When worlds collide, brawl

Rarely do crossovers between hit series work. Too often they turn out more “Love Boat”-and-”Fantasy Island” miserable than “Diff’rent Strokes”-and-”Silver Spoons” awesome.

An exception to this rule is Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, a solid fighting game that breathes new life into a familiar franchise.

The world of Sub Zero, Scorpion and the rest of the brutal fighters of Kombat merges with the Metropolis and Gotham cities of DC Comics heroes Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and others. Button-mashing, best-two-out-of-three brawls ensue.

The 10 DC characters all look great, even if some voices leave a little to be desired, and feature great special powers, such as Green Lantern’s power ring.

The fighting, though intense, is not as gory as is usually the case in a Mortal Kombat game; hence, it gets a “Teen” rating. In fact, the blood can be easily disabled as an in-game option, making it more appropriate for younger gamers. Some players might miss the ability to rip out their opponent’s spine as in previous Mortal Kombat fighters, but the game’s fun and accessibility are what really shine.

Grade: A (Without the blood, the comic-book violence is tame by today’s standards.)

Details: Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 platforms; $59.99; rated Teen (blood, suggestive themes, violence).

A shot at familiar territory

After taking a brief trip to the modern day with one of last year’s best games -- Modern Warfare -- the Call of Duty series returns to its World War II roots with its latest installment, Call of Duty: World at War.

Happily, the results are the same: World at War is one of the best first-person shooters around and will give even Resistance 2 a run for its money as shooter of the year.

Intense and action-packed, yet with familiar, comfortable controls, World at War features some outstanding voice acting from Kiefer Sutherland as you battle the Japanese near the end of WWII. (What could be better than to go into battle with Jack Bauer?) Stunning graphics and authentic sounds help ramp up the game’s emotion levels, as does the actual historical footage, even if it does get brutal at times.

The multiplayer modes continue the great time-wasting tradition of last year’s titles as well.

Grade: A (Another outstanding title in an already outstanding series.)

Details: Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 platforms; $59.99; rated Mature (blood and gore, intense violence, strong language).

Lara bewitches -- and befuddles

With each outing on the powerful next-generation systems, Lara Croft, the first lady of video games, keeps looking better and better. As far as video game characters go, she is the original sex symbol -- the face that launched a thousand imitators.

Unfortunately, all Lara has going for her in Tomb Raider: Underworld is her looks. Sure, the vast environments she explores are a sight to behold, as is the well-detailed Lara, but Underworld is the rare video game sequel that requires deep knowledge of the previous title for the story to make even a little bit of sense. (Even after viewing the clip “Previously on 2006’s Tomb Raider: Legend” in the extras, we were still befuddled as to who some of the key players are.)

Because Lara can move, jump and cling with near superhuman ability, she can go nearly anywhere, even places within the game she wasn’t designed to go, leading to messy gameplay. And at times the great locales start to look too similar, causing confusion when trying to retrace your steps.

Still, few characters in games can still look so good, even after all these years.

Grade: B- (More time developing plot and story would have been nice.)

Details: All platforms; $29-$59.99; rated Teen (blood, mild language, mild suggestive themes, violence).

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