The League Of Upcoming Superhero Games

Developer Tribute Games and publisher Dotemu, the dynamic duo behind Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, are teaming up again for a new old-school beat ’em up in the Marvel universe. Featuring a roster of 15 playable heroes including Spider-Man, Captain America, Nova, Wolverine, Venom, and even Phyla-Vell, up to four players battle the forces of Annihilus using a unique tag-team system. Each player chooses two characters to swap between instantly, allowing players to execute tag team combos to encourage different team-ups. Shredder’s Revenge was nostalgia done right, and we’re excited to see the same retro brawler magic sprinkled over the Marvel franchise. 

While not based on an existing license, Dispatch tackles the genre from a unique angle. Instead of controlling a caped crusader, you play a former hero working as a superhero dispatcher charged with reforming a team of ex-villains. This comedic choice-driven workplace management game tasks you to monitor emergencies to strategically deploy the right hero for the job while navigating office relationships with your flawed super-powered co-workers. Boasting a star-studded voice cast, including Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul in the lead role, Dispatch is the most creative take on superhero games on the horizon.

The team led by Uncharted’s former head scribe Amy Hennig is working on a World War II adventure starring Captain America and Black Panther Azzuri, grandfather of T’Challa. The superheroes will battle Nazis/Hydra alongside the Howling Commandos’ Gabriel Jones and Wakandan spy, Nanali. Despite featuring four protagonists, the game will be a linear single-player adventure that offers different viewpoints on the war. We don’t know much more than that, but we’re excited to learn more, hopefully sooner than later. 

Not content with only tackling Spider-Man, Insomniac shocked the gaming world by announcing it’s also making a Wolverine game. We know little about this exciting project outside of a brief cinematic teaser trailer. Insomniac confirmed it will have a mature tone and that it takes place in the same universe as its Spider-Man games. Eagle-eyed fans also found subtle easter eggs in the trailer hinting at the Hulk. Insomniac nailed Spidey, so we’re confident Logan will be treated with the same reverence. 

Motive Studio, the team behind Star Wars: Squadrons and the Dead Space remake, has an untitled Iron Man game in the works. This third-person, single-player action game aims to capture, per Motive, “the complexity, charisma, and creative genius of Tony Stark, enabling players to feel what it’s like to truly play as Iron Man.” The game’s line-up includes executive producer Olivier Proulx, who served as producer on the well-received Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Motive announced the game as being in pre-production, meaning it will likely be a long while before we see any actual footage of it. Iron Man will also be the first game of a longer partnership between EA and Marvel. 

EA and the fledging studio Cliffhanger Games are giving Black Panther fans something they’ve never gotten: a video game dedicated to the king of Wakanda. Described as a story-driven third-person action game, we won’t see the fruits of the Cliffhanger’s efforts for some time as the project was announced very early in development. But the studio consists of veteran game designers with experience working on titles such as God of War and Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, so here’s hoping that expertise results in an adventure worthy of the Black Panther mantle. 

Arkane Lyon, the studio behind the Dishonored series and Deathloop, is taking a big swing by tackling its first licensed superhero game. Of all the heroes it could have chosen, we’re pleasantly surprised it chose Marvel’s resident vampire hunter. In another first for the studio, the game will be a third-person adventure that sees Blade using his, well, blade to cut down hordes of vampires taking over Paris. Tack on the high likelihood of Arkane implementing its signature immersive sim elements, and we can’t wait to take a bite out of this one.