Game news Marvel in 2021, what has changed?

The cross-chase of successes

Historically, Marvel games have not often been very successful. Apart from the Marvel VS Capcom in the sphere of fighting games, we have often been faced with games with great ambitions, but without a big budget. And inevitably, on a game of superheroes, it ends up being frustrating and rather failed. The success of the films over the past ten years has helped to strengthen the confidence of investors and the public, enough to boost budgets and the seriousness of projects. And then, these games have also learned from similar titles, kinds of half-avowed superhero games, like Prototype for example, which has helped a lot in the development of open world action oriented destruction. Come on, without further ado, let’s go for an overview of some Marvel essentials.

More Cerebro games

If in your head, Marvel games are bound to be fighting, you have … Thor. Because if your thing is games that are a bit Cerebro… know that there is plenty to do in the Marvel team. Finally, what to do, not yet, but it will come: take a look. Marvel’s Midnight Suns, literally Midnight Suns, is a tactical strategy game project set in the Marvel Universe. Overall it’s like X-Com, except instead of aliens and special units you have some well-known super villains and super heroes. The game system is done with cards that we will draw and use. Behind the game, we find Firaxis, the developers of Civilization and X-Com, so bosses. Release scheduled for March 2022 and I’m really looking forward to managing my small team …

Another delirium, another humor, Square Enix will invite you from October 25, 2021 to join the Guardians of the Galaxy crew. Through his action-adventure game with choices, humor and decisions, the publisher signs a kind of hybrid between Mass Effect and a Telltale. The title is adapted from the comics and not from the movies, hence the characters slightly different from the rendering that we know well in the MCU. Note that there is a llama in the game, and this is certainly a guarantee of quality. To see what it will give to the release in a few weeks.

The fray

Now let’s move on to beat’em up type games, a specialty of the Marvel team. On Switch, we had in 2019 the very good Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, but the real juggernaut of the genre is obviously the Marvel’s Spider-Man from the PS4, available since 2018, and which now has its stand alone Miles Morales and its PS5 port. Sold at 20 million units on PS4, the game is a great success: fluid in its fights, exhilarating in its movements … What motivate a sequel, which we will see later in the video.

Another project to note: Marvel’s Avengers, Square Enix’s game service, which received a lot of plaster when it was released in 2020 and which has just celebrated its one year anniversary. It is gaining in diversity over the expansions, and we are still waiting for the update dedicated to Spider-Man, scheduled for the end of 2021.. In the meantime, you can browse his storyline there, alone or in co-op, and even explore Wakanda with the latest free update.

The mobile ecosystem

We now go to the dark side of the force to talk about one or two mobile games to advise. If you like beat’em ups, there is a very recent song, released less than a month ago, which caused quite a stir: Future Revolution. It is a free to play mobile and tablet, action adventure with multi elements, but which also brings a little extra layer with loot and farm, two elements very appreciated by the diehards of this formula. Frankly, the game is technically very well finished, well staged and very playable whether it is touch or controller. In short, it is a real successful tour de force, signed NetMarble.

So obviously, we could have cited less recent games, like Marvel Strike Force, released in 2018 and which uses the principle of the turn-based gatcha RPG that we saw in the Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes game. While doing some research, I also came across the game Marvel Super War, only available in beta in some countries for two years, and which overall looks like League of Legends in Marvel sauce. One thing is certain: mobile is a good place to develop franchising.

The two future titles of Insomniac

Finally, let’s finish on the two highly anticipated titles announced during the PlayStation Showcase in September 2021: Marvel’s Wolverine, and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. For Wolverine, we are in an announcement like “it will happen one day”, at least in 2023 even if 2024 or 2025 seem more logical. We only have one cutscene and the fans, with friend Logan in the lead, who owes his pseudonym to the character, have already discovered some clues in the setting of the cutscene. For example, we can see a cash register showing 1974, or 1974, the year of the first appearance of Logan, the real Wolverine, in the Marvel Comics. And since the devs REALLY want us to know that this is an early Wolverine game, they even put a license plate with marked HLK 181, that is to say Hulk 181, the number where Logan appears for the first time on the cover. We will therefore be entitled to an origin story, action tour, which we imagine already mastered from start to finish …

Finally, for Spider-Man 2, we were treated to a date: 2023, and a small cutscene. The main antagonist will be Venom and in terms of heroes, we will be entitled to Peter Parker AND Miles Morales. They will have to work together and be aware that this will not be a co-op game. It’s a purely solo game, the devs wanted to clarify it just after the trailer which, it is true, misleads a little on this point. Note that these two games, Wolverine and Spider-Man 2, are produced by Insomniac Games, and both are planned for the PlayStation 5.

Here is what we can say about current and future productions in Marvel games, do not hesitate to tell us in the comments what you thought of these games, and go to JV for more information.