The Top 7 Comic book games that need to be made
Graphic novels and comics that would make for great gaming, here are a few we'd like to see
2. The entire Marvel Universe (done like League of Legends)
While DC Comics arguably has bigger heavy hitters with the likes of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, Marvel has a larger stable of well-known heroes and villains. There are hundreds of popular characters to draw from, each with their own rich backstories and motives. Rounding them all up into one giant game might seem impossible – even Marvel Ultimate Alliance had to cut it off at around two dozen – but it actually wouldn't be that difficult at all. Not if Marvel teams up with a developer like Riot to make a League of Legends/DotA-like Marvel game.
The multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) genre has never been bigger, and latching onto a license like Marvel would be greatly beneficial for both Marvel and Riot, especially since the gameplay could be literally identical to League of Legends. And it wouldn't be that difficult to do, either. Riot has been adding new champions to LoL every few weeks, climbing quickly towards the 100 mark after less than two years, proving that it's able to quickly pump out new, balanced characters on a regular basis. The basic level itself could be a reskin/model of Summoner's Rift – just replace the trees with buildings and say that it's New York, switch out the general minions with generic-looking henchmen and soldiers, and suddenly it's set in the Marvel universe!
Above: Like you wouldn't spend a few bucks to unlock a Red Hulk skin
Even the free-to-play model could be ripped off wholesale from League of Legends. Riot charges for costumes, and nearly every character in Marvel continuity had a warehouse full of alternate duds. It’s a match made in heaven, and one that could prove hugely successful for Marvel.
1. Mouse Guard (done like Dragon Age with a splash of Shadow of the Colossus)
Though it’s a relatively new comic series, Mouse Guard has seen an absurd rise to popularity since its 2006 debut. The series is set in a medieval world of sentient mice, where a brotherhood of mice known as the “Mouse Guard” is sworn to protect and serve their fellow civilian mice in times of need. Since they’re mice, the “times of need” usually include protecting their allies from hawks, crabs, snakes, and other natural predators, but there are other rival, sentient factions as well that the Mouse Guard has to cross adorable blades with.
The setting and focus on group battles would make it perfect for a tactical RPG like Dragon Age. Players could create their own custom mouse guardian, join the Mouse Guard and travel around the land, visiting different mouse towns to take on new mouse quests for their mouse brethren. Besides working on a main quest, which could dig into anything covered in the comics (or find its own home with a new, original villain), it could also have a number of meta-games within the campaign. If players were in charge of the Mouse Guard, they could send other mice on missions (tapping into Assassin’s Creed's Brotherhood system), or it could have some sort of element involving keeping paths safe for other mice (a major focus of the comics) by completing side-quests.
Above: They're so freaking cute we can't handle it
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Topping off this cocktail of awesome would be boss battles that played out like Shadow of the Colossus'. Climbing an owl as a tiny mouse and plunging a blade into its dumb owl head while epic music plays would be one of the most entertaining experiences we can fathom.
-1. Don't do Bizzaro game! (not done like WarioWare)
Below: Bizarro weakest hero there is
Us would hate a Bizzaro game! Don't think about it: all of the unfun Bizzaro versions of the game wouldn't make a fun minigame compilation at all! It would be boring and none of us would buy it, and it wouldn't make a good game for the 3DS or WiiU.
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Hollander Cooper was the Lead Features Editor of GamesRadar+ between 2011 and 2014. After that lengthy stint managing GR's editorial calendar he moved behind the curtain and into the video game industry itself, working as social media manager for EA and as a communications lead at Riot Games. Hollander is currently stationed at Apple as an organic social lead for the App Store and Apple Arcade.