Image via Complex Original
We've played the Arkham series, we've played Marvel Ultimate Alliance.
We've played their Lego counterparts. We've even played video game created heroes like inFamous and Viewtiful Joe. Some superhero titles have earned our cash while others made us lose our faith in humanity.
With The Amazing Spider Man 2 dropping later this month we figured it was the best time to throw out our ideas for heroes deserving of their own titular game. We've appreciated the improvements over the years to existing franchises, but we wish for more variety beyond the Superman, Batman, Spider Man rotation. Many franchises on this list have never even been touched. Still, others haven't had a release since we were having SNES-Genesis debates nationwide.
It's time to break the mold. Their fan bases may be thinner, and their bankability smaller; but by continuing the current cycle that will never change. Here's 10 such Superheroes Who Deserve Their Own Next-Gen Game.
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Professor X
On the surface a title following a man in a wheelchair might not sound like cutting edge gaming. But think about it, nobody's done it yet. The closest off the top of the head is Bentley from the Sly Cooper series. Like Geist, the game would revolve around possessing others to eventually take down rival, old friend, and massive fucknut, Magneto. Along the way you'd utilize major villains to infiltrate the metal manipulator's bad mutant empire, while also skirting the law with Xavier's silly philosophy that prevents him from wiping out most of humanity.
Swamp Thing
We yearn for a sandbox game outside of the city. Like real life sometimes you got to get away from the hustle and bustle. Cabbies leaning on their fucking horns. Skyscrapers blocking the sun. We'll take our chances in a bayou full of alligators, pythons and Deliverance-esque hunting parties. Being brutally sodomized by a backwoods hick is preferable to another commute stuck in gridlock, pig impression and all.
Enter Swamp Thing whose popularity boomed in the eighties and got the side-scrolling platformer treatment in the early '90s. For those of you not old enough he was like Poison Ivy except he never tried to seduce Batman (probably). Use his elemental powers, and his control of plants (cooler than it sounds) to push back against supervillains in addition to loggers and natural disasters. It wouldn't be a sandbox without free will, which means you can finally kill those who toss their garbage on the ground mere inches away from a trash can.
Captain Planet
Just because he was educational doesn't mean he wasn't a superhero. But the tone on environmentalism has changed since Captain Planet's mid-'90s heyday. Between levels where you utilize the Planeteers (i.e. take them into the woods without parental supervision) you'll also have to do cable news interviews where you get shouted down and labeled a giant tree hugging pussy and a global warming nutjob.
Captain Planet's powers weren't really defined. That could make video game design tough. Whatever situation arose, he somehow had the ability to deal with it. He was basically god with tighter abs, and even one-time combated a tsunami by sending it in the opposite direction for another country to deal with. The best concept we could come up with (after 20/30 seconds of deep thought) was a Super Mario Sunshine cleanup combined with Sim City-type strategy. When pollution got too dense his powers were weakened, meaning the final levels would be Los Angeles and Hong Kong.
With a new movie inexplicably on the way this could be a great chance for cross-marketing to revive the one television show that finally convinced us turn off our tubes and go outside.
Beast
We need a superhero game with brains as well as brawn. Think God of War if Kratos was voiced by Kelsey Grammer. With Beast we could have Wolverine-style combat in addition to Zelda-style puzzles. Hank McCoy had two Ph.D.s, spoke nine languages, and cured mutant HIV. That means we don't want the same boring puzzles where we reflect a light into a mirror or push a crate onto a switch. We want the real thing. Basically, if you lack a background in biochemistry this game should be tougher than Demon Souls, Battletoads and Contra played on three simultaneous TVs while drunk.
Green Arrow
No '90s trip to the movie theater was complete without playing an arcade game where you shot at a screen. And, unless you worked an overnight shift at 7/11, you never got to take that thrill home with you. But now, with an increasing focus on motion controls, this could be the perfect time to finally cash in on a Green Arrow game. We got let down without a new Mario Tennis for Wii and now we're its successor Wii U crash and burn like a whole host of references that are way too soon. Green Arrow's not going to turn Nintendo around, but at least his game could capitalize on the gimmick that showed promise, oh...eight fucking years ago.
Doctor Strange
Clearly we're not the only people who've thought about this because Doctor Strange would definitely offer a unique take on the superhero genre. His combination of spells, items and all around powers would lend himself perfectly to an RPG. In fact, with all the different dimensions he's traversed, this game probably has the most creative potential. Just skip his early post-car accident days. We don't need a tutorial earning money in back alleys without the use of our hands.
The Flash
The best he's done is a cameo in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (shown here heroically breaking a female government agent's jaw). That is just not adequate. And though we're skeptical on how an entire game would work we feel there's hope. Spider Man 2 made traveling by web swinging fun. Funner than the actual game. A Flash sandbox of dead sprinting across Keystone City, weaving in and out of freeway lanes, fighting criminals at the speed of light and whooping ass in optional triathlons (a la GTA V) sounds better than another than another Marvel title churned out by Sega.
Daredevil
He came close, oh so close, to acquiring gaming glory in the early 2000s. But what happened? Development hell. Followed by cancellation. The early preview sounded like Arkham City ten years early. Instead we got a GBA title based on the film. It was as disappointed as we'd been since...well, since we saw the film. Ben Affleck murdered the franchise in the minds of the majority.
Seeing as how Arkham's "Detective Vision," basically is Daredevil's radar power, we think it's fair to give the blind vigilante another shot. Clearly that concept works. Comics have always stolen from each other: Aquaman and Namor. Green Arrow and Hawkeye. Wonder Woman and Aunt May. It's just another shot in an old-school rivalry. And for anybody wondering: copyright violation is not a crime.
An Entire Watchmen Game
Keyword being entire since they did make a Watchmen game as a downloadable title for the PSN and Xbox Arcade. But, there's two problems. One, it only followed Rorschach and Nite Owl. And two, it sucked. We prefer a game that follows The Watchmen through their entire saga: From the "Minutemen," to Vietnam, to their unceremonious end. There's a lot of game to cover there.
We hate to keep referencing GTA V but think how well switching characters on the fly worked. For Nite Owl you could use an array of gadgets. For the Comedian you could go sandbox and kill innocents. For Ozymandias you could use his speed/intelligence combo. And for Dr. Manhattan you could press "A" and complete the objective.
The Tick
Imagine an entire game based around Ratchet and Clank's Captain Qwark. That's pretty much the working concept. Combine that with The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destructionand you pretty much have a million dollar concept. Sure it could be coupled with a multi-million dollar lawsuit but we're crossing our fingers that someone reading this will make a mod for this slide, or, all ten if they have the time.
