I'll be honest, I'm not a great fan of beat 'em ups. At my grand old age, I just don't seem to have the reflexes necessary to string together all those ridiculously complicated combos that you need to pull off anything other than a simple punch or kick. When I have made the mistake of trying to play, I'm invariably thrashed by my opponent or - even worse - by the computer. And that's on Easy mode! Not much fun for us ageing gamers!

Having said that, I've just started playing MK vs DCU and you know what? I still get regularly thrashed but, damn, being able to fight as Batman or Wonder Woman is more than enough to make it enjoyable even when you're losing! Green Lantern pounding enemies with a giant green hammer? Superb! Catwoman whipping and clawing her way through enemies twice her size? Stellar! Superman able to use both his heat vision and his freezing breath powers? What more could you want?!

There's a dearth of decent super hero games out there and, ironically, it often seems to be the combat system that lets them down. But I don't care any more. I will be happily playing (and probably still losing!) at this game for weeks to come. The Joker's moves alone (including a hand buzzer and a giant boxing glove, natch!) are worth the purchase price alone.

Oh ... and the Mortal Kombat characters are in it, too. But who cares about them? They've been in a hundred beat 'em ups before! Nothing compares to the sight of the Flash running rings around Darkseid or Batman disappearing in the dark cloud of a smoke bomb only to crash feet first down on top of Lex Luthor.

Unless of course, it's Wonder Woman. Damn, the things she can do with that lasso!