How to Make a Superhero Game Work

As you may or may not know, I am a harsh critic of both video games based on movies, and games based on superheroes. Whilst movie games seemed doomed to an eternal fate in the trade bin, games such as Batman: Arkham Asylum and Spider-Man 2 have shown us superhero games can be fun and enjoyable, and in Batman's case amazing.

Superhero games normally tend to fail because limited care is taken from the developers to surely make you feel like the character you're playing as. For example take Sega's Iron Man video game in 2008, which is one of the worst critiqued superhero video games in existence. And why? Because rather than make you feel as if you're surely playing as Tony Stark in a one man army suit, you feel as if you're playing a surely poor arcade game with ridiculous difficulty and rubbish design. The developers seem to make a poor exertion at creating the hero's powers, whilst putting no creative exertion into development the personality of the character. For instance as I mentioned with Iron Man, the main protagonist Tony Stark was portrayed as a dislikeable, arrogant egomaniac. There was no understanding into his self-destructive traits (alcohol, depression etc) and unlike the remarkable portrayal of Stark in the 2008 film; this Iron Man had no substance.

Batman Arkham City

That's where games such as Batman: Arkham Asykham have flourished. Arkham's developers RockSteady took the time to survey the man behind the mask. For instance in one scene, Batman is hallucinating that he is reliving the death of his parents again. Or in another, you survey the guilt Batman has after he fails to save Commissioner Gordon's life. It's these moments along with awesome action orientated game play that makes you feel like you are surely the character you're playing as.

Spider-Man 2 also incorporated the best of both elements and did it fantastically. You had awesome web-slinging game play, which still incorporated Spider-Man's Peter Parker Persona. For instance one mission had Spider-Man deliver pizzas because Peter Parker's job was on the line. The game was so good it surely made you care about the repercussions of what if you didn't deliver the pizzas on time.

Game play should take a back seat to characterization and narrative in superhero games. After all look at Spider-Man 3. It had the same game play that made Spider-Man 2 so successful but a boring story and terrible voice acting/characterization earned the game universal panning. Sort the story, and the game play should follow. I know Arkham Asylum hardly had the most character driven story, but the moments it did have were great than anyone we've seen from a superhero game so far.

With so many remarkable superheroes such as Thor, Captain America, Green lantern etc finally looking their way onto video games it's time superhero games start delivering, or the trade bin at your local Game store is likely to fill up big time this Christmas. All superhero games need is a limited more development, more character driven stories and primary game play. Sure it's a lot to ask for but come Christmas this year when Batman: Arkham City takes the gaming world by storm, the bar for superhero games will be raised even higher.

How to Make a Superhero Game Work