After Marvel Rivals, A Fantastic Four Video Game Is A No Brainer After Marvel’s Wolverine

With an upcoming movie this summer and a recent addition to the roster of Marvel Rivals, it’s clear that Marvel’s first family, the Fantastic Four, is coming back into the spotlight after being sidelined for decades. While there have been films to bring the iconic superhero group to the public’s attention, there hasn’t been a well-received video game attempt to play as the Fantastic Four in over twenty years. Looking at the recent success of Insomniac Games’ player superhero titles, it seems like the perfect time to make a Fantastic Four video game.

Marvel’s Spider-Man and its sequels have proven that a single-player superhero experience works extremely well, especially when it’s driven by a well-written story in a self-contained universe. The Fantastic Four are the perfect group to headline their own single-player video game, as they have decades of comic storylines to adapt. With an iconic supervillain to face and four unique power sets for developers to utilize, there’s so much to run with.

The Fantastic Four Are Gaining Momentum (Especially In Marvel Rivals)

2025 Is A Big Year For The Family

Despite being one of the first successful superhero groups published by Marvel Comics, the Fantastic Four have been strangely absent from popular culture in the last decade. There was an attempt to reboot the movie franchise with 2015’s Fantastic Four, but that film fell flat with poor reviews from general audiences and critics alike. However, it seems that 2025 will bring The Fantastic Four back across multiple forms of media, from video games to movies. Before their upcoming film debut in the MCU, the Fantastic Four have found traction in video games with Marvel Rivals.

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Marvel Rivals Couldn’t Be Introducing The Fantastic Four At A Better Time

The Fantastic Four are coming to Marvel Rivals, and with everything going on with the MCU, Marvel’s first family is coming at the best time.

Marvel Rivals is the newest free-to-play hero shooter on the market, and despite being another title in a saturated market of free-to-play shooters, it’s rocketed to the top in popularity according to Steam Charts. The Fantastic Four were just added to Marvel Rivals just as the ball got rolling, potentially cementing their popularity with a wider audience. Players getting a feel for each member’s unique skillset and personality through Marvel Rivals could be an easy segue to the team leading their own title, gaining similar traction to popular characters like Spider-Man and Wolverine.

Marvel’s Spider-Man & Wolverine Need A Slam Dunk Follow Up

Another Premier Set Of Comic Book Characters

Insomniac Games have been making Marvel games since its first Spider-Man came out in 2018. The studio has released two follow-ups to Spider-Man’s story and is currently working on Marvel’s Wolverine. Both of the main Spider-Man titles were well-received by fans, mostly for their well-crafted gameplay and the stories they told. Every game has utilized the rich narrative history attached to its main character, and while Wolverine isn’t out yet, it will likely do the same.

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Marvel Rivals Getting This Iconic Suit From Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Is A Great Sign Of Things To Come

Marvel Rivals is getting a suit from Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 as a new cosmetic, perhaps signaling an exciting new trend for the game’s character skins.

The obvious choice for the next superhero game in the Marvel single player line-up is the Fantastic Four. Not only do these characters have decades worth of stories to be adapted, just like Spider-Man and Wolverine, but they have even more unique powers that developers could incorporate into the story. Swinging around New York City as both Peter Parker and Miles Morales is incredibly fun, but being able to fly around as Johnny Storm or crash through thugs as the Thing could be even more exciting.

The Fantastic Four Haven’t Had Their Own Game In Almost Twenty Years

None Of The Games Have Been Well Received

Despite their popularity throughout comic book history, the Fantastic Four haven’t had their own video game title in nearly twenty years. While they have been featured in other Marvel games, most recently Marvel Rivals, the last game that entirely focused on the team was 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. This game, based on the movie of the same title, was not a very exciting game. While it did have fun combo attacks between The Fantastic Four, the game was primarily boring and repetitive.

The last Fantastic Four video game that wasn’t based on a movie was all the way back in 1997, simply titled Fantastic Four for the original PlayStation. This side scrolling beat ‘em up game was also poorly received, with gameplay that suffered from a similar lack of excitement. It’s safe to say that the Fantastic Four have not had a good run in the world of video games. Their titles have been unimaginative and seemed to focus more on each individual’s abilities and mowing through enemies rather than a story based on the characters themselves.

A Story-Driven Game Would Be Perfect For Marvel’s First Family

Family And Comic Book Drama Mix Perfectly

One of the most important aspects of the Fantastic Four is that they are a family. Previous video games have mostly ignored that part of the team, instead focusing on combat and each member’s powers to mow through enemies. Marvel’s Spider-Man and its sequels thrived by giving players classic comic book stories, filled with iconic villains and character-driven drama. The Fantastic Four could easily support an equally character-driven story with their family dynamic, especially if the game’s story drives a wedge between them for some proper comic-book style drama.

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Marvel Rivals Nailed One Element With The Fantastic Four

Season 1 of Marvel Rivals will be adding The Fantastic Four, Marvel’s First Family, and has nailed one element about the group to bring them to life.

Gameplay-wise, The Fantastic Four is the perfect group to use for a set of characters in their own game. Each of the four members – Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, The Thing, and the Human Torch – have distinct and diverse sets of powers. Other recent Marvel games have opted to entirely focus their gameplay on a single character, as with Marvel’s Spider-Man, since Spider-Man operates alone, or with Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy‘s emphasis on Star-Lord, despite him working with the rest of the Guardians.

A Fantastic Four video game could buck this trend by swapping to each member throughout the game while using their different powers. The game could also opt to focus in on one member, likely Mister Fantastic, while giving short interludes for the other three members. This gameplay tactic would be similar to how the Marvel’s Spider-Man games occasionally swapped to Mary-Jane or other non-powered characters for different types of gameplay.

Insomniac Games has already confirmed with the upcoming Wolverine that the Marvel games will be in a shared universe, so bringing The Fantastic Four into the fold would also provide an amazing opportunity to bring Spider-Man into the game for some missions, as Spider-Man and The Fantastic Four have a long, shared history in the comics. While it would have to explain why The Fantastic Four haven’t made their presence known in New York City yet, introducing their space mission origin story well after Spider-Man was already swinging around the city would solve that issue.

Source: Steam Charts

Third-Person Shooter

Action

Multiplayer

Released

December 6, 2024

ESRB

T For Teen // Violence