Last month, a little bit of a gaming bombshell was dropped, though it was seemingly lost in the excitement over E3. Following the announcement that Marvel would be teaming up with Insomniac Games to create a new Spider-Man game for PS4, it was revealed that Marvel has some ambitious gaming plans.
Vice President of Games Jay Ong claimed that when he was brought on board it was with a mandate to bring the company’s “treasure trove” of amazing superheroes to consoles in some “truly epic games.”
This is the news that Marvel fans have waited years for. Despite film franchises worth billions and several successful mobile games, Marvel has bizarrely struggled to make a meaningful dent in the console market.
But it sounds like that’s the next step in the company’s apparent quest to conquer the world of entertainment. And naturally, before we really start hearing about the titles that might be on the way as a result of this initiative, we have some suggestions….
Contest Of Champions – Console Version
As mentioned, Marvel has a number of successful mobile games, and the biggest and best of the bunch is probably Marvel: Contest Of Champions. The title is so popular that it’s spawned its own comic series and brought about the introduction of a few brand new superheroes. Contest Of Champions has taken the mobile gaming world by storm, and done so with an exceedingly simple concept: one-on-one fighting.
Built in the image of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat – or perhaps more appropriately, Injustice: Gods Among Us – it allows players to control a wide range of heroes and villains in endless fights. The game could pretty much be adapted for consoles as is and it would still be a hit.
Captain America In Telltale Style
Word began circulating a little over a year ago that Marvel and Telltale Games would be teaming up to release a game. The only problem is, we still have no idea what that game will be! Odds are that it will probably be Avengers-focused, but we can’t help think it might be more effective to focus on a single character’s narrative.
Telltale thrives on storytelling, and at least where the Marvel films are concerned, Captain America probably has the biggest and most compelling tale. The character’s story spans close to a hundred years and involves a nice amount of politics and espionage in addition to basic superhero crime fighting.
Iron Man As A Shooter
It’s been somewhat surprising to see how much developers have struggled to make compelling Iron Man games, despite the character’s incredible popularity. And it may simply be because it’s difficult to simulate Iron Man’s action and combat style in a video game. The character is featured in several online casino games that do just fine because they’re basically using him as wallpaper and background design. He also works well as a featured element in ensemble games like the aforementioned Contest Of Champions.
However, as a solo hero in a console game, Iron Man has represented a conundrum for Marvel. So here’s the suggestion: do it as a shooter. Allow players to control Iron Man in the first person, with energy beams instead of bullets, and see how it goes. Frankly, it wouldn’t be unlike some of the more advanced weapons systems in Call Of Duty games and the like.
The Defenders In Rocksteady Style
At different times people have called for a bunch of different Marvel characters to star in their own dark, imaginative adventures like the Arkham series of Batman games from Rocksteady. It might work with any number of them, but if the goal is to make a game with similar appeal to the Arkham games, Marvel might want to lean toward its Netflix properties, and the characters belonging to “The Defenders.”
Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist exist on a darker plane of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and could represent the core of a wonderful crime fighting game.
More Of The Same With Spider-Man
If Marvel has had any success on consoles, it’s almost exclusively been through Spider-Man. For whatever reason, this character seems to do better by far than the rest of the Marvel heroes, with the result that any respectable list of the best Spider-Man games has to include a number of pretty modern titles.
And since a Spider-Man game is the only thing we know for certain to be in development, we may as well hope for more of the same. Developers have figured out how to make beautiful, action-packed adventures with this character, and there doesn’t really need to be an adjustment.
Whether or not any of these suggestions come close to the mark, it’s good to know Marvel is finally putting some effort into console games. It’ll be a lot of fun to see what comes next.
You must be logged in to post a comment.