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Marvel Focuses On Games, Trails New Titles 48

Posted by simoniker from the true-believers-transfixed dept.
Thanks to Gamesindustry.biz for its article discussing Marvel's renewed focus on videogames based on their properties, with the announcement of "a new division [that] will oversee the creation of all games based on Marvel licenses", ensuring quality control. These products will still be licensed out to external developers/publishers, however, and the announcement press release lists previous and future titles, including Spider-Man II, X-Men Legends, Fantastic Four, and Iron Man from Activision, The Punisher from THQ, and The Hulk II from Vivendi. The GI.biz article also notes: "One of the most exciting products in the pipeline for the company... [is another] Vivendi title - a massively multiplayer game featuring a wide range of different elements from the 'Marvel Universe', which encompasses the entire spectrum of the company's franchises" - this MMO title will doubtless be compared to Cryptic/NCSoft's unlicensed, currently Beta-testing City Of Heroes. What as yet unused Marvel property do you think would make the best videogame?
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Marvel Focuses On Games, Trails New Titles More

Marvel Focuses On Games, Trails New Titles

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  • They need to be done Right! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Prien715 ( 251944 ) <agnosticpope@@@gmail...com> on Friday January 16, 2004 @04:23AM (#7996067) Journal
    Marvel could do very well with it's properties but the problem is they've not really utilized them effectively.

    You could make a metroid prime-like version of spiderman for example. You go through his early history and as you do so, you unlock his powers or learn to use them better (Start as normal, get spider reflexes (high jump, good dodge), web (grapple technique), etc).

    The fantastic 4 could do something like secret of mana, where there's computer (or co-op multiplayer) control for the other characters.

    The problem with the Marvel games is that they go with a frequently used formula (sort of like romantic comedies or action flicks in Hollywood) and fail to capitalize on their singular stregnth as marvel games -- the ability to have a storyline and likeable characters.
    • My current comic book/video game geek fantasy: An X-Men RPG constructed in a fashion similar to a VII+ Final Fantasy telling the story of the All-New, All-Different X-Men, culminating in the Death of The Phoenix storyline. There would be some fun settings in there like Cheyenne Mountain, the Shi'ar Empire, Starcore, the Blue Area of the moon...It could be epic.

      I hear the "NERD ALERT!" klaxon going off. Sorry about the noise.

  • Dr. Strange (Score:4, Interesting)

    by FreeForm Response ( 218015 ) <.comptona. .at. .gmail.com.> on Friday January 16, 2004 @04:49AM (#7996146) Journal
    Think about it.
    • All sorts of phatty magickal powers
    • Travel through time, space, and the infinite multiverse
    • Battle on the astral plane
    • Cool powerups (Eye of Agamotto, Wand of Watoomb)
    • Tons of side quests and backstory elements, drawn from the comics, to explain the presence of various items and enemies
    • Awesome boss fights, requiring one to wield the overwhelming might of their phenomenal cosmic power
    I mean, Marvel has tons of untapped franchies (Ghost Rider, Silver Surfer, S.H.I.E.L.D.), but my personal preference for first on the list would be Dr. Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts, Sorceror Supreme.
    • Talk about a perfect game for a new and improved "power glove" type peripheral. Steve's always about fancy finger configurations.

      I too would enjoy opening up a giant can of Crimson Bands of Cyttorak on somebody's ass.

    • +1

      I have an almost complete run of the Dr Strange from the 80s (not too hard...only something like 83 issues) that I can't give away as bird cage lining.

      I could use a hot new video game to drum up some interest, maybe a movie to tie-in.

      Tom Cruise is Stephen Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts. Halle Berry...nah, they already have her as Storm. Ok, Monica Bellucci is Clea, the Dr's faithful disciple and eye candy. Kyle Gass as Wong, Stephen's 'life partner'. And in an uncredited cameo, Christopher Walk

    • Re:Dr. Strange (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Why not Thanos instead? Then you can:
      • be forsaken by death, and thus completely immortal
      • rip off your own arm and beat your opponent to a pulp with it
      • fight an army of monsters without breaking a sweat
      • beat up gods for fun and steal their most prized possessions, all while insulting their weakness
      Sounds like something I'd buy, anyway...

  • There is an unused Marvel property? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Osmosis_Garett ( 712648 ) on Friday January 16, 2004 @04:51AM (#7996147)
    I think that Marvel has exploited its proerties as much as they possibly can. Of course, since Marvel appeals to a young audience, there is constantly new people to take money from... people who wont learn of the constant re-use of these properties until later in life.

    It's pretty much a given that Marvel isnt interested in their unused properties. The properties that are out there are working well, are selling, and will continue to appeal to a broad slice of their target audience. The Hulk, Spiderman, X-Men... all winners! Even the Fantastic Four is getting a new shot, although the only success I ever saw for them outside of the comics was in the Fox cartoon in the 90s. Marvel has been exploiting their comic characters on TV since the 60s (or earlier?), and with video games since the 80s. They're certainly not going to take a break now that they've broken into the mainstream with hit movies.

    Fortunately for Marvel, they've a huge universe of characters and stories to draw from. This doesnt make them any more special than anyone else who wants to licence a story to make a game, mind you... but for the Marvel fans, rest assured that no matter who your favorite character may be, he or she will end up costing you even more money in the form of a new video game.
  • Marvel Focuses On Games, Trails New Titles

    Are Marvel stalking recent games? Is that what this means?

  • Marvel Online woes (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 16, 2004 @05:34AM (#7996273)
    Want an inside scoop?

    Well, VU had an AMAZING demo of marvel online worked up by a proven MMO developer. The design would have called for all sorts of nifty features including unique sub-areas, zones of influence, and the ability to play as just about any sort of character (not just hero/villian!) within the marvel universe.

    Alas, due to some extremely shady politics in the upper levels of the company, the project was pulled, the entire production staff was let go, and the developer was left hanging (after putting mucho deneiro and time in to the project).

    This had NOTHING to do with the quality of the project as anyone who saw the tech demo could attest.

    I wouldn't hold my breath for this one folks.

    • Re:Marvel Online woes (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Want an inside scoop? Well, VU had an AMAZING demo of marvel online worked up by a proven MMO developer. The design would have called for all sorts of nifty features including unique sub-areas, zones of influence, and the ability to play as just about any sort of character (not just hero/villian!) within the marvel universe. Alas, due to some extremely shady politics in the upper levels of the company, the project was pulled, the entire production staff was let go, and the developer was left hanging (aft

  • The "cosmic" ones (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Felonius Thunk ( 168604 ) on Friday January 16, 2004 @07:23AM (#7996601) Journal
    Silver Surfer, Doctor Strange, Thor, and the lesser known ones from the psychedilc 70's like the Inhumans, Captain Marvel, and Warlock. Yeah, it's showing my age a bit, but those sort of weird, slightly funny, slightly hippy-twilight zone-philosophical stories featuring a quick trip through some dread dimension would be perfect for games. The plot is simple and the characters flat enough to actually play a game with, yet personal and fantastic enough to be original and involving. The eye candy factor for The Power Cosmic or whatnot, and the bizarre worlds and foes (the planet Eon? Dormammu?), could be pretty cool.

    Dang, now I wish I still had some of those comics around right now.

    • Re:The "cosmic" ones (Score:2, Interesting)

      by *weasel ( 174362 )
      perfect for games would be the currently unused licenses that fit the currently popular games but are passed over.

      iron man (halo-ish), punisher (gta-ish), nightcrawler (x2 intro sequence meets splinter cell)... hell maybe even a bit of ghost rider.

      going for their older IP is probably not going to bring in Marvel that much cash. Particularly with their track record in games. If it isn't a good game it'll be a complete disaster - unlike their current bad games with headlining characters *cough*wolverine*c

  • Not mentioned yet (Score:4, Insightful)

    by chrismcdirty ( 677039 ) on Friday January 16, 2004 @08:25AM (#7996855) Homepage
    I'm surprised that no one thus far has mentioned they'd like to see the stories panned out in a Freedom Force-type game. It'd fit perfectly, since it's a great engine for storytelling/adventuring. It worked (and sold) great with it's own original heroes. Think of how well it would do with Marvel heroes.
    • That's the first thing I thought of, too. Freedom Force did a great job, following a cool story with all original characters. Marvel games, for the most part, have been pretty wretched. I think the last one I actually enjoyed was the Spider-Man game for SegaCD. Yeah, that long ago. Otherwise, they usually skimp on the gameplay and controls, but throw in their Officially Licensed Properties, so people suck it up anyway. Bleech. I'm not holding my breath waiting for Marvel to sponsor a good video game.
    • they'd need to pump up the combat graphics, so one could zoom in more and get proper characterization and more visually impressive 'bang!', 'pow!', 'bif!' excitement - but yeah, that'd be a great game, if they pulled it off.

      two different avenues that they should consider:
      (instead of just the current mode of licensing away to unproven developers with their own gameplay ideas)

      the Simpsons method: license the IP to an unproven developer, but with the intent to exactly duplicate the gameplay of popular titles
  • Dazzler!

    or maybe Namor... God, I hate Namor...
  • Cause outside of Batman Vengance/Rise of Sin Tzu you're just not cutting it. Despite some oddities, (The Fantastic Four beat 'em up anyone?) Marvel has had a pretty decent track record for licensed game properties, especially their Capcom and Activision titles. I still remember buying Spider-Man for Dreamcast and thinking two things: "This is the best version of Spidey away from the comics...ever." and "Holy crap! A super-hero game done...right!" In any case, I'll be satisfied when they finally make a
    • Must be that spidy makes good games, does anyone else recall the old Atari (perhaps Intellivison, too) Spider-Man game? You web climbed buildings, and at the top fought the green goblin, it was great.

  • Unused is a relative term... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by shadowcabbit ( 466253 ) * <cx AT thefurryone DOT net> on Friday January 16, 2004 @11:15AM (#7997869) Journal
    Many of us are thinking back beyond what's currently popular and making the biggest headlines. I don't doubt you that a good game based on some of the lesser-known properties, like Silver Surfer, Thor, or Dr. Doom (who would make an interesting game "protagonist", if you think about it), would be well-received by fans both old and new. But here's how I see things.

    My sister-- just two years younger than me, and I'm going on 25-- is big into comics of late. Marvel especially, and the "X-Men Evolution" series currently airing on Kids WB in particular. I picked up the hard-bound "Ultimate X-Men vol. 1" for her for Christmas, and she was thrilled. So was I-- complain all you want, but the series is damn good. As I was reading it, though, I took a look at the production notes, as they were. The writers and artists felt that having thirty years of backstory-- some of it contradictory, some of it ludicrous, and some of it just plain factually wrong-- was starting to wear down the appeal of the X-Men franchise. The ensemble was bringing in new fans, but these fans-- some of whom had never picked up a comic book in their entire lives-- were quickly turned off because they just plain didn't have a clue what was going on, what all the characters were referencing.

    Marvel had tried putting new life into its series before-- the "What-Ifs" are the only thing I can remember as being mentioned int he notes, but I'm sure someone will come to my memory's aid (ha ha [slashdot.org]). Those hadn't turned out as well as they'd expected. So the writers basically said, "dump it all, let's just start over."

    And wouldn't you know it, but it works. The familiar stories are there-- X-Men versus the Sentinels, Magneto's big thing, the Savage Land-- they're just told in a different, new, and damn spiffy way. It might not sound like it would be a big seller-- but combined with the media blitz Marvel's been going through, the series has proven pretty successful.

    So build on that.

    Based on the success of the "Ultimate" series (an "Ultimate Spider-Man" is also out), it would be kind of logical to use that material to make a good adventure game or even an RPG. You just know that BioWare's been contacted at least once-- look what they did for Star Wars; don't you think they could handle something like KOTOR, but with the X-Men theme? You might not get the old, die-hard, "I'll never let go of 300 back issues worth of story" fans, but you will get newer, fresher blood. And you can stretch that out for a good three, four games as the story arcs evolve and progress.

    Might be worth a look, from a gamer's standpoint, too. But then again, maybe that's just the wild ramblings of a young pup who never got to read X-Men until he was in college.
    • Oh come on, the Silver Surfer shooter for the NES was GREAT. The Operation: Wolf-style Punisher game on the NES that didn't have Light Gun support? Classic. And don't get me started on how the NES X-men game was a milestone in comic-book licensed video games. (I hope this is coming off as sarcastic as I'm intending it to be)

      Seriously though, you may look into X-Men Legends [gamespot.com], it's been in development now for awhile, (Should probably be coming out soon, I'd think, unless it's been cancelled) and it's an RP
      • According to IGN, at last year's E3, it was scheduled to come out the second half of 2004. And there have been no updates since then. My best bet is that it's canned. But if it's not, I still wouldn't expect it out by 2004.
        • That's too bad. It sounded pretty interesting, might have been able to pull me in more than KOTOR did (or didn't, I guess I should say). Guess we'll have to see if it pops up at E3 this year or not.

  • Maybe it already exists (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Inexile2002 ( 540368 ) * on Friday January 16, 2004 @11:35AM (#7998074) Homepage Journal
    A Punisher FPS.

    I mean seriously, you clean up a Max Paine like play style, throw it onto a good engine and it pretty much writes itself. Do it right and you'd have a pretty damn good game. And for multiplayer, there are dozens of stock Marvel characters that pretty much just run around toting firepower of some form or another. Give each one a different set of bonuses / abilities and throw people into the fray.

    Also, if I were the Marvel guys, I'd be on the phone right now talking to the guys who did Prince of Persia, begging them to use the same game mechanics and whatsits for a Daredevil or Spiderman game. (Or better, any of those uber-vixens that Spiderman and/or Daredevil seem to hook up with. Electra, Silver Sable, Black Cat etc.) Prince of Persia was brilliant on pretty much every level, but you apply that kind of fluidity of movement, acrobatics, excellent fighting and it's almost already a Spiderman or Daredevil game.

    Another good video game concept is the Secret Wars. I didn't read the series - during the 80's I was a DC fan: Firestorm, Big Blue, Batman, the Justice League, Green Lantern, the Flash... Marvel didn't just didn't connect with me as much back then - and to be completely honest the whole idea sounded a little on the contrived side. But for a video game it has potential. Pick from a stock list of heroes; go up against villians on a battleground of some advanced alien world. Lots of potential for an interesting combined strategy / action game. Maybe hard to pull off - but if it was done right it could be a really great game.

    As for DC, why they haven't done something with Deathstroke the Terminator is completely beyond me. Cool, underused character who lends perfectly to a video game concept.
    • The Spiderman games out there for the PSX and PS2 are very decent. I'd love to see their gameplay merged with the Prince of Persia's gameplay. The current ones convey alot of the typical power and kineticism well enough, but I'd like to see a more fluid, capable wall crawler.
  • As I watched the explosion of popularity in MMORPGs I dreamed about what games I would like to see and three stood out prominently in my mind. They were Star Wars, Marvel, and Shadowrun(ohh how glorious it could be.) Having played Star Wars Galaxies and having it not live up to my expectations was tough becuase I think that the game had great potential. Because of this I fear for any game with such high expectations to meet. I think that with Marvels recent successes in movies and games they need to be VE

  • Some Ideas... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by DesScorp ( 410532 ) on Friday January 16, 2004 @11:57AM (#7998345) Journal
    I'm not much of a gamer, but I'd like to see a couple of titles....

    - An Iron Man flight/combat sim, especially one with a view from inside the mask. Great tech-weaponry based game it could be, with all of the gadgets Tony Stark has in that armor (repulsors, radar tracking devices, etc...the list goes on). Being able to fight in the air or an the ground from that first person perspective would be awesome, and there's a nice list of villains to fight, Dr. Doom and HIS armor (and hey, even his magic) immiedietly coming to mind.

    - A Silver Surfer game with cosmic themes could be incredible. Largely a first person combat game, but with villains like Terrax, Thanos, and Galactus (hey, even Mephisto) you've got endless possibilities there.

    But what I'd REALLY like to see is....

    - Avengers vs. JLA; hey, if Marvel and DC can team up on the fabulous series they're currently making (the only reasons this 35 year old has been to a comic book store lately, too), they can do it for the game as well. And I think it'd sell like mad. The comics featured some long awaited matchups we've always dreamt about, like Superman vs. Thor, Batman vs. Captain America. Wouldn't it be fantastic to see that in a game?
  • ... they better not bring back Howard the Duck.
  • I'd love to see a game where you play from the perspective of the super villan. Battling the X-Men and other super heros trying to interfere with your plans that are bent on world/universal control and greed.
  • I'd love to see an X-Men movie (or even a crossover with other characters) that focuses on some other characters than Wolverine. How about Storm? She's really cool if she's pissed. Or Rogue? I think everyone other than Wolverine was abused (so far as character assassination by non-participation) in the X movies.

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