Joystiq Gets Their Hands on MK vs DC Universe

It appears that <a href="http://www.joystiq.com/">Joystiq</a> has gotten a <a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/09/25/doh-pad-a-visit-with-mk-vs-dc-on-xbox-360/">chance to preview</a> and recent build of <a href="http://www.trmk.org/games/mortal_kombat_vs_dc_universe">Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe</a>. But I would take the preview with a grain of salt. The article falls short of really talking about the new game, instead the writer is focusing on his views on the series, which he admittedly hasn't played <i>"since Trilogy on N64,"</i> 12 years ago. So <i>James Ransom-Wiley</i> may not have been <a href="http://www.joystiq.com/">Joystiq's</a> best choice for a reviewer unfamiliar with the series in the past decade.

Throughout the preview, there are a few good comments about the game, but they are buried in complaints about the series and other fighting games. Here are a few notable ones that stood out to me.

"MK vs. DC does succeed as an accessible fighter that's mostly contained on a two-dimensional plane"

"There are "Flashes" of appropriate brilliance, and there's certainly a sense of power, not unlike two super heavyweights planted firmly in the ring, slugging it out. Ironically, Midway nails it best with the Joker, a character that historically avoids hand-to-hand combat. His celebratory jig is especially alive on-screen."

"It's not intimidating, mostly relying on classic "Street Fighter" commands, and it's mashable -- I can't speak to its depth -- and there are some well-integrated "mini-guessing-games" mixed into the gameplay. Now there's a game I could throw on for my casual-fun-seeking friends and kill a few hours with, I thought. Sounds like Midway hit its goal."

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Some little tidbits have been revealed though, from the start two character slots will be locked. Those, as was <a href="http://www.trmk.org/news/11932/entire_mk_vs_dcu_roster_revealed_by_achievements.html">revealed earlier in the achievements leak</a>, should be slots for end-bosses Shao Kahn and Darkseid. But instead of some research, the reviewer starts new rumors of Aquaman, Hawkman or Firestorm. I guess he didn't read the <a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/09/11/rumor-mk-vs-dc-achievements-reveal-lex-luthor-darkseid-more/">article on his own site announcing the character list</a> that would have answered that question.

He also seemed to coin the DC heroes' Brutalities as a Heroic Brutality which makes sense. We're not entirely sure if this is the final wording for the finishing move, but we'll see if we can't find out. A release date of November 10th, 2008 is mentioned at the end of the article. We've heard this date rumor before, as it's listed on <a href='http://www.gamestop.com'>Gamestop.com</a> currently, but it's still not the official date last we checked with Midway who still considers it to be Fall 2008.

Re: Joystiq Gets Their Hands on MKvDCU

Wow that guy sounds like a bone head. How did they get to review it and not you?? At least we know you would do it justice.

The 7th Number said:

Wow that guy sounds like a bone head. How did they get to review it and not you?? At least we know you would do it justice.

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They are bigger, higher traffic, nothing new or surprising there. While we get a lot of traffic, no where near Joystiq's numbers. They don't have to spend time to convince the fan sites to cover the game, we do anyways. It's Joystiq and the other more-high profile game blogs and magazines that they want to cover the game.

I'd love to play it early, and I'm not far from Midway since I'm in Chicago, but it's just not in the cards for us. I've actually been told by media relations in the past that we'd never be allowed to get early looks at the game, so we've stopped asking. Outside of E3 and Gamers Day events, my early bird looks at the games ended with Midway ending their arcade development and local beta testing. This year I just couldn't make E3 due to my day job (iPhone Game Development) conflicting with the launch of the iTunes AppStore.

We'll have our coverage of the game starting day one anyways, along with move guides, Konquest mode guides, etc like we always do. I usually take a day off of work just to churn out as much as I can in those first few days to get the content to the readers faster than anyone else. I've been doing MK game guides for about 15 years now, so I'm pretty good at getting things up and right quick.

What a douche bag.

I should have done this review/preview. I mean, his credits at playing MK games is equal to mine at journalism.

High school newspaper, FTW!!! lol

Poor choice I'm sure, but not every writer at Joystiq is as boneheaded. I admit, I frequent Joystiq and Kotaku as much as I do this site. But they're almost always a few days behind when it comes to MK news.

Glamador said:

Poor choice I'm sure, but not every writer at Joystiq is as boneheaded. I admit, I frequent Joystiq and Kotaku as much as I do this site. But they're almost always a few days behind when it comes to MK news.

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I agree with them normally being good, just the article was treated very poorly. To me he acted like Midway killed his puppy 12 years ago, and he hasn't forgiven them yet. So he wouldn't look at the game in the proper light because he was so biased about how much he didn't like MKT, which I'll admit is a fairly craptastic game bug and quality control wise.

Kotaku is actually much faster with MK news, they seem to care about the title a bit too. They have beaten us to the punch on most stories too.

The article is actaully an insult to reviewers everywhere... I think he just didn't know how to review the game, thats all. Like every day he is used to eating an apple pie and suddenly out of the blue he gets a pork pie instead one day. ¬_¬'

Edit:

He has what... 4 paragraphs and he only mentions the gameplay in one of them. Overall he doesn't even mention one paragraphs worth of gameplay and I was left with the idea he'd rather be playing halo then a beat 'em up. And on top of that, he pretty much labels it as another beat 'em up, labelling them all on the level of street fighter.

Seriously...

Fire this reviewer and get someone in that can review a game without forgetting their reviewing the game and not the genre.

It's wierd, I always read the Joystiq and Kotaku hands-on articles and it's usually a great preview, they often just walk you right through the demo they got and explain how they got their impressions. This is an unusual case and the guy deserves a reprimand at least. It tarnishes this site's reputation.

Ha, Ha *arghh* gotta love these ignorant people reviewing fighting games....

Interesting read, pardon the slightly off parts pertaining to MK etc

I don't believe knows much about MK at all honestly.

MKF30-mkdc said:

I don't believe knows much about MK at all honestly.

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lol, I mean, the last MK he played was MKT, on the N64!!! And we all know about that POS port of the game, hahaha

Yeah, it's a fun game but sadly broken to hell on both N64 and PS....give me UMK3 any day over MKT in terms of serious play ; )