It would seem superhero-based endeavors are a hot commodity, but looking at video games, many wouldn’t know it.
The only superhero video game release for 2015 right now is Rocksteady’s “Batman: Arkham Knight.” Looking back on previous years, the story remains mostly the same: there aren’t many good superhero-based video games and even fewer great ones.
When Marvel released “The Avengers” in 2012, it sent shockwaves through Hollywood. For the first time, movies could be interconnected and form a living, breathing universe.
By and large, the video game industry is still lacking that watershed moment. Rocksteady’s “Arkham” series has proven superhero games can perform well and tell mature stories. Likewise, the “Infamous” series showed original superhero properties can be successful. Outside of these two franchises, the video game industry hasn’t produced a good superhero game in the past few years.
Video games should be the medium in which superheroes thrive. Controlling a modern-day god should be an exhilarating experience rather than lackluster. Marvel’s cinematic formula would translate well into the video game industry. Making a series of interconnecting games that combine together would let players experience a variety of different powers and tell a large array of twisting stories.
A different approach would be to tell a smaller more personal story examining the burden of having powers and being a superhero. Spider-Man is a character who lends himself well to this mature type of game. Throughout the character’s history, he has faced many arcs such as “The Death of Gwen Stacy” that would lend themselves well to the medium of video games. With a rogue gallery of villains rivaling Batman’s, there’s room for a great Spider-Man game.
Despite this, the majority of the video games based on Spider-Man have been lackluster. The stakes in many of the games don’t feel real. The storylines don’t offer consequences and dilemmas for the player to ponder. The majority of the games’ storylines haven’t done the wall-crawler justice. The “Arkham” series shows how important a well-written storyline is to capture the character’s essence.
Why are there so few great or even good superhero video games? The problem lies both in the execution and the way the stories are handled. Many superhero games have been rushed to release for the next upcoming movie. To make a great superhero video game, or any video game for that matter, requires both time and care. The games often fail on both of these fronts.
Maybe the video game industry will change in the next few years and start to see the value in superheroes. Maybe they’ll look at the “Arkham” series and the “Infamous” series as an example of melding gameplay and great stories. Maybe Marvel will develop its own video game universe to rival its cinematic version. Until then, the question will remain – why aren’t there many great superhero games?
