Injustice : Gods Among Us - PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii- U
Is it Oscar Pistorius? Is it Scott Peterson? No! It’s Superman!
Does my bum look big in this?
The game starts off with in an alternate reality where Superman is losing his mind and brutally murdering The Joker while interrupting Batman’s interrogation. You may be thinking “Well this seems very rude and uncharacteristic of the man of steel”, and you’d be right, however there are always reasons. The reason behind this is that the Joker had invented a nuclear bomb that was designed to go off when Lois Lane (Superman’s one and only cuddlebunny) had her heartbeat stopped. The Joker drugged Superman into believing his wife (and therefore unborn child) was in fact Doomsday, so Superman behaves accordingly and brutally murders his wife and unborn child and detonates a nuclear bomb destroying Metropolis in the process. This then causes him to turn into Stalinman or SuperStalin, sacrificing freedom for peace and killing many people he once loved because they disagree with him. Though as I say, I know how he feels, I had to wait two months before I could get another iPod, so murder may seem justifiable in Superman’s position. Eventually the heroes as we know and love them get transported from ‘Our Reality’ to theirs to help fight off evil Superman and whatnot, giving a relatively good rationalisation to why you can fight yourself in two player mode.
Injustice is brought to us by NeatherRealm Studios, the creators of Mortal Kombat, and of the slightly disappointing DC vs Mortal Kombat. Don’t let this put you off, this game has won awards for being the best fighting game of the year and probably the best fighting game of the month, week and day you buy it.
There is a beautiful array of characters to choose from including the Flash, Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Catwoman, Bane and all the one’s you know from the movies. There are many more that without a number of years reading DC comics, you may be introduced to here for the first time. Such as Nightwing, the soon to arrive DLC Lobos, Solomon Grundy, The Crimson Colon, Captain Sunny Delight, Ice-cream Man, SausageSpear, Tesco-tights, Construction-Worker, Anus (dear reader, I think he's making some of these up now) and the creepy guy who always sits beside you on the bus.
“Hang on a second” I hear you ask, “How could Batman, a mere man in a suit hope to fight Superman without dying instantly?” Well, despite you interrupting my flow I will explain. After Superman has brutally murdered everyone who disagrees with him, and gathered the Supervillians and Superheroes who are too clever to attempt to take him on, Superman suddenly realises he needs to delegate some of the destruction and pain. So he gives everyone a super-multi-vitamin, made from secret Krypton juice (a bit like BPM I imagine, though I imagine he probably did a wee in it, he really is evil now). Eventually the other side get their hands on them and decide to go toe-to-toe with the naughty super men.
The Story Mode is incredibly well thrown together. Cut-scenes right out of an animated JLA movie segue seamlessly into the fights, and back out again. The interactive levels make it incredibly difficult not to constantly use, as they always have something different happening depending on minor things such as, where the character is in relation to your enemy, or even which character it is you have chosen initially. Catwoman might mount a bike and tear off your important parts with the front wheel, whereas Bane will probably just eat it and curl one out on your chest.
Another nice edition is the Dead or Alive esque room changing cripplings, where with a single well timed button press you can punch Wonder Woman so hard that she tears through the soil surrounding The Batcave and lands with a minor concussion outside Bruce’s Mansion. Discovering these things is a hell of a lot of fun and you can perform them quite easily with any character. They also have a superb way of suddenly balancing out a fight where you were once getting your buttocks handed to you on a plate.
Though you may be used to Fatalities from Mortal Kombat and think that the whole game might seem a pointless effort to humiliate your opponent instead of tearing his oesophagus out from his eye socket, the game has a lot to offer to make forget all about Kombatalities, such as the supermoves of each character. These intense attacks are specific to each character and are fun to watch, I’m particularly fond of The Flash’s in where he circumnavigates the whole planet just to punch you in the face.
If you’re a fan of fighting games, Mortal Kombat, or comic book characters I think you’ll genuinely love this game (anyone who enjoyed the Marvel Civil War arc will enjoy this ‘DC imagining’ a lot specifically). Anyhoo, I better get back to it, I’ve a ridiculous amount of stuff to unlock before the extra content becomes available.
David Roberts, CeX Ann Street, Belfast
Injustice : Gods Among Us at CeX
