Marvel is one of the largest comic book publishers in the world. In addition, over the past ten years, it has also become the most popular film brand. But interactive adventures about her universe are rarely heard, despite their large number. In this article, we’ll talk about the ten best games based on Marvel comics.
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Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, 2006 (Earth 6109)
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance should definitely start talking about games based on Marvel comics. For fans of the genre, it is simply a must to complete. For some time it was assumed that Marvel’s Avengers would take its place as the video game flagship of the publishing house, but, unfortunately, it did not work out.
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance has several dozen playable heroes (the number varies depending on the platform), and each of them is quite unique. Spider-Man moves on the web and mainly attacks with it, Deadpool can teleport, and Thunderstorm can fly and control the crowd with various elemental abilities.
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X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse, 2005 (Earth 7964)
If you like Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, then you should pay attention to its predecessor – the X-Men Legends series. Only the second part came out on PC, but this does not bother much, since the games are not very related to the plot. If you are generally familiar with the classic X-Men world, then you will figure it out. The main difference is that in the second part, Professor X and Magneto united against the Apocalypse, so we can play for the villains from the Brotherhood of Mutants.
The gameplay of the Marvel series: Ultimate Alliance and X-Men Legends is almost identical. They were made by the same developers using the conveyor method – one per year. The player controls a squad of four characters, passing corridor levels with a bunch of opponents, at the end of which there are usually bosses. Each hero has plus or minus unique abilities, and also gradually opens up new perks. Despite its considerable age, Rise of Apocalypse remains one of the best ways to join the X-Men universe.
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Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, 2011 (Earth 30847)
Before recommending to comic fans the Marvel vs. Capcom, there are a few critical areas to be clarified. Are they interested in the history of their favorite characters? Do they like fun and casual gameplay? Are they a fan of the Injustice series? If the answer is yes, then Capcom’s fighting game is unlikely to be to their taste.
The point is that Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was created by the authors of the Street Fighter series – with all the ensuing consequences. They made an excellent classic Japanese fighting game, perfectly balanced and requiring a fairly high level of skill from the user. If you’re a comic fan and want to dive into the world of serious fighting games, this is a great entry point. Those looking for party entertainment should look elsewhere.
By the way, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is not the last part of the series at the moment. After that, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. For users who are ignorant of the intricacies, the difference between them is small, but fans accepted the new product cooler than its predecessor. The graphics seemed controversial to many, the innovations were insignificant, but the volume of content upset them most of all – in the third part, more fighters and arenas are available for a lower price.
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Deadpool, 2013 (Earth 13625)
In 2016 Ryan Reynolds introduced Deadpool to the general public (elegantly closing his eyes to X-Men Origins: Wolverine) and turned him into one of Marvel’s most recognizable brands. Until this moment, the hero was almost not familiar to people outside the comic-book community.
Comic book fans have been looking forward to the Deadpool game, counting on an incessant stream of humor, tons of references to everything in the world and regular breaks of the fourth wall. And they got it all in full. Sometimes it seems that the whole game is just a background for one endless anecdote. The hero can easily commit suicide in the middle of a boring dialogue or criticize a player for an absurd death, at some point the gameplay even rolls down to eight bits due to the “running out of budget”.
All this easily hides from the fans many disadvantages of the game, which are clearly visible to those who are not familiar with Deadpool. The plot is difficult to trace because of the abundance of jokes, and the humor itself is rather vulgar. The combat system does not stand out at all, and the controls are very controversial. But the game has escaped the influence of the hype film – this is a purebred comic Deadpool without marketing gimmicks and star fever.
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The Punisher, 2005 (Earth 50116)
The Punisher was remembered by many primarily for its cruelty. Initially, the game was even supposed to be given an “18+” rating, with which it could not be released on the PlayStation and Xbox. The developers had to apply black-and-white filters to the bloodiest scenes in order to bring down the bar at least to “17+”.
Most of the gameplay doesn’t really stand out – these are simple third-person shootouts. The only unusual thing is the use of hostages instead of shelter. Another thing is executions, which are divided into three types: ordinary in battle, situational, in which you can use improvised means, and interrogations. The latter are distinguished by the greatest cruelty. The punisher can fry the bandit in oil, feed it to piranhas, or sacrifice it in the Aztec style. Such ruthlessness and ingenuity perfectly captures the spirit of comics.
In the Russian-speaking community of gamers, The Punisher also gained fame as a game with one of the worst localizations in history. Many users remember the legendary crooked translations made using automatic programs (and you can check the memory in our test). “The Punisher” stood out against the general background by the presence of Russian voice acting – the voice of the anti-hero was presented by Dmitry Dyuzhev. Unfortunately, the localization apparently did not have any quality control: it is replete with logical, factual, syntactic and, in general, any other kinds of errors.
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Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, 2010 (Earths TRN579 to TRN581)
Notice the notes on the titles of the games? Comic book connoisseurs immediately identified the codes for different worlds in the Marvel lore. For the rest I will explain: absolutely all the characters of the publishing house, regardless of where and when they appeared, belong to the same multiverse. This was shown well in the 90s animated series Spider-Man, as well as in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It is quite possible that travels through reality will be demonstrated in films.
In games, the most attention was paid to the multiverse and its features in Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. Not only is this a great game in itself about everyone’s beloved wall climber, but it still has not one, but four Spider-Men at once. And these are not just different skins, as in Marvel’s Spider-Man, but full-fledged characters with different gameplay.
The hero from the noir universe prefers to stay in the shadows and deals with enemies in stealth. The other three choose open combat, but they are also not alien to originality. The classic Spider-Man is familiar from many other games, relies on cobwebs and is more like the original comic book hero than anyone else. A spider in a black suit uses the abilities of an alien symbiote, the one that will later spawn Venom. And the fourth, Miguel O’Hara, who became Spider-Man in 2099, attacks opponents with his trademark claws.
From a gameplay point of view, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions is a classic bitemup with a spectacular, but not very deep combat system. And the multiverse feature allows fans who are not familiar with comics to take a fresh look at Spider-Man.
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