In our schoolyard days Vs. matches would often be the subject of debate, even now in the pub the age old question of who would win in a punch up between Superman and Batman has so many factors, it can create new friendships and push old ones out the door.

Midway has seen this niche and decided to fill it, by packing in a bunch of well loved superheros and facing them off against a number of vicious fighters imbued with magical elements and known for their violence.

Round 1 fight...

The game is your average 3D fighter, one person each side, punch, kick, throw, block and some special moves. The special moves work very well as they tend to be more of the back back X variety than the quarter circle foward type, which causes less stress than with other games (for example street fighter or soul calibur). We are also given a 'grapple mode' where one player grabs the other and plays a variant of rock paper scissors using the four main buttons to cause damage while the other player tries to suss out their move, and a 'freefall mode' which works the same way and is caused by being hit out of the arena and down to the next tier a la dead or alive. Both these modes (along with a smack through walls and hit all the buttons minigame) feel tacked on and although fun and cool to do, do become tiresome.

The plot is fairly simple and involves (without spoilers) the two worlds (that of the dc heroes and that of the mortal kombatants) being sucked into each other, them all going a bit loopy and bashing each other around, with 'magic' explained as the reason that you can actually hurt superman. it is that simple and rather than be a flaw, it is exactly what you need in a game like this, I don't want to hear about batmans troubled past, I want to punch sub zero in the head!

The game has both an arcade mode where you can fight whoever you want (DC can fight themselves and vice versa) in a stage of your choosing or a story mode which works by choosing a side, then being given a character, fighting four battles, then being given another character and repeat. Not great as you are given a new character just as you learn an old one and you cant choose said character but at least you get some variety.

The graphics and sound are fine, The visual damage to the characters as the fight goes on, such as ripped costumes, scars on the face is a nice touch, however there is an awful lot of dark arenas and the personalitys of the characters never really shines through. There are also occasional glitches, punches that go through characters, small details that blur, these things never bothered me too much but if you are a graphic fanatic it could be a blight.

Each character falls into a set, heavy attacks slow moves - Jax, Lex Luthor. Or weak attacks but fast - Wonder Woman, Sonya Blade. Or all rounders - Scorpion, Joker. Some people do have issues with superman and the flash being very hard to hit when being used by a master, and although they do rise above the difficulty of normal characters, perserverance should see you through.

The replayability of the game is remarkably low, you gain an extra character for completing each side of story mode and a one picture ending with a vague description upon finishing arcade mode but thats about it. Where are the comics? The Commentaries? The things that DC and MK geeks like me actually want!!! It's going to be enjoyed a lot more on a game like this than on something like army of two believe me.

The achievements are bland, they are mainly based around completing story mode then completing arcade mode with each character. There are a number for playing Vs. online which if you enjoy doing so, will be a bonus.

I must take a small moment here to mention the combo challenges, with one for each character these are essentially training modes, where you must input a series of commands to pull off combos, starting small - back back A, down foward B, to huge ones with three to four times the original inputs. These would be fine if it wasnt for the game's awkward collision detection and timing in this mode, I pride myself on being fairly good at games and even I couldn't finish ANY of the combo challenges fully, and to get as far as I did took a lot of time and effort. This is not to say they are impossible, but be prepared to invest some serious time on these if you want to finish them.

My other major problem is the lack of violence, although you can punch and set fire to whoever you see fit in the game, due to DC law their superheros cannot kill people so all the superheros are given "Heroic Brutalities" and the "Fatalitys" have been dumbed down, gone are the days of ripping out a spine or uppercutting someone onto spikes, they are replaced with dumbed down versions, although you still techincally 'kill' the other player it doesnt feel the same (this is as an MK player for a few years) and feels a bit of a sell out on midways part. It is also worth noting here that you can only do fatalities in arcade and online vs mode as during the story it would present continuity errors.

My final problem with the game is the choice of characters, I imagine that midway and DC picked their most recognised and fan favourite guys and threw them in, but where is Nightwing? Johnny Cage? Doomsday? Cyrax? Rumour has it that they may be released as downloadable content but as it is just a rumour I cant promise anything and was a little bit miffed not to be able to play as some of these guys.

Overall this is exactly what it says on the case, a chance for you to punch scorpion with superman and freeze batman with sub zero, if you want depth, strategic techniques and flowing graphics you're in the wrong place, but if you want to know who'd win from your schoolyard days? You're home.