So, NetherRealm Studios has officially announced their next game. It’s called Injustice: Gods Among Us, and it’s a fighting game based on the DC superheroes.

Of course, this isn’t NetherRealm’s first foray into DC-based games. The last game they made as part of Midway was a crossover with their Mortal Kombat series called Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, and they recently released a companion game to Batman: Arkham City for iOS called Batman: Arkham City Lockdown. However, this looks like this is the first time they’ve been given their own property to work with, as Lockdown was essentially a prequel to Rocksteady’s game, and the DC side of MKvDCU was very by-the-book.

It appears (according to an interview with Ed Boon) that whereas MKvDCU used the concept of a magical “rage” to explain how characters such as Batman and the Joker (who is not an announced character in Injustice; Harley Quinn, on the other hand, is) could go toe-to-toe with heavy-hitters such as Superman and Wonder Woman, Injustice separates the characters into two types: “power” characters (like Superman), and “gadget” characters (like Batman). Environments appear to be a big factor in the game as well, with items in the arenas able to be used as offensive and defensive weapons.

Not much is revealed about the storyline, other than a tagline given during the trailer: “What if our greatest heroes became our greatest threat?” It sounds like they’re going for a variation of the Justice Lords storyline from the Justice League episode “A Better World”. In it, the Justice League of another universe become the fascist Justice Lords after the Flash is executed by President Lex Luthor, who is then himself murdered by Superman to keep him from starting a world war. Another option is a variation of the Young Justice story “Auld Acquaintance”, where the Justice League fell under the mental control of Vandal Savage and Klarion, and were used to cause devastation offworld. It should be interesting to see where the storyline goes, especially after the critically acclaimed story mode that Mortal Kombat had.

In any event, it definitely looks like this will be a must-buy for me; since parting from Midway, the guys at NetherRealm have done a superb job with their games, and I admit I’m a sucker for DC-related media. It’s just too bad it won’t be coming out until next year.