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REVIEW
Injustice: Gods Among Us on Android is a thirteen-year-old fighter that still earns its install.
NetherRealm's mobile-tuned card-fighter shipped in 2013 and somehow keeps drawing players. On Android, the cracks show — but so does why it became the template every superhero brawler has copied since.
BY THE APP COMRADE DESK · MAY 11, 2026 · 4 MIN READ
Injustice: Gods Among Us
WARNER BROS. INTERNATIONAL ENTERPRISES
OUR SCORE
7.6
GOOGLE PLAY
★ 4.3
PRICE
Free
In-app purchases
Injustice: Gods Among Us on Android is the rare 2013 mobile game still on the active-install list of millions of phones. NetherRealm ported the console fighter as a free-to-play card-collector with three-on-three tag combat, swipe-based controls, and a roster that has grown to roughly 130 DC characters across a decade of live updates. It launched as the mobile companion to the PS3/360 Injustice, outlived its parent’s console relevance, and stayed in WB’s revenue tail well past the point any of us expected.
The fighting still feels right. That’s the surprise. The console game’s environmental smashes, super-move cinematics, and tag-in juggle system survive the cut to phone inputs better than the same-era Mortal Kombat Mobile managed. The card-collection grind is the actual product — the fights are the slot-machine lever — but the slot-machine lever happens to be a decent fighter underneath. That’s a more honest deal than most live-service mobile games of 2013 vintage offer in 2026.
What you give up is everything around the fighting. The UI is from Android 4.4. Load times on a 2026 mid-range Android phone run longer than the fights themselves. Monetization is from the era before Apple and Google started enforcing IAP-transparency rules, so the booster-pack drop math feels worse than the printed odds. And the always-online requirement means a bad signal kills your progression. The Apple version has the same issues on the same engine, but iOS users tend to have newer hardware on average, so the perf bite hurts less there. On Android — where the install base spans Pixel flagships down to $150 Realme phones — the engine age is more visible.
Injustice on Android is a museum piece that still works as a slot machine — and as a slot machine, it still works as a fighting game.
FEATURES
Injustice: Gods Among Us is a 3-v-3 tag-team fighter built by NetherRealm Studios (the Mortal Kombat / Injustice console team) and ported to Android in late 2013 as a free-to-play companion to the console release. Combat reduces the console game's six-button Unreal Engine moveset to swipe-and-tap inputs: light attacks tap, heavy attacks swipe, blocks two-finger hold, special meter charges from chip damage and dealt hits.
Progression is gear-based and card-collection-driven. Each fighter is a collectible card with rarity tiers (Bronze, Silver, Gold), an experience track, equippable gear slots, and a 4-star promotion ceiling. Booster packs purchased with in-game credits or premium currency drop new fighters; events rotate roughly weekly and gate the strongest variants (Insurgency Batman, Regime Wonder Woman, Blackest Night Hal Jordan) behind challenge ladders. The roster sits around 130 fighter cards in 2026.
Online play is asynchronous PvP against opponents' AI-controlled teams plus a synchronous "Online Battles" mode introduced years after launch. The game still requires a constant network connection — there is no offline mode beyond the tutorial.
Free with in-app purchases. Booster packs run from credit grinds to $99.99 premium bundles. WB Games Montreal and NetherRealm push patches inconsistently — recent updates have skewed toward live events rather than engine work.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
The fighting itself is the reason this app outlived its 2013 release window. The tag-in/tag-out flow, the super-move cinematics, the screen-shaking environmental interactions — they translate to touch better than they have any right to. Hitstun timing is generous enough to make combos discoverable without feeling automatic. Veteran fighting-game players will find input layers (cancels, throws, wake-up specials) that reward practice. The mobile interpretation of NetherRealm's combat language is the best version of "console fighter on a phone" that ships today.
The card-collection layer is the engine that kept this game alive while Mortal Kombat Mobile (its sibling) ate most of WB's attention. Roster depth is real — characters span Arkham, JLA, New 52, Elseworlds, and crossover sets — and a Bronze-tier free unlock can still win against a Gold whale's team if the player has practiced their gear loadout. The grind respects time better than most card-fighters of its vintage.
ROOM TO IMPROVE
The age shows. The 2013 engine creaks on a 2026 phone: load times between fights run 8–12 seconds on a Pixel 8, the UI was last redesigned around the launch of Android 4.4, and the always-online requirement means a flaky signal on the bus kills a run mid-fight. The "Online Battles" synchronous PvP mode has thin matchmaking — queue times stretch past two minutes off-peak.
The monetization is from a less-restrained era. $99.99 booster packs sit at the top of the IAP table, daily login rewards lean on FOMO, and the strongest event characters are priced past where a casual player will reach without spending. Recent Play Store reviews flag the same complaint repeatedly: that booster-pack drop rates feel worse than the advertised odds, and that WB's support is slow to respond when accounts lose progress on a re-install.
No controller support. For a fighting game in 2026, that's a real omission — and one its console twin Injustice 2 Mobile fixed.
CONCLUSION
Install if you have a long bus commute, a soft spot for DC, and a tolerance for thirteen-year-old menus. Skip if you came in expecting Injustice 2 Mobile's polish or modern controller support. The card-collection hook is the real product here; the fighting is the demo that sells the cards. Watch whether WB ever ports the better sequel to Android with this game's roster intact — if they do, this one becomes a curio. Until then, it still earns the download.