When Midway first announced the Mortal Kombat vs DC games, I believe my exact words were: “Eeeeeee!”

As a huge longtime fan of both series (admittedly my DC fandom is bigger than my MK one), it would finally be a chance to experience the DC roster in a good, respected fighting game; not that garbage title that came out two years ago. Thankfully, I didn’t end up disappointed as Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe is a game that not only successfully delivers the DC Comics license, but turns back the clock on the Mortal Kombat franchise and reminds people how it used to be.

If you’ve played any of the recent MK games, you’re well aware of the change in combat systems. Gone was the simple yet effective 2D combat, and in its stead stood a poorly conceived 3D fighter with different combat stances and weapons to use. It was like Midway tried to turn MK into a legit, complicated fighter – which it has never been, and should never be. In this latest title, MK takes a step back. While it still utilizes 3D movement, the weapon and fighting styles are completely gone, and the old-school 4-strike layout makes a triumphant return.

Before I get to the meat of the game and the awesome story mode, let me get one of my biggest gripes out of the way: Midway couldn’t decide if they wanted this game to be 2D or 3D. This is reflected by the fact that the d-pad and left analog stick control completely differently. Using the d-pad, you’re playing classic MK; down is duck, left is left, right is right, and up is jump. Want to move forward and backward in the 3D plane? Hold the left trigger and push up/down. With the analog stick, however, left is left and right is right, but up and down move your character along the Z axis, rather than the Y axis. It’s unfortunate, because it’s a much harder game to play when you can’t easily jump and duck without switching where your thumbs are. So you’re stuck either using the 3D controls (which any good player can easily exploit to avoid the slow moving missile attacks), or you’re stuck using the much superior controls but on the Xbox 360’s inferior d-pad. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

Control schizophrenia aside, the gameplay feels, for the most part, like the MK we grew up with and loved during the era of arcades and SNES. It’s simple to learn, but hard to truly master.

While I love the switch back to the traditional MK gameplay, my favorite part of MK vs DC is the story mode. It won’t win any awards for Best Writing, but as a huge fan of the DCU I can honestly say the story is on par with some of the two- and three-parters we saw in the two Justice League series.

Basically, both sides have their own story, and you don’t get the full picture until you’ve beaten both, which will take anywhere from 3-5 hours depending on how many times you have to re-try certain fights. On the DC side of things, Superman has finally beaten Darkseid (who teamed up with Luthor) and stands facing his enemy in the war-torn streets of Metropolis. Trying to escape the last son of Krypton, Darkseid activates one of his portals, but at the last minute Superman shoots him with heat vision, the portal fluctuates wildly, Darkseid screams out the cliché “Noooo!” and vanishes.