Watch out, fighting game fans, because Warner Bros. has licensed its characters for another free-to-play fighting game. Fresh off the failed experiment that was MultiVersus, which I genuinely enjoyed, comes DCKO, a new 2v2 tag-team mobile fighting game developed and self-published by Drop Fake.
Yes, it shares its name with the recent DC K.O. comic book storyline, but the two appear to be completely unrelated. Instead, DCKO is a standalone mobile fighter heading exclusively to iOS and Android sometime in 2027.
The game appears to be trying to cater to several different types of players. There is a real-time PvP mode where you can fight other players, climb the leaderboards, and attempt to prove who is the best. Those who prefer playing by themselves can also take part in several PvE modes, including a story mode and something called the Rift.
Players will create a team of two characters and swap between them during matches, call in assists, perform tag-team combos, and unleash combined Super Moves. Characters can also be upgraded and customized with interchangeable Super Moves. More than 20 DC heroes, villains, and anti-heroes are planned for launch, including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Nightwing, Harley Quinn, Raven, Bane, Doomsday, and several others. Drop Fake also plans to release a new character every month.
But wait. Real-time fighting against actual people over mobile networks? What about latency? Will DCKO use rollback netcode, and how will matches perform when one player has a poor cellular or Wi-Fi connection? Drop Fake is heavily promoting the game’s live PvP, but it has not explained how the networking technology will handle the problems that can make or break an online fighting game. How do people even play this thing? Are we tapping on-screen buttons? Can we use controllers? I have so many questions.
There is also the free-to-play element to consider. Optional in-app purchases have already been confirmed, although we do not yet know what players will be purchasing or how aggressively the game will be monetized. The fact that characters can be upgraded and customized immediately raises questions about whether spending money could provide an advantage during PvP matches. Hopefully, that will not be the case, but we have seen enough free-to-play games to know why people are going to be concerned.
Still, if you like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Nightwing, and the rest of the DC gang, maybe this will be right up your alley. Anyone interested can head over to playdcko.com and pre-register ahead of its planned 2027 release.
Personally, after how Warner Bros. handled MultiVersus, I have very little interest in DCKO right now. MultiVersus was a damned fun and interesting platform fighter, yet its online service was shut down roughly one year after the game’s relaunch. I understand that DCKO is being developed and self-published by a completely different company, but Warner Bros. still licensed the DC name and characters to the project. My trust in anything involving another free-to-play fighting game attached to the company is at an all-time low.
Meanwhile, can you imagine being a DC Comics fan, waiting for the next major fighting game announcement, possibly even Injustice 3, and getting this instead? All while Marvel fans are salivating over the upcoming release of Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls? That is rough.
