Spider-man: Birth of Awesomeness

Now I'm not being funny or anything, but I'm not going to go about simply creating several, reasonably short , arguably meaningless posts about how my weekly readings are so applicable to everything and basically put what they say into my own words - I might do some of the time - but I've decided I'd rather describe a game I like using their applicable concepts. Savvy?

Now, if you haven't guessed already, the first will be about spider-man games of many varieties. Why? well, I've had three people today remark about how s*** they all are - So I'm basically out to explain why in many ways they can be wrong.
I'm having second thoughts of doing this whole game review stuff - I'm going to be running out of ideas by the time I need to be properly marked on them!

Anyway, first things first - I'll start with the creator - Marvel

Before I go into why I think certain games are great, I thought I'd better go into why I think the general concept without the game is great first.

Now, there are many different comic companies out there; I'm not going to pretend for a second I am a comic book nerd and know many more than Marvel and DC - I just know what I like.

Look at the picture above - I think it's safe to say there is a lot of characters there, and that is probably only a selection of few of them. One of the many things I love with marvel, is the fact it is all linked. When I say 'linked', I don't mean it's all the same, tied up, or some kind of bondage or anything like that. The fact is each main character (or set of characters) has it's own comic; Spider-man, The Hulk, X-men and the Fantastic Four - And they all have their separate story-lines and themes - But the comics intertwine with each-other; you might get Iron-man going after The Hulk, or Spider-man might hear about some havoc that Wolverine has coursed. This intertwining creates and strengthens the concept of a whole alternate world - The fact everything links together and subsequently makes sense increases the readers ability to believe in what's happening in these different places within that world and draws them within it.

Just imagine you go into a motion simulator ride: It wouldn't work too well if it was completely different to what you normally experience - You would think it was broken if you were supposedly in a spaceship and you suddenly tilt sideways when going forwards, or if you pull negative G-forces on a roller-coaster going into a dip. The manufacturers could do this, and then claim that the ride is fiction - Made up - and therefore not in the bounds of the norm - But yet the ride would not be popular. The fact is that most fiction isn't built on randomness or inconceivable happenings, but rather as a twist or change of the norm or what we would usually expect. A simple "Wouldn't it be cool if this was possible" is sufficient in any media to make a reader interested or to get them to enjoy it - You don't have to re-write the laws of physics.

If you push a superhero off a building, the chances are they are going to plummet toward the ground at the same speed as anything else in the real world - This is a base line of what I think makes Marvel so popular. To my knowledge, most of the Marvel comics are set in and around the real world - Spider-man swings around New York for instance. (it's a lot more complicated than that, of course, you can read about it HERE if you wish) This means that even the most challenged of imaginations can portray such things happening (well, hopefully) as they have something they already know to mentally build from.

Anyway - Another method Marvel seem to use build their attraction from is mixing fiction, with fact, or factual objects or occurrences. That doesn't make sense either you say? I know- I'm currently having an explain-anything-properly-malfunction. Basically, Marvel mix fiction with non-fiction very well; any reader will usually voluntary buy into any fictional possibility just the same as they would in video games, however - Marvel regularly seem to decrease the need to put in any amount of effort to do this. For instance - Everyone knows there are serums in the world which enhance physical abilities and or intellect and know to some extent there could be the possibility of such a serum causing mental instability or insanity - It's not that hard to imagine because that specific concept is based around truth - That concept however is the basis of the story of Green Goblin. If you exaggerate that concept a little and add a few high-tech gadgets which could, but do not yet exist, and of course a suit, you have the complete character concept of the Green Goblin! And you hardly had to strain a single braincell or put yourself out of place to imagine it.

 Where was I?

Oh Yes; The final concept I find interesting (rather than compelling) about Marvel comics is the seemingly regular concept of morals. Now, I know this is the whole idea of the superhero/villain theme, but there seems to be something more to it in Marvel.

Although my knowledge is mainly based around the films, Marvel seem to add a lot of choice and moral questions into their work - So i don't ramble any more, a few Spider-man Movie quotes should get my point across:

• "With great power comes great responsibility."
•  "Commencement: the end of one thing, the start of something new."
• "I don't think it's for us to say whether a person deserves to live or die."
• "Well, you start by doing the hardest thing: You forgive yourself."

And so on...

I shall let the Die-hard comic book fans turn in their grave after that and shall leave you to read this not-so-games-related post... (Although I did try fit some stuff in!)

BUT... Soon there will be some incredible games-related posts, and we can all rejoice!
......Right after I've done some other games design work...