The NetherRealm Marvel game hasn’t even properly been announced yet, and there are already some leaks about the roster and gameplay that it is apparently going to feature.
Mortal Kombat and Injustice developers NetherRealm studios are the premier studio that everyone thinks about when they think about fighting games. When Injustice was first announced, the first thing on everyone’s mind was- “What if a similar game was made on Marvel Properties?”
That’s exactly what people are going to get, according to the rumour mill. All Ed Boon, Creative Director of NetherRealm Studios, had to do was reference both Marvel and DC in the same tweet and the internet collectively lost its mind.
So, a Marvel fighting game might be in the works, but how far along in the pipeline is it? Well, we might have an idea. According to an already deleted post on 4chan, the entire roster and the first DLC has already been decided upon, along with some more details. Granted, this is 4chan we are talking about, so take everything with a fistful of salt, if not more.
It is up to you to decide if the deleted nature of the post lends more or less credence to it, but here is what is mentioned about the roster.
“Roster is as follows: Captain America Thor Iron Man Black Widow Hawkeye Wolverine Black Panther Spider-Man Groot&Rocket(duo character) Blade Gamora Moon Knight Ghost Rider Gambit Shang- Chi Kitty Pryde Invisible Woman Mr Fantastic Hulk Skaar Doctor Octopus Blob Mojo Bullseye Mephisto Daken Arnim Zola Venom Abomination Deacon Frost Madam Masque.”
“Preorder Bonus: Deadpool”
“First DLC pack(already planned): Daredevil Cyclops Raiden Kylo Renn.”
In the above roster, some things to note are the obvious lack of some notable marvel characters and the addition of Kylo Ren from the Star Wars franchise. Disney owns both Marvel and Star Wars, and fighting games usually feature some additions from different universes than the original. Kylo Ren could still feasibly be featured on the roster.
Regarding the omissions, fighting games that are not called Super Smash Brothers usually feature limited rosters, as large rosters tend to create balance issues. Any major missed characters can always be added via DLC, too. The NetherRealm Marvel game seems to be following the usual fighting game patterns.
That’s not all in the 4chan post, as some more details about the NetherRealm Marvel game, as the poster also revealed some other details. The game will be “very loosely based on World War Hulk”, and the gameplay is “essentially Marvel’s Injustice”.
Regarding character designs, the poster also said- “Characters are completely redesigned and reimagined by NR like Injustice. Some of the costumes (Spider-Man in particular) people are not going to be a fan of. Thankfully all the movie costumes are planned DLC packs so have fun with that.” That does sound a tiny bit concerning, though the game is in the very early stages of development, and everything can still change.
It remains to be seen if the NetherRealm Marvel game exists or if the leak is accurate. What we do know for sure is that if it indeed does exist, we’re all in for a great time.