Next year's pending release of Insomniac's Marvel's Wolverine looks to continue the trend of high-quality Marvel Comics-licensed games, following in the footsteps of both Marvel's Spider-Man and the critically-acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful Midnight Suns. Where both Marvel's Wolverine and Midnight Suns meet is in their featuring of characters from Marvel's line of X-titles -- Wolverine, Magik, Sabertooth, and others -- which opens the door for more X-related content in a future game. Depending on the rogues gallery featured in Marvel's Wolverine and the possibility of a sequel or more DLC for Midnight Suns, it's high time for a new title focused on Marvel's mutant superheroes: The X-Men.
The X-Men count themselves among the legacy characters in the Marvel canon created by the legendary partnership between Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. After a successful relaunch of the comic in 1975 in the famous Giant-Size X-Men #1, the property went on to become the best-selling family of Marvel Comics titles for nearly two decades. Despite their successes in films and comics, video game adaptations of the X-Men and the stories from the comics have a mixed reception. However, the appearance of famous and noteworthy mutants in Midnight Suns and Marvel's Wolverine creates an opportunity for a new Marvel game built specifically around the X-Men.
More Than 10 Years Have Passed Since the Last X-Men Game
Characters from the X-Men and other adjacent X-teams have made regular appearances in Marvel-licensed games with ensemble casts but haven't had their own feature title since 2011's X-Men Destiny. The popularity of Wolverine has traditionally made him the primary example of an X-Men team member capable of carrying his own game, but it's now time for there to be a title that features the entire X-Men team as well as their varied and captivating rogues gallery. The popularity of the X-Men in games like Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 and the aforementioned Midnight Suns could serve as a catalyst for the team to get their first dedicated game in over a decade following cameos in Insomniac's Wolverine title.
As far as what form this potential new X-Men game would take, one need look no further than the successful X-Men games of the past for examples of the genres best-suited to Marvel's Mutant misfits. Prior to the release of X-Men: Destiny, most of the games featuring the X-Men focused on the characters' ability to work as a team and featured multiple playable characters as well as drop-in/drop-out character switching that exemplified each member's unique mutant abilities. A new X-Men Legends game (which was a precursor to the Marvel Ultimate Alliance series) seems like the perfect fit for the X-Men following successful and noteworthy appearances in Midnight Suns and the upcoming Marvel's Wolverine.
The X-Men Could Feature Prominently in DLC for Marvel's Wolverine
Very little is known about Insomniac's Wolverine game outside the brief teaser shown as part of the 2021 PlayStation Showcase. While it's safe to assume that a game featuring the most popular member of the X-Men will feature cameos from heroes and villains in the pages of the X-Men comics, the form that these appearances will take is still completely unknown. If Marvel's Midnight Suns proved anything regarding the X-Men's affinity for cameos, it was that they work perfectly as DLC for a Marvel-licensed game.
The DLC for both Midnight Suns and Marvel's Spider-Man indicate a possibility for Wolverine to feature more mutants as either post-game DLC expansions or possibly playable characters in a heretofore unannounced game mode. One of Wolverine's arch-nemeses, Sabertooth, has even spent a considerable amount of time as a member of the X-Men in the comics, providing an opportunity to both fight him as an enemy in the main game and then play as Sabertooth in a side-story implemented via DLC. Whether in their own game or as additions to Marvel's Wolverine, the X-Men deserve a return to the medium.
Marvel's Wolverine is currently in production for PS5.
