DC's video games

As I've stated several times in previous columns, I'm both a huge comic book fan and an even more huge DC fan. And as I made clear in the immediately previous entry, I'm also quite the video game fan. And like any other human being on the planet, I like the idea behind Reese's. In other words, when someone combines two great ideas to create an even greater one. (Fusion-HA! ... How many people even get that joke...?)

In fact, a great deal of the games I've been interested in lately have been licensed property games coming from the anime or comic book world. The Naruto: Ultimate Ninja series, DBZ: Budokai Tenkaichi series, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance....the list goes on and on. Sadly though, up until recently DC Comics has mostly refused to participate in the gaming world aside from a few games here and there with DC's single popular "anti-hero" character. (Its in parethesis because he's not really an anti-hero, but explaining that doesn't seem particularly germane to this column.)

Recently, they've been trying to change that, with two new entries in the gaming world. A "crossover" fighting game with the Mortal Kombat universe, and a DC Comics Massively Multiplayer Online RPG.


....Yeah. We'll start with that first one. Who the hell greenlighted that project? I'm still trying to figure out how that conversation went:


Pitch Guy: Hey, we just came up with an idea for a new DC game!

Approval Guy: Really? Well we could use a new LP game on the market. What's it about?

Pitch Guy: Well, its a fighter...

Approval Guy: Yeah? Well we could definitely use one of those...we haven't had one since that awful Task Force game, and that came out back when comics actually made more money than games....

Pitch Guy: We're also crossing over our characters with some from another fighting game!

Approval Guy: Oh that's great! Marvel vs. Capcom was regarded as a classic and a big hit among fans. What's it called?

Pitch Guy: Its Mortal Kombat vs. DC!

(...Now see, what SHOULD'VE happened here was the approval guy should've immediately demanded the guy clean out his desk and told him to get the FUCK out. But somehow, apparently the Scarlet Witch came along and used her probability-altering powers and the answer we got was...)

Approval Guy: Great! Start on it right away! Get some good writers from the comics realm to work on the script* and let's throw these two sets of characters who should never cross even in the crappiest fanfiction stories together ASAP! I'm sure both groups of fans will LOVE it!!!

* 'Cause fighting games totally need scripts, done by actually talented writers. That's what ALL fighting game fans look for. A good story...

Yeah, DC...what the hell? First that Justice League game, and now this? Aw, come on! You're making it really hard to defend you when you make decisions like this. I mean, I'm still giving it a chance. After all, Marvel and Capcom didn't make all that much sense together either but they still pumped out two awesome video games, but come on--you would've gotten MUCH more hype if you'd just said you were coming out with a DC Universe fighting game.

And your other game doesn't inspire that much faith either. DC Universe online? Well from the beginning since its an online game you run into one of two pitfalls, and after hearing info about the game, its apparent you've run into problem two: You don't ACTUALLY get to play as the superheroes. And sure, it sounds cool when you say "Your created character gets to play alongside Batman and Superman!", but ask anyone whether they'd rather do that or actually play AS Batman and Superman, and its obvious which they'd rather do.

No, you're better off doing the best you possibly can to simulate the superhero experience. Open world games like Spider-Man 3 are a step in the right direction, but I think DC could take several more steps with just a few ideas:

- Using the most fleshed out cities as the backdrop. Unlike Marvel, which uses so many real world locations, DC has the benefit of being able to use fictional locations, many of which have personalities as nuanced as the characters they give homes to. Sure, we all know Gotham is all dark and...Gotham-y , and Metropolis is the City of Tomorrow (though they really never take advantage of that), but did you know about Opal and Fawcett City (home to Starman and Captain Marvel, respectively)? The two cities that look like they came through a time machine; Opal from England in the 1800s, Fawcett straight out of the 1950s. The twin cities Keystone and Central are the domain of the Flash family--steelworker towns. Green Lantern Hal Jordan's Coast City would be in a state of repair and building since its currently being rebuilt after being destroyed years back. I could go on, but I've made my point. A big part of video games is the atmosphere that's created, but aside from Gotham (which is easy as fuck...whoo you created a dark gothic city...big deal), nobody ever makes a real effort at creating an atmosphere in DC games.

- Artstyles. I'm sorry, but whenever I look at DC Comics videogames, all I can think about is how goofy the characters look. No matter how realistic you try to make them look...I'm just not impressed. Stop. Seriously. Take a page from anime sim games. (Granted, this is the only page you should take from them, but still...) Has anyone looked at Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm? It looks EXACTLY like the fucking anime! I spent two hours listening to Sony's E3 presentation and they spent at least twenty minutes telling me how bad-ass the processors were--if that's the case, then you can't tell me it can't simulate skins for characters that look like they came out of the comics. I'm not really sure why DC Universe Online looks so much like every other superhero game they've made when they had JIM FUCKING LEE so deeply involved in the project, but whatever. Bottom line, I'd rather have characters in my video games look like this:


Than like this. (The newest Mortal Kombat vs. DCU trailer.)

Maybe I'm weird, maybe I'm a visionary. We'll see after I graduate from Full Sail and get a job as the game design head for a DCU game, won't we?