Game Rants 08.22.06: Comic Book Games Don't Work

Posted by Will Scott on 08.22.2006

Sure, there's been a couple good comic-book games, but why do most of them suck?

Once again, I'm Will Scott, and this is a Game Rant. Last time, I went through part one of why I think PC gaming is killing itself, and there's still a lot more to go - but I've got another axe to grind this week. This time, it's not against a platform or a particular video game, but rather against a genre of games. Particularly, comic book games.

Let me give you a bit of background, before I start this particular rant. I am, obviously, a gamer - I've got all three of last generation's systems, and I'm the proud owner of a new X-Box 360 (Dead Rising is currently in the tray, and I'm switching back and forth between that and this article as we speak). I've got a shiny, moderately-priced (under US$1000) computer, and as such I've got the ability to hop around to most major games. At the same time, I'm even more of a comic book fan - I make my weekly Wednesday trip up to the comic shop, spend my money, and come home with a bag full of books each week. Comic book games, in theory, ought to be a perfect pairing of my two hobbies.

Sadly, they just aren't.

It's not that there aren't good comic book-to-video game adaptations, because there are. Off the top of my head, the Spiderman series (Spiderman - Ultimate Spiderman), the X-Men Legends series, and the Hulk: Ultimate Destruction games were all a lot of fun that captured the feel of the books and movies that they were adapted from. However, these are still the exception, not the rule - for each of these games, there's a Constantine, a X-Men: The Official Movie Game, or (god forbid) a Superman 64). At the very best, these adaptations are batting about .500. More realistically, the good games simply represent a minority. So why don't they work?

Well, for starters...it's hard to pigeonhole a superhero in to a specific genre of gameplay. Sure, Neversoft did a great job with Spiderman by making the series a bit more of a "sandbox" game as the series progressed, but it still focused mostly on the combat aspects of super heroics. Yes, X-Men Legends let us get in to the "team dynamics" bit that's a vital part of the X-Men universe, but it too was really just a team-based brawler. And these are the good games; their less valuable counterparts leave out most of what we like in favor a straight combat game. X-Men: The Official Movie Game is fairly guilty of this, as are many others. The problem is, the comics aren't just about beating up the bad guys - Spiderman's not just a brawler, he's a photographer (or a teacher, these days) and a fairly smart guy who's just as apt to out-think an opponent as out-fight them. The X-Men games definitely capture the high-stakes combat that the characters find themselves in, but each character's got a rich backstory, not to mention that the racism/bigotry/whathaveyou plot element just doesn't translate well while taking out the baddies. That's not even really mentioning characters like Batman, with his stream of awful games, with absurdly intricate backstories, psychological drama that informs almost every decision, and conflicts that are as apt to include (backstory-appropriate) emotional conflict as they are life-threatening physical danger.

So how does it get fixed? For one, by actually letting superhero games branch out a bit, and let them break down several of the modern conceits of gaming. We don't necessarily need to "build up" our heroes as the game goes on, letting us get access to their powers bit by bit - let them start powerful, but make the challenges harder as the game goes on. Allow for multiple ways through a stage - who wouldn't like to see a Batman game where you can sleuth your way to better score, or use stealth tactics to take out the enemy? Perhaps even get rid of ideas like mortality for our more powerful characters - enemies don't need to pack Kryptonite bullets against Superman, and substitute challenges that require more thought than finger speed. With the new generations of the console game systems, not to mention more and more powerful PCs, it seems like superhero games should really be able to push the envelope in terms of what's able to be presented on the screen, in both the graphics department and the scope of the game itself.

What I'm saying, basically, is that comic book games tend to get pigeonholed in to what the general public thinks about the original form: somewhat childish, simplistic games based on bashing people over the head. What they need to be is what the genre has become: thought-provoking, geared towards adults, and unafraid to take risks for a good story.

Next time its back to complaining about PCs, but for now I'm reorganizing the Marvel books. If you've got comments or complaints, shoot me an e-mail at [e-mail].