10 best gaming surprises of 2021 (and 5 terrible ones)
09) Great Moment – Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy turns out to be amazing
In the picture above, Starlord catches his beloved Walkman during a massive intergalactic shootout whilst a warrior queen rides the famous Marvel dragon “Fing Fang Foom” in the background.
This is, by far, not the silliest thing that happens in this game and I’m so pleased about that. In Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy you take control of Starlord when the gang has just gotten together for the first time. Rocket and Groot will take almost any opportunity to just bail on you, Drax does not always want to listen. And Gamora? Well, she’s the daughter of Thanos. Absolutely no one wants to trust Gamora.
Along the way, you get to encounter other Guardians of the Galaxy characters well known and obscure that flesh out this universe. You can get arrested by the Nova Corp, take a job from beloved city leader and all-around good boy Astro, the psychic dog. You get to work with Mantis, meet Adam Warlock, encounter the previously mentioned Fing Fang Foom. And all the while get constant cameos and mentions about everyone from Lila Chaney to Dazzler to Warbird. You even get to talk to Ruby Tuesday which…well…just Google her.
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is an absolute love letter to what makes the Guardians of the Galaxy comic books work as well as they do when they work. While it’s not my favorite lineup the team’s ever had (I don’t expect them to use the team run by Kitty Pryde any time soon but I can wish) it’s really fun to watch them come to terms with each other.
Some people were disappointed that you only got to play as Star-Lord but, honestly, it makes sense within the game. The rest of the team fights with you and through a really nice wheelhouse, you get to issue them commands to attack certain enemies in certain ways over the course of the game. And it just works.
Plus, controlling Star-Lord makes sense because this story is VERY much about his individual journey as he comes to grips with something that may change his entire way of living. If you’re a fan of the comics are, honestly, just pulp science fiction fun, this game is absolutely worth picking up.
Terrible Moments – The Other Games Marvel Did This Year
Sure, Guardians of the Galaxy was an absolute blast but as Marvel fans will tell you, not all Marvel games are created equal. Marvel’s Avengers, for example, dropped the ball when it came to their DLC. Sure, Black Panther’s stuff was pretty good and Wakanda was very pretty but it was all super formulaic for a character that also wasn’t that fun to play as.
But the biggest Avengers disappointment came when they finally dropped the long-awaited Spider-Man DLC just to find out that you automatically got the character in your party without doing anything to unlock him and he had absolutely no story or anything to build up his character with.
The biggest stinker of all though came from a mobile game called Marvel: Future Revolution. The game looked to be a Diablo-esque game that explored the Marvel Multiverse in a way that involved all the dimensions bleeding over each other. Weirdly, Lego Marvel 3 did this way better because this game, like every other Marvel mobile game, seems to be worked on by people who haven’t read a Marvel comic since the 90’s. If there’s X-Men they’re fighting Magneto despite him not being a villain for almost a decade now. If there’s Avengers they’re fighting MODOK despite him not being relevant. And Spider-Man? Always have him fighting Green Goblin despite the fact that he hasn’t really been a relevant Spider-Man villain in forever.
A lack of knowledge of the current Marvel universe combined with costume pieces that allowed you to create the absolute grosses looks for your favorite characters equaled something that made green wavy lines come off my smartphone when I played it.