The game was going to feature more playable characters for downloadable content. Quan Chi from the Mortal Kombat Universe and Harley Quinn from the DC Universe. Unfortunately, these characters were canceled as Midway went bankrupt, leaving Quan Chi as a story mode NPC (though the model would later be used in 2011's Mortal Kombat).
Since the game featured DC characters, Midway was forced to keep the tone of the violence down. This also included less violent fatalities as DC did not allow on screen gore or extreme violence to be associated with their characters. It took Midway multiple submissions to the ESRB before a Teen rating was awarded.
The first Mortal Kombat game (that wasn't a port) to ever to have fatalities censored in North America. Since the North American release carries a "T" rating, the camera pans away in both Joker's and Deathstroke's fatalities before their guns shoot their victims in the head. The European version keeps the original version intact since their Teen rating is for 16 and over. Ironically enough, the animation for Joker's fatality would later be used in 2011's Mortal Kombat as one of Shang Tsung's fatalities (albeit as a generic "evil clown" as opposed to The Joker), yet with a more more graphic result than even the uncensored MK vs DC fatality.
The DC heroes perform Heroic brutalities while the Mortal Kombat characters and DC villains perform Fatalities.
First "Mortal Kombat" game not rated "Mature" by the Entertainment Software Rating Board.