Point: Why the new Mortal Kombat game has great potential.

As I have covered earlier, Superhero games like those involving Batman, are inherently limited. This is due especially to dealing with such well-defined characters. If a game involves Batman lighting up Gotham gangs with a machine gun, and then going back in time to fight Nazis, the gameplay may be enjoyable but the characterization is completely lost. Game designers are extremely limited to options when creating Batman games.

What does Batman do in an average movie or comic?

1. Investigates crime
2. Punches bad-guys
3. Ties up bad-guys who get taken to jail

This is not a fun game.

Motives, ideals, and political statements are great for movies and comics. Knowing that you are "doing the right thing" while repetitively punching cookie-cutter bad-guys does not add to the experience at all.

Similarly, as I explored yesterday, Mortal Kombat has remained bound by the very niche it brought to the market in 1992. Fatalities brought people to the arcade cabinets, but because of poor evolution, Fatalities are the only thing bringing people back to Mortal Kombat games.

This is where the new Mortal Kombat gets interesting. No Fatalities (DC doesn't need the flak of Batman disemboweling people with his batarang). By focusing instead on the fighting elements and taking away the "looking forward to the Fatality" mindset, gamers will instead focus on the characters and the fighting strategy. This brings MK much closer to Soul Caliber and Virtua Fighter status.

Bringing characters like Batman and Superman into the same arena as Scorpion and Sub-Zero combines two fan-bases (which overlap certainly) into one market. This greatly increases revenue potential, meaning designers should get more time to develop and a bigger budget. (Just as Hollywood blockbusters start with large budgets due to the market potential)

Also, by putting Superheroes into a game which has character development (sorta) and some semblance of a story line (a bit), but which involves strategic combat (Kombat), the gameplay loses the cookie-cutter bad-guy curse which plagues most Superhero games. Batman's punches and kicks are suddenly the focus, rather than the limit, of the game. This enhances each nuance of the attacks, while forgoing all of the poorly-integrated "investigation" and other goofy attempts to bring more life to the same beat-em-up gameplay we've seen since the first Batman games.

So, to break it down: Reasons Mortal Kombat (with DC Comics) has a chance to be greater than either a Mortal Kombat game or a DC Comics game:

1. Mortal Kombat gameplay makes the limits of other DC games suddenly an advantage
2. Batman and other characters bring great fan-power to the series.
3. Developers of Mortal Kombat are experienced, and aren't racing to release (I hope!)
4. No Fatalities means the gameplay may actually be good (maybe)
   

What was that? I hear a counter-point coming soon!