It should go without saying that The Avengers is one of the biggest entertainment properties ever created. Even ignoring the recent blockbuster successes on the big screen, The Avengers helped usher in a new age in comic book history — one could argue that, without The Avengers, Marvel wouldn't be the publishing powerhouse it is today.
However, if there's one area of entertainment that The Avengers have yet to dominate, it's gaming. Sure, Marvel's finest have appeared in plenty of games — Marvel v. Capcom and Marvel Ultimate Alliance are notable examples — but the number of Avengers-specific games can't really compete with the likes of X-Men or Spider-Man.
That's not to say that there are no Avengers games out there ... you just have to do a bit of digging to find them. While the past decade or so hasn't been all that kind to Avengers video games, there have been a few noteworthy titles featuring Earth's Mightiest Heroes ...
Captain America in: The Doom Tube of Dr. Megalomann
Release date: 1987
Platform: Commodore 64
At this point, it's pretty common knowledge that THQ was working on a first-person shooter movie tie-in before the company went under. The game looked amazing, and from the few brief minutes of gameplay that made their way online, it looked like a genuinely different kind of superhero game.
Instead of getting the game that actually looked decent, gamers were instead forced to put up with Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth. Whereas the movie tie-in game actually looked original, Battle for Earth played like a more sluggish version of modern Dragon Ball Z games ... with god-awful motion controls tacked on for good measure. Long story short, no one wanted Battle for Earth, and it wasn't long before the game was completely forgotten.
Unfortunately for gamers, it looks like it'll be quite a while before Marvel decides to make another big-budget triple-A action game based on The Avengers. As it stands, Marvel seems perfectly happy raking in piles of cash from Disney Infinity and mobile games ... on top of that, Sega basically buried the brand with a number of terrible movie cash-ins back before the first Avengers film hit theaters. Simply put, Marvel doesn't want a repeat of that.
It's a shame, too — with so many different characters and powers to choose from, you'd be forgiven for thinking that a game featuring The Avengers wouldn't be all that hard to design. Who knows — maybe Marvel has something planned for Infinity War's big debut?
At the very least, gamers can take control of Earth's Mightiest Heroes when LEGO Marvel's Avengers hits on Jan. 26.
