So I had my first day off in the last fourteen yesterday. Well, my first morning, at any rate. We're working fairly crazy hours, so you take what you can get. Being able to sleep in a little, not having to be anywhere until 1300(that's 1pm for you civs out there), it's a real joy.
I spent my free time calling folks back home, drinking soda, and playing the new Mortal Kombat game.
For those you who haven't played that game, it is pretty awesome. It integrates the worlds of MK and of DC Comics, you know Batman, Superman and that crew. The story of the game is a pretty standard super-crossover plot, but it's a whole lot of fun. It plays a lot like the earlier MK games, but you have to figure out how to do the DC characters signature moves. It is amazingly cool to get the Flash to zoom around the screen or to get Batman to hit an opponent with an exploding bat-a-rang.
The thing about it is, I've normally been pretty disappointed with the quality of comic book based games. Remember Marvel: Ultimate Alliance? That is one of the single most boring dungeon runners I've ever seen. Even the cooperative nature of the game play can't redeem such an absolutely mediocre playing experience. Every character, no matter what powers or abilities that claim to have, every character functions exactly the same in the game. It comes across as being extremely lazy.
Mortal Kombat Vs DC, at least, recognizes that each character is special in someway, that each character is a unique and irreplaceable element. For such a simple format, it goes a long way.
My only real problem with the game is that it has relatively few characters. The characters it does have, it does an amazing amount with, but come on. Where's Reptil? Martian Manhunter? Smoke? Booster Gold? Both worlds seem to suffer a little without the B-Listers (Of course, the economy of characters does save us from an uncomfortable cameo by Dr. Manhattan, Roschach and the rest of the Watchmen gang).