In the midst of all the Metacrtic user score bashing, you may have missed out on some fairly important Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe news. The Joker’s Gag Gun fatality that took the internet by storm has been reworked due to ESRB Teen rating scrutiny.

If you have been following our coverage of the game here at Ripten, you already know that we had a chance to sit down with Hector Sanchez (the game’s producer) at E3. He walked us through the latest MK installment, and we spent some hands-on time with it as well.

Overall, my impression was positive, and I was looking forward to the game’s release. That excitement escalated further when I saw Hector unveil the Joker’s Gag Gun fatality in late August on GameTrailers TV. He wrapped up the segment by addressing skeptics.

“So for all the people that thought that this was going to be Mortal Kombat light, you’ve seen it here first on GameTrailers TV, the Joker actually blows Katana’s head off.”

The concept was vicious and yet the blood wasn’t persistent — something Hector explained to be a key requirement in order to achieve a Teen rating. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to be enough to convince the ESRB powers at be.

The Joker’s Gag Gun fatality that I fell in love with just two short months ago has been further “teen-a-fied”. Kotaku describes the new version after experiencing it first hand:

Joker still whips out his prank gun, a “BANG!” flag unfurling. Unfortunately, you won’t see the follow up of Joker shooting someone in the face; that actually happens off screen now, the headshot safely out of sight.

Meh. I’m disappointed. Personally, I find those damn Highschool Musical films more disturbing than a little non-persistent blood. It’s too bad. I’m holding out hope for Hector and the crew at Midway, but it appears that the ESRB has them right where they want them — drained, dazed, and ready for a finishing move of their own.

About a week ago, we received the news that Mortal Kombat vs. DC was in fact going to have Fatalities. While this remains the case, in an interview with Gametrailers.com, Ed Boon stated that he may at some point be interested in publishing another M-rated Mortal Kombat game in the future.

“…I also wouldn’t rule out doing another M-rated Mortal Kombat game.”

That pretty much guarantees that this next installment of the MK universe will be rated teen. Some of you might be asking “How can the game include fatalities if it’s rated T?” The answer is simple– they will likely tame them.

Boon said that Scorpion will still have his fire breath fatality, which is something that the SNES version had as well back in the day. If anyone remembers the first Mortal Kombat on SNES, Nintendo refused to allow any kind of bloody violent acts to be depicted on their system. So how did Midway get around this? They tamed them. Scorpion’s original finisher was kept, but the company changed many of the others resulting in fatalities that proved to be a bit boring for most gamers and fans of the arcade version.

Luckily at that time, the Genesis version (which had a code that unlocked the blood and arcade fatalities) was available for gamers seeking an experience more true to the arcade counterpart. Sadly, this time around, it appears that we’ll be forced to buy the non-gruesome version with no alternative in sight.

If I had to point the finger of blame in any direction, I would decisively point it towards DC (not Ed Boon) as they likely didn’t want to risk bloodying the tights of their superheroes.