Opinion: The ever expanding gaming world of the Marvel Universe
The Marvel Universe began 1939 under the publisher Timely Publications, but it wasn’t until it was truly born in 1960 with the release of Groot and then in 1961 with The Fantastic Four, then the phenomenon was truly born. Since that time there have been thousands of comic books released, with 100’s of unique and diverse characters of all genders and races, from across the universe. While the comic book series have always thrived to this very day, the movie and videogame industry has been somewhat inconsistent, up until recent years that is.
While many franchise have struggled on the silver screen during the early years, the likes of Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Guardians of the Galaxy and the like have gone from strength to strength. The release of The Avengers movie in 2012 was arguably the starting point of its silver screen dominance and almost every Marvel movie since that point has smashed all sorts of cinema box office records and that trend continued with the release of Captain: America: Civil War last week.
Even TV series such as Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, Daredevil, Jessica Jones and more are growing ever popular and many are hoping that many of their leading characters will successfully make the jump in many of the forthcoming cinema releases. But while the silver and TV screens are continuing to thrive, the Marvel videogame industry has arguably struggled the most, though it hasn’t been all that bad.
Sadly, the standard of quality of Marvel games have been few and far between, and perhaps haven’t hit the dizzying heights that the franchise should have, which could be a key reason that Marvel officially license their properties to popular online gaming sites like online casino casinos, which have been a popular destination for punters looking for an alternative spin on their beloved Marvel characters, while trying to make a few extra quid in the process. However, if you don’t want to part with real-world money, Casino.com, the online casino, offers you the choice of playing for fun with online slots adaptations such as The Avengers, Spider-Man, Iron Man and more.
There are simply to many Marvel videogames over the years to mention, some good, some bad. But in my personal opinion, the first time I fell in love with a Marvel videogame was with the cult arcade classic X-Men in 1992, which can still be downloaded and played to this very day via the PSN Store for PS3 and the Xbox Marketplace for the Xbox 360. But in terms of the home console, the starting point for me was with the Spider-Man 2 movie tie-in that released for PC, PS2 and Xbox on 2004. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a perfect game, but it nailed that web-swinging and slinging, quite possibly the most important feature of any Spidey game, certainly the most fun at least.
Following the release of Spider-Man 2, many of the games continued to struggle once more with the release of the Iron Man and Incredible Hulk games for the Xbox 360 and PS3, though hybrid fighting series Marvel vs Capcom was and still is a fantastic series. We have quite recently seen the release of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 videogame, but the less said on that game, the better.
No matter what generation you were introduced into the love of the Marvel universe, there is fun to be had for all ages, and nothing personifies this more than the Lego gaming series. Across the vast array of games released over the years (both good and bad), in my opinion the pinnacle of the Lego Marvel cross-over began with the awesome Lego Marvel Super Heroes. This game offered an original storyline, with an insane number of playable characters, all mixed in with the signature Lego humour delivered by developers TT Games. A follow-up was then released with Lego Marvel’s Avengers this year, which not only tied into the movies The Avengers and Age of Ultron, but also the two recent Captain America movies, Iron Man 3, Thor: Dark would and later with Ant-Man and Captain America: Civil War via free DLC.
So whether your Marvel gaming needs come via the home console, arcade classics, mobile gaming or the odd little flutter, there are almost endless amounts of fun to be had for any avid Marvel fan and this vast universe will only grow evermore in the coming years. But for now, let’s embrace the release of Captain America: Civil War which released in cinemas last week. However, the question of the ages remains, are you going to be on Team Captain America or Team Iron Man?