5 Games That Need to be Made: Marvel

In This installment of 5 Games, I will be pitch games set in the marvel universe. Marvel is obviously a juggernaut in the film industry, but has had some rocky bumps in recent years in video games. While yes, there have been some fantastic games with Spider-man, Marvel Snap, and Guardians of the Galaxy...Crystal Dynamics absolute failure with Avnegers has sent shock waves across the gaming industry. If "Avengers the game" couldn't be the easiest win in the world...then there are definitely developers who might be nervous to tackle the IP. Avenger's failure even bled in directly affecting Guardian of the Galaxy's sales. Guardians was actually fantastic, but gamers were hesitant because of Avengers.

I could make this list very very easily and just pitch "Ironman, Captain America, Thor..." but the big three are just too obvious. Yes I would love solo outings of each of these characters, but it's a no brainer. We already know EA is working on some kind of Iron Man game. For this list, I wanted to tackle some lesser obvious characters and pitches.

5. Ant-man

Making an Ant-man game would be a technical achievement. I want a game with massive, real-time, perception altering scaling. Imagine a game where you play a character that can change the scale of the world around them at any time. It would be incredibly difficult to build a game world where the player character could be the size of a building, a person, or an insect at any time. It would require some incredible development to pull off, especially in building the game world. The assets, textures, and details would need to be able to scale in a way probably never done before. I don't want it scripted, I want to be able to do it at any time. In fact, I don't want it to feel like an arbitrary power up ability. For 10 seconds you get bigger and +10 damage or for a few seconds you get smaller and you get like invisibility or something. I want the entire world from my perspective to change. I want there to be navigation based puzzles that require Ant-man to change size to progress to the next section. I want enemy types to rely on size manipulation. Certain enemies can only be defeated when XL or XS. Some enemies require you infiltrate their suits when small. I want their to be miniature enemies like nano-bots. I want a portion of the game to visit the Quantum realm. I think this would be an incredibly difficult game to devlop, but could be incredibly well done.

4. The TVA

I want to play as a TVA agent. How amazing would it be to inside the actual TVA and turn it into a game. It would be a time jumping adventure where you go travel different events in time and the multiverse to stop incursions. The TVA just has such a cool visual style, and being able to create your own agent would be awesome. Mobius could be your boss, and you go on missions to stop branching time lines. I think it would be perfect as a cinematic character driven game, mixed with action. I also get a lot of inspiration from the game CONTROL, with a similar feel and style.

3. The Celestials

Marvel made the wrong movie. Instead of making "The Eternals" which gave us a boring ensemble of forgettable copy/paste characters...they largely ignored the coolest part of the film, and arguably one of the most mysterious and under explored parts of the MCU. They should have made "The Celestials". Imagine an entire film from the perspective of these MASSIVE cosmic beings instead. The entire film would largely have to take place in space. If you thought watching two Kaiju fight in the Godzilla movies, can you even imagine a fight between two Celestials? They are bigger than planets and float around space. They could throw entire planets at each other. It would be a scale of characters never before seen in a movie or game. In this game idea, the scale is very ambitious. You play as these cosmic beings. A third person action game, but instead of a character walking around a planet, you a massive being floating in space. It could be one of the most visually impressive games ever made. Combat would be massive, with destruction on a scale rarely seen. Simple combat would destroy solar systems. Even in your smallest form, you would see yourself walking along a planet, towering over the small mortals like ants.

2. Captain Marvel

It actually really confuses me why Captain Marvel gets so much hate from the marvel fandom. I honestly don't know anyone who liked the Captain Marvel film and character...besides me. She is often criticized on social media both as a character and as a film. She has become a joke in the MCU. Even Brie Larson, when asked if she was going to continue with the character, has commented that she doesn't think "anyone wants her too". I find it kind of sad honestly. I think she did a great job. I really liked her as an actress and her portrayal of the character. I thought she was funny and quirky and the perfect amount of cocky. I think the critical and fan failure of the film and subsequent appearances, has really made the likihood of seeing her in more projects unlikely. I think it is unlikely we will get more Captain Marvel outside "the marvels", that a standalone video game is just incredibly unlikely.

However, I still want it. I think that Captain Marvel could be the template for an absolutely fantastic game. We need a cosmic level super hero game. I don't want to fly around a city; I want to fly around a galaxy! I want to be able to fly to other planets, and fly around a whole planet! Her abilities are cool, her speed and scale is incredible, she could be the premise for the best "Superman game" we've never gotten! Imagine being able to take off on Earth and fly towards an other planet and land on Asguard or Knowhere or Sakaar. It could be a multi planet massive sandbox! In What If we see her Smash Ultron into the core of a planet! How do people not like her?

With proper writing, perhaps some character adjustments, and a really good villain and threat, a Captain Marvel game could be fantastic. Perhaps if we made her a younger, less cocky, less experienced Captain Marvel, or gave her some challenge, character flaw, some weakness to overcome; fans would be able to rally behind her. Sometimes a less perfect characters is one that is easier to route for.

1. Create Your Own: Marvel RPG

My number one pitch to me is so incredibly obvious that it blows me away this hasn't been really been done. Superheroes are the ultimate power fantasy that is video games...and to this day we really don't get the full obvious conclusion of this mixture. LET ME MAKE MY OWN SUPER HERO in a Massive Open World Game?!. Picture this, a massive open world RPG, where not only do you get to interact with countless Marvel characters, but you get to create your own hero.

It would be a massive city scale open world, similar to Spider-man. You get to fully customize your character down to appearance and abilities. You can explore the game world and save people in need, fight villians; but also follow story missions. Along the way, you will meet characters from across marvel. Do you want to be friends with Iron Man, build a relationship with him so he gives you cool Stark tech for your character? Do you want to visit Asgard and drink with Thor? Do you want to date Gwen Stacy? Do you want to sit in the park and play chess with Stan Lee?

I am telling you...the foundation for a GOTY game is here. It is so painfully obvious to me that I can not FATHOM why no one has made this. The closet we got was Midnight Sons that tried some of these things, but they did it in a very niche turn based strategy game. We need a open world, Action RPG, with full super hero customization and dozens of powers.