Assuming you’re a fan of fighting games, you may have heard Injustice 2 will be concluding their DLC with the release of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in February. If I’m being honest, I was a little bummed at first. There are many proper DC characters that people felt deserved to be released. DC has thousands of characters. Fans hoped for a Watchmen character, which would have been brilliant promotion given their recent resurfacing in the Doomsday Clock mini-series. Others hoped for John Constantine, Etrigan, Static Shock (we got Black Lightning as a premium skin for Raiden instead), or Beast Boy (whose fate has been very unclear in the Injustice universe). The list goes on.
NetherRealm is famous for misleading and surprising fans with unexpected reveals like Freddy Krueger in Mortal Kombat 9 and Alien in Mortal Kombat X. Underlying these surprises are genius marketing tactics: building hype and expanding the player base.
- Building Hype: By including guest characters from seemingly anywhere, NetherRealm keeps fans guessing and generating hype content from request lists/videos, reaction videos, angry rants, this article, etc.
- Expanding the Player Base: Fans of the guest characters who may not have been interested in Injustice 2 now have a reason to buy the game. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or TMNT (as the kids today call it) fans have been hungry to get their hands on the heroes in a half-shell since Tournament Fighters released on the Genesis/Super Nintendo over 20 years ago.
While it upsets a lot of fans that may have preferred Booster Gold, their salvation may come from NetherRealm, a company that listens to what fans want. They included the likes of Black Manta, Red Hood, Starfire, Swamp Thing, and more in Injustice 2 based on fan feedback from the original Injustice. So we can probably expect the likes of John Constantine, a Watchmen character, and other requests to show up in Injustice 3. Some fans justify TMNT’s inclusion because they had a crossover with Batman and thus have appeared in the DC universe. While that is true, does that mean we should be ready for Elmer Fudd in Injustice 3? I don’t think so.
Bottom line: Here’s hoping TMNT has enough Turtle Power to make fans and non-fans happy. I have faith that it will.
EDIT: Trailer added. Looks like they will make people happy indeed.
