Archive for
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe: FAQ - Part 1
We were told that a new Mortal Kombat game would be coming this year, but we weren’t expecting something quite like this. Ed Boon and Midway have announced that the newest addition to the Mortal Kombat franchise will include characters from the DC Comics universe. That’s right. It’s not just Mortal Kombat. It’s Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe.
Remember years ago when Capcom decided to make Street Fighter vs. X-Men? That spawned a series of cross-over sequels, like Marvel vs. Capcom and Capcom vs. SNK. I guess Midway is taking a page out of that character collection book, pitting the best Mortal Kombatants with the comic book heroes of the DC Universe.
Let’s go through some of the most pressing questions.
1. What characters will be included?
At Midway’s Gamer’s Day in Las Vegas, they only made a very minor announcement about the characters that will populate the Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe fighting game. From the DC side of things, they have guaranteed Batman and Superman. From the MK side, Ed Boon said that we should expect Scorpion and Sub-Zero. Beyond this, no further information was made available.
2. What about fatalities?
Here’s an ugly one. Fatalities serve as the backbone to the Mortal Kombat franchise, giving us the opportunity to decapitate our opponents, rip off their arms, and light them up into a blaze of glory. Sadly, Ed Boon said that Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe will not have fatalities. I know. WTF. The rationale is that the people at DC didn’t want to see Batman and the rest of the crew get torn limb from limb.
3. Will there be blood?
This wasn’t stated quite as explicitly, but seeing how they’re ditching fatalities, I’m thinking that the blood will be kept to a minimum as well. The removal of blood and fatalities will only upset the die-hard Mortal Kombat fans in the audience. I don’t know what they’re thinking.
4. Which systems will it be available for?
All evidence seems to be pointing toward a simultaneous launch on the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. We probably won’t see it in the arcade, because Mortal Kombat hasn’t been spotted there in years. The Wii is a possibility, but I hope they don’t tack on some cheesy motion controls. If MK vs. DC makes it to the handheld market, you can expect some rather crappy graphics and gameplay.
5. When will I be able to play it?
The initial rumor said “some time this year” and the preview video mentions “this fall”, so I’m going to go with October-ish.
6. More info?
You should know by now that Hadouken Online is dedicated to bringing you the latest, greatest, and best-est that the fighting game universe has to offer. That’s why this is only part 1 of the Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe FAQ. Another FAQ will be created when more information becomes available. In the meantime, check out this video.
Super Smash Bros Brawl Video Review Roundup
You may have heard about a little game that got released on the Nintendo Wii yesterday. What was it called again? Oh yeah. SUPER SMASH BROS BRAWL! I picked up a copy myself and my initial impressions are that they’ve kept pretty much everything you’ve come to expect from Super Smash Bros and stepped it up a notch or three. The character count is bigger. The graphics are prettier. And you get to play as Solid mother-f*cking Snake!
Super Smash Bros. Brawl is probably the best Wii game to be released to date and it doesn’t even make use of the so-called gimmicky controls. You might even enjoy it more by playing on a GameCube or Classic Controller. In either case, the response has been overwhelmingly positive. You could say it’s the new best fighting games king. Check out these three video reviews for further evidence of our never-ending praise for this fantastic fighting game.
GameSpot: 9.5
IGN Wii: 9.5
GameTrailers: 9.4
King of Fighters XII is One Big Hand-Job
The Internet seems to be abuzz over news surrounding Street Fighter IV, but SNK-Playmore has a pretty epic fighting game on their hands too. King of Fighters XII maintains the standard 2D appearance of most fighting games, but the actual graphics are much more polished than what we have seen in the past. It’s not the psuedo-3D of Street Fighter IV. Instead, as evidenced through the preview video, the character sprites have more of a cel-shaded quality to them.
As it turns out, though, KOF XII is not cel-shaded. The entire game has been drawn by hand. Are you kidding me??!? In this day and age, who hand draws any final production stuff anymore? But you know what? King of Fighters XII looks simply stunning and if hand-drawing is what is required, then all the more power (and man-hours) to SNK-Playmore.
According to KOFXII producer Masaaki Kukino, “The game is one hundred percent hand drawn. There is zero cell shading in The King of Fighters XII.”
Kotaku writes:
Every single frame, every character and every background. Everything — down to the game’s in-game title. SNK gave us the full rundown, so here’s how it worked: The original character drawings were modeled into 3D. Those 3D models were then rendered back into 2D. That way the 2D characters could have a greater depth of motion. Since the 2D models were devoid of color and details, artists went through each character, background, image and painstakingly added colors and drew in details pixel-by-pixel on a tablet PC. In one day, one artist would be able to draw one frame and a half for whatever image he or she was working on.
“We knew it was going to be hard going in,” says Kukino. “But we wanted to make the ultimate 2D fighting game.” Up close, that meticulous attention to detail becomes apparent, and you’re always noticing a flourish here or a nice touch there. Every inch of the screen has something interesting going on. “We wanted the look of the game to have more in common with manga or anime,” Kukino adds. With KoFXII, it looks like SNK hasn’t only created another stylized 2D fighter, but this time, a genuine work of art.
King of Fighters XII could turn out to be one of the best-looking fighting games ever. Take that Capcom!
