Since being acquired by Disney in 2008, Marvel Entertainment has become an internationally recognized brand, with a highly successful film franchise launched in tandem with its Marvel NOW brand of comics. But the Marvel brand hasn’t always been so synchronized with its other transmedia proprieties, which has often lead to the best and most innovative titles in Marvel’s long list of branded games content.
Take a look at what we believe are the top 5 Marvel titles that have been released both before and after Disney’s acquisition.
1. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2
Continuing the tradition of beat ‘em ups, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is a modern interpretation of that genre featuring additional special moves and team-up combos, along with obligatory RPG elements added for an ankle-deep gameplay experience. Nevertheless, Ultimate Alliance 2 has much of the multiplayer appeal that the original Ultimate Alliance did not, as the storyline adapts the iconic Civil War storyline, pitting Iron Man’s government sanctioned heroes against Captain America’s rebels. After a preliminary mission, players are forced to choose sides in the conflict and are given access to entirely different missions and heroes based on their choice, giving an extra level of replay value.
While it’s not exactly innovative, Ultimate Alliance 2 provides just enough depth to be enjoyable, particularity when you have three other friends to team up with.
2. X-Men Arcade
With the words ‘Die X-Chicken,’ Magneto’s hilariously bad voice actor cemented Konami’s 1992 arcade beat ‘em up X-Men Arcade as a force for laughs within the gaming community. Besides its unintentional comedic timing, the game is quite fun, and was recently re-released for Playstation Network, Xbox Live, and Android and iOS devices.
A six-player brawler where players can control Cyclops, Colossus, Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler or Dazzler, players are tasked to accomplish the unthinkable: stop Magneto from destroying humanity (again). The game is incredibly repetitive, but an absolute blast to play with friends and a real classic from the heyday of X-Men supremacy.
3. Marvel Avengers Alliance
With renewed interest in the Avengers since the launch of the Marvel film franchise, Marvel tapped Disney Interactive social game developer Playdom to create a turn based social RPG via Facebook that would cater to both Marvel diehards and those who were simply interested in the movies.
Living up to the task, Playdom created Marvel Avengers Alliance, a social game that features characters that range from the iconic Iron Man to the little known Hogun the Grim (a member of the Asgardian Warriors Three) and has an innovative and surprisingly deep PvP mode that goes a little deeper than rock-paper-scissors. Avengers Alliance is likely one of the better Marvel games to release in the last couple of years and is definitely worth checking out just for the fan service alone.
4. Spider-Man 2
If there’s one Marvel character that has had pretty consistent video games, it’s Spider-Man. With web shooters and the agility of, well, a spider, Spider-Man is a character that pretty seamlessly adapts to the video game medium. Perhaps where this is best shown off is in the Spider-Man 2 video game, which gives Spidey access to the entirety of New York City, making it the first Spider-Man game to be a truly free-roaming open world game. For any fans of the sandbox genre, there’s no better way to get around the City than with web swingers and ridiculous amounts of agility.
5. Marvel vs. Capcom 2: A New Age of Heroes
The Marvel vs. Capcom franchise is one that’s endured for over two decades, and is still played at the competitive level. While the third installment of the franchise is perhaps a more balanced (comparatively) and tournament friendly title, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 best embodies the wackiness and quirkiness that the franchise is known for with its sizable cast of 56 playable characters. In the minds of many, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is representative of the fighting game genre as a whole, and given the quality of fun involved, that’s probably not a bad thing.
Besides, something tells us that Capcom money-boy SonSon and Freedom Force mutant Spiral won’t be receiving another video game treatment anytime soon.
Daniel Horowitz
@horowitzcentral
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