Injustice: Gods Among Us

At first, Injustice: Gods Among Us may look like just another superhero-themed fighting game, but it has been done well.

Made by Netherrealm Studios, the company behind Mortal Kombat, Injustice is a game that takes various heroes and villains of the DC Universe duking it out. But it has a story: Batman and a select few superheroes are yanked out of their universe and into another one, a universe whose Superman has become an evil dictator and has gathered heroes and villains into a Regime. However, the world's Batman has started an Insurgency after seeing Superman kill The Joker, and he has brought the heroes here to help them.

Other than the neat story mode, which tells a story as well as sports a great voice cast (which includes Kevin Conroy reprising his role as Batman, Tara Strong as both Harley Quinn and Raven, and Khary Payron reprising his role as Cyborg), the game also has a single player mode that lets you play an arcade path to get a character's ending, as well as other paths with certain themes, as well as S.T.A.R. Labs, which serves as Injustice's take on Mortal Kombat 2011's Challenge Tower, as it has missions tasking you to do certain tasks.

As for gameplay, it is almost similar to Mortal Kombat, however, it would add some features. While X-Ray Moves and Fatalities are a no-go, the game instead offers Super Moves which are attacks that trigger a cinematic where the attacker does something spectacular themed after him (for example, Superman punches the opponent into space, only for the Man of Steel to fly up and whack him/her back down to Earth, Cyborg shifting his arms into a massive Sonic Blaster, and Wonder Woman using her lasso to restrain the opponent, allowing some Amazons to beat on him/her until Wonder Woman reels them in to slash at them with her sword). Also new is the ability to use the environment to your advantage, as some objects in the background can either be thrown as weapons or, in the case of acrobat characters, used to make a quick escape, and the ability to perform Stage Transactions, which knocks your opponent into something, triggering a cinematic where they take damage as they are sent to another area of the stage.

But two of the best features are character traits, which are powers that can be triggered temporarily to give a sort of stat boost or weapon, and the clash system, where after a character loses one life bar (the match plays by Killer Instinct rules where it's one round with two life bars), they gain the opportunity to start a clash, where both characters must wager some of their super meter. The attacker will do damage if he/she wins, and the defender will have some of his/her heath restored should he/she come out of top. This adds an aspect of strategy to the game as well as a risk-vs.-reward situation: would you rather lose a clash to save your super meter for your character's Super Move, or will you risk some or all of it in an attempt to win the clash?

Injustice is an awesome fighting game, and is a game to be played.