Does the Hulk remind anyone else of Homer Simpson?
Remember when they made superhero games for consoles? Used to happen all the time, swear to God. Way back in that storied era, an EA Chicago studio was working on a fighting game featuring a slew of characters from the House of Ideas. It got cancelled. The video above represents a good look at where it was going and comes courtesy of PtoP Online, a YouTube channel that specialises in digging up old prototypes and showing them to the world.
As to be expected, the footage on display is super-rough. But it does give a sense of the size and scope that EA Chicago were looking to implement. Sure seems like Cap was going to win that fight, huh?u.com.
Comments
5 responses to “Watch Captain America Fight The Hulk In A Cancelled Marvel Fighting Game”
This looks obscenely bad. Like a far worse version of Disney Infinity 2.0.
I think that so far, the only respect I have for Marvel superhero games are the original Spider-Man game on PS1, and all of the Capcom VS games(COTA, MSH, XSF, MSF, MvC1/2/3, and UMvC3). Capcom are renowned for many games like Streetfighter and Resident Evil, but I feel like they deserve FAR more recognition for games like their Marvel series in Australia. And it doesn’t help that Disney removed the online versions of MvC2 and UMvC3 from the stores, and buying an arcade stick can be prohibitively expensive(there was a PS4 one in EB Games the other day for $200).
If you are a Marvel comics fan OR if you are a video game fan, you NEED to check them out. The eye candy is godlike(things like Deadpool moonwalking, breaking the fourth wall by using his video game meters as weapons, and Captain America being alpha like deflecting a freakin’ helicopter with his shield), and the gameplay has people coming back year after year for more(MvC2 still has a cult following over a decade later). Oh and honorable mention to the DC Universe Online cinematic… that was cool; not sure how the gameplay was though. Anyway have a look at these clips… they almost bring a tear to my eye:
https://youtu.be/MCxjuXre3Dw (the 4 MvC3 anime-like cinematic videos stitched together)
https://youtu.be/JSSILyBYtfs (The UMvC3 3D cinematic intro)
https://youtu.be/Are2uSLBRs0 (Deadpool being Deadpool)
https://youtu.be/oVcqjfAiiSI?t=2m30s (Justin Wong being amazing)
https://youtu.be/R_PHVTf94k8 (more tourney footage with a different playstyle)
Of course it looks bad, it was a prototype, they were still figuring out how to make the combat more exciting. What I find most interesting is the idea of a 3D brawler with destructable environments, if they eventually figured out the combat and tidied up a bit this could’ve been a killer game.
Also, why Spidey 1 and not the superior Spider-man 2? Now that was an amazing game.
I’d also throw in Hulk: Ultimate destruction and the X-men Legends/Ultimate Alliance games as being must-play Marvel titles.
Yeah I know it’s a prototype, but I was coming from the angle of how well can you cook a rotten steak to make it not rotten? If it’s slightly not fresh, you can, if it’s too far gone… no. It is harsh, but there is an expectation of quality based on competitors and IP. Like for this sort of game, you have maybe Assassin’s Creed, Tomb Raider, GTA, WoW, and Disney Infinity… and it just looks like it’s a few notches below those. It was cancelled, so I guess others too might have thought it was nonviable.
Well I have played Spidey 1, and the novelty and immersion of web zipping/swinging, crawling upside down, cat and mouse thing with Ock, storyline, etc just hit the “hey this is pretty good!” button. I don’t remember any sequels having quite the same effect or holding me from beginning to end(though you may be right that 2 is better; I’m just going from memory). Ultimate Alliance is a game that I never bothered finishing because it wasn’t very exciting to me for example. I haven’t played every Marvel game to ever come out; I’ve played other games like Dota, Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, WoW, etc. As a comic book fan, I find the Capcom VS series extremely enjoyable and of a high quality/replayability that I simply haven’t seen in other Marvel games and they’re also typically a better version than the movies(look at Hawkeye’s costume in the 3D trailer, and Storm’s mohawk/black leather comic costumes vs the movie for example). Also the skill factor is an issue in terms of replayability. Does Spider-Man beat the Hulk, or does Hulk beat Spider-Man? The answer is that it really depends. In a lot of single player games, when you’ve done something like mastered the art of running away from Carnage-Ock, the game loses its luster because the outcome is certain 100% of the time. The VS games are often really unbalanced, but they can often be really exciting and bring a lot of HYPE. Like Iron Fist on paper usually loses to better characters like Magneto… but not always. Watching it can just be a thing of pure beauty:
https://youtu.be/_OrgtsFcq-o
Game development is tricky, it’s not really fair to compare the quality of a prototype to fully released games…
I think Spider-man 2 and Hulk: Ultimate Destruction were the first superhero games that made me feel like I was these characters. Spidey 2 had the more realistic and satisfying web-swinging which I spent countless hours just aimlessly swinging around and doing tricks. Hulk was similar in that I had a big city(or desert) to jump around in and break things, I felt so powerful leaping onto a helicopter then kicking that helicopter into another helicopter and jumping away.
I too enjoy the VS games quite a bit, and I feel like this cancelled game would have hit a similar mark if it was given a chance, skill of the player making seemingly one-sided match ups go the other way etc. But again, this was an unpolished prototype so we can never know for sure.
Captain america voiced by Tim Allen??