Comic books fans love them some brand tribalism, and so do gamers. Naturally, they often meet in the middle. Welcome back.
I’m not really into the whole Marvel vs. DC thing (until that actually becomes a real thing in a game or movie or otherwise), but it’s tough being a DC fan. They have some of the coolest characters out there, but when it comes to video games, it’s been a bunch of misses, especially compared to Marvel.
Marvel Rivals continues to be a popular hero shooter on console and PC. Marvel’s Wolverine is coming this September after Insomniac’s Spider-Man games. Marvel Cosmic Invasion was an awesome collaboration that brought forth a classic, 2D arcade beat-em-up. Card battler Marvel Snap continues on towards its fourth anniversary after DC’s attempt at that genre, DC Dual Force, got shut down rather quickly.
And now, DC’s latest attempt at making a successful game with its IP is a mobile fighting game. Yeah, seriously, and it’s called DCKO. Yeah! Seriously. The trailer above shows what basically amounts to a Marvel Contest of Champions clone supplemented with some MultiVersus mechanics by first looks, and I don’t think anyone was really asking for this. Were they?
DC fans are feeling fed up and it’s hard to blame them. It’s been many years since the Batman Arkham series ended, MultiVersus included a number of DC characters and got shut down, and the same can be said for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which for some reason tried to be a live-service game and colossally failed. Even the title of this game, DCKO, looks kind of like “dicko” and is way too similar to existing fighting game 2XKO. Woof.
Thankfully, DC is not totally lost with its gaming IP thanks to collaborative efforts like LEGO Batman. But for the last few years, it’s been yikes to say the least. And when it comes to a DC fighting game, well, we’ve already had that with the Injustice franchise from Mortal Kombat devs Netherrealm. Rumors continue to float about an Injustice 3 in development, so if and when that happens I’ll be thrilled, but this DCKO game looks really rough.
The replies to the game’s announcement on social media were less than thrilled, and yeah, I get it. Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, The Flash, etc. are all characters who deserve a bit better, but it feels like the powers in control of the IP don’t really get it.
