mortal-kmobat
Latest
DOH-pad: A visit with MK vs. DC on Xbox 360
I confess. I haven't touched the Mortal Kombat series since Trilogy on N64, and even then my interest had waned. The peak came in 1993 or thereabouts with MKII, so you can imagine the eyebrow raise when associate producer Hector Sanchez told me Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe was taking it back to that iconic memory. Stopping short of digitized sprites and random outbursts of weirdness, MK vs. DC does succeed as an accessible fighter that's mostly contained on a two-dimensional plane. Call it "casual" -- Midway does.Game development has become ridonkulously expensive, and if you're creating a project within a niche genre, like a fighting game, you'd best sell out if you want to be around long enough to make another game. That's a harsh way to qualify what's happening all around the industry -- and let's be clear: MK vs. DC in no way stoops to the level of Castlevania Judgment -- but somehow "casual" has become careless, as if developers are afraid ordinary consumers won't appreciate good art. A certain amount of color, call it the "Noob Saibot" effect, seems wiped from the MK canvas. Gone is that unsophisticated humor that was always charming, if not entirely professional. (Where's that "Toasty" guy? What ever happened to reverting opponents to diapered infants?) With this in mind, and DC legal breathing down Midway's neck (we wouldn't want Supe's golden-boy reputation tarnished, not with a movie reboot possible, would we?), the team is tiptoeing to a final release.
