The first ever Disney & Marvel Games Showcase was held this week featuring 15+ games in varying capacities from quick teasers to brief breakdowns. With Disney licensing out a number of their IPs from Marvel to infinity and beyond to game developers both large and small, there is a good chance that this won’t be the only Disney-hosted games showcase we see in the next twelve months. With that being said, this one included quite a bit – as Mickey Mouse would say, “Oh boy! [Let’s check it out!]”
Ones to watch: Early on in the showcase, Nintendo Switch exclusive Disney Illusion Island graced our screens with a first look at the Mickey Mouse co-op platformer. Illusion Island sees 1-4 players taking on the task of saving the island of Monoth by working their way through beautifully hand-drawn environments featuring both puzzles and epic boss battles. Players will be able to choose between Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Donald as playable characters when this one launches in 2023. Next on the list is a game that players have been requesting for ages – a Mario Kart-like racing game using Disney’s rich catalog of properties. Well, gamers, we’re getting just that when Disney Speedstorm releases on all major platforms “soon”. We’re talking tracks inspired by Pirates of the Caribbean and The Jungle Book (among others) to racers like Mickey and Mulan (and many more) – fans of the arcade racing genre will want to put the pedal to the metal when this one gets the green light of release day. Last, but not least is Sky Dance New Media’s untitled Marvel project. Helmed by Uncharted’s Amy Hennig, this Marvel ensemble game will follow four heroes (Steve Rogers/Captain America, Azzuri/Black Panther, Nanali, and Gabriel Jones) in their fight against Hydra during the World War II-era. Definitely one to watch.
Mobile Games: While mobile games are not loved by all, it’s no secret that they rake in some serious cash for both game developers and publishers alike. Disney’s mobile games are no exception to this with games like Marvel Strike Force and Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes high on the revenue charts. With that in mind, Disney made sure to advertise a handful of their mobile games throughout the show with new character and content reveals for Marvel Strike Force and Disney Mirrorverse, as well as a new reveal of Avatar Reckoning, a massive multiplayer online role playing gaming (MMORPG) taking place on Pandora. But that’s not all, interested mobile gamers also got a new look at upcoming mobile card game Marvel SNAP (set to launch on October 18th) and a mysterious, show-ending teaser of a Pokémon Go-like Marvel game.
While the showcase included a healthy amount of games spanning just shy of thirty minutes of runtime, it did feel like quite a bit of the presentation was rushed through and a number of games should have had more time spent on them. All-in-all, Disney’s first foray into games showcases was just “alright”, but they will have plenty more chances to improve upon this go in the future with well over a dozen games still to show. If you’d like to watch the full showcase, you can do so here.
Image from: Marvel/Disney
