Game Review: Injustice: Gods Among Us (WiiU)

Game: Injustice: Gods Among Us
Console: Nintendo WiiU
Developer: NetherRealm Studios
Release Date: 19th April 2013

Injustice: Gods Among Us is a fighting game featuring various heroes and villains from the DC universe including Batman, Superman, The Joker and Lex Luthor. Unlike many fighting games there's no conventional Arcade Mode, as the main mode is Story Mode, which is split into 12 chapters, each featuring a different hero or villain and advancing the main plot through lengthy movie style cutscenes as well as the fighting gameplay.

In addition to story mode there's S.T.A.R Labs mode which sets players challenges in preset fights, and Battles which is a sort of arcade mode allowing players to make their way through many rounds with different conditions, such as only fighting heroes or villains. There's also local and online multiplayer, but as the game is on WiiU, I'm not quite sure how the control scheme would translate to a Wiimote.

Fights feature several interesting features, some that have been featured before in other fighting games, and others which are somewhat unique. Firstly each player has two health bars, the first appears to represent armour of some kind, with the second acting more like true damage. Since there's two health bars for all fighters, all fights in Story mode are single round affairs. Environmental attacks can be used, with many features of each battlefield that can be picked up, thrown, broken or otherwise tampered with to cause damage to an opponent. Finally there's the special move meters in the bottom corners of the screen; these have sections which can be used in a face-off where players "bet" their special bar in a bid to out bet and thus cause damage to an opponent, as well as governing when special moves can be used.

The controls, though a little strange for the WiiU gamepad are fairly easy to get used to; X, B and Y are the main attacks, with RZ used for special moves, and R used to interact with environmental features. I found the d-pad to be far more useful than the analog stick, mainly due to its placement on the controller and actually being able to hold it whilst playing. There are also QTE sequences before some fights which can affect the amount of health that players begin with, these aren't too hard unless you play a lot of consoles, in which case remembering where A, B, X and Y are can be a little harder.

The fighting gameplay featured is fairly standard in terms of attack choices, though every character has different light, medium and heavy attacks, as well as interesting and detailed personalised special moves. Usually it's strategy which decides who has the advantage in a fight; making use of the environmental weapons, face-off meters and special moves, and understanding the damage cap after the first meter. This makes it easier to plan how to beat opponents, both AI and live and adds a different element to the game.

The large selection of characters and additional DLC characters makes for an impressive fighter line-up for any comic book fan, and I'm sure if there was a similar Marvel based fighting game (there might be, I haven't checked) that fans would be equally excited for it. A DC vs Marvel fighting game would be particularly amazing, but remains highly improbably with both companies competing as they do.

Graphically the game isn't all that impressive on WiiU, and is probably only comparable to a PS3 title; I can only assume that the other versions of the game were better. The general look and style of the game is good, with recognisable characters from the DC universe and some good, if somewhat lengthy cutscenes. Musically the game is pretty average featuring the kind of suspenseful movie music you'd expect it to have and not much else.

Overall Injustice: Gods Among Us isn't your average fighting game; the main mode is in a strange length category - far longer than conventional arcade modes, but far shorter than most story modes in other games. This results in a movie-like experience which players should really only want to sit through once, with S.T.A.R Labs and Battles modes providing the excitement post-completion. There's a lot to do in the game, and the fighting does feel satisfying and fair for the most part, especially if you're a fan of the characters already.

Rating: 84/100
Grade: B