Imagine this: both HYDRA and AIM, evil organizations from the Marvel universe, are fighting each other in New York City, with SHIELD jumping in not only to fight off these two, but to keep the Avengers from interfering. The Avengers are scattered throughout the city, some tackling HYDRA, some tailing AIM, and some fending off SHIELD. They each have their own tasks but must come to the aid of others when they can. It's a crazy, hectic situation, the Avengers needing to stay coordinated and communicate.
Well, if you can't imagine it, you can simply watch Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes episode titled "Hail, HYDRA!" That's the premise, and it's a doozy - a fun episode that shows just how entertaining the show can be and the kind of mayhem it can present. The movies cannot touch this kind of character collision - too many actors, too many contracts, too full for even a 3-hour movie. And do you know what else would be able to handle an epic battle of this magnitude?
A video game.
I know - there's LEGO Marvel Super Heroes, but it doesn't have the cooperative aspect or the multiplayer aspect. As much as I have talked up that game in a previous post, the thing I have in my head is much, much more than what that game manages to accomplish. There's also this Avengers: Battle for Earth game, but it's a fighting game, not the type of large-scale treatment the Avengers really deserve. These guys need something big, something epic ... something Hulk-sized.
Here's what I've got:
The gameplay covers a map - let's say New York City, but other Marvel locations could work (maybe Wakanda, maybe another city). There is chaos all over this map - maybe HYDRA trying to steal something somewhere, maybe another super villain breaking in somewhere else - and you and a team of Avengers is scattered, trying to handle all of the problems. Whether the multiplayer action occurs online or in your TV room together (I prefer it all happening together - more fun, better communication, better gaming environment), it is up to you and whatever Avenger you have chosen to save the city. You need to coordinate, obviously - you can't all go to the same crisis and ignore the others - but you also need to work together to accomplish every task.
There could be missions to complete, or maybe you get some sort of rating after you have saved the city. You could compete with others to get a better rating. There could be some sort of story mode, but it would need to feel unique somehow - it can't feel tacked-on like the Star Wars Battlefront story modes. It needs to somehow build on the multiplayer mode, but I haven't thought of any good ideas about that yet.
But more on the gameplay, since that is the most important aspect. SHIELD could play an important part in this, and even be playable - how about taking advantage of that wonderful touch-screen controller for the Wii U and letting someone use that to pilot the Helicarrier? They could keep track of where all of the action in the city is, tell the other players where to go and who is there. They could even call in recruits from SHIELD or (and this is where things get crazy), they could even call in Ultron recruits. The Avengers cartoon does a great job of introducing Ultron as an army of robots that help the Avengers fight off an alien invasion, and soon afterwards, Ultron turns on them. What if you had the option of using Ultron in this game, and sometimes, but not all of the time, Ultron turned on you and you had another problem to solve? Oh man, if this game had that kind of depth, it would be epic.
Let's build on that - what if you and your friends were sitting in the living room, playing this game, and online, somewhere else, was another group? One group could be coordinated by HYDRA and the other by SHIELD, and you would fight each other over the internet, not knowing what the other group is planning. That is definitely one of the best multiplayer ideas I have ever heard.
Now, some of this gameplay does sound like Star Wars Battlefront, but those games were always clunky and unrefined. This needs to be almost flawless in its execution or it'll be a let-down. I know it would never, ever happen, but Nintendo could destroy this (in a good way). Shigeru Miyamoto once said he would never put multiplayer in a game unless it was better than Mario Kart (a high standard, to say the least). This could be exactly what he's talking about, and nearly every single Nintendo game I've played does play smoothly, especially in multiplayer mode. This is a game that needs the kind of care and attention Nintendo tends to give games. This is, of course, a dream, but it's nice to dream sometimes.
There would, of course, be a wide variety of heroes to choose from: Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Antman, maybe the Wasp (since I got my inspiration from the cartoon), and definitely Black Panther. You could also play the game from the villain's side and play any number of Marvel villains. I imagine DLC would happen at some point, with more locations and characters available to unlock. This could be a pretty big deal, if it were done well.
And while I am thinking on an incredibly large scale, why not make one of the locations Asgard? The little lady and I, continuing to plow through the Avengers cartoon, just watched the Avengers thoroughly thrash Loki and his army of monsters. How about defending, or taking back, Asgard from Loki? What about somehow incorporating all of the other nine realms? Maybe SHIELD cannot coordinate here and you need to find other ways to coordinate your efforts and prioritize different parts of Asgard as you fight off the enemy threat.
I'm sure I haven't even scratched the surface of all of the possible Marvel locales that could be involved in such an undertaking - I am limited to what I know from the movies and the cartoon. Those who read the comics may have a better handle on how this idea could be broadened or refined, and what sorts of things to include. The game would need some significant development time - it would need to be tested and retested to make sure it all works flawlessly - but I have no doubt that this game would be a pretty big deal if it ever actually happened.
Why no one has managed to try putting something like this together, especially in the wake of continued success of Marvel movies at the box office, is a complete mystery to me. I suppose the idea might be out on the internet somewhere, if I broaden what websites I check regularly, but maybe it isn't, not on this scale. Come on, people - talk this one up. Someone needs to make this happen, because it could easily be one of the biggest games to ever grace our wonderful gaming world.
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