As promised yesterday by MK_Nat on the Midway Boards, GameSpot did indeed reveal new information regarding Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe today. It was however, in the form of the second official trailer and the preview for the fast-approaching E3 2008 event.
First a summary of the second trailer. This 1:18 showcase features a bit of everything gameplay wise that will be found within the game. Klose Kombat is featured very prominently and a few shots of Freefall Kombat as well many special moves from the characters fill in the gaps. At around 48 seconds into the video, Sonya can be seen performing a "pro move" (more on that below). The trailer ends with Scorpion removing his mask to reveal his flaming skull head and performing his Toasty fatality on Flash, but the screen goes black to hide whatever details lay beyond that.
The preview for E3 is in the form of a two page write up GameSpot created after playing a hands on demo, the one to be featured at E3 itself. The demo contains six characters: Sonya, Scorpion and Sub-Zero from the MK side of things and Batman, the Flash and Superman from the DC side. The stages featured will be the three we have seen in the gameplay videos released thus far. The Metropolis, Hell and the Graveyard. They start off mentioning the removal of dial-up combos from the gameplay:
... You won't find MKIII-style chain combos that will clock up hit counts in the double digits; instead you'll find combos in the 3-5 hit range. This is still being tweaked so it may change but we have to say we kind of like how it's working.
The classic Test Your Might minigame also returns, if only in name form and perhaps similar mechanics:
As far as the new "test your might" minigame goes, we have to say we're very pleased by how it fits in to the action. We stumbled on it in the Metropolis stage when we'd backed an opponent into a wall. After knocking them through the wall our character, Superman, grabbed them and started running to the right, slamming through wall after wall. The sequence required us to mash face buttons which upped the damage. Much like the sequences we just mentioned, it's a quick break in the fight. While the timing is being tweaked we're liking how they work. You're not pulled out of the fight for too long and they all keep you on your toes, adding a welcome unpredictability to battle.
As mentioned above, something currently referred to as "pro moves" has been implemented within the gameplay to award those with superior skill. A brief description of this was given during the preview:
While the special moves are all straightforward, Boon and the team are adding timing-based variations on them which are tentatively being called "pro moves". For example, if you perform Sonya's energy ring move, and you can get a controller and button motion in during a specific window of time, she'll fire off a second shot in rapid succession. The goal is to have every special move have a "pro" variant. While not every character's move had a variant in what we played, we were very much liking how it all worked. Besides adding some depth to the combo system, the moves definitely added a new facet to combat we liked and should present a meaty challenge for veteran players to master for incorporation into their combos.
Among the many other notes in this writeup are complete lists of all six of the aforementioned characters' special moves, notes on both Freefall and Klose kombat and the current button mapping situation.
To watch the new trailer, click here.
To read the E3 2008 preview in full, click here.
Thanks to forum members
