The best part about having E3 and Comic-Con within weeks of each other is the onslaught of announcements and updates for the comic book video games we’re most looking forward to.
The most exciting piece of news for me was developer Rocksteady announcing that Batman: Arkham City wouldn’t end with just the game’s campaign mode. Eventually we’ll be able to download new playable “episodes” with new content and missions, expanding the Arkham City experience over several months. And the ever expanding list of rogues in the game grew by two with the reveal of Solomon Grundy in the Penguin trailer (see it here), and the first image of Talia Al Ghul. Grundy and Talia join the Joker, Harley Quinn, Two Face, Penguin, Mr. Freeze, Riddler, Calender Man, Dr. Huge Strange, and Mr. Zsasz, with Killer Croc and Black Mask hinting at appearances. The full Batman: Arkham City panel is available here, and I highly recommend watching it, not just for a discussion on the game, but for seeing Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy sitting next to each other sharing stories of recording sessions of Batman: The Animated Series. It’s amazing!
Speaking of Batman, Val Kilmer was announced as the voice behind Spider-Man: Edge of Time‘s top villain, Dr. Walter Sloan. In addition, Activision gave us new trailers for Edge of Time (see it here) and X-Men: Destiny (see it here), and see the entire Activision panel here!
Spider-Man and the X-Men aren’t the only Marvel big-timers with their own games coming out. Zen Studios released the first images of Marvel Pinball: Ghost Rider!
The Ghost Rider table hits Xbox Live Market Place and PlayStation Network in the fall, and Zen has announced plans for a new bundle of tables featuring four more of Marvel’s top names! I’m hoping for an Incredible Hulk table!
LEGO made a blockbuster announcement revealing an extension for their LEGO Batman toys and introducing a new Superman and Green Lantern line, but even bigger than that is the acquisition of the Marvel licenses! LEGO will now produce the classic LEGO toys with the Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, and more Marvel themes! This begs the question if we’ll see future LEGO video games based on Marvel characters. LEGO Batman was a huge success, not to mention an amazing game, and I would love to see that style of gameplay applied to Spider-Man or the Avengers.
As much as I love Comic-Con, part of me hates it so much! It makes the waiting so much harder! X-Men: Destiny, Spider-Man: Edge of Time, and Batman: Arkham City all release in that order within weeks of each other. This is going to be the best fall ever!
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Andrew Hurst
andrewhurst@comicattack.net
@andrewEhurst