Fans are patiently waiting for the next big superhero game, which looks to be Crystal Dynamics upcoming The Avengers release or even Rocksteady's mystery DC game. Over the last few years, fans have been lucky enough to play some of the best superhero games we've ever seen in the forms of Batman's Arkham series or Insomniac's Spider-Man PS4 exclusive.
However, there have been a number of planned games that have hoped to tap into the superhero market that never made it to the final stages. Superhero games that have been teased, announced, built, and then canceled before ever seeing the light of day have been a normal occurrence as markets change and companies go under. So, today we are going to take a look at a few canceled superhero video games that you never knew existed!
10 Lobo
While Lobo may have served as DC Comics' Wolverine analog, in a way, the character never reached the same levels of popularity as Marvel's Canucklehead. Even with a recent live-action appearance in the now-canceled Krypton didn't seem to bolster his popularity level too much.
So that's why it may seem crazy tho think that there was an entire Lobo 2D fighting game developed by Ocean of America in 1996. Lobo was set to release on SNES and Sega Genesis but was canceled at the last minute and left for dead. There are a few SNES cartridges still in existence that were released years after the fact for those hoping to play as DC's Main Man.
9 Daredevil
The unreleased Daredevil: Man Without Fear game from 5000ft Inc. was planned to be a small game from a small studio, but, when the Daredevil movie was greenlit by Sony, the game was built up into an open-world big-budget adventure.
However, since Sony was now putting a ton of money into the game, they also exercised some creative control, including forcing developers to include a rail-slide system similar to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. This led to problems between Sony, Marvel, and the developers, and the game was canceled.
8 Justice League
Fans may be aware of the scrapped George Miller-helmed Justice League: Mortal film, which was set to bring DC's greatest heroes together on the big screen 10 years before the DCEU's Justice League hit theaters. However, what you might not know is that there was also a planned tie-in video game from Double Helix.
The game would have been a third-person action role-player that allowed players to play as their chosen two JL members that they could switch between at any time during the game, and the promotional gameplay looked amazing. Unfortunately, the movie was canceled as was the game, with the studio shifting focus of the game to become Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters.
7 The Avengers
While The Avengers is getting a next-gen game release from Square Enix in 2020, the last time gamers saw a specific Avengers release was a canceled first-person brawler that would have let players become their favorite Marvel Avengers in four-player co-op gameplay as they took on the Skrull's during a Secret Invasion-esque storyline.
The game was created by THQ and set to release alongside The Avengers film, and the developers even brought in Secret Invasion writer Brian Michael Bendis to assist with the script. Unfortunately THQ's financial issues and Marvel's reluctance to further back the game led to its cancellation, which then turned into the disappointing Marvel Avengers: Battle For Earth.
6 The Flash
It may seem like the powers of The Flash would be hard to adapt into a video game format, however, Brash Entertainment took on that challenge. The Flash was intended to be an open-world game that starred Wally West as the scarlet speedster and featured story help from DC legend Marv Wolfman.
The game would explore Wally's developing powers after he took over from Barry Allen while playing through his most famous Rogues, with a final battle between Gorilla Grodd and then Reverse-Flash in the Speed Force. The game featured side missions, planned multiplayer, and an interesting approach to superspeed and combat, but the game was canceled when Brash Entertainment shut down.
5 X-Women: The Sinister Virus
The X-Men had quite a few games on the Sega systems in the 90s, with each receiving a few sequels. The series that appeared on the Sega Genesis began with 1993's X-Men and was followed by X-Men 2: Clone Wars. Both platform games featured a strong roster of playable characters that included Cyclops, Wolverine, Gambit, Nightcrawler, Psylocke, Beast, and Magneto.
While a few other female characters still appeared in the two games, Psylocke was the only playable mutant. A third game called X-Women: The Sinister Virus was planned that starred characters like Storm, Rogue, and Jean Grey, but it was canceled due to the closing of the developers and Sega's decision to move past 16-bit gaming.
4 Gotham By Gaslight
We've seen a lot of great, and some bad Batman games over the years, but they have all basically stayed in the same lane. From the comics to the films to the animated series, the basic version of Batman and his related characters remained the same for years.
So, when plans for a Batman game based on the Elseworlds Gotham By Gaslight story were leaked, fans were excited by the thought of playing as the Victorian Batman. Day 1 Studios, the developers behind F.3.A.R. Plans were revealed with concept art and a test animatic that teased fans with a game we didn't know we needed, but it was unfortunately dropped before any further work was put into the game.
3 Marvel 2099: One Nation Under Doom
Marvel's 2099 line of comics proved to be pretty popular when they were first released, which led to plans to release a video game called Marvel 2099: One Nation Under Doom, which would be loosely based on the comic storyline of the same name and be available for the first Playstation.
Promo images revealed characters like Punisher 2099, Spider-Man 2099, and Hulk 2099, with promises that other characters like Ghost Rider 2099 and X-Men 2099 would all be playable. Unfortunatley, Mindscape Inc. experienced a wave of layoffs and financial issues, and production on the game stopped, leaving fans with memories of a playable demo at SDCC in 1996.
2 Superman: Blue Steel
Superman has had a rough time in video games, as developers have never really been able to capture the feeling of playing as Superman. However, in 2008, fans were hopeful when Factor 5 began developing a Superman game that would come to be known as Superman: Blue Steel.
Factor 5 was brought together to make a tie-in game of sorts to the Superman Returns film franchise, though those plans were changed to an original Superman story that focused on epic boss battles and a fully-realized Metropolis. Unfortunately, the game's publisher Brash Entertainment went out of business, and Blue Steel and Factor 5 went down in flames.
1 Marvel Chaos
Fans may remember a short-lived partnership between Marvel and EA that resulted in a fighting game called Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects that saw a decent cast of Marvel characters alongside the EA-created Imperfects that wasn't very good and received terrible reviews.
There was another game planned in this partnership that was developed by EA Chicago that became known as Marvel Chaos that was later canceled. Marvel Chaos would keep the same type of fighting mechanics as Marvel Nemesis, but focus primarily on Marvel characters while also featuring heavily destructible levels to truly get the feel of a big comic book battle.