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So my last ranting about the lack of choice Godzilla got quite a response from you all. I'd found out about the Infogrames game right after the deadline, thus making a case for my tremendous powers of "If you write about it, it will come" (ah, if it really were that easy). So I figured I'd give it another try and talk about games based on superhero licenses.
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Oh, that's a fair fight. |
While the field offers a far wider selection of games than, say, the Godzilla niche, I'd argue the crap/good ratio is in the same neighborhood. Part of it is our fault--by "our," I mean comic fans. We're always so starved to see our favorite characters in a game that we're likely to snap up anything with their name on it. At least that's what I tell myself. It's the only reason to explain why I own the X-men game from LJN for the NES. Like with any licensed game, there's going to be a core group of folk who will buy it regardless of the quality and make it worth the sometimes quite minimal expense of grabbing a generic graphics engine, tweaking some sprites or polygons and slapping a license on it. It's hard to blame the blind purchases in a way. I mean, since the Atari 2600, the best that comic fans have been able to hope for from a video game based on a superhero is a game that plays well and happens to have a comic license attached. And sometimes folks didn't even get that right. I remember the mixed emotions I had when I caught wind of a Justice League game way back when. On the one hand, I was happy to see the team get some gaming love, but at the same time, I recall wondering, "Yay! Um...why a fighting game?" and entertaining the very real notion that it would be less than stellar. One generic fighter was released for the SNES and Genny later, and I remember wondering how in the hell Wonder Woman's lasso was a projectile and why Batman still had a face after being punched by Superman.
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Lara who? |
By now I'd like to think that most developers will realize that tastes have become a bit more sophisticated and will put a bit more thought into their use of a comic license. At this point, I wouldn't be too crushed if someone blatantly ripped off a good game if it served the license. For example, in the off chance anyone's thinking about making a game based on Marvel's Black Widow, just go look at Metal Gear Solid 1 and 2. She's a spy, Snake's a spy, she has gadgets, Snake has gadgets--it would work. Plus, for all you marketing folks out there, the Black Widow happens to be running around in a skin-tight leather outfit that leaves nothing to the imagination--a bonus if ever there were one. The MGS approach would work with any number of Marvel's characters--Nick Fury, the Punisher (hello THQ!), the Black Panther, et al. All I would ask is that there be some customization in gameplay to reflect the character's abilities to keep the game from being a straight rip and a very strong storyline. Other than that, people can go crazy.
If I sound a bit desperate...well, I am. My comic game diet hasn't been very balanced for the last decade or so. I'm really hoping that will change soon now that consoles are so much more powerful and more comic fans are infiltrating game development. Now's the time, people, make all your childhood heroes proud because if one more generic hero title hits the market, I'm gonna lose it.
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