We here at SpawnFirst generally like to promote happiness, so three members of the SpawnFirst staff got together and wrote about some of our favorite superhero games. Henshin-a-go-go, baby!

“King” Buddy Acker — Features Editor

Viewtiful Joe

When I first borrowed Viewtiful Joe  from a friend in 2004, I had no idea I would soon be playing an incredible game. It’s one of the most critically-praised games ever (sitting at a 93 on Metacritic), but I didn’t know that at the time. I was 16 then and played games exclusively on GameCube. I only realized after completing it in one session that I had fallen head over heels in love with it. Viewtiful Joe  remains as one of the best action games I’ve ever played.

Viewitful Joe  is a side-scrolling beat ’em up, which makes it sound simliar to many other games when it isn’t. The action was refreshing at the time of the game’s release, lacking the usual frustrations found in other action games and allowing the titular character, Joe, to punch and kick his way through enemies with aplomb. Joe also uses “VFX Powers”, which allow him to slow time, move faster, or become stronger for a limited amount of time. He can also purchase new abilities, health, weapons, or other items between levels with “V-Points”, which appear in the game as coins of varying sizes.

I love Viewtiful Joe  because it’s funny, original, and beautiful. I played a little of it again while writing this and its cel-shaded visuals haven’t aged in the slightest. Neither has the rest of the game. Viewtiful Joe  is a timeless classic and atypical superhero game that towers above many others. If you still own a GameCube, Wii, or PS2 and haven’t played it, you’re doing yourself a disservice.

Lego Marvel Super Heroes

For my other choice for one of my favorite superhero games I decided to go with something a little more recent. I reviewed Lego Marvel Super Heroes  earlier this year, awarding it a 9. Lego games often get accused, usually by people who don’t play them, of all being the same. Lego Marvel Super Heroes  completely destroyed that fallacious belief with its open world and creative level design. It’s still the best Lego game to date.

But this is supposed to be about superhero games. Well, Lego Marvel Super Heroes  is, in a sense, the zenith of what a superhero game should be. It has just about everything Marvel ever packed into it, and Traveller’s Tales perfectly nails their source material every time. It’s rare that I play a superhero game that gets everything exactly right. It’s amazing that Lego Marvel Super Heroes  has over 100 Marvel heroes in it and all of them feel precisely like they’re supposed to. Sure, they’re made out of blocks and Lego games are mostly the opposite of serious, but the jokes are funny because they perfectly capture the essence of what they’re poking fun at.

Karl Dodds — Senior Staff Writer

The post Favorite Superhero Games appeared first on SpawnFirst.

Traveller’s Tales’ obvious affection for Lego showed all the way back in 2005 when they created Lego Star Wars,  which is credited with starting the Lego  game series. They’ve released many Lego  games, including ones based on Indiana Jones,  Batman,  Harry Potter  and The Lord of the Rings.  They’ve never once settled for cashing in on a license. The core gameplay in the Lego  games hasn’t changed all that much, but Traveller’s Tales found ways to tweak it and innovate in other areas.

They’ve disappointed along the way (Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues),  but they deserve credit for always trying something new. Lego The Lord of the Rings  seemed like the zenith of all their effort, delivering a fantastic experience that was very pleasing to me as a Lord of the Rings  fan. I didn’t think they could top it, but they proved me wrong with Lego Marvel Super Heroes.  It’s one of the best superhero games and the best Lego  game to date.

Story/Concept

The Silver Surfer gets knocked out of the sky by Doctor Doom and his surfboard shatters into several pieces, referred to as “Cosmic Bricks” in the game. Doctor Doom attempts to retrieve the Cosmic Bricks in order to build a “Doom Ray of Doom”. Nick Fury enlists the help of the Marvel Universe to thwart his plans. It’s a very fun, action-packed and well-written story that would fit right in among the best that comic books have to offer if it weren’t for the fact that it takes place in a Lego game, which means it’s also adorable, hilarious and clever. The setpieces and dialogue are impossible to dislike.

Gameplay

The story in Lego Marvel Super Heroes  is broken up into 15 levels. These levels are all similar to levels from past Lego  games. The goal is still to solve unchallenging, yet still somewhat imaginative puzzles while engaging in a simplistic combat system with easily beaten enemies. Enemies still only take a few hits before shattering into various Lego pieces, but the same goes for the player as well. But death is never really a punishment in a Lego  game; the playable characters respawn at the very spot where they were defeated. Most levels end with enjoyable boss battles that contain some of the better puzzles in the game.

Anyone who has never played a Lego  game will probably be turned off by everything I mentioned in the previous paragraph. Lego  games have always been the “you have to play them to get them” types of experiences. It’s tough to accurately describe just how amusing they are and how obsessive-compulsive they can cause a person to become. First you start off collecting just a few Lego studs and then you have to collect them all, have to buy everything, have to reach 100 percent. Traveller’s Tales knew they had something from the start and they keep working with it and making it work.

Lego Marvel Super Heroes  features that winning formula at its best. The levels are filled with all sorts of great moments, from Tony Stark initiating House Party Protocol during a boss battle to Magneto bringing the Statue of Liberty to life and attacking New York City. Despite everything being in block form, Lego Marvel Super Heroes  could be turned into a great superhero movie; think The Avengers,  but with a lot more than six heroes.

I finished up all the story levels in Lego Marvel Super Heroes  and then stared in confusion at my TV as the screen read that I had only completed 17.9 percent of the entire game. I had gone out of my way to obtain studs and collectibles in every level. Then I remembered I hadn’t even really explored New York City all that much yet. I had been sidetracked by the lengthy main feature and had neglected to check out the gigantic world that Traveller’s Tales built.

So I eventually did check it out, and let me just say this: wow. I thought Lego The Lord of the Rings  was packed with content, but Lego Marvel Super Heroes  is bursting at the seams. Bonus levels, narrated by Deadpool, are available in several building across the city. Citizens offering quests are around every corner. Collectibles are scattered everywhere, as are races and other distractions. Sure, it isn’t quite the next Grand Theft Auto V  or anything, but being a Lego  game it leaves an impression nonetheless.

Graphics & Sound

Traveller’s Tales only recently started including actual dialogue in the Lego  games, and I’m glad they decided to keep it up. Lego Marvel Super Heroes  just wouldn’t be the same without the terrific voice acting by such notables as Nolan North, John DiMaggio, Clark Gregg and the oh-so-popular Troy Baker. The acting brings the superheroes to life and makes them feel even more like the characters the planet has come to know and love. From a graphical standpoint, I’m always willing to give the Lego  games some leeway as they are intentionally supposed to look block-y and misshapen, but Lego Marvel Super Heroes  is actually quite beautiful. New York City is represented about as well as it can be in a Lego  game, and vistas like the Asgard section in the story levels really left me taken aback because of their visual splendor. Also, as strange as it may sound, Lego Marvel Super Heroes  features fantastic water effects.

Issues

The story levels in Lego Marvel Super Heroes  stumble when they toss a seemingly endless amount of enemies at you. This leads to having to solve a puzzle while being bombarded by attacks, which lends a sense of tedium that isn’t really found anywhere else. One could argue that having to collect studs to unlock characters is dull, but I don’t think it is, and besides, it’s entirely optional. However, I did still come across some parts in Lego Marvel Super Heroes  that bored me.

SpawnFirst Recommends…

What Lego Marvel Super Heroes  really is is a comic book fan’s dream come true. It’s a lovingly crafted homage to Marvel and its history. I’ve been playing it for 23+ hours and will be putting several more hours into it. Traveller’s Tales have their work cut out for them if they plan on topping it. They’ve been stepping up to the plate for nine years. It’s nice to see them finally knock it out of the park.

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Gamestop has revealed the cover art for the upcoming movie tie-in game, The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Set to release this Spring, the game will be closely tied to the plot of the upcoming film of the same name, as players control a revenge thirsty Peter Parker in the search for his Uncle’s killer.

The game looks like your standard web-slinging and wall climbing experience, with a nice dash of famous Marvel baddies like Kraven the Hunter and Electro. The title will also feature the new “Hero or Menace” system, a morality meter which will reward players for consistently stopping random crimes in the open world, and punishing them for ignoring innocent cries for help.

The post The Amazing Spiderman 2 Gets Generic Box Art, New Trailer appeared first on SpawnFirst.

It’s been a long time coming, but everyone’s favorite fourth wall-shattering mutant mercenary for hire finally got his very own videogame. The game is lacking in some pretty major areas, but it hits enough of the right notes to be faithful to the character, and it’s worth your time if you’re fan of the Deadpool comics.

Story/Concept

The plot of Deadpool is thin. Everyoneâ€s favorite “Merc†With a Mouth” is cheated out of an assassination contract and runs off, guns blazing, to get his money back. Along the way youâ€re also thrown flimsy plot points about an evil plan to clone mutants by Mr. Sinister, and meet a cast of Marvel mutants that range from well-know favorites like Wolverine and Rogue to D-listers like Arclight, Blockbuster and Vertigo.

What saves the near-nonexistent plot is the fact that the game itself actually acknowledges this fact, thanks to the near-constant fourth wall breaking that fans of the comics have come to know, love and expect from Deadpool. Whether it’s Deadpool calling up the developers at High Moon Studios to request a bigger budget and more explosions, fooling around in an inflatable bouncy castle, or making clever quips while slicing and dicing his way through hordes of enemies, the game’s writing is dead-on for the character and the world he inhabits. Much of this is due to Former Deadpool comic writer Daniel Way, who wrote the story for the game, and the voice talents of Nolan North, who strikes a great balance between silliness and dangerous insanity as Deadpool.

The game’s humor, much like Deadpool himself, is not for everyone. For every well-crafted, clever moment (see ‘Poolâ€s interaction with long-time frenemy, Cable), there are just as many sophomoric jokes about male genitalia or womenâ€s breasts.

Deadpool is ready for adventure…somewhat.

Gameplay

If you’ve played any third-person hack-and-slash in the last console generation, than you already have a pretty good idea of  what the gameplay is like in Deadpool.

Using a combination of Deadpool’s signature swords, guns and explosives,  players are encouraged to string together combos and build special meters to dispatch foes. Bigger, better combos earn you more points, which can be traded in for more powerful weapons, new combos and increased health and damage stats.

Weapons can be switched in and out on-the-go during combat, allowing for some pretty impressive strings of combos for those who care to spend some time learning the combat mechanics. However there is little incentive to do so, other then just trying to achieve a high score. Similarly, the only real variety of the weapons themselves (katanas-to-sais-to-hammers, handguns-to-shotguns-to-pulse-rifles, etc.) is their power and damage.

In the end, the combat mechanics, while playable, are hardly innovative and lack the style and reward incentives to create crazy attacks aâ€la Devil May Cry.

Deadpoolâ€s Combat consists of  taking on wave after wave after repetitive wave of enemies. While the animations are smooth, and the amount of gore is impressive, there is little variety in enemy types (save a few bosses) and gets old very quickly.

Deadpoolâ€s seemingly endless one-liners and comments as he slashes and shoots his way through the game offers a little solace from this game’s repetitiveness, but by the end of the 6-hourish campaign, its a struggle as you hear him make many of those comments for the 40th or 50th time.

Again, it seems that Full Moon was aware of this, and included a few sections in the game that depart from the hack-and-slash mechanic.

Those respites are some of  my favorite parts of the game. Before the meat of the game even begins, player are able to roam Deadpoolâ€s seedy apartment,  where he comments on just about every object inside of it. Later levels feature “mini-stages” such as an on-rails gallery shooter and a 3D side-scrolling mini-level. These along with a couple of turret sequences keep the game interesting enough get you through to the end of the campaign.

Slice’n’dice, baby!

Graphics & Sound

For a $50 “budget” title, the look of Deadpool is top-notch. The cast of Marvel characters were on-model, and the environments were well rendered, if occasionally bland. The fighting animation is fluid, and the cinematics are well rendered; flowing in and out of the gameplay smoothly.

Despite the nearly overwhelming mobs of enemies onscreen at one time, framerate issues were nearly non-existent while running the Xbox 360 version of the game.

The gameâ€s music was a pleasant surprise. While youâ€ll mostly be focusing on Deadpoolâ€s never-ending litany wisecracks or the sounds of screaming and gunfire, the soundtrack of electronic music steadily pumping away in the background is interesting and keeps up the game’s energy without falling into grinding, dubstep-esque distraction (Iâ€m looking at you Syndicate).

Issues

Again, the games biggest downfall is simply its repetitiveness. Thankfully, the short campaign length, and the writing, saves Deadpool from being an absolute snooze of a game.

Coming in a close second is the lack of any replay value. Once you’ve played through the game, you’ve seen every level, weapon, enemy and heard every joke Deadpool  has to offer. There’s no co-op or multiplayer, and no reason to play the game a second time unless it’s to try a harder difficulty level.

Notable Extras

No real extras, but patient gamers will be rewarded for sticking around during idle animations and the game’s mid-battle scenes. Letting Deadpool stand around when the game prompts you to press a button or take an action often yields a lengthy string of jokes and gags you won’t get if you rush through the non-combat sections of the game.

SpawnFirst Recommends…

While the gameplay is nothing to write home about, the writing and humor of Deadpool keep the game from being totally forgettable. Couple that with a $50 price tag, and it might be worth a buy for die-hard Deadpool fans, and a rental for everyone else.

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