NetherRealm Studios spent years building Mortal Kombat into the definitive fighting game franchise. With Injustice: Gods Among Us, the studio turned to DC Comics and asked a darker question: what if Superman became the villain? The answer arrived in April 2013 for PlayStation 3, Wii U, and Xbox 360, and it remains one of the smartest things a fighting game has done with a licensed property.
Trailer, via Injustice.
Superman Kills Lois Lane
The setup is not a throwaway premise. Injustice: Gods Among Us opens in an alternate reality where the Joker tricks Superman into killing a pregnant Lois Lane. The act detonates a nuclear weapon that destroys Metropolis.
A grief-stricken Superman murders the Joker in cold blood in front of Batman. He then establishes the One Earth Regime to enforce global peace, taking the title of High Councillor. Batman forms the Insurgency to oppose him.
Five years later, in the Prime Universe, Batman learns from Lex Luthor that the Joker plans to detonate a nuclear weapon in Metropolis. When the heroes move to stop him, they and the Joker are teleported to the alternate reality. The Justice League members must choose: join Superman’s Regime or ally with Batman’s Insurgency.
The campaign was written by NetherRealm Studios in collaboration with DC Comics’ writers. Lead designer John Edwards said the plot exists to rationalize why these characters fight each other at all, and to explain how Batman can “stand toe-to-toe” with Superman. Writers Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti served as story consultants to keep the comic characters in their proper voices.
Two Life Bars and a Character Trait
Injustice: Gods Among Us is a fighting game built on one-on-one combat. Players pick from a roster of DC heroes and villains and try to deplete the opponent’s life gauge.
The game runs in 2.5D. Movement is restricted to a two-dimensional plane, while characters and backgrounds are rendered in three dimensions. Each match is a single round, but each player carries two life bars. That scheme borrows from the Killer Instinct series rather than the traditional multi-round format with regenerative health.
The control layout uses four buttons: light, medium, and heavy attacks, plus a “character trait” button. That fourth button activates a unique ability for each fighter. Superman’s trait grants a temporary strength boost. Batman’s summons a swarm of robotic bats.
The Batcave, Metropolis, and the Fortress of Solitude
Stages are drawn from DC Universe locations, including the Batcave, Metropolis, and the Fortress of Solitude. They are not static backdrops. Each stage has interactive environments and multiple areas.
Land a heavy attack near a corner of the arena and the opponent launches into a transition animation, carrying the fight to a new section of the stage. Each section holds objects that characters use differently depending on their class.
- Power characters rely on brute strength and innate abilities. Superman picks up a car and smashes opponents with it.
- Gadget characters use weapons, items, and external mechanisms. Batman attaches a bomb to the same car and detonates it.
That single design choice does more work than most fighting game gimmicks. It gives every stage a second purpose and forces players to think about positioning rather than just combos.
A Roster of Icons and a War That Threatens Mankind
The character list pulls from both sides of the DC aisle: Batman, Cyborg, The Flash, Harley Quinn, Nightwing, Solomon Grundy, Superman, and Wonder Woman, among others.
The story mode is what separates Injustice: Gods Among Us from its peers. NetherRealm described the approach as “Story Mode 3.0,” building a cinematic narrative instead of the traditional ladder-based single-player experience. The studio had tested this ground before with Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe and the 2011 Mortal Kombat reboot.
The war between the Regime and the Insurgency threatens the survival of mankind. That stakes level is unusual for the genre, and the campaign commits to it.
What Works and What Doesn’t
The story mode is the strongest argument for Injustice: Gods Among Us. Fighting games have long struggled to justify why their characters fight. NetherRealm solved that problem by writing a plot where the fighting is the point.
Superman as a tyrant is not a new idea in comics, but it is a new idea in a fighting game. The campaign treats the premise with seriousness, and the collaboration with DC writers keeps the characters recognizable.
The four-button system is accessible without being shallow. The character trait button gives each fighter a distinct identity beyond their move list. The two-life-bar structure keeps matches moving at a faster clip than the genre standard.
The stage transitions are the best visual idea in the game. They turn the environment into a weapon and make every arena feel larger than it is.
The weaker ground is the roster balance and the depth of the single-player content outside the campaign. The fighting mechanics are solid, but they do not reinvent the genre the way the story does.
Here is how the pieces rank, from the thing that carries the game to the thing that merely holds it up:
- The story mode, which gives every fight a reason to happen.
- The stage transitions, which make the arenas into weapons.
- The character trait button, which gives each fighter a signature move.
- The power-versus-gadget split, which rewards reading the environment.
- The multiplayer suite, which is solid but standard.
The Ultimate Edition and What Came After
An expanded version, Injustice: Gods Among Us – Ultimate Edition, arrived in November 2013 for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Windows, and Xbox 360.
A free-to-play mobile app based on Injustice was released for iOS and Android. Raw Thrills ported that version to arcade machines in the fall of 2017, months after the sequel’s release.
A prequel comic book series of the same name, written by Tom Taylor, began in January 2013. That comic ran alongside the game and expanded the world the campaign established.
The game shipped in April 2013 in North America, Europe, and Australia, and in June 2013 in Japan. It was the first installment in the Injustice series, and it launched a franchise that NetherRealm continues to build on.
Where the Scale Tips
Injustice: Gods Among Us earns its 8 of 10 on the strength of its story mode and its stage design, not on its fighting mechanics alone. The combat is well-built and accessible, but it is the campaign that makes this game worth remembering.
The premise does the heavy lifting. Superman killing Lois Lane and destroying Metropolis is a dark turn, and the game does not flinch from it. The Regime and Insurgency conflict gives every match a narrative reason to exist.
The character trait system and the power-versus-gadget split give the roster texture. The stage transitions give the environments teeth. These are the details that separate a licensed fighting game from a good one.
Where Injustice: Gods Among Us falls short is in longevity. The campaign is the main event, and once it is finished, the multiplayer and single-player offerings are solid but standard. The game does not have the endless competitive depth of the best in the genre.
That is a fair trade. NetherRealm chose to build a fighting game around a story worth telling, and it worked. The 8 of 10 reflects a game that is excellent at what it prioritizes and merely competent at what it does not.
For players who want a reason to care about why Batman and Superman are punching each other, Injustice: Gods Among Us delivers. For players who want a pure competitive fighter, it delivers less. The scale tips toward the former, and that is the right call.
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