Recently, European and American comic IP led by DC and Marvel have announced that they want to adapt the game.
Take DC, not long ago at the TGA Awards announced the "Wonder Woman" game version and "Suicide Squad: Eliminate the Justice League", last year Warner announced "Batman: Gotham Knight"; Marvel is also very lively, the recent release of "Guardians of the Galaxy" has received a lot of praise, "Marvel Spider-Man 2" and "Marvel Wolverine" two new games are also in the planned... In many of the European and American comic games that have been announced, most of them may be at the level of AAA masterpieces.
▲ Warner Games unveiled the Wonder Woman game for the first time on the TGA
Speaking of which, European and American comic IP adaptation games have actually been around for a long time, but they have undergone some changes. In the early years, Japanese game companies once launched a lot of good works, but for a long time after they left the scene, European and American comic games have been sluggish, most of them are shoddily made works, and have been lacking real masterpieces, until the birth of several iconic products in recent years, which broke this deadlock.
In this new round of European and American comic game tide, we may wish to review the development process of this type of game, as well as the representative works in each stage.
From the Age of Light to the Age of Chaos
In the 1980s and 1990s, the first European and American comic game masterpieces were born, but they were mainly created by Japanese game companies. On FC, MD, SFC and arcade platforms, adaptations of Batman, Spider-Man, Superman, and X-Men are not uncommon, and there are some masterpieces that are still talked about by players today – such as the famous Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series.
At that time, many of the Japanese companies that made these games were well-known power factions. KONAMI, which launched three games in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, was full of talent at the time and was in a period of market development, and needed to prove its strength through such a comic game. Another well-known Japanese company is CAPCOM, one of their most well-known European and American comic games of that year was "The Punisher", which landed on the arcade platform in 1993 and can be described as a classic of horizontal action game.
▲ "The Punisher"
However, such good years did not last long, and in the 3D graphics era of PS consoles, the situation changed drastically - Japanese game companies no longer favored European and American comic IP, and European and American game companies made mostly shoddy products.
One of the reasons for this may be that Japanese game companies have become stronger and no longer need to rely on such games to enrich their product lineups.
Taking CAPCOM as an example, during the PS period, they created the famous "Resident Evil" and "Dinosaur Crisis" two major series, and already have a strong original IP, there is no need to buy the IP of European and American comics. The same is true for KONAMI, which has its own strong IP after the success of works such as Metal Gear Solid and Silent Hill. In other words, both companies have passed the development period, entered the mature stage, and no longer have to rely on external IP.
▲ Resident Evil series
From the perspective of game development, Japanese companies to do European and American comic games, it is inevitable that there will be conflicts in concept and communication. Most of the games on FC and SFC in the early years were action products that didn't involve too many plot or character development issues. However, after entering the PS era, cutscenes and dubbing have gradually become the standard of games, and Japanese game companies will have a hard time making European and American comic games.
With their own original IP will not have this problem, take the "Resident Evil" series, even if the European and American faces in the game speak with Japanese characteristics (in fact, it is much better than the previous works), but because it is CAPCOM's own IP, players even if they feel a little contrary to it, they just laugh it off. But if the situation happens in a European and American comic game, it will cause a fierce reaction from the original readers.
After the withdrawal of Japanese game companies, from the PS to PS3 era, European and American game companies took over the production of such games. However, although the number of works is not large, the quality is generally relatively mediocre. At that time, European and American game companies, first-class ones were busy creating their own IP, most of the comic games were second- and third-rate, and their level design and action system design level was far inferior to CAPCOM and KONAMI, so the overall quality of the game was difficult to reach an excellent level.
This continued until the middle and late PS3, when it changed with the advent of Batman: Arkham Asylum.
Batman: Arkham Asylum: A truly transformative
In 2009, Rocksteady Studios launched Batman: Arkham Asylum, which really changed the situation of European and American comic games, and let the category gradually rise.
The first contribution of this game is to clarify the correct direction of the comic game.
In the past few years, there have been many excellent European and American comic adaptations represented by "Batman" and "Spider-Man", which have made game companies refer to movies to make games, rather than looking for creative inspiration in the original comic books. This kind of work, often in order to catch up with the release of the film before and after the listing of the work, and finally often sold in the form of semi-finished products, and the plot flow is mostly arranged according to the movie, there is not much creative space. The result is that no one is flattered: moviegoers don't go to the game to experience the movie plot again, and fans of the original comic book scoff at these poor quality games.
However, "Batman: Arkham Asylum" is an epoch-making work that really absorbs the spirit of the original comic book and respects the original party, which is based on Grant Morrison's comic of the same name, which highly restores the dark worldview of the original book, and everything is designed with the original characteristics of Batman as the core, and has achieved good results.
The game shows Batman's childhood psychological trauma through "nightmare levels", as well as his inner mental pain, struggle and contradictions, which is the first time that Batman games can show the characters to this depth, and this is also closely combined with gameplay. In those strangely constructed nightmare levels, the player has to operate Batman to evade the scarecrow's patrol gaze, master the scarecrow's action rules, and then pass the level through stealth, in this process, the scarecrow will continue to mentally strike and taunt Batman, trying to trap him in this nightmare fantasy forever, and Batman breaks through the difficulties and finally returns to reality after continuous trial and error, which can be described as a perfect presentation of the original through gamification, which is amazing.
The game's "Crocodile Man level" is also worth mentioning, this level is relatively long, the player to operate Batman slowly on the floating board on the water to move, can not be impatient, once the movement is too fast will alarm the Crocodile Man and fail, this design reflects Batman's calm and calm personality, can be described as clever.
In addition, in the game, Batman often encounters a group of ordinary enemies, need to use the tunnels and high platforms in the level to hide his body, and through the bat dart and other props derived from the comics to break the enemies one by one, it is easy to face the dilemma, so Batman must use his own wisdom and strategy to think carefully about every design in the scene in order to defeat the enemy. This design highly restores the characteristics of Batman's good use of strategy in the original comic book, because Batman is a man rather than a god, and does not have superpowers like other superheroes, so he can only rely on various props in his hands and a wise mind.
To particular credit, Batman in this game will not kill any enemies, but will only knock him unconscious for a while, which is also a major restoration of the original characteristics of the comic. Friends who are familiar with Batman know that because he witnessed his parents being killed by thugs as a child, he has always implemented the concept of "no killing", which is also a feature that distinguishes him from most superheroes. This has often been violated in many Batman games in the past, and those game designers don't seem to know how to design a Batman who doesn't kill people, but this game does it brilliantly.
In addition, another surprise for fans of the original comic book is the restoration of Batman's detective characteristics. As early as 1939, Batman was a detective when he first appeared in the comics, assisting Sheriff Gordon in solving murders, but this has rarely been noticed in previous Batman games. However, there are a lot of mysteries in this game, and Batman often needs to switch to "detective mode" to find hints in the scene, analyze the number and armament of enemies, and collect clues to find answers to puzzles.
All in all, the more you know about the original comic, the more surprises you can feel when you play this game. The reason why this height can be achieved is also because DC specially sent Paul Dini, the original screenwriter of the comic of the same name, to assist in the development, and many employees on the team are also deep fans of Batman comics.
This game was highly recognized by the industry and players, and was considered the best comic book game at the time, which was a benchmark work, and most media outlets gave it more than 9 points of praise. On Metacritic, the game has a media rating of 91 and a user rating of 8.8, and few comic book games can achieve such a high score.
After the success of this product, we can see that most game companies have abandoned the practice of "referring to movies to make comic game" in favor of making games with the characteristics of the original comic book, all of which are changes brought about by Batman: Arkham Asylum.
The second contribution is to make people realize that the original comic game can also have the quality and gameplay that is not inferior to the top AAA masterpieces.
If we don't consider the "comic adaptation" and look at this game purely from the perspective of the game, we will be surprised to find that there are many advanced innovative designs, which are also a great promotion and reference for the European and American AAA masterpieces that were in the rising stage at that time.
For example, this game adopts the form of "Galaxy City", which belongs to the small open box court world. Today's 3D games with this model are not uncommon, but in 2009, such a design can be described as very advanced, before the Nintendo's "Galactic Prime" explored this aspect, and "Batman: Arkham Madhouse" is based on the reference to make its own features. For example, there are many hidden elements in the game, And Batman needs to constantly get a variety of key items to reach the place where these hidden elements are located; in addition, players in the game often find that the main entrance of the building is not accessible, and they have to find hidden entrances through other means, which are the settings of the characteristics of Galaxy City.
In addition, the original "Freeflow Combat" battle system of "Batman: Arkham Madhouse" is also far-reaching, and Rocksteady later even registered a trademark for this combat system, which has been borrowed from European and American games such as "Bloody Rogue" and "Marvel Spider-Man".
In simple terms, "Freeflow Combat" means that Batman can attack, confuse, and counter enemies with various weapons to achieve an attack chain, and when the chain reaches a certain number, he can use special ambush skills to quickly knock down the enemy, the more chains and the more moves used, the higher the score. The system is characterized by its ability to accommodate a variety of different players: those who are not good at action games can also get started, the average player can dodge most damage by always paying attention to the prompts to counterattack, and the master player can achieve a high number of chains of attacks to knock down enemies faster.
It was the exploration of 3D Galaxy City and the innovation of the "Freeflow Combat" combat system that Batman: Arkham Madhouse surprised the entire industry that year, after all, people did not expect that a comic book game could achieve this level of gameplay, unprecedented.
After the huge success of Batman: Arkham Asylum, Rocksteady launched Batman: Arkham City and Batman: Arkham Knight. The former added more open-world elements on the basis of successful experience, improved the combat system, and belonged to a fully evolved game, which also received high praise, so that there are still many players arguing about who is the peak of the series in "Arkham Madhouse" and "Arkham City"; the latter has achieved a huge improvement in the screen, but because the Batmobile is too strong and PC optimization problems, the reputation is not as good as the previous two games.
Marvel Spider-Man: The highest-selling European and American comic book adaptation
After the success of Rocksteady's three Batman games, Marvel also realized the potential of comic book games, so it also found several game companies to cooperate in this field, the most successful of which was "Marvel Spider-Man" exclusive to Sony's PS platform.
This game was created by Insomniac Games (Insomnia Group), this development team has many avid fans of Spider-Man, Sony and Marvel have also given strong support, and the final "Marvel Spider-Man" can be said to have deeply absorbed the model of "Batman: Arkham Asylum", and developed its own characteristics.
If Batman is calm and calm, then Spider-Man is another kind of personality: humorous and funny, funny, and broken thoughts. So in "Marvel Spider-Man", Spider-Man is a talker, even when fighting, he will continue to speak quickly, these dialogues are designed to be interesting, and it is also a way to adjust the atmosphere of the game while showing the personality of the characters. In addition, fast and flexible is also a feature of Spider-Man, so in the game his attack speed is very fast, a set of combo moves down to see people dazzling, players are particularly cool to operate.
In terms of combat system, Marvel Spider-Man has also made more improvements on "Freeflow Combat", such as a richer combos system and attack skills, you can use props such as spider bombs and small unmanned spider machines, you can see the timing to return enemy bullets or shells, and you can also use skills and other ways to take away enemy guns... In addition, many battle venues are relatively large, and Spider-Man can use spider silk swing to achieve a mysterious effect, which is very ornamental, like a Marvel blockbuster that can be operated by himself.
It is worth mentioning that this game spent a lot of money and time to build the famous area of Manhattan in New York, the details of the building are amazing, and it has also formed a kind of circle effect, and many European and American players have posted a comparison map of Manhattan and the same location in the game on social platforms, which has triggered a lot of heated discussion.
Marvel Spider-Man is the most successful European and American comic game in terms of sales, selling 20 million copies, compared to Batman: Arkham City, which only exceeded 12.5 million copies. Moreover, "Marvel Spider-Man" is also an exclusive game on the PS platform, which can be said to have raised the sales of European and American comic games to another level, which is of great significance.
After Marvel Spider-Man, Marvel also launched a number of other products. Among them, "Marvel Avengers" developed by Crystal Power did not continue to succeed, and the game was made into a "brush brush" service game, not as pure as a single-player adventure single-player game. In contrast, the "Guardians of the Galaxy" game recently created by Eidos Montreal learned some of the essence of "Marvel Spider-Man", the game's combat system is actually not too good, but because Star-Lord's personality has the same funny and humorous characteristics as Spider-Man, several of the main characters are as interactive as crosstalk, and finally received a lot of praise.
epilogue
To sum up, in the category of European and American comic games, the three games of the Batman: Arkham series have created a production model, while "Marvel Spider-Man" has verified the feasibility of this model and pushed sales to a higher level, making DC and Marvel fully aware of the unlimited potential of this field.
In fact, in my personal opinion, the number of such games is still too small, there is still a lot of room to play, so it is very surprising and happy to see the announcement of more European and American comic masterpieces such as "Gotham Knight" and "Wonder Woman".
European and American comic IP is simply a treasure trove, with excellent world view settings and countless excellent characters to use, after several years of European and American comic book movie frenzy, this trend seems to finally come to the AAA game industry, and what kind of works will be born in the end, what kind of impact will be caused, which is expected.
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