Super Smash Bros. is, without a doubt, a seminal franchise for the video game industry, whose formula has given rise to multiple clones, but if there is one that could work, this would be one with the Avengersand according to the confessions of a developer, this game was about to be a reality.
As part of a video for your channel of YouTube, Luke Muscat, veteran developer, responsible for games like fruit ninjaconfessed that during his time at the Australian studio Halfbrick, he was involved in a licensed game of the Avengersdelegated by THQ in 2009.
THQ asked, first, that it be a brawler in the style of Ninja Turtlesbut after a short time, they changed their minds and asked a clone from Super Smash Bros. with the Avengers as protagonistsand the best thing is that it would be for Nintendo DS, where there was nothing similar for those days.
From what Muscat says and also shows, the project already had playable prototypes, albeit unfinished, when suddenly, someone at THQ noticed a catastrophic detail:
“The contract they had signed with Marvel required the game genre to be street-brawler. A straight fighting game was not that. It had to have levels, many vs. one combat, and bits of history. Our entire plan was blown.”
As you can imagine, it was too late to start from scratch, and the result ended up being Marvel Super Hero Squada very soulless beat ’em up that went unnoticed.
“The reviews, of course, were terrible. In the end, we had made a very bad game, but at that point, the studio was struggling to survive, so we did what we could and moved on.”
The clones that followed
Even without having prospered, the project of Smash Bros. a la Avengers was to be the first of several clones, such as PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl and, more recently, multiversusnone of which, by the way, has reached durability or significance of the original product.
We will never know if this clone would have prospered, since it would have arrived a little before the fever for Marvel movies that we are perhaps seeing fade today, but as a concept, the clone of Smash Bros. from Avengers still a very attractive one.
Whatever the case, this account of Avengers Y Smash Bros. It is also testimony to the vicissitudes that developers must make to comply with the games that we enjoy every day and that, although they do not always comply, do not enjoy ideal development conditions either. By the way, there is also prototype material Smash Bros.in case you are interested.