Smashing heads, walls and expectations.

Street fighter IV has held all the glory this generation thanks to a lack of creativity in the fighting genre. Developers NetherRealm hadn’t really managed to reignite brawler fans’ enthusiasm for the Mortal Kombat series either. So, upon learning they were working on a fighting game with the DC character roster it perhaps wasn’t unfair to assume something of a DC cosplay version of Mortal Kombat.

Except this isn’t a reskinned Mortal Kombat. This is a great game. While some of the control inputs bear a strong resemblance to Mortal Kombat, this feels much more responsive and fluid when layering combos and juggling opponents. These may sound like basic things to get right in a fighting game, but they form an essential foundation and grab your attention early on.

Special moves only require the simplest of d-pad inputs. Backwards, forwards, punch. Away, towards, kick. Down, towards, punch and so on. In-depth combos allow you to use a few of these together, maybe with an extra punch or kick somewhere in the middle, but the majority of special moves are accessible to even the most meat-handed of players, which is great for newbies. Compared to Street Fighter and its quarter-circle-centric controls, Injustice is much more approachable, with anyone able to pull off killer moves early on. Combos require swift button-inputs, rather than pacing them until each animation finishes. All the moves are readily available in the pause menu and seriously dedicated fighter fans can see all the geeky timing and animation frame information that means nothing to most of us, but is the sort of thing tournament fighters will love. Injustice wants to be taken seriously.

Click here to read the rest of my review at NewGameNetwork.com.