Injustice: Gods Among Us preview - Nightwing, Cyborg, and Harley Quinn join the party

After getting a glimpse of Injustice, the strictly-DC fighting game from Netherrealm Studios and Warner Bros. at both E3 and EVO 2012, we were itching to get our hands on it. Lo and behold, the game's currently playable at San Diego Comic Con, complete with two brand new characters – Nightwing and Cyborg – and the female fighters Wonder Woman and Harley Quinn. After putting it through its paces, we can safely say that the makers of Mortal Kombat have crafted a fighting game that plays like no other. And it's verifiably awesome.

http://www.gamesradar.com/injustice-gods-among-us-preview-nightwing-cyborg-and-harley-quinn-join-party/

Along with the fresh faces in the roster, Superman's Fortress of Solitude was available alongside the previously-previewed Batcave. If you're thus far unfamiliar with the game mechanics, the main thing you need to know is that stage selection plays a huge part in how your battle will unfold. With interactive objects scattered through each level, and multiple tiers to batter your opponent into, there's so much going on in the background that you'll have to play as close attention to your surroundings as you do your enemy. Fail to do so, and you might be on the losing side of a one-way trip through a concrete floor or inter-dimensional glass.

Besides the backgrounds, there are some basic mechanics that work differently from other six-button, best 2-out-of-3 fighting games you might've played. Each duel only lasts one "round," with each hero having two full-length health bars to burn through before they'll be knocked out of commission. Also, each character has a one-button gimmick that helps define their playstyle and fits in their lore; for instance, Batman can unleash a small smarm of mechanical bats to juggle enemies or protect his midsection, while the Flash can speed up his reflexes to wallop opponents (who are slowed down for the duration of the visually-appealing effect).

While anxiously waiting for our turn to play, we got an eyeful of Cyborg and Nightwing in action - and more importantly, how their amazingly-cinematic supermoves could decimate the opponent while hyping up the crowd. Nightwing, aka Dick Grayson - Batman's former Boy Wonder protégé, Robin, all grown-up – enters each fight in flashy fashion, gracefully backflipping off his speeding motorcycle to land in front of his prey. That motorcycle comes in handy during his supermove: popping out the spikes on his gauntlets, Nightwing summons his cycle to slash enemies back and forth in rapid succession.

Cyborg, who you may recognize from the Teen Titans, is playing a more pivotal role in the Justice League with the new DC reboot. With his metallic prosthetics and limbs laden with advanced weapon tech, Cyborg excels at fighting from afar or smashing enemy face up close. His supermove looked like it would vaporize all but the most resilient bodies: morphing his hand into a colossal Mega-Man-style cannon, he fires an intense beam of blue light that looks like it'll burn the flesh clean off anyone caught in the blast. That said, there's no gore – these are highly-respected DC characters, so you can't go brutalizing and murdering them willy-nilly – but our imagination filled in the gaps just fine.

Once we got a controller in our hands, we went straight for a classic match-up: Harley Quinn versus Batman (word to Arkham City DLC). We played Harley by trying to maximize her long-range game, shooting Bats with our dual pistols and a comically-oversized cap gun, which fired a charged pink cork for maximum effect. Harley's "gimmick" move is quite interesting: instead of a designated ability, she randomly picks an object out of a slowly-charging present and changes her fighting style accordingly. Depending if her present contains a bundle of dynamite, a picture of the Joker (which she daintily kisses on sight) or a rose, she'll have additional moves at her disposal. Her super is a hoot: Harley looks like she's making a head-on charge with giant wooden mallet in hand, but just before smashing her opponent's cranium, she slips between their legs and drops a sizzling cherry pie bomb beneath them. No amount of whipped cream topping could soften the resulting blast.

Like the Batcave, the Fortress of Solitude was an entrancing sight to behold, filled with references to comic events past and destructible objects. While the fight started out in what looked like a trophy room – complete with a statue of Apocalypse – it didn't take long for Batman to wallop our Harley Quinn into the next tier, though she had to slide down a passage filled with spiky ice shards beforehand. What awaited below was Superman's alien zoo, a menagerie of freakish beasts and toothed plants that looked like they might be the basis for some animalistic stage attacks. While we were gazing wide-eyed at the background, we were dropped kicked into another destructible wall – only this time, it was a portal to the Phantom Zone, which forced us to watch our poor Harley get chomped on by some of its otherworldly denizens before coming out the other side.

There's still a while before its 2013 release, but already Injustice is looking like it'll be one of the best spectator games of all time. Each move has a heroic (or villainous) panache to it, and the characters' move sets feel appropriate to their powers and specialties. As a fighting game, we couldn't be sure what kind of longevity the game could have on a competitive level – when you're playing to win, it might be annoying to have to watch the same animations over and over, or lose a round because you were standing too close to a stage's pitfall. The combo system looked to mimic MK's flashy juggles and brutally-damaging combos; our resident Batman player was able to pull off some sick combos utilizing his mecha-bat buddies. But it's still got months left in development, and the fact that it's looking this incredible already is a great sign.