that it? And the new Injustice: Gods among us coming up in 2013, still featuring DC characters figthing each other and throwing each other through walls? Kind of deja vu, with already established DC characters.

When Ed said: "Different things." i actually thought New games featuring brand new characters but hey... They now have the means not to drive themselves crazy with the work on the next MK and all the fans pressure and complaints they were forced to hear before. I just think it'll show in the next MK that they kind of breathed smoothly over it. And wish it won't be filled with as much bullshit as MK9 like Guests chars when we have yet to see how they plan to fair with more than 30 chars who were absent for MK9. And all this "I can't choose my character and then choose the next one in story mode and ladder challenge" was kind of meh.

But actually, the rest was average at the least. A little less monsters in the backgrounds to have something a little lighter than the fight itself and some changes in the gameplay aspects and that would be it.

Not a fan of retelling from the start, + i'm sure Raiden could have stopped his time travel right before Liu was Killed in MKDA. Since that is where trouble started. But once in a dead end like they were, the easiest way is to go back and retell the old story. With some major changes of course. MK vs DC kind of gave them the opportunity to do this under license of Warner.

And, of course Warner benefited from a testing ground with MK vs DC, before buying the idea of a new MK.

EDIT: Think i still have a MK vs DC review somewhere on here. I was far from impressed. But i surely had some fun with the game.

[The Joker]

I was unimpressed with the PS2 MKs (the fighting ones, at least. Shaolin Monks was fun). The controls were awkward and you couldn't play smooth without knowing each character's move list. It the wrong button after punching? The character leaves an opening that could be avoided with a smoother kombo system, just like MK9. And the new characters? Most were lame. some were bad-ass, like Mavado, others were weird but funny like Havik, some were generic like Kobra and Darrius and others were just .... meh .... like Hsu Hao.

Never played Lockdown, I read some reviews and it looks like a simple boss rush. But then again, I'm not a fan of mobile games, I don't even have a cellular phone. I'm pretty excited by Injustice, though, being a DC fanboy and all. It's deja vu but I think Ed is taking baby steps to avoid failures like special Forces. right know he's still making a fighting game but works with different characters. Maybe after that he might make an action/adventure game (Mortal Kombat: Fire and Ice, maybe? ;) )? After MK9, I'm pretty convinced Injustice might be good, especially if they get a awesome writer like Paul Dini to work on the story. I just hope they confirm the Joker as a character soon and, if so, that they won't go too far in the modernizing department, I'm not a fan of Harley Quinn's new look. :/

I guess the story mode in MK9 wasn't all that great but I think it was better than past tries, though I like the adventure formula of Konquest mode. Maybe we'll get something like that in the next MK, without the uninteresting new protagonist like we had in Deception and Armageddon? :) Storywise, I agree at that point, they couldn't have done anything but a retelling, Armageddon was a mess, they basically just put some reason to justify the 60 characters they put in the game. I'd be pretty happy if they kept the character count low or at least, made some real interesting characters that actually play a role in the story.

[Jonnyrp]

Not a fan of Harley's look in Gods among us but i surely loved her previous ones: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. I thought the opposite about the ps2 MK games though. It's mostly the ps1 era that almost killed it imo. But then again, i was starting to play really interesting 3d fighting games. And if MK proved they could be interesting with the 3d (MKDA and MKD), well other games did a good job.

I on the other end kind of like MKDA's era timing and that whole thing with the combos that would just end up flat with a guy that would mash the same directional inputs over trying to do a special move. I disagree on story too, i see that MK9 was the first one going as deep with the story mode but after MK1 and 2, DA's the only game that impressed me. With all aspects, story, art and design, modes, characters and of course the whole new system. In terms of story it could have been the 1st or 2nd game so to speak and no one would have been too out of place. MK9 isn't too far from that, just didn't notice anything special in the story even though i was hoping to be wowed, since i was expecting the different outcome. Killing almost every good guy has just become their trademark since something like?? 10, 15 years so.

I loved MK4's characters though for the most of them. And oh, yeah i know that many have talked about how fun and easy MKSM's gameplay was but i played it for an hour more or less and wonder how it's so praised by the fans. No offence, don't get me wrong, i could get into it, just couldn't stand it. And having generic characters has always been in arts. A god of this or that, White hair and beard sorcerer, An Asian martial artist to save earth. The dragon as logo for a fighting game? The actor which everyone seems to think is a fake was had already been used and subjected for Van Damme or Chuck Norris Parodies. But i still love Johnny Cage, if even as a comic relief.

Think they could still make good games with the 3d for sure but would need a more "Rated everyone" type of fighting system . The 2.5d, if we can call it like that would at least provide more defense and counter attack option against things such as Scorpion spear or Sub's ice. I want something a little less boring to avoid it than the jump or block, like being able to dive or run after a sidestep and beat the crap out of them.

[The Joker]

Didn't really like Harley's look in the Arkham games either, I guess I'm just old-fashioned, having grown with Batman: The Animated Series.XD I thought Harley looked a bit goofy in Asylum and too punkish in City. I agree about the PS1 era, MK4 was fun but hardly a great game, Sub-Zero was a good attempt but not that great and Special Forces .... well ...

The kombo system in the PS2 games weren't better than dial-a-kombo. I ended up used a long kombo with two or three short ones over and over again, spamming them while mixing a few special attacks. Can't say I didn't have any fun with them but I'm glad it's back to the 2D plane, with a smoother system too.

MK4's characters were kool, especially Quan Chi (though he technically appeared in Sub-Zero first). Jarek, though, looked like a poor replacement for Kano. Should've kept Kano in the game.

I understand you weren't impressed by Shaolin Monks, it was fun and easy but it's nothing more than an attempt to be different. It was still better than Special Forces and I enjoyed it more than Sub-Zero (the platforming parts annoyed me).

I guess MK has more than its share of generic characters but some were more interesting. When I see Kobra, I just see a semi-rip-off of Street Fighter's Ryu and Darrius .. well ... he looks like the developers just said "I think we need a black guy, since we only have Kai and Jax", so, Darrius was born. And I won't elaborate on Hsu-Hao, who looks like Mr. Slave from South Park ... XD

I agree about Cage, he got a good chuckle out of me in MK9. :D

[MKRayden]

Is this Game review if yes then you should put in this section

[The Joker]

It's not really a review, it's just an explanation on how I see MK vs DCU not as a failed Mortal Kombat game but as a testing ground for new features. XD But if you think it belongs to the review section, you can move it if you want to. :)

[MKRayden]

actually our review section is completely different then normal topic but you can make there your own review. give your rating

[Jonnyrp]

On topic. Or about the MK Dc discussion. I noticed since we are provided with looks inside GAU that some ppl start complaining about the fact that it seems way darker in terms of graphics/stages that MK9 was. I won't drop names, haven't read anything like that here.

But on my side i'm rather happy with the fact that NRS seems to be improving with the dark aspect from now on. And it's not like DC Universe never tends towards the dark side. I mean Batman is a good guy, but he's been growing in that kind of crazed environment and entangled in battles with his own DARK demons if i can say.

So, does GAU looks anything like MK9, Darker or smoother to you or not?