With Avengers Infinity War still very fresh in my mind as well as my attachment to most of the characters involved in the MCU I have no choice but to write about super heroes to decompress after this film. I won't be talking about movie directly so don't worry about any spoilers. I'm simply going to be writing about my favorite game starring a playable version of each character from Avengers Infinity War.
Thanos:
Marvel vs Capcom 2Might as well start this off with one of the biggest baddies in comics and definitely the biggest baddie of the MCU, Thanos. It's not often you get to play with villains so it can be a treat to be able to do so. Even though he isn't nearly as powerful as he should be I really do enjoy playing as Thanos in Marvel vs Capcom 2. He is slow and lumbering, but has a much more varied and unique moveset than most characters his size. Definitely a favorite game of mine that may show up again on this list
Loki:
Disney Infinity 2.0Not necessarily a favorite game of mine, but it was fun for an afternoon. I do give it props for the cool character figures though and Loki is no exception. He looks fantastic on my shelf!
Star Lord:
Disney Infinity 2.0Much like Loki this game simply makes my list for lack of options. I havn't had a chance to play the Guardians of the Galaxy Telltale game quite yet, but I feel like that would take this spot it I had. Disney Infinity isn't a bad game, it just doesn't have much to keep my interest for long periods or to get me to revisit it. Those figures though....
Gamora:
Marvel vs Capcom InfiniteThankfully she has appeared in more than just Disney Infinity! While it's my least favorite of the Marvel vs Capcom games it's still fun to mess around casually with friends on. I'm not the biggest fan of the character design for Gamora in this game with her P.N. 03 style body suit though. Much prefer her traditional comic appearance or the MCU style costume is pretty awesome as well.
Drax:
Disney Infinity 2.0Back to the cool figures once more! Really enjoy how they sculpted this one as the squared off edges kind of remind me of the old Batman Animated Series style. Man I need to play that Guardians Telltale game...
Rocket:
Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 Finally back to games I actually really enjoy! And Rocket it a big part of the appeal in this one for me as he is one of my favorite characters to fight with. I love his comic uniform design a great deal. The voice actor does a great job of simulating his MCU style voice. He's got a crazy diverse set of weapons as he should with a nice variety of guns and traps. And his cartoon-y style really fits into MvC quite well especially with the "comic panel" kind of style they used in this game. Really fun character and one who continuously grows on my with each new movie release he has appeared in.
Groot:
Disney Infinity 2.0I am Groot.....
Falcon:
Disney Infinity 2.0Enough Already!!
Black Widow:
Marvel's Avengers Battle for EarthThis is not a good game by any stretch of the imagination. My won was really into it for a couple weeks after we watched Avengers Age of Ultron a few years ago so I ended up playing it with him on several occasions. It's very bare bones and basically an on-rails fighter. It's the kind of thing you give you 3-6 year old so they can feel good while mashing and winning against the CPU. Even the art style and the character models looks gross. I need to find a better Black Widow game to play.....
Vision:
Captain America and the AvengersI've only had the pleasure of playing this arcade game twice now and both of those were many years ago. After looking up videos it seems like it may not have been the best game, but regardless I still have fond memories of it. And Vision was my character of choice each time. He easily seemed like the most powerful between the cast to a kid who read comics plus he was the only one wearing a cape and every good hero needs a cape!
Scarlet Witch:
Marvel Super Hero Squad The Infinity GauntletAt least it's not Avengers Battle for Earth again?? This game has the style of the Fisher Price Little People toys and about as much character and depth as them too. It's another very simple game that sucked my young son in for about a week as I played along with him until he thankfully moved on to other things.
Dr Strange:
Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3I'm noticing a trend here. Either crappy kids games or capcom fighters. Strange is a solid character in UMvC3 though. Much like Rocket he really suits the style of the game and is flashy and as comic-booky as you could possibly be, which is always what I want.
Honorable mention to Marvel Ultimate Alliance Hawkeye:
Captain America and the AvengersThis time we are talking about the NES port of the game. It give you the option of playing as either Captain America or Hawkeye and I always found Hawkeye superior to Cap in this game. Maybe because of the range, but regardless it's not often Hawkeye gets to overshadow people so I bet he'll take it where he can get it. This is a pretty standard side scrolling action game for the NES. If you swapped out the Avengers it would probably be slightly more forgettable though.
Thor:
Marvel vs Capcom 3This is a big chunky Thor, just like I like him. This is how I like to see my Thor look and Chris Hemsworth is just to lean and athletic for me. To echo what I said about Rocket and Strange being in this game Thor fits great as well. I really feel like they made this game to accentuate the comic characters and while they seem like great fits a lot of the video game pulls seem out of place in comparison. It doesn't have that nice mash up that the first two had where everybody feels at home.
Hulk:
Incredible Hulk Ultimate DestructionThis is the first time in this entire list where it felt like I actually had a few viable options to choose between, but as much as I love me some crossover fighters and beat em ups Ultimate Destruction is the ONLY game where I feel like the dang Incredible Hulk while I'm playing! Smashing pretty much anything, wearing cars as boxing gloves, running up buildings, so many great Hulk like actions in this game. Most other games you are just big and lumbering and hit stuff hard that you could just palette swap for another big character and get the same effect. It's been a while, but hopefully with the success of the Avengers and people starting to like the character again after Thor Ragnarok we can see another Hulk game in this style.
Honorable Mention: Mavel Super Heroes vs Street FighterCaptain America:
Captain America Super SoldierThis gem on the Wii is the closest we've gotten to a Captain America feel ala Hulk Ultimate Destruction. It tried to do combat somewhat in the vein of Batman Arkham Asylum, but doesn't quite have the depth or fluidity of that game not to mention far less interesting bad guys to fight. It is however better than most 3D combat systems. The shield throwing is actually quite good though. It's got very boring level design which I think it what hurts this game the most though. Cap sure could use a proper new game installment of his own.
Honorable Mention: Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter War Machine:
Marvel vs CapcomAs a kid who grew up reading comics I always found War Machine to be so much cooler than Iron Man. I know Tony Stark is a far more interesting character to read about, but there is just something about that black and grey armor and the gattling gun on his shoulder that does it for me. And although he is a small part of the movies, when he is in battle it's some of my favorite action to watch on screen. As for video games he's actually been in a few surprisingly. My favorite is picking him as a secret character over Iron Man in the original Marvel vs Capcom game. Yeah it's a palette swap, but imo it's a huge upgrade!
Iron Man:
Marvel's War of the GemsI love 16 bit beat em ups. That's the sweet spot for me. 8 isn't quite enough and anything over 16 and they start getting too ambitious for my tastes. And War of the Gems is definitely a sweet spot for me. Iron Man shares the spotlight with a few other heroes, but his parts are definitely some of my favorites. And there are really no weak characters in this game, everyone plays very different which keeps this game fun and fresh.
Honorable Mentions Tony Hawk's UndergroundSpider Man:
Maximum CarnageThis was the hardest for me to make a choice by a long shot. Not only does Spider Man more games than the rest of the super heroes, he's also had quite a few good ones (along with dozens of bad ones). It basically came down to Spider Man 2 and Maximum Carnage for me though. And I think one too many kids lost his balloons for me to pick Spider Man 2. Maximum Carnage hits that sweet 16 bit beat em up sweet spot for me. And you actually get to do Spider Man stuff like swing on webs, climb walls, use you webs to smash bad guys heads together, fight waaaay to many villains at once, call your super heroes friends to come in and assist. Plus it actually follows the comic plot pretty well considering when it was made. And the OST is pretty rad. Fingers crossed the PS4 Spider Man game that comes out later this year takes the new top spot for me!
Honorable Mentions: Spider Man 2, Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, Amazing Spider Man vs Kingpin, Ultimate Spider Man, Separation AnxietySummary:
When I started writing this I had such good feelings about exploring my history with these characters. Very early on it became pretty apparent that very few super heroes have actually had really truly great games. As big as Marvel has become in many different arenas they are still greatly lacking in the video game realm. Spider Man has had many successes, and Batman has as well if we want to count DC. Outside of those two characters is a surprisingly shallow pool of fun engaging entertainment for us gamers with these lovable and iconic characters. Tony Stark and his Iron Man Persona are among the biggest and most recognizable properties on the planet over the last 10 years. Surely that's enough time to develop a good Iron Man/War Machine game. Thor has a huge depth of amazing cosmic and inter-dimensional sources to pull from to make a massive sprawling adventure, why isn't it being utilized?
My hope is that with the Insomniac Spider Man game coming out it sells a ton of copies and other companies take notice and we can get some interesting takes on these characters for us gamers. Who wouldn't want to try a Thor game made by the same team that created the Witcher games? How about a Black Widow/Hawkeye action brawler developed by Platinum? Guardians of the Galaxy done up Nintendo style, yes please! There is so much source material from these characters to pull from or as the MCU has proven you can just use those as gentle guidelines and make your own stories with these characters that work. I really hope my childhood super heroes can find the home the deserve on consoles and aren't simply stuck on all of our mobile devices demanding our money to continue to play.
