Though many comic book video games came out in 2011, only one was worthy of the many awards it was nominated for and won. Batman: Arkham City was that game, and though the juggernaut that is Skyrim beat out Arkham City for the prestigious Video Game of the Year award, Rocksteady and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment enjoyed taking home trophies for Best Xbox Game, Best Action Adventure Game, Best Adapted Video Game, and Character of the Year with the Joker. The Joker, complete with Mark Hamill performing ( who sadly did not win Best Performance by a Human Male ), accepted the award, and sent the internet into a fit by showing off a script for “Batman: Arkham World.” See the Joker’s acceptance speech here.
Rocksteady has confirmed that Arkham World is not real and was only a joke, and that actually disappointed me to an extent. No, I wasn’t really looking forward to an Arkham World — the idea of Arkham City is silly enough — but I was hoping to still see a glimpse of the third Rocksteady Batman game. At the 2009 VGAs we saw the first teaser for Arkham City, and though trailers for Mass Effect 3 and Metal Gear Rising made up for it, the real treat (for me personally) was the new trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man.
Though The Amazing Spider-Man is a movie adaptation, with Beenox behind the wheel it’s like if Rocksteady were developing a Dark Knight Rises video game: It’s going to be awesome. Or at the very least, an interesting attempt. Beenox has given us two great beat-em-up Spidey games, but Amazing Spider-Man will be their first venture into an open world Spider-Man experience; something we haven’t seen since Treyarch’s Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, which was a big disappointment. Beenox has a lot of pressure on them from Spidey faithful, but if their game is as cool as the trailer suggests, then we could see The Amazing Spider-Man at next year’s VGAs.
The Transformers: Fall of Cybertron trailer debuted at the VGAs, and though Activision’s last non-Micheal Bay related Transformers game, Transformers: War for Cybertron, — promoted as the “Batman: Arkham Asylum” of 2010 — didn’t exactly live up to the hype, the Fall of Cybertron trailer does a good job of convincing me it has potential to be the “Batman: Arkham City” of 2012. Only time will tell, but regardless, the trailer is fantastic.
It’s great to see Publishers allowing developers enough time to create really great comic book video games, and I would like to think Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, who has scored so much success with their Batman game franchise, will continue the trend with the rumored future games based on the New 52. BleedingCool.com reports that Warner Bros. has been closely discussing new DC Comics video games with Geoff Johns and Jim Lee. I can’t be the only one hoping for an OMAC game!
I’ve mentioned before how it’s time for a serious Rocksteady/Batman-level Superman game, but there’s plenty of DC characters who could star in their own great games. A Red Dead Redemption style Jonah Hex game could be awesome, or a Mass Effect inspired Adam Strange RPG. Obviously we all want developers to be more creative with our favorite DC properties and not just rip off other hit games, but I don’t think I would have a problem with my Deathstroke game looking a lot like Assassin’s Creed, or Suicide Squad playing like Saints Row.
Comic book fans can rejoice now that the age of good comic book video games is finally upon us. 2012 will be a big year not only for the huge games in store, but for the announcements for future games, as well. I just hope the Mayan calendar prophecies don’t go into effect before I get my Uncharted-like Blue Beetle game.
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Andrew Hurst
andrewhurst@comicattack.net
@andrewEhurst
