by Comic book characters have so far struggled to score a smash hit on a mobile platform, with few titles proving worthy of the Marvel and DC Comics’ names. But Injustice: Gods Among Us for iOS hopes to change all that with a huge cast of iconic characters, a savvy trading card game mechanic, and an enticing price of free. While Injustice still feels like a cheapened version of the console game it’s based off of, Warner Brothers has at least produced an addictive and fun title that will appeal to its younger fan base.
The game is billed as a collectable card game first and a fighting game second, and Injustice definitely feels more like Pokémon than Mortal Kombat. The fighting gameplay is a no-frills combination of one-touch mashing and gesture-based special moves—the real way to succeed in the game is to collect cards that unlock additional characters or moves. The ten-year-old card collector in your family might love this mechanic, but the seasoned fighting gamer will find the actual three-versus-three combat laborious, predictable, and as thin as Aquaman’s appeal.
Build your roster through the in-app store.
The plot has something to do with parallel dimensions: Superman has turned fascist and rules the world with the help of “meta humans” like Green Lantern and the Flash. There are also “Insurgent” heroes from the regular DC universe that try to save this world, but none of this is explained in text or in the core campaign. Really, it’s a fighting game, so the plot doesn’t matter: you see someone; you try to beat them up.
Cards can be collected in a number of ways; you earn certain cards by beating bosses and progressing through the game’s hours and hours of combat. But such cards are sporadic and rarely given, so the preferred way to unlock cards is to use the in-game currency to purchase them in the store. Buying special moves or upgrades are fairly cheap, but new character cards (especially the desirable ones) are exceptionally expensive. Unlocking Superman or Batman, for example, costs north of 90,000 coins or dozens of hours of gameplay. Or, you can roll the dice and purchase a booster pack, which will have a randomized assortment of tiered character and upgrade cards.
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