You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone. Case in point: the Marvel Ultimate Alliance series has seemingly been removed from all digital storefronts, including the PlayStation Store, completely out of the blue.
Often regarded as a high-mark in a patchy run for Marvel games in the first decade of the 21st Century, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 1 and 2 took the solid premise of Raven Software’s X-Men Legends series and ramped it up further, allowing for a beautiful mix of action and RPG elements involving some of Marvel’s biggest heroes. It has a really solid set of stories to boot, making it a real treasure trove of silly story beats and outlandish comic-style cris-crosses.
But that’s just making the people who were unlucky enough to miss the boat on the series even more jealous, isn’t it? Alas, Marvel Ultimate Alliance is no more, despite only arriving re-packaged on PS4 in 2016. In reality, it was probably undone by the licensing issues that tend to plague superhero properties every so often. Just ask MCU fans about the X-Men and they’ll tell you all about it.
However, it’s not all bad news. If you’ve already purchased game but don’t have it saved or downloaded to your hard drive you can still do so. Sure, your consoles aren’t likely to become collector’s editions a la those lucky enough to still have P.T. on their PS4, but it’s a saving grace nonetheless.
[Source: Reddit]
Marvel Games Universe
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Marvel Games Universe
It's a project – nay, a vision – still in its infancy, but let's imagine what the future holds...
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Black Widow
Gameplay: Third-person stealth
Inspirations: Splinter Cell, Hitman
Natalia Alianovna Romanova, otherwise known as Black Widow, is arguably one of the cult favourites of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as evidenced by the studio's plans to spin out a standalone movie featuring Scarlett Johansson's agent in a post-Cold War america.
Now imagine if that same story template was applied to a video game, what would that look like? A third-person stealth title imbued with the spirit of Splinter Cell or IO Interactive's excellent Hitman reboot.
At least that's what we're rooting for.
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Doctor Strange
Gameplay: Third-person action
Inspirations: God of War, Hellblade, Tomb Raider
I’m just going to go ahead and tip my hat in the direction of Chandler Wood, PlayStation LifeStyle's Senior Editor, who dreamed up the idea for a Doctor Strange title in the style of Sony's most recent God of War. How's that for an elevator pitch?
The story of Papa Kratos is naturally much darker than most, if not all of the Sorcerer Supreme's material. But if the Powers That Be decide to adapt something in the vein of, say, Triumph & Torment, in which Strange comes to blows with Doctor Doom, it could deliver exactly the kind of spectacular, mind-bending adventure that Marvel fans so crave.
Frankly, there's never been a better time to green light a Doctor Strange title. Just imagine gaining experience to unlock all of the spells and tricks lining the Sorcerer Supreme's arsenal.
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Rocket and Groot
Gameplay: Third-person shooter
Inspirations: Kane & Lynch or Ratchet & Clank
Okay, I'm bending the rules a little here to nominate Groot and Rocket Racoon, but come on! A Kane & Lynch-styled shooter centring on the galaxy's greatest duo (sorry, Han & Chewie) as they stumble from one bad decision to the next? Where do we sign up?
Failing that, there's always a possibility to play on Rocket's softer side and skew toward a younger audience a la Ratchet & Clank. And we all know how successful that formula can be...
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Venom
Gameplay: Open-world action
Inspirations: inFamous, Prototype
Dark, brooding, unsettling – three words one would use to describe the latest trailer for Sony's Venom reboot, in which Tom Hardy wrestles with the alien symbiote.
Now imagine if that same storyline, one that draws from "Lethal Protector" and "The Five Symbiotes" was dramatically expanded by way of a fully-fledged video game.
And just like inFamous before it, a Venom game could potentially toy with Eddie Brock's tentative moral compass, and how it slips and sways depending on the situation at hand.
It would certainly lay the groundwork for a branching narrative, too, but Eddie Brock is a more layered, nuanced character than Cole MacGrath (and Delsin Rowe, for that matter), so there's plenty of dramatic potential here.
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X 23
Gameplay: Third-person action
Inspirations: The Last of Us, Beyond: Two Souls
Now that Hugh Jackman's reign as Wolverine has come to an end, everyone is beginning to ask the question: who is capable of wielding the adamantium claws in his absence?
It's a toughie, but as James Mangold's Logan proved, X-23 is just as intriguing and morally complex as Old Man Logan.
Dafne Keen played the young, conflicted Laura on the big screen for a story that is probably the closest we'll get to a Last of Us movie in quite some time.
Speaking of Naughty Dog's magnum opus, an X-23 game would do well to borrow gameplay cues from The Last of Us.
Give me the same post-apocalyptic world of Logan, in which the mutant population is on the rocks, along with the survival-based gameplay that makes The Last of Us so special.
Or, failing that, once the Disney-Fox merger is complete, Marvel Games may well decide to adopt a narrative-drive template in the vein of Beyond: Two Souls. Either way, it's about time X-23 was given her due.
