by Hunter Audley
With a mandate to produce better video games in the immediate future, Marvel is expanding its entertainment reach once more. And this time, it’s doing so in an area in which it’s really struggled to date. Some will inevitably point to old X-Men arcades, app experiences, or even LEGO gaming adventures as evidence that Marvel has always been somewhat busy in gaming, but has the quality really met expectations? Is there a Marvel game that goes toe-to-toe with the Arkham Asylum series of DC-related games?
Right now the most reasonable answer to both question is no, but that isn’t going to be true much longer. The company has made up its mind to do better, and as the last decade has taught us, this company can more or less conquer whatever entertainment ground it sets out to conquer. Though success can be assumed however, details are at least fairly scant. So here’s a lightly informed wish list, starting with the smaller and simpler ideas and getting on to the more ambitious ones.
Better Mobile Content
One can argue reasonably that the mobile arena is where Marvel has been most active in gaming to date, even if only through a few games. The nature of mobile gaming today means that most any franchise can have an accompanying mobile game, and while this often means a sort of uninspired effort, Marvel has been clever about it. The company has partnered with existing mobile game developers to put out well-known games like Future Fight and Contest Of Champions. Still, it would be nice to see more. The mobile medium has several popular genres that could do well if blended with Marvel themes, whether that means a Captain America endless runner (granted there was a good Spider-Man game in this style), a Doctor Strange escape-the-room experience, or whatever else you could dream up.
A Return To Casinos
Those who don’t specifically seek out casino sites may not be fully aware of just how extensive they are. It’s now ordinary to judge a site based on how many games it offers, how high a quality those games exhibit, and what the games actually are. As a result, dozens of competing sites vie for supremacy via their specific gaming titles, and at one point this meant that some of the best ones had collections of Marvel games. Disney has done away with these, but it would be nice to see them back as a smaller aspect of the larger gaming improvement effort. While not for everybody, these Marvel-based slot games were fun, simple opportunities to interact with some of our favorite heroes in unexpected places.
Additional Single Character AAA Games
The beginning of Marvel’s AAA gaming revolution appears to have been Spider-Man PS4, which came out this fall to rave reviews. It’s a perfect example of the general scope and quality people are expecting from future Marvel video games now – though it also builds on just about the only Marvel hero who’s impressed us in the past at the console level. Most of the talk about the near future surrounds teams of heroes, but after this title it would be nice to see more single character AAA games, perhaps entirely unrelated to each other. Something in the vein of this PS4 game, or even the Arkham series, but dealing with the likes of Captain America, Wolverine, or Iron Man, for instance, could be wonderful.
An Avengers Game Separate From Film
We know Square Enix is working with Marvel to design an Avengers game, and there’s discussion already about what could make it great. The early word is that it will exist in its own gaming vacuum, separate from the film universe, and we’re just reiterating that this is for the best. Following the sprawling plot of the MCU is a bad idea for any game, whereas original stories and missions would be a fresh treat for fans.
History’s Greatest Brawler
The aforementioned mobile game Contest Of Champions is largely a brawler by nature, but one that’s become a little bit convoluted with alliance and competition opportunities, endless challenges and new battle arenas, and so on. It’s a fun game, but one that makes extreme demands on players’ time, and which ultimately becomes repetitive from a gameplay standpoint. On the console level, we’d imagine something simpler yet more enjoyable, more along the lines of Street Fighter or Super Smash Bros. A gigantic effort roping in characters and settings from all across Marvel comics and films would have the potential to be the best game the genre has ever seen.