Metareview -- Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (Xbox 360, PS3)

by Alexander Sliwinski { Nov 18th 2008 at 5:15PM }

With Midway's holiday hopes (and financial future) pinned on Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, it appears the reviewers aren't going to help the company out. Barring major outlier Giant Bomb and its 5/5, most outlets appear to be sticking around 80 and below. If it does well at retail, MK vs. DC may help prevent the publisher from hearing an ominous voice-over: "Finish him!"

GamePro (80/100): "Though far from a technical fighting game, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe exceeds expectations by delivering a solidly enjoyable casual fighter. The Mature-rated gore is missed, but the core combat here feels more confident and energetic than it has in years."
IGN (75/100): "Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe is fun and a solid entry into the franchise, but I doubt many folks will find it entertaining past a rental. Casual players will punch through the storyline before burning out after getting stumped by one or two Kombo Challenges, while Mortal Kombat fans will have trouble accepting the toned down Fatalities and somewhat slower gameplay."
GameSpy (70/100): "Though MK vs. DC purports to shake up the franchise, the reality is that among the many new touches that the game adds it still lacks the depth of other fighters available today. Again, it doesn't feel dramatically different from its predecessors, save for new mini-game modes and a big facelift. The movesets are rather generic (most are a variation of "down, forward, button") and feel a tad antiquated. Its big hook (the crossover license) can't justify the relatively shallow fighting on hand."
1UP (B-): (Calculated as 67 on Metacritic) "MK vs. DCU is an oddly enjoyable distraction from "real" fighters. Its masher-friendly controls appeal to me in a casual-gamer way, and the midmatch minigames (damage-percentage tugs-of-war, airborne ass-kickings with the defender mirroring the aggressor's button-presses in a bid for dominance) give the fights a sort of party-game vibe."

Tags: midway, mk-vs-dc, mortal-kombat, mortal-kombat-vs-dc-universe

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

green11420 @ Nov 18th 2008 5:21PM

I'll get this game when the price drops a bit. I'm really excited to play it.

Titanium_Orchid @ Nov 18th 2008 5:25PM

I posted it before but I'll post it again.

Giant Bomb's Jeff Gertman's review of MK v DC. 5/5 stars

http://www.giantbomb.com/mortal-kombat-vs-dc-universe/61-20449/reviews/

This guy knows what he's talking about when it comes to fighting games.

green11420 @ Nov 18th 2008 5:33PM

Yeah that was the first review I saw of the game. Giant Bomb is currently the most valued source of game reviews to me.
X-Play and Gamespot used to be very high in my opinion, but they've changed over the past few months.

Vidikron @ Nov 18th 2008 5:36PM

5/5.. seriously? For an MK game?

BananaBoat @ Nov 18th 2008 11:23PM

Am I the only one seriously annoyed at the B- which translates to a 67 on metacritic? How is a B- (the B scale being 80-89 points) the equivalent of a 67? Is this an error, or is this just an example of the world we live in where if your game isn't an A, noone is buying it, and we adjust the number scale accordingly?

Titanium_Orchid @ Nov 19th 2008 12:39AM

moral of the story: Don't trust Metacritic

SHAZAM! @ Nov 19th 2008 4:31AM

Actually, it should translate to a 67 (I think). 1UP has always used 50/5.0 as their average, which is now represented by the C grade. So a B- would probably be around a 67.

The larger problem lies with metacritic. I would say a 67 is favorable, but apparently it's average.

BananaBoat @ Nov 19th 2008 8:54AM

That logic doesn't really hold. A B- should be a B- no matter what scale the publication is using. Then again...it does seem to hold...but only in this sort of bizarro world where EGM didn't intend for their F-A+ scale to coincide with the F-A+ scale in American schools (0-59 is an F,60 to 69 is some form of D,70 to 79 is some form of C, 80 to 89 is some form of B, 90-99 is some form of A). If it says somewhere in the magazine that this is the case, and they still want to attempt to apply a scale with 13 points (F to A+) to fit with their old 5 point scale, then I'll admit that Metacritic is wrong. Otherwise, Metacritic has serious problems with their score reporting.

I wouldn't say that it matters, except that jobs are lost based on Metacritic scores (Sad as that is). Not that I trust metacritic to tell me if a game is good.

Eric @ Nov 18th 2008 5:29PM

Anyone buy this yet? what do you think of it?

ChaOS @ Nov 19th 2008 8:57AM

I got it on release day and I absolutely love it! The story mode is awesome (for a fighting game), it's very balanced, and the online play is fun.

This is by far the best MK since MK2!

Rollins @ Nov 18th 2008 5:32PM

I don't think Metacritic ever went to grade school. The last time I got a 67 on something, it was not accompanied by a B-.

Vidikron @ Nov 18th 2008 5:38PM

Seriously, WTF? If that's how they're calculating then their composite ratings are worthless. 67 at every school I went to was a D.

Zertoss @ Nov 18th 2008 5:47PM

So how would Metacritic value an F? 0? 25? 42?

Vidikron @ Nov 18th 2008 5:49PM

Who knows? That's sort of a pitfall of converting letter grades that don't have numerical scores to actual scores. But what I do know is B- is not a 67.

Zertoss @ Nov 18th 2008 5:54PM

You're right, if you do the math to convert 1up's letter grades to a 100 point system, it's actually lower than that. About a 54 I think.

CTC XBL-supapaypamawio PSN-ctclaw @ Nov 18th 2008 5:54PM

Does it really matter what numerical value they give an F? Review scores are generally in the same range, usually if a game sucks a game sucks and all the scores will show it. Anywhere in the 0-50 range isn't going to make much of a difference to a crappy games reviews.

Zertoss @ Nov 18th 2008 6:01PM

Oops, got my math wrong, a B- is a 62. Silly grading systems.

CTC, that's sort of the problem with game reviews. 50/100 should be the mid range, not 75/100.

But then you have to get into the way the human psyche works. 50/100 doesn't sound good, even though it would mean the game is mediocre, but 75/100 sounds much more appealing, even though it essentially means the same thing.

Vidikron @ Nov 18th 2008 6:12PM

@Zertoss

The problem with that math is that's not how a typical grade scale works. Yeah, you could call 50 "average" for in a 100 point scale, but virtually no one is going to equate 50 with a C.

And, honestly, that's not Metacritic's place to do that. If that's how 1UP intends their score to be taken, then fine... but if 1UP actually uses a normal grading scale then a B- is not 67. That would go against the intent of the letter grade and invalidates Metacritic's composites. In other words, if 1UP intends a B- to be an 80 and Metracritic assigns a 67 then Metracritic loses credibility.

FlamingEffigy @ Nov 18th 2008 6:31PM

Or its 1up's fault for using a ridiculous system that no one (except perhaps those who have read about 50 of there reviews to get a good sense of what they think in contrast to their grading system) really gets.

There is a reason metacritic standardises it to out of 100, because its accurate, and its numerical, therefore we can gauge a percentage. Someone should force the websties to all standardise to out of 100, because im sick of seeing 4 star reviews converted to 80 when they probably arent, and 5 stars converted to 100 when they most certainly arent.

JerJer @ Nov 18th 2008 6:33PM

clearly you dont go to a school where there is a curve and everyone with a 40% or above gets an A ^_^

Tom @ Nov 18th 2008 7:05PM

Using a GPA 4.0 system:

B- = 2.7

2.7/4.0= 67.5

So it's by a 4.0 system that is used in college apparently, or so that is what my math has brought about.

Rollins @ Nov 18th 2008 7:05PM

FlamingEffigy, I'm fairly sure anyone who went to school "gets" 1up's scoring system. Or do you not understand what a B- represents? Or an F? Please.

In A World (XBL) @ Nov 18th 2008 10:19PM

The REAL POINT here is that 1up doesn't want anyone converting their letter grades to numbers, percentages, graphs, pie charts, thumbs up/down, apples or oranges. They were tired of people misinterpretting their number scores (instead of actually READING their reviews) so they switched to letters. Metacritic has NO BUSINESS trying to speak on behalf of 1up. Knock it off!

Markez @ Nov 19th 2008 12:52AM

I actually really like 1up's scoring system. I think it's somewhat open ended (vague?) enough where I feel compelled to dig into the review and can realize and take into account the reviewer's own opinion to make my own decision on whether I think it's worth picking up.

Levi @ Nov 19th 2008 1:13PM

I was told there would be no math.

Gehodra @ Nov 18th 2008 5:40PM

Yeah, not really surprised. The MK games haven't fared well in the 3d era.

I think they should work on fixing the stiff gameplay instead of just tossing in new characters for each game. (maybe they have, I haven't been paying much attention recently)

Although "Its masher-friendly controls", did they totally revamp the controls? Because the couple games before this were anything but masher-friendly.

Envoy @ Nov 18th 2008 5:40PM

B- a 67? I still don't know if I should pick this up!!! =(

Sackolantern PSN ID: johnnynumber5 @ Nov 18th 2008 5:44PM

This game also got a 100 from Giant Bomb

dark_inchworm @ Nov 18th 2008 6:38PM

Noted in the post.

Vcize @ Nov 18th 2008 5:45PM

While it's unrelated to the game, in what kind of fucked up world is a B- equal to a 67/100?

343 Guilty Fart @ Nov 18th 2008 5:57PM

Grad school. A 'B' starts at 92% for me.

Vcize @ Nov 18th 2008 6:33PM

Uh, you've got it backwards. That would make a B- an even HIGHER score than the normal 80, not lower.

Unless you're saying that in your school an A is in the 93-100 range and a B is in the 67-92 range, which would just be all kinds of screwed up.

343 Guilty Fart @ Nov 18th 2008 8:07PM

Wait, sorry, you are correct. Maybe the people who run Metacritic went to remedial school where a 'B' was 67? I dunno.

Snowblind @ Nov 18th 2008 5:45PM

I really can't believe the game has been getting such high reviews.. Firstly, I have nothing against the idea of mergine the two universes, and I'm even quite a fan of MK.

But the gameplay featured here was outdated in the late 90's, I thought Deadly Alliance and Deception were pretty bad, but it's completely unacceptable for the 360/PS3.

It's stiff, slow, and still works with dial-a-combo. Compare it to the fluid fighting engines of things like Tekken, Soulcalibur or DoA and it looks like a complete joke.

emmzee @ Nov 18th 2008 5:51PM

ATTENTION MIDWAY: Want free money? Here's what you do: Re-release the SNES or Genesis version of NBA Jam with updated players and some new modes/features as NBA Jam 2008 on XBox Live and/or PSN! Retro graphics, modern players ... come on, how great would that be? 4-player action now that a lot of people actually have 4 controllers. I'd buy it.

Dirty @ Nov 18th 2008 5:57PM

A simple arcade HD redo of NBA JAM would sell like hotcakes. A lot of licensing going on there however.

Jake11- Born and raised in W. Philly @ Nov 18th 2008 5:55PM

why the hell did they remove the gore? this is mortal kombat, gore is the whole point

WiNG [Life in a Game] @ Nov 18th 2008 6:05PM

I'm pretty sure it's because:

1. So more places would sell it to minors.
2. DC objected to having its characters subjected to eviscerations, etc.

Wesley @ Nov 18th 2008 6:16PM

According to homeschooling.about.com (came up in a google search for letter grade to percentage calculator) "Typical grade scale: 90-100% = A; 80-89% = B; 70-79% = C; 60-69% = D; 59% and below = F"

Which seems about right.

However, they're calculating it like this:

f0, e-1, e2, e+3, d-4, d5, d+6, c-7, c8, c+9, b-10, b11, b+12, a-13, a14, a+15

100/15 = 6.66, and 6.66 * 10 rounded up is 67.

Vcize @ Nov 18th 2008 6:35PM

Does 1up even give E's? I thought most grading scales went straight from D to F.

Gehodra @ Nov 18th 2008 6:36PM

Dude you could have written that alot better.

I just stared at it for a minute, thinking it was some series or something, wondering where you were coming up with all these variables.

Gehodra @ Nov 18th 2008 6:40PM

Ugh, and now I notice that you apologized for that in the post below...

Second time doing this, because I did exactly what you did the first time. Awesome.

Wesley @ Nov 18th 2008 8:18PM

Again, sorry about the notation. I know it's pretty crappy, but it gets the point across.

@Vcize: That may be true, but then the whole thing makes no sense, mathematically speaking. I guess if you added a value to F and gave that + and - ratings it would work, but is there a such thing as an F-?