Marvel’s Avengers Cannot be as Bad as Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth

Back in 2012 there was an Avengers game released to coincide with the theatrical film The Avengers, which had come out earlier in the year. It wasn’t based on it, unlike the solo titles such as the two Iron Mans, and one each for Captain America, Hulk and Thor. Well, it was supposed to be when THQ were making it, but they unfortunately went under and Ubisoft snapped up the license. For one game.

If you weren’t even aware that Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth (hereon Battle for Earth) was a thing, then you’re not alone. It was released on the Wii U and the Xbox 360, because it utilised motion controls. Yes, “oh”...

Having recently bought a Wii U (yes, late to the party I know), I was super eager to check Battle for Earth out, especially with the upcoming Marvel’s Avengers. I’ve played a ton of superhero games over the past couple of years - such as ranking them on the GameCube and playing all 107 Spider-Man games - so to find that there was one I hadn’t been able to play, I definitely needed it. Of course, I’m not about to pick up a Kinect for this game, so everything I’m saying could apply to both, but definitely applies to the Wii U version.

Battle for Earth is a fighting game - in the broadest sense. The campaign takes its plot from the Secret Invasion comic book event from 2008. You play as two characters at a time against two Skrulls. Knocking one out will win you the bout. You select moves by tapping on the Wii U’s screen, special moves requiring a fancy bit of stylus work to pull off. There’s a campaign, an arcade mode, two-player versus and challenges, as well as some unlockable costumes… It’s not the worst superhero game as far as content goes.

Given that you can spam the moves one after the other, the CPU has a tiny opportunity to counter you. This at least adds a tiny bit of challenge to a game that is actually quite easy - just keep spamming. Run through your special moves and need the timer to reset? Just swap to your second character and use their special moves.

The Wii U was a lovely bit of kit, if you’ve never owned one. Most games will mirror the TV on the gamepad’s touch screen, and games like Mario Kart 8 will even let you choose what is displayed on the gamepad. Battle for Earth has everything on both screens - except for the fights. Those take place entirely on the gamepad, showing a couple of options on the TV that I couldn’t find a way to select. So if anyone is watching you play, they don’t get to know if you’ve won until the fight is over.

What’s more, this isn’t actually much of an Avengers game, as they bulk out the roster of 20 with some villains, X-Men and the Human Torch of the Fantastic Four. It’s a weird selection, as even when they were heroes Magneto and Doctor Doom have never been Avengers - nor has the Human Torch.

Back to the game modes, the campaign has 40 stages spread over five levels. Play the levels in any order, but be prepared to just spam attacks. It can be played co-op, but I haven’t given that a go as of yet. Similarly, I haven’t had a go with versus, but perhaps the options on the TV can be selected if I set up a wiimote to give it a go. Arcade mode is, as with any fighting game, a mode which lets you set any characters up across 10 stages. Challenge mode contains the tutorial and the character roster to look at, as well as 20 trials with specific criteria to win.

Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth isn’t the worst superhero game ever (that would be Superman from 1987), but it’s definitely not one of the best. It cost me £5, and I regret paying that much - I can’t imagine how people who bought it at full price must have felt. This is my long way of saying that I hope Crystal Dynamics have straight up ignored this game. It’s unfortunate that the Marvel’s Avengers footage so far has the camera in the same angle as Battle for Earth, it’s co-op optional and all of the Avengers are the same - save for Hank Pym.

Marvel’s Avengers is coming out on 15th May 2020 for PC, Xbox One, Stadia and PlayStation 4. But no matter how it turns out, at least it won’t have motion controls.