Platform: Xbox 360    

Score: 8.0 out of 10

Injustice Gods Among Us is a fighting game made by the Mortal Kombat people over at NetherRealms. Instead of Mortal Kombat characters, DC characters are the ones dooking it out. This isn’t the first time that NetherRealms has used the Super Friends and such. Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe was released in 2008 and got an average review on Metacritic (7.6). But Injustice stands on its own against the rest on NetherRealms games.

Like the last two Mortal Kombat games, Injustice Gods Among Us has a fully fleshed out story mode and is really good. You know exactly why Cyborg is fighting Raven and why Harley Quinn is fighting alongside Batman. I do recommend reading the prequel comic series that DC Comics released before the game. The story before the game is basically, the Joker did something really bad and Superman decides he’s had enough and kills the Joker and addresses the U.N. for everyone to put their weapons down or else. Sups then becomes judge, jury, and executioner for the world. The comics are even going to continue after the game’s story as well. As like any Mortal Kombat game there is a “challenge tower”, in which you fight a random assortment of characters plus a boss at the end, in this case it’s Superman. After beating Superman at the “top of the tower”, you get a short little story of what happened to that character after the events of Injustice. Some of those stories are so-so but others, i.e. Nightwing becoming a yellow lantern, are ‘Oh Wow’ moments.

The voice acting is pretty good. Many are some familiar voices and some are new. Kevin Conroy and Tara Strong are reprising their roles as Batman and Harley Quinn. The voice of the Joker is unfortunately not Mark Hamill but Richard Epcar does a really nice job in his stead. Some of the voice actors are only heard if you unlock a certain costume. Steven Amell [Arrow] can only be heard if you unlock the Arrow costume for the Green Arrow.

Even though it’s made by NetherRealms, Injustice’s controls don’t feel like a Mortal Kombat-style of game, in fact it feels like a Street Fighter game. Don’t get me wrong you can still get the never-ending combos of Mortal Kombat. It’s the controls that feel Street Fighter-esque. For example to do Batman’s Grappling Hook (reverse Scorpion Spear) move it’s a quarter circle on the joystick, actually almost every character in Injustice uses a quarter circle forward and quarter circle back special move. Most

special moves are just really simple to pull off. The backgrounds that the characters fight in aren’t just something pretty to look at. All of them have something that a fighter can interact with. Whether it be throwing a dumpster or hoping on the Batpod at Wayne Manor or sending someone into the Phantom Zone in the Fortress of Solitude. Every character also has a “power”. For example Batman calls in bats that he can send at he’s opponent, Aquaman covers himself in water and it decrease the damage taken. Some characters that use weapons like Nightwing just switch to a different weapon.

The only problem I have with the game is the online play can be cheap. A lot of players online put people like Deathstroke who have

good long range attacks and stand on one side of the screen and just shoot the other player until they win. Another, not really a problem but would have been nice, is the challenge stages aren’t voiced, it’s text only.

The game is good, I recommend playing it. But as far as buying it…only if you really like fighting games. It is a defendant rent. You can finish the story and get what you want out of it in a day or two.

Written by: Stuart Pitchford Writer