I’ve never been a big fan of fighting games. My technique tends to degenerate into repeating the same move ad nauseum, which works great in the early rounds but always ends in a sprained wrist and crushing defeat, just like a band geek’s senior prom. I am kidding of course, about band geeks getting serious ass, not about being hopeless at memorizing and mastering the complicated move sets central to every fighting game ever made.

But if ever there were a fighting game even a pacifist player like me could get excited about, it’s Mortal Kombat, the series that almost single-handedly jump started the ratings system movement with it’s shockingly and awesomely violent “fatalities,” bloody finishing moves that, among other things, allowed you to snatch the spine clean ‘outta your opponent. But this has been both the boon and the bane of the blood-soaked series from the beginning - is it a great fighting game or just a mediocre fighting game with a great gimmick?

The already released Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe is poised to answer this question as the first game in the series not to bear the Scarlett “M.” As you watch these weakened and watered down fatalities, do you think MK vs. DC will rejuvenate the fighting franchise or perform a triple rib cage exploding brutality? I think the improved story mode and layered game play will make up for the lack of gristly gore, for even if the characters do not die, does not a double-dose of spiked fan to the chest still make them bleed?

Hit the jump for a relatively bloodless montage of all 40 finishing moves from MK vs. DC, including The Joker’s original fatality, which has been censored to be less “bullet to the brainy” for the series’ first teen-rated release.