While the Mortal Kombat series has often been derided for its so-called lack of innovation, in reality the series has seen a revolution of change throughout its history. Though its cast of characters has been expanded more through storage limitations than anything else (did you know, for instance, that the ‘real’ robot warrior was Sektor?), Ed Boon and his team have delivered more than their fair share of significant gameplay changes. The ability to run at will in 1995, adopting a three-tier moveset for each character in 2002, dipping their toe into general action come 2005, all to significant critical acclaim too. Alongside multiple tier arenas, a smorgasbord of finishing moves and attempts at full-on RPG recreations of Outworld’s particular brand of lawlessness, the team’s reputation for resting on its laurels is clearly a wholly unwarranted one. What better way to cement this, then, than completely blindsiding the entire industry with a collaboration about as unlikely as Mario versus Sonic. Oh wait, that whole thing. GTA IV: Jack Thompson Edition? Yeah, that’ll do.

So, our mouthwatering Unreal Engine 3 MK title will use such powers of jaw-dropping realism to render DC Comics favourites such as Superman and Batman. Oh, the irony! Of course, such a move demands more stringent brand control than the franchise has ever seen, making this the first in the series to receive something other than a mature rating stateside and who knows, might even scrape a 12 over the pond, given a fair wind. Before your gore sense causes fluids to spill involuntarily onto the page, this doesn’t mean that Sub-Zero will be blowing great chunks of ice before Scorpion kindly whittles them into the shape of a rampant swan, or something. Proceedings look every inch as brutal as last time out, the widespread bruising of Deception having developed into a series of wounds that appear during bouts, not only on exposed areas but through torn sections of cloth in Superman’s posing pants and the like, loose ends waving in the breeze. What’s more, items meant to stand freely will be torn to comparative shreds, not exactly handy when you like looking good while wearing a whole lot of capes. DC has even granted Midway permission to tear logo designs, meaning you don’t have situations developing akin to 1940s movies, where the leading lady might disappear into the water of some sun-kissed beach or other, only to return with perfect hair. One thing’s for sure: clothing’s come a long way since that wavy cloak Rogan wore in House Of The Dead.

If you thought Virtua Fighter 5 sported some pretty swish (not to mention Mr Sheen shiny) character models, think again, as the cliché goes. While Sega’s brawler boasts chests pitted like the most chronic acne sufferer thanks to muddy textures, Midway’s legends can be studied to the hair follicle. In all, each model’s polygon count has doubled for each year MK was away, giving each an almost totally defined 20,000. Zooming in on everyone’s favourite deceased harbinger of death, Scorpion, details as inconsequential as individual ribs, and the definition of each muscle under his leather body suit stand out like the sharp end of a chainsaw. For the likes of Scorpion specifically, costume damage will start to reveal the demon within. Destruction of his mask will reveal the sharp jawline of, well, just the jawbone itself, made famous by the buttons up, up and A all those years ago. We’re assured that the following weeks and months will see all that hard work building up caricatured but tangible muscle textures put to good use, producing animations to show them expanding and contracting with each hammer blow. What’s more, characters will talk and taunt during matches as a matter of course. Though our mischievous side envisions the Adam West style Batman finishing foes off with a ‘Zzap!’, or perhaps a ‘Kaboom!’, it’ll more likely be something still family friendly but a lot less knowing. Boo.

The MK team’s biggest announcement at this stage is predictably enough to do with character rosters. To this effect, it’s our pleasure to introduce Sonya Blade and Flash to an ensemble that already includes Superman, Batman, Sub-Zero and Scorpion. For those interested, Ed Boon personally assured us their final total will lie in the mid-twenties. Flash’s model proved just as detail-packed as others yet revealed, his skin-tight suit bearing many types of material, definition looking very much like he’d been wrapped in textured carpet. It’s a wonder he doesn’t chafe up at the drop of a hat, it really is. The details on everyone’s mostloved human police officer after Jax and Stryker are rather impressive. A dog tag bearing the name ‘Sonya Blade’ adorns her midriff, as do bikini tan lines, irrelevant as they may be. Sadly, she’s still wearing one of those silly berets covering only half her head, but you can’t have everything.

Obtaining such juicy licences for use in a brawler could spark the imagination of a mayfly. With such varied superpowers however, tweaking is in progress to level matches between skyscraper-juggling Superman and a perennial whipping girl whose best ability is creating circular pink forcefields with her fists. That’s just one example. The solution, says Ed Boon himself, is to expand each character’s special moves list wildly, leaving attacks openended for players to create their own combos, rather than bashing out buttons etched deep in the memory. Superman, for instance, can use his breath to freeze opponents from close to mid-range besides employing that same tactic to draw them into attack range. In addition to this, he’ll sport an exaggerated throw during which he flies his opponent ten feet up before slamming them down to earth besides a heat vision move that sweeps the screen’s opposite end. The idea is to make as many of these segue into each other as possible – in fact, the above four moves can be performed swiftly in the exact same order, rather proving Boon’s point. In total, each character will sport six special moves, ditching the set of three martial arts in the process (presumably considered an over-complication by the development team).

Elsewhere, we were treated to Scorpion’s line-up, which includes a few staples (the spear, an ability to teleport backwards out of the screen), besides a few he’s inherited as the years forced evolutions (a ‘throw’ he performs with his ankles from the ground springs to mind). Flash’s line-up, predictably enough, includes that staple since ’96 – spinning your opponent around like a top, simply using your own speed. To be fair, that makes a whole lot more sense now than it did with a man injured to the point of needing breathing apparatus did it, so it’s not all development by shoehorn.

Boon’s team are at pains to suggest Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe has been built from scratch once more for its next-generation debut. We’re a little loathed to agree, general character movement appearing to be lifted straight from Deception, impressive as that still was. Where significant changes have been put in place is at set-piece moments during fights. While the team’s last outing featured Dead Or Alive-style tiered arenas, in reality there was very little point in their existence. After all, stage Fatalities didn’t kill opponents if it wasn’t the deciding round (go figure), and most other arenas simply featured a dramatic fall before hostility commenced. So far, so boring. This time around, characters fight on the way down. At each moment one lies below the other, each imputing a sequence of defensive or attacking moves based upon that position. The goal is to end the five second gap on top, at which point you’ll gain the massive bonus of slamming into your adversary knees first, for the colloquial massive damage. The feature certainly achieves its set aim – not allowing a crashing flurry of blows to stop – but it remains to be seen if any enjoyment at all can actually be squeezed from it, or whether matters will be all about who can press which button quicker.

Also new is close combat mode, which involves one Kombatant shoving the other mid-match, shifting the focus to torsos only. For the next few seconds, movement is suspended while the two duel it out in similar fashion to the above, one on defence and the other attack. Again, this adds a little drama to proceedings, but whether it sinks or swims will depend heavily on how it’s all controlled, and whether it becomes a bit like battered boxers clenching their opponents, desperate for a few seconds’ thinking time. As ever, the mouths of several X360 team members have been salivating for some time at the prospect of a fresh MK adventure to sink their teeth into – whether this outing proves the genuine article itself or just another reason to anticipate their first ‘proper’ next-generation Mortal Kombat remains to be seen. As Boon himself admits, an MK without finishing moves is like a sentence without punctuation – with replacement set pieces in position, we’re left simply to eagerly await what the team will come up with. After all, they’re yet to let us down (unless you count that stupid Liu Kang hand puppet Friendship in MK 3, of course). Seriously, get your anticipation hats on, people.

Dave Shaw