Just like in the movies

Today I got a request from my best friend who lives in Japan:

Write about the growing superhero phenomena in films and how video games that reflect them as such don’t hold up to the same quality

I thought about it and he’s absolutely right. In the past decade or more we’ve gotten movies featuring the following heroes and teams; Daredevil, Elektra, Wolverine, the X-men, Thor, Iron Man, Green Lantern, the Hulk, Watchmen, Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Captain America, Spawn, the Fantastic Four, the Punisher and Ghost Rider. With the exception of Elektra all of these titles have video games to go with them, Daredevil had his game cancelled but since it had a bit of development done on it technically counts as him having a game you can check it out here. What these games have in common is that they all aren’t good games, more specifically they don’t do justice to the movie they are based off of. In some cases the movie was bad so you will spawn a bad game off of that.

Yeah.....

Comic book movies have been gaining popularity in the recent years. One can say it’s due to the advances we made in technology and that the proper special effects tools are around to convey these fantastic powers that the characters have. Another point of view is that they are popular now because the generation that grew up with them are now adults and they have the money to spend on seeing the movie, buying the merch, etc. You could argue that now is the time to reintroduce these characters to a new generation, which is popular among companies – just ask Capcom. While these may not be the all the reasons I feel that these could be the top. While they all make sense there is one glaring problem, comic book movies are very hit or miss. When everything is a remake,reboot or re-imagining there is a constant they all take liberties with the story, from Deadpool having Cyclops, Nightcrawler and Sabretooth’s powers to Juggernaut not being related to Charles. This is done to make the movie more appealing to a broader audience or to make it fit within the time frame which is understandable you cannot condense years of cannon into 2 hours but the level of quality is negotiable and people more or less either look at these movies as either good/bad as a movie but good/bad as a comic related movie or it’s dead on.

Do not want

One of the things that could benefit comic book movies (and subsequently the games) is to create an original story for that character or team using their vast history. A one time stand alone shot isn’t uncommon in the comic/manga world so why should it not be the case for a movie. Since most movies are usually one shots anyway that develop a fan base to become sequels and trilogies I think a one shot story that arcs off may not be a bad idea. You could also introduce new characters, this has happened numerous times, characters like Harley Quinn (from D.C.comics, Batman Universe) started off being a cartoon only character who then became very popular and now has a place in the comics.

What about the games? If it were up to me I’d leave it to how it was back in the good old days where companies randomly released super hero games that were good Spider-man, Maxim Carnage, X-men (the arcade game, Clone Wars), Batman(the arcade game, NES versions and the SNES Batman and Robin), Spawn (in the Demon’s Hand, I think that’s the most suggestive title ever) but the list can go on. These games were good because they were just based on a comic book with a traditional game play elements (usually beat ‘em ups and platforming) incorporated into it. They are as close as anyone will more than likely ever get to being their favorite hero without Larping.

One of the greats

Many people would say since Activision and Sega are the main publishers for many of the movie related titles that could potentially be a problem. I think the main issue with these movie games is that they are trying to do too much and give you too much control over the heroes power. The most effective form of super hero games are beat ‘em ups. While it seems like a good idea to all people full control over Captain America’s shield or all of Superman’s powers, simplicity I feel would work way better. Some of these super hero games play just like other games we’ve played before, while other feel like weird contrived versions of hybrids (directly looking at you Iron Man for being a bastard child of Ace Combat and any other beat em up you want to name).

You will be the one escaping

Maybe at the comic con in both NYC and SD there will finally be a game that gets it right.