Mortal Kombat Designer Says Jax and Cyborg Are Not the Same Guy, Okay?

All the black man-machine heroes do NOT know each other. After playing a few rounds of Injustice: Gods Among Us at Comic-Con last night, I asked Ed Boon whether I was just imagining some similarity between Mortal Kombat’s Jax and the newly unveiled Cyborg.

Boon said some of the developers back at Netherrealm have said the same thing. But he attributes that observation to the fact that both Cyborg and Jax have victory poses that end in the three-point landing position.

And while Cyborg’s punch-heavy moveset might remind players of Jax’s attacks in Mortal Kombat, the Justice League member showed off a greater number of ranged attacks. Lightning-quick shapeshifting turned into special moves from Cyborg, which unleashed lasers, giant thrusting fists and missiles at enemies. One super-move poured out a long continuous blast from the character’s White Noise cannon, destroying a huge chunk of life-bar.

As expected, Nightwing plays an acrobatic, fast-striking brawler. The twist with Dick Grayson’s moves is that he can swap between a staff and two escrima sticks. His strikes are slower and more powerful with the staff but Nightwing’s attack speed when he’s wielding the smaller sticks. Similar to how the character plays in Batman: Arkham City‘s DLC add-on, Dick Grayson’s weapons become electrified, letting him send shocks through the ground. When players trigger Nightwing’s super-move, he attacks with a mix of stick strickes and projectiles and then jumps onto his speeding motorcycle to slam back and forth into a stunned opponent. Batman’s first sidekick feels “right”: flashy, nimble yet still bearing the influence of his mentor.

I kept coming back for more and more rounds of Injustice even after I should have moved on to other things. That’s a good sign for Netherrealm’s next project. Injustice is still in developent and there will surely be more characters revealed before the game comes out until next year.