The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has become one of the largest franchises centered on superheroes from Marvel Studios. As such, it comes as no surprise that it has given birth to Marvel video games as well, allowing fans all over the world to live their superhero fantasies beyond the films.
Although there have been numerous Marvel video games over the years, little has been known about the facts behind the franchise. Thankfully, these 10 fun facts about these video games will let even the most casual fans get to their favorite games a bit more. Check these out.
The First Marvel Video Game Was Spider-Man
Spider-Man remains one of the biggest superheroes in the MCU and for good reason. But, did you know that the first-ever Marvel video game was named after this character? Made in 1982 for the Atari 2600, this game reached monumental heights thanks to the Parker Brothers trying their hand at the video game business.
In addition to the efforts of the Parker Brothers, another notable person is to be thanked for the success that the Spider-Man video game: Laura Nikolich. Nikolich was responsible for coding the game and was even attributed as the only developer for the game. Nikolich designed the Spider-Man game to be vertically scrolled.
The game required players to scale a building and use Spiderman’s web shooters to fight off bad guys, all the while avoiding and defusing bombs set off by the Green Goblin. Spider-Man’s success as a video game cemented it as part of the Billboard Top 10 at Christmas in 1982. It even ranked in the Electronic Gaming Monthly’s Top 200 Games in 2006, almost 25 years after it was first released.
Players Could Become Mary Jane
Another Spider-Man-related trivia that fans will certainly appreciate is that they can play as Mary Jane, provided they input a cheat code that reads: GIRLNEXTDOOR. This is an Easter egg that not many people know about, making it one of the sought-after plays within the game.
This particular Easter egg comes from yet another Spider-Man game, only this time, this is tied with the first movie that starred Tobey Maguire as the title character. This content is only available in the PS2 video game version. What makes this tidbit even more interesting is that this code was eventually cut by developers.
The cheat code itself allowed players who took on the character of Mary Jane to kiss Mary Jane herself later on, something which the developers thought was never possible in the first place. Due to this mishap, this content was taken out of the game and the Spider-Man video game was once again reprinted. Despite this, it’s worth looking for this goldmine of a game just to see if the hack still works.
X-Men Arcade was Considered Larger Than Life
The first X-Men arcade game released in 1992 was considered one of the best video games of the time. This was primarily due to its unique fighting concept which allowed up to six players to go against each other on the screen, coming together to defeat enemies.
During the time, the X-Men Arcade game was even recognized by the Guinness World Records for being a game that allows the most simultaneous players. The characters that you could play as include icons such as Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine, Dazzler, and Nightcrawler.
The game was based on a TV pilot called X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men released in 1989. The X-Men Arcade video game was considered ahead of its time since it allowed the characters not only to remain true to form, appearance, and expressions as they did in the comic books, but also to recharge and fight to win their battles.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine Pays Homage to Lost
Lost is a popular science fiction television series. Its whole premise surrounds a commercial passenger plane crashing into a remote island and the survivors all help each other to stay alive, all while discovering the secrets and mysteries that the island holds.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine pays homage to the series within the video game, an Easter egg for Lost and X-Men fans alike. Released in 2009, this was still at the height of Lost’s popularity and demand, which is why the developers may have included this in the game.
There’s a mysterious hatch that opens in the video game, allowing players to gain access to trophies, rewards, and other achievements within the system. Similar to the Spider-Man game previously mentioned, this is yet another movie tie-in that was touted even better than the movie itself.
Japan Didn’t Have Anything to Do with the Captain America and the Avengers Video Games
Japan is known to be the land of video games and anime, which is why it was considered such as bizarre occurrence that the country didn’t have anything to do with the Captain America and the Avengers video game after its initial release in 1991.
Released sometime in November 1991, Captain America and the Avengers received a generally warm welcome. Come January 1, 1992, Japan listed this video game as the fourth most-successful table arcade unit for the month.
After being released in arcade form, the game was ported to NES, SNES, and Sega Genesis, among others, with slight differences in content. Although the NES game, as well as the Genesis/Mega Drive port, was developed in Japan, the video game was not released there.
There Are Marvel Video Games You Can Only Find in Japan
There are also Japan-exclusive Marvel video games, something worth looking into for fans of the franchise. Some Japanese versions even have slight variations in their content. One of these is the Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers-Ultimate Heroes.
The aforementioned video game was an anime tie-in to a show called Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers. Released in 2014 and designed for the 3DS by Bandai Namco Games, this allowed players, particularly younger kids, to call upon heroes like Iron Man and even become them for quite some time.
Besides Iron Man, players can use the code of heroes such as Captain America, Spider-Man, Thor, the Hulk, and Wasp. Think of this as Marvel meets Pokemon, another Japanese creation that has taken the world by storm.
You Can Unlock Different Marvel Characters in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater Series
Although not technically a Marvel video game, players can find Marvel heroes and characters incorporated in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater Series video games, some Easter eggs given by the creators. Some of the characters that you can use and find include Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Wolverine.
It’s also worth mentioning that Spider-Man made Tony Hawk’s video game one for the books due to a video game cross-promotion. This allowed Tony Hawk’s game part of the Marvel video games canon, making the renowned skater part of the Marvel universe as well by association.
More than this, the same Spider-Man game released in 2000 for the PlayStation 1 was created by Neversoft, the same developers responsible for making Tony Hawk’s video games come to life. Their approach was applied to the Spider-Man video game, giving it a wealth of action-packed and gnarly elements.
The Hulk Video Games Were Released 10 Years Apart
The first Hulk Marvel video game was released in 1984. Called the Questprobe featuring The Hulk, the game primarily works by requiring players to type in text commands to save Bruce Branner from certain situations.
It’s surprising given that despite The Hulk being one of the most popular and well-recognized characters from the Marvel comics, this hero remains one of the more underrepresented presences in Marvel video games.
The standalone game for The Hulk was released in 1994, 10 years after the Questprobe series. One of the more unique characteristics of the game was that The Hulk would turn back into Bruce Banner if their Gamma Level falls below 5%.
Marvel’s Avengers Teases Characters That Will be Added to the Game
Marvel’s Avengers is a new video game that features the Avengers themselves. One of the missions called To Find Olympia shows a secret part of the facility that’s teeming with memorabilia from The Avengers, including Captain America’s shield and Tony Stark’s glove prototype.
Apart from the memorabilia, players can also find various drawings of Marvel characters throughout the game, something which is quite unusual since these aren’t part of the story, including characters such as the Winter Soldier and Doctor Strange, as well as Doctor Doom.
These drawings and memorabilia point to some Easter eggs down the line, something that players could encounter further in the game.
EA Is Set to Develop Three More Marvel Video Games
The world of Marvel video games is far from over. Electronic Arts (EA) is slated to release three more video games in the future and they are planning to start with Iron Man. The Iron Man game will follow the narrative of Tony Stark’s life within the films.
The Iron Man game will allow players to get a feel of what it’s truly like to be Iron man.
Apart from the said video game, there are still no reports on what the second and third Marvel video games might be, but this might either be a sequel, spin-off or centered on other characters.
Final Thoughts
There are a lot of Marvel video games on the market. With these superhero games bringing so much to the table, it’s certainly fun learning more about them through these fun facts, deepening the appreciation fans have for them.
References
Questprobe featuring The Hulk – Questprobe featuring The Hulk – Wikipedia