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There are a lot of things I never expect to see in my lifetime. I don't expect to see the Chicago Bears win three Superbowls in a row; I don't expect to see Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo get behind one end-all, be-all system; and I don't expect to see hoverboards (no matter how badly I want them). However, even though I don't expect to see those things, there's a still a chance that they might come to be because anything can happen -- if you need proof of that, look at Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe.  This game defies logic by both existing and not sucking.

If you're just joining us, MK vs. DC packs 22 characters from both the videogame that became Exhibit A in how brutal this medium could be and the comic book powerhouse that's been around for more than 70 years. These heroes, villains, and ice-hurling ninjas are then let loose on one another to do battle in bloody brawls that are decided in the best two out of three rounds, but MK vs. DC is a bit more than just fight after fight after fight.

However, before we get to the modes this game offers, talking about the fighting system MK vs. DC employs is probably a good idea. When things were 2D on your SEGA Genesis and Super Nintendo, Mortal Kombat was simple: up was jump, down was crouch, and left/right moved you left/right. Being an awesome fighter came down to timing your blocks and moves while dodging ranged attacks the best that you could with your limited movement options. However, when MK made the move to the 3D realm, things got sticky. Suddenly, characters could just walk deeper into the plane and watch Liu Kang's fireballs float past them harmlessly. Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe blends both of these styles with a varied amount of success.

The D-pad controls your movement on the 2D plane (crouching, jumping, and moving), but if you hold down left trigger, your up an down arrows move you in the 3D sense of side to side. Meanwhile, the left stick is strictly 3D movement. The choice is nice, but I personally would've preferred anchoring the title to the 2D controls. It's nice being able to explore an arena -- there are 14 in the game that range from the Guardian's Green Lantern base to the Batcave to Themyscira -- but it's frustrating to launch a screaming skull as Shang-Tsung and have the opponent just step to his or her right and watch the Supermove -- what the game calls all of your cool moves beyond simple attacks -- fly on by. Against a computer, these sidestepping shenanigans aren't that bad, but if you get two skilled players together, it's rare to land a series of ranged hits.

Beyond these movement commands are the tried-and-true Mortal Kombat combos we've all spent time punishing our thumbs with as we attempt to pull off bicycle kicks and Fatalities. Thankfully, you can scope all of your character's moves and Supermoves from the pause screen, directions are usually pretty consistent on a character by character basis -- Kano and Superman use a lot of down-away and down-toward moves, while other folks will use more toward-toward attacks -- and the moves actually look cool. Wonder Woman's "Gotcha Girl" has her kick the opponent into the air, catch the midair foe with her lasso, and then slam the body back to Earth; Sub-Zero can create a block of ice in the air that'll fall and crush opponents; and Captain Marvel's "Mercury Bearhug" has him grab an opponent from behind, turn the foe so that his or her chest is pointed toward the sky, yell "Shazam!", and watch the ensuing lightning bolt fry the combatant. Of course, all of these combos are hampered by the 360's lackluster/unresponsive D-pad, but I can't fault MK vs. DC for what it has to work with and you can get into a groove with the device. If you're interested in other PS3/360 differences, check out IGN Insider's Head-To-Head when you get a second.

Mr. Lantern, tear down this wall.Nifty, character-specific moves aren't the only things MK vs. DC brings to the table in terms of fighting mechanics. This addition to the Mortal Kombat franchise introduces four scenarios to the series: Klose Kombat, Free Fall Kombat, Test Your Might, and Rage Mode. To initiate Klose Kombat, you'll need to tap left bumper and watch as your player reaches out and grabs the opponent. The camera zooms in to a tight shot of the fight between the combatants, and the face buttons of the controllers will pop up on the different sides of the screen to represent the different players. It'll be up to the attacker to input his or her individual commands. A lot of people confuse this with a quick-time event, but the buttons that light up on the screen are actually the buttons you are pressing. See, the person getting attacked needs to block and the only way to do that it to hit the same button the attacker is hitting. So, when Klose Kombat begins, the person about to get wailed on needs to start trying to match the attacker's onscreen moves. If the guy on the defense hits the right button, the character pulls off a reversal and you're back to fighting in the normal view. If the reversal never comes, it's a beatdown for a few hits.

Free Fall Kombat takes the button tapping game to the air. Here, a fighter will tackle his or her opponent and run the foe through the side of the environment -- a computer screen in the Batcave, ice walls in the Fortress of Solitude, etc. When you clear whatever you've smashed through, you and the enemy are falling to the next level while fighting. The same sets of buttons that pop up for Klose Kombat are on the screen and it's the same random press/guess to block situation. However, this time the onscreen doodads are joined by a meter labeled "Super." As you fight, this meter builds. When it crosses a white line that divides the meter, you can press right bumper to pull off a devastating Supermove that generally propels the enemy into the ground below -- Wonder Woman grabs the opponent with her lasso, twirls the foe around, and launches him or her at the ground; Jax shoots the opponent with an Uzi before blasting the foe into the floor below; and so on. This knocks off a large percentage of health based on how full the meter was when the move was deployed. Free Fall Kombat isn't available for every level, but at the stage select screen you can tell which ones are.

To me, both Klose Kombat and Free Fall Kombat are cool ideas that fall a bit short in practice. Klose Kombat is sweet because MK vs. DC features character bruising and costume tears so it's nice to get an up close look at that and Free Fall Kombat is cool because the fistfights end with such power, but the mechanics around these tantalizing tidbits are a bit stiff. Fighting in Mortal Kombat is supposed to be fast and furious, but the action slows down considerably when you get to the button-pressing parts of Klose Kombat and Free Fall Kombat. Suddenly you go from hurling fireballs and stringing together uppercuts with laser blasts to sending out sluggish punches and headbutts. It takes you out of the experience.

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