Marvel has been having a hell of a run lately, spinning its comics empire into successful, critically acclaimed movies and TV shows. So it’s all the more disappointing that most Marvel video games don’t measure up.
Several of our staffers have a lot more comics knowledge than I do, so I thought I’d ask everyone what they thought.
Comments
36 responses to “We Debate Why Marvel Doesn’t Make Better Video Games”
Honestly what DC games are good besides the Batman Arkham games and Injustice?
Marvel has good titles like the Marvel VS Capcom, etc series, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, X Men Legends, Ultimate Spiderman, the PS1 Spiderman games, the X-men arcade game, etc.
I’d put Spider-man 2 instead of Ultimate Spider-man perhaps.
Agreed. Ultimate Spiderman felt like a reskinned Spidey 2 that didn’t do things as well. It was still decent, but Spidey 2 was the better game.
I’ve never played that game that’s why I didn’t list it.
Ah, fair enough. Spiderman 2 was definitely worth the play, but I’m not sure it’d hold up now. And since you’ve played Ultimate Spiderman previously, it might feel a little samey if you were to go back and play it now. I also feel like Spiderman: Friend or Foe was pretty solid, but it was a bit of a polarising game.
Their entire argument seems to stem around saying “all Marvel games (except for Lego Marvel, because we don’t count that) are pretty crap…oh, except for the all the ones that were pretty good”. Sure, they’re has been some shocking Marvel games, but I’d say their hit rate is higher than DC by a mile.
Gotham City Imposters was cool. But they need to take the team behind Arkham Origins and out them onto another DC franchise
Marvel games mostly suck because they seem incapable of comprehending the idea of decoupling the games from the movie licenses.
Give a development studio free license to do what they want with the Spiderman or Ironman property instead of shackling them to a movie tie in.
I agree. Why restrict the game to a shitty version of the movie’s story, when they have a huge backlog of stories to choose from, and expand on The [insert Marvel hero] Experience. The games don’t even have to be remotely related to the latest movie, aside from main characters, and they’ll still sell heaps.
The Origins Wolverine game was surprisingly solid.
A million times better than the movie.
To be fair, your Page 7 entry was a million times better than that movie.
The movie gets its very own Bristol number.
Somebody fund a Telltale Agent Carter game right fucking now please.
The Deadpool game was a little rough around the edges but NAILED Deadpool… I replay it sometimes just to hear him crap on all over again 🙂
Agree here, Deadpool was great! Fuck you Disney, put it back up for sale.
Other good Marvel game that has another big fuck you to Disney, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. Both Activision titles, maybe that says something?
Man, Ultimate Alliance 1 & 2 were fantastic couch co-op games, too.
Don’t forget x-men legends 1+2 on original xbox. Pretty sure Raven made both series.
The Marvel Heroes MMOARPG is pretty good in that from what I know of Marvel, it’s taking everything from the comics. Hydra is wearing the silly green and yellow, a ton of Cosmic references, the characters are the comics’ design, AIM has Rocket Rexes and cyborg molemen….
I agree, that game has gotten a lot better since it’s crap launch. I got Deadpool out of a random box drop after coming back after avoiding it since launch, then the first thing I run into is a cosmic doop during midtown madness, so gear out the wazoo since level 4.
I’ll tell you a type of Marvel game that would work and sticks to their FTP models…
AVENGERS MOBA (BOOM)
1) Take the MCU-canon as of Winter Soldier and base the game on the Secret Invasion event with the Skrulls.
2) Both teams select heroes from the same Avengers roster and get told the other side are the Skrulls.
3) Cue MOBA gameplay.
4) Set some Butterfly-effect time-travelling crap into the storyline, writing the events of the game out of the MCU, as a result: you’ve got a game set in the MCU that doesn’t affect the MCU.
4) Print money.
Side-note: I never realised how blunt Fahey is IRL haha
Yeah, yeah, but apart from all these decent games, when will Marvel make a decent game?
Probably because they’re not making games, they’re making monetization schemes and poorly-cloning multiplayer phenomenons.
The problem with poor clones of phenomenons is that everyone’s already playing the phenom, they have no incentive to switch to your shittier version.
The Capcom-made Marvel fighting games, X-men Legends, Spider-man 2, Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, Marvel Ultimate Alliance…
It might be free to play, but I’ve been enjoying Marvel Puzzle Quest.
As far as full console style games go, some of the ones I’ve enjoyed include:
Deadpool: it was rough around the edges, but nailed the character.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine: while it is a movie tie-in game for a mediocre film, it was enjoyable. I wish Raven had been given an opportunity to do a follow-up, rarther than being absorbed into the Call of Duty production machine.
Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction: This one had the benefit of not being tied into a film release, and used the comics as its source material. It did a good job of making your feel powerful while still offering a challenge. The basic game play was also used as a template for Radical’s next game Prototype.
The Punisher Game from 2005 was pretty good
Step 1: Take Lego Marvel
Step 2: Subtract the Lego aspect
Step 3: Unleash a perfect Marvel universe sandbox title on the unsuspecting public
Step 4: ??????
Step 5: Profit!
For what it’s worth, the Capcom fighters were good, and so is Marvel Heroes. Hell, I even enjoyed Avengers Alliance, until the devs went Facebook only.
Presumably the perfect Marvel Universe sandbox title isn’t Disney Infinity 2.0?
Would be good if they collaborate with Riot Games and create a League of Legend or Dota type of game with all those Marvel characters
The Avengers tie-in game was actually really solid, just that troubles in THQ-town kept it from getting out the door.
Open universe space games are all the rage right now. Set one in the Marvel Guardians of the Galaxy universe. You don’t play as a particular hero, but you might get to meet up with some, and perhaps build in big events from the MCU and/or comics.
I think Arkham games work so well because Batman’s combat style is so satisfying – it’s beating bad guys up with your fists + gadgets. It’s possible to have interesting and varied combat because you can have very diverse combat. Could you really replicate the same satisfying combat with anyone from Marvel (or anyone from DC for that matter)? Not many would be able to.
Images of text?
I CAN’T HIGHLIGHT THIS
Also, Thor DS was pretty good.
Marvel vs Capcom 2 and Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 in particular are really good, if a bit unbalanced(the other VS games are good but aren’t as engrossing).
I also enjoyed the first Spider-Man game on PS1, and Captain America & the Avengers, and X-Men in the arcade. Besides that? Not much is good that I know of
I had a theory about this a while back, around the time that Marvel Heroes entered the marketplace. Basically, both Marvel and DC want you to play games with their characters. They’re just using different definitions of the word with – it’s visible when looking at both their online games and their pen and paper games. Marvel wants to restrict you to using their characters – Marvel Heroes has you playing as their characters, while the pen and paper game had the expectation of you playing as established Marvel characters in events based on comic book story lines. DC in both Dc Universe Online and the recent RPG that you would create your own character (although you can easily base them off of an established character) and add to the world that way.
Basically, Marvel is trying to limit what people can do with their stuff, while DC seem to recognise that gamers (including developers) tend to like thinking outside the box and going beyond what is there already. The latter attitude definitely makes for better games, in my opinion.
When are Marvel: Ultimate Alliance or X-Men: Legends game series getting another entry? Those were great fun. I personally don’t care if they have their movie faces on or not, they existed before the films and will probably continue to do so after they end, unless the reboot is a massive failure.