Where Are The Marvel Games?

Shamus Young

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Where Are The Marvel Games?

We've got the Marvel movies, but where have all the Marvel games gone?

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Mister K

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Well, there is also a rather neat game called Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, where you control four Marvel supers of your choice to fight baddies and also can create custom teams, which provides certain bonuses to them. There are only 2 major flaws in it for me, specifically that the combat can get repetitive and The Hulk isn't in it.
 

RealRT

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Well there were some games based off the Phase 1 movies - two terrible Iron Man games, a mediocre Thor game (God of War clone) and a passable Captain America game (Arkham ripoff).
 

Errickfoxy

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I vaguely recall the Hulk games being decent, but I think those were before Marvel really established its movie juggernaut status. My concern is that, as you know, developing a game worth playing takes time, so usually you get shitty movie tie-ins because they have to be rushed to meet the film release dates. I'd rather have no game than a bad tie-in.
 

Karadalis

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Shamus... shamus no.. shamus pls...STAP!

You dont know what youre asking for here... super hero games (kept for one or two mmos) have allmost all the time been HORRIBLE

From the days of the snes till today, super hero games based on marvel/DC have been complete shite 9 out of 10 times.. and those who werent shite where only "decent" games.

Dont wake up the greedy publisher giants... we allready got enough shovelware super hero games in the last couple of years.
 

Mister K

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Errickfoxy said:
I vaguely recall the Hulk games being decent, but I think those were before Marvel really established its movie juggernaut status. My concern is that, as you know, developing a game worth playing takes time, so usually you get shitty movie tie-ins because they have to be rushed to meet the film release dates. I'd rather have no game than a bad tie-in.
Damn, I forgot how fun Hulk: Ultimate Destruction was. I mean, you can slide on wrecked buses, piledrive mechas and destroy buildings by throwing angry tantrums and so much more.
 

Steve the Pocket

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Considering that the production of any Marvel games going forward would be the domain of Disney now, and Disney shut down their video game publishing arm to focus on Disney Infinity (just in time for Wreck-It Ralph, the one Disney movie that absolutely deserved its own licensed games!), I think we may have our answer.
 

RealRT

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Karadalis said:
Shamus... shamus no.. shamus pls...STAP!

You dont know what youre asking for here... super hero games (kept for one or two mmos) have allmost all the time been HORRIBLE

From the days of the snes till today, super hero games based on marvel/DC have been complete shite 9 out of 10 times.. and those who werent shite where only "decent" games.

Dont wake up the greedy publisher giants... we allready got enough shovelware super hero games in the last couple of years.
Ahem.
Marvel:
X-Men: The Arcade Game
Spider-Man: The Arcade Game
The Amazing Spider-Man vs the Kingping
X-Men 1-2 on Sega Genesis
X-Men: Children of the Atom
X-Men vs Street Fighter
Marvel vs Capcom 1-3
Spider-Man 1-2 (PS1)
Spider-Man 2 (PS2)
Ultimate Spider-Man
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
X-Men Legends 1-2
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 1-2
The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction
DC:
Batman (NES, Genesis)
Batman Returns (SNES, Sega CD)
Batman: Arkham 1-4
Injustice: Gods Among Us

Non-comic superhero games:
Prototype 1-2
Infamous 1, 2, Festival of Blood, Second Son, First Light
--
Welp, that's a crapload of good-to-great games. Not "decent" and certainly not shite, but actually good. And none of them are MMOs.
 

Scarim Coral

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RealRT said:
.Ahem.
Marvel:
X-Men: The Arcade Game
Spider-Man: The Arcade Game
The Amazing Spider-Man vs the Kingping
X-Men 1-2 on Sega Genesis
X-Men: Children of the Atom
X-Men vs Street Fighter
Marvel vs Capcom 1-3
Spider-Man 1-2 (PS1)
Spider-Man 2 (PS2)
Ultimate Spider-Man
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
X-Men Legends 1-2
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 1-2
The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction
DC:
Batman (NES, Genesis)
Batman Returns (SNES, Sega CD)
Batman: Arkham 1-4
Injustice: Gods Among Us

Non-comic superhero games:
Prototype 1-2
Infamous 1, 2, Festival of Blood, Second Son, First Light
--
Welp, that's a crapload of good-to-great games. Not "decent" and certainly not shite, but actually good. And none of them are MMOs.
So that's 15 out of 137 (yes I counted from this link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_games_based_on_Marvel_Comics) . The list could be inaccurate cos it listed Men in Black into the Marvel list
Well ok that may not be fair since wasn't X-men vs Street Fighter was any good? On the other hand, you didn't list the recent Marvle games like the movies tie in like Iron Man, Thor, X-men Destiny or even The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (I know those ones were bad).
 

RealRT

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Scarim Coral said:
RealRT said:
.Ahem.
Marvel:
X-Men: The Arcade Game
Spider-Man: The Arcade Game
The Amazing Spider-Man vs the Kingping
X-Men 1-2 on Sega Genesis
X-Men: Children of the Atom
X-Men vs Street Fighter
Marvel vs Capcom 1-3
Spider-Man 1-2 (PS1)
Spider-Man 2 (PS2)
Ultimate Spider-Man
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
X-Men Legends 1-2
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 1-2
The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction
DC:
Batman (NES, Genesis)
Batman Returns (SNES, Sega CD)
Batman: Arkham 1-4
Injustice: Gods Among Us

Non-comic superhero games:
Prototype 1-2
Infamous 1, 2, Festival of Blood, Second Son, First Light
--
Welp, that's a crapload of good-to-great games. Not "decent" and certainly not shite, but actually good. And none of them are MMOs.
So that's 15 out of 137 (yes I counted from this link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_games_based_on_Marvel_Comics) . The list could be inaccurate cos it listed Men in Black into the Marvel list
Well ok that may not be fair since wasn't X-men vs Street Fighter was any good? On the other hand, you didn't list the recent Marvle games like the movies tie in like Iron Man, Thor, X-men Destiny or even The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (I know those ones were bad).
Well Marvel DID buy Malibu comics, the publisher that did Men in Black.
Well yeah. There were either bad tie-ins or there were no tie-ins at all. I did talk about Iron Man and Thor in a post above. I'm didn't mention TASM games because I didn't play them and thus I can't judge their quality - and I didn't play them because... well, TASM. Can't wait for Marvel's take on Spider-Man, God knows it can't get worse.
 

Kenjitsuka

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You know what? I am genuinely impressed at the question!
EVERY movie that was big the past, what 3 DECADES?, had a crappy tie in game on consoles.

So this IS a huge anomaly.
Maybe they should try it out with a buddy-cop game involving that mystery character you mentioned; "Spider-Man and X-Man".
Go, go X-Man!!! Kill Megaman, I believe in you!!! :)
 

CaitSeith

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The production costs of games in the current generation already rival the film industry. Splitting their resources to make movies and games? That may hurt both. Besides, filmmakers aren't the best people to make games, as they tend to butcher the gameplay quality for the looks and the story.
 

DaWaffledude

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Karadalis said:
Shamus... shamus no.. shamus pls...STAP!

You dont know what youre asking for here... super hero games (kept for one or two mmos) have allmost all the time been HORRIBLE

From the days of the snes till today, super hero games based on marvel/DC have been complete shite 9 out of 10 times.. and those who werent shite where only "decent" games.

Dont wake up the greedy publisher giants... we allready got enough shovelware super hero games in the last couple of years.
Funnily enough, that's what people said about supehero movies before the MCU happened. That being said, I'm doubtful that the same factors that made the MCU work (whatever they may be) would translate to game development
 

Sniper Team 4

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I am actually fine with that. Video games based off of movies rarely turn out okay, and it's painful to watch them try to push them on people.

Also, I believe this right here:
RealRT said:
Well there were some games based off the Phase 1 movies - two terrible Iron Man games, a mediocre Thor game (God of War clone) and a passable Captain America game (Arkham ripoff).
might be a clue. I think Marvel carefully stuck their feet in the water at the beginning, before things really took off for their movies, and decided the water wasn't to their liking. I do remember the Captain America game, if only from X-Play. The others, I have no memory of even seeing. And I think that's it. Those games weren't that great. They didn't have the staying power, so I think Marvel went, "Nope. We're done. At least for now," and they never went back to the pool.

Why they haven't come back for so long, I have no idea. Maybe they just don't want to ruin a good thing by jinxing it, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn that those first few games turned them off of the idea.
 

P-89 Scorpion

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Disney have given up on making games apart from Disney Infinity who sales have fallen for each game while the figure sales have skyrocketed (when you see that Star Wars games have sold $1 billion remember most of that is figures for Disney Infinity).

Besides apart from 2 Arkham games (Origins and Knight sucked) most licenced games suck even Activision is choosing not to renew licences for films of games when they end due to how badly they sell.

Also Marvel never made any games they sold the licences to Sega who then paid crappy developers to make them quick and cheap (Aliens: colonial marines ring any bells?).
 

Xeorm

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Karadalis said:
Shamus... shamus no.. shamus pls...STAP!

You dont know what youre asking for here... super hero games (kept for one or two mmos) have allmost all the time been HORRIBLE

From the days of the snes till today, super hero games based on marvel/DC have been complete shite 9 out of 10 times.. and those who werent shite where only "decent" games.

Dont wake up the greedy publisher giants... we allready got enough shovelware super hero games in the last couple of years.
Not necessarily. The Spider-Man games were some of my favorites back when I played consoles, and batman games in general have also been very good. I've never played Hulk games, but those have also tended to do well when proper effort is put in. Wolverine hasn't been bad either.

Really, if I had to make a guess on why they haven't been made into games yet, is because the people in charge don't think they'd make good games. I can't say I blame them. The spiderman games were good, but they were good for reasons other than being spiderman. Swinging through the city was always fun, and spiderman himself makes for a good brawler game. Combine the two in an open world and you've got good gameplay. Batman did similarly, and worked well similarly.

Compare that with, say, Iron Man. As a general rule, modern controls aren't suited well to three-dimensional flight, especially if you're adding combat in. I don't know any game that's ever done it well. Consider it's how Iron Man gets around, I'm not sure how well it'd work. He can't just walk around.

Same with Thor. What sort of game and controls match well with him? He's a strong, tough dude with a hammer. Very visually appealing, but doesn't have that gameplay depth to really let him shine.

You could likely get away with a decent Captain America game though. But he also runs into "not special" in terms of gameplay. Decent money, but nothing ground-breaking like they're trying to do with their brand.

And they know they'd shoot themselves int he foot trying to do a good Avengers game. Yeesh, if getting one control set was hard, try doing the full Avengers.
 

sXeth

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This isn't really a Marvel exclusive thing, Superhero games in general seem few and far between.

You've got Arkham and inFamous, then uhm... Prototype, Saints Row 4, or Sunset Overdrive (Notice its already stretching the terminology).

DCU:O, the Lego, Skylander/Disney Infinity ones I wouldn't really count, as they're mainly just a coat of IP paint applied to an existing formula.
 

Webb Myers

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They ARE making good Marvel games...they're just being aimed at younger kids. Lego Marvel and Disney Infinity are both REALLY good. Both of them also follow the secret of the new Marvel movies: "fun" works better, sells better, and is easier to pull off than "cool".
 

Something Amyss

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Much as I'd like a Daredevil game, we already have a bunch of Arkham clones and it gets tiresome. I'd rather they come up with a combat system that works in its own rightand break out of the mould.