Review Fix Exclusive: Blair Farrell Talks ‘The Avengers in Video Games: A Guide to Solo Adventures and Mighty Marvel Team-Ups, with Creator Interviews’

Review Fix chats with “The Avengers in Video Games: A Guide to Solo Adventures and Mighty Marvel Team-Ups, with Creator Interviews” author Blair Farrell, who discusses the inspiration for the book and more.

About the Author:

Blair Farrell has been writing about comic book video games for close to a decade, primarily for the website Comic Book Video Games (www.facebook.com/comicbookvideogames). He lives in Canada.

About the Book:

For decades, Marvel Comics’ superhero group the Avengers have captured the imagination of millions, whether in comics, multi-billion dollar grossing films or video games. Similar to the chronology of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Avengers video games first started with titles driven by single characters, like Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor and Captain America. Over time, the games grew to include more and more heroes, culminating in playing experiences that featured the Avengers assembled. This is the first-ever book assessing the video games starring “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.” Featured games span consoles and platforms, from popular PlayStation and Xbox titles to an arcade game in danger of being lost to time. All video games are covered in depth, with each entry including game background and a detailed review from the author. Some game entries also include behind-the-scenes knowledge from the developers themselves, providing exclusive details on the Marvel video game universe.

Review Fix: What inspired this book?

Blair Farrell: I was sitting in a crowded theater, with my girlfriend, watching Marvel’s Avengers Endgame on the Thursday night screening of its opening weekend. I became overcome with emotions when, after many years and movies, you finally hear Captain America utter the iconic line “Avengers Assemble” before leaping into battle against Thanos’ army, dual-wielding Mjolnir and his trademark Vibramium shield.

That moment lit a fire in me to put my stamp on The Avengers, if only in my small way. Having just come off of writing a book about Spider-Man games, I pondered over how I could apply that formula to Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. I thought on the Marvel Cinematic Universe in how it introduced each hero: Iron Man; Hulk; Thor and Captain America in their own features before bringing them together in 2012’s Marvel’s The Avengers.

There wasn’t enough material to use for each character on their own, but when combined, there just might be something there. So, taking stock of the comic book games on my shelf, I began to put the pieces together in how, like in the MCU, I could merge the solo outings of these larger-than-life heroes with the titles where they team up to produce one super Avengers video game book.

Review Fix: Why the Avengers?

Farrell: Like many people I’m sure, The Avengers have become such a large part of my life these past twelve years that I can’t remember what it was like before they were arguably the biggest property on the planet. I’ve been seated for every major Marvel film on opening weekend, my shelves are buckling under the weight of trade paper backs for characters like Iron Man and Captain America and for close to a decade now, I’ve been covering their digital exploits on my site Comic Book Video Games.

I also very much wished to showcase some of the lesser-known games starring these characters. In terms of Marvel video games, many are familiar with exploits of Spider-Man and the X-Men, even when they teamed up on the SNES and Genesis. That’s not really the case with The Avengers though, whether you’re talking about solo or team-based titles.

The Invincible Iron Man on the Game Boy Advance is a terrific Mega Man clone for example, but it has been largely forgotten. It wasn’t until the first Avengers films that I learned about the NES port of Captain America and The Avengers, which answers the question of what if you placed Cap and Hawkeye in a title structured eerily similar to Capcom’s Bionic Commando. I’ll always go to bat for Captain America: Super Soldier on PS3 and Xbox 360 too, an amazing Arkham clone that never got its due.

Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of downright awful games starring these heroes, but I wanted the opportunity to show people some titles well worth looking into that they may have never heard about.

Review Fix: What was the process like?

Farrell: Early in 2019, I found myself unemployed for the first time in over a decade. For many months of the year, my day was split playing games to completion, or as close to it as possible, and getting write-ups done as to create a healthy balance. For games that weren’t exactly the easiest to play, like the PC outings from the 80’s, it involved studying longplay videos on YouTube and determining the subtle differences between say, a game on the ZX Spectrum and Commodore platforms.

After reaching out and speaking with people in the industry for another project that never got off the ground, I began reviewing the credits of the games I finished, jotting down names and trying to connect with anyone I could to appear in the book. I was overjoyed with the people I got to speak with, and also gracious to those who wanted to contribute but whose hands were tied legally speaking. When you’re talking about The Avengers after all, it’s a multi-billion, with a capital “B”, franchise owned by one of the most powerful companies in the world.

Review Fix: What were some of your favorite interviews?

Farrell: Eric Holmes, who’s now with DICE but worked for Radical during the production of 2003’s Hulk and the awesome The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, was very kind and a joy to speak with. There’s a closing line in the final interview questions that gets me choked up every time I read it.

Austin Ivansmith from WayForward also provided a lot of detail into the making of Thor: God of Thunder for the Nintendo DS, a game I adore, that I think people are really going to like. He wanted to get his answers just right as one of the people responsible for making that game, Michael De La Peña, or “DLP” for short, was a dear friend of his who has since passed on. I dedicated the book to him.

Review Fix: What’s the worst Avengers game ever?

Farrell: When speaking of The Avengers games, Captain America and The Avengers on SNES is borderline unplayable. Do yourself a favor and skip that for the far superior port on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. Many of Hulk’s games are pretty terrible, especially his first 3-D outing, The Pantheon Saga, where the Jade Giant looks as if he’s made of silly putty. Then there’s The Incredible Hulk on Game Boy Advance whose best feature is its box art that opens up.

Most of the MCU tie-in games from Sega are worthy of their bad review scores, and it’s because of their reputation that many missed out on the few good ones they put out, namely Captain America: Super Soldier, Iron Man on the Nintendo DS and Thor: God of Thunder on everything but the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Review Fix: What do you think of the most recent Avengers game?

Farrell: The campaign is very well done, and it features some genuinely touching moments. It’s also a lot of fun controlling each of the heroes in the small roster and even at launch, there was a character for everyone’s taste in playstyle. I initially took to Black Widow, but now I have a near max leveled Captain America. I’m just a complete and utter sucker for his wall-running, double jump combo.

Out of the gate though, Marvel’s Avengers wasn’t quite ready for prime time and it suffered from a lot of bugs and glitches. These have thankfully been addressed as the months have past, but it didn’t make a good first impression. It’s also a game that desperately wants you to keep coming back to it, but there just isn’t that much to do overall. Its very repetitive, and this is lessened when you have a good group, but everyone I know has bounced.

But I’m reasonably confident that the developers can turn it around. The game just got its first new character, Kate Bishop, who brought with her new story missions to play. Hopefully they can keep this momentum up moving forward with new characters and stories to get lapsed players back and new players in. I don’t like the fact that Spider-Man is held hostage to the PlayStation family of systems, but as a fan of that character, I’m curious to see how he’s going to fit in.

Review Fix: How is this book different from your Spidey book?

Farrell: The biggest difference is the inclusion of interviews, which is something I simply didn’t have the confidence to even entertain when writing The Web of Spider-Man Games. I’m very proud of that book, but in reflecting on it, I wish I would’ve listened more to feedback from trusted friends when putting it together. That book covers a lot of games, but it’s not as comprehensive as it could be. With The Avengers in Video Games, I aimed to correct this.

I’m also working with a publisher this time around, McFarland Books, who have been nothing but wonderful to work with. Since I seriously started writing in early 2012, I’ve been more or less on my own, and it’s nice to work with a team and editors.

Review Fix: Greatest Avengers game ever?

Farrell: The answer to me is still LEGO Marvel Super Heroes, which I consider to be one of the single greatest Marvel video games of all time. Its gameplay isn’t deep nor is it very challenging, but it’s so stuffed with content that there’s something for just about every Marvel Comics fan. You can tell that the developers at TT Games are extremely passionate about the source material and I hope they return to that world again. LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 was somewhat of a let down because it was missing the X-Men and Fantastic Four. Now that their respective film rights are back with Disney, all the cards are back on the table.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Farrell: I’m already deep into a new manuscript, and hopefully if The Avengers in Video Games does well enough readers will be hungry to see it. All I’ll say right now is that it’s quite…X-Citing.

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?

Farrell: I grew up in a small town of around 2,000 or so people and have lived a very humble life. Now I click a link one night and see the cover of a book with my name on it about iconic superheroes that I’ve grown up with and adored for most of my life.

It’s not easy putting yourself out there and starting a project, but I implore anyone who has ever wanted to start a website, stream, get into YouTube or write a book to try because you never know what you’re capable of. Given how connected the world is today, it’s easier than ever to reach out to people, network, and get your work seen.

All you have to do is take that first step.