Marvel’s Avengers has been an enduring series within the comics universe since 1963. One of the earliest examples of the shared universe bringing distinct characters together as part of a single roster, the team found a huge surge in popularity by becoming the anchor characters for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Whereas they had often been overshadowed by other Marvel characters for decades in the comics, the Avengers movies have become some of the dominant blockbusters of the 21st century.
In the realm of gaming, though, a similar problem has long haunted the team. While there have been lots of games featuring the larger Marvel Universe, titles focused solely on the Avengers and their primary roster have suffered in comparison to the other marquee titles that have adapted the superhero universe. As a result, one of the best Avengers-centric games out there remains Lego Marvel’s Avengers. Released January 26, 2016, this ten-year-old game leans into the simple but fun gameplay of the larger Lego franchise — and highlights just how much trouble games primarily focused on just the Avengers have had over the years.
Lego Marvel’s Avengers Is A Fun (And Fine) Lego Game
An Avengers-centric sequel to Lego Marvel Super Heroes, Lego Marvel’s Avengers works as an adaptation of some of the films from the first two phases of the MCU. More structurally similar to earlier Lego movie adaptations of Lord of the Rings or Star Wars, the game directly reimagines some of the biggest battles from the film franchise at that point, but filtered through the MCU characters. The game focuses largely on The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron, although there are levels that also directly adapt scenes from other movies in the franchise.
One of the ways the game indulges in the concept is by giving players the chance to use other characters that were not involved in the series at that point, with a massive roster of playable characters that includes many comic fan favorites who hadn’t appeared in a film at the time of release. Critics ultimately gave the game mixed reviews that hover around the 70/100 mark on Metacritic, depending on the platform.
The title was fun in the same way as the other Lego games, even if it lacked the raw ambition of something like Lego Marvel Super Heroes — which played with an expanded canvas of characters and concepts. Ultimately, the game felt like more of the same. Lego Marvel’s Avengers still stands out as one of the better Avengers games, though, thanks to the somewhat wonky history of the series in gaming.
The Avengers Haven’t Really Had The Best Gaming Legacy
There have been plenty of great games based on the Marvel Universe, but many of them don’t directly focus on Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. While Spider-Man and the X-Men have gotten some great titles over the years, the Avengers have struggled to make a mark outside of universe-wide games like the Marvel: Ultimate Alliance trilogy, fighting game crossovers like Marvel vs. Capcom, and more expansive titles such as Lego Marvel Super Heroes. This is partly in reflection of the way the Avengers were, for a long time, not one of Marvel’s primary concerns. While the team was important in-universe, they never had the crossover into mainstream pop culture quite like Spider-Man or the X-Men. For the most part, the Avengers were considered B-list characters at best.
That’s exactly why Marvel still retained the film rights to those characters in the 2000s, and why they leaned so hard into those characters for the MCU. Even after the likes of Iron Man and Thor became household names, however, there weren’t a lot of great Avengers games to cash in on that success. The games directly adapting the early Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor movies were tepid at best. Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth struggled to stand out amongother action games. The most high-profile Avengers-centric game to come out based directly on the team’s main characters was 2020’s Marvel’s Avengers and Iron Man VR, both of which were controversial among fans who felt conflicted about the gameplay in both. In light of all that, there’s something to be said for the simple fun that Lego Marvel’s Avengers has with the team and indulges in the inherent fun of the Lego brand.
The Lego game style of comedy fits well into the distinct characters and conflicting personalities of the Avengers roster, while the established adaptations allow for some fun set pieces and gameplay. The reason Lego Marvel’s Avengers still stands out nearly a decade later is that there just haven’t been a huge amount of Avengers-centric games to take that top-tier mantle. Instead, games focused on the larger universe like Midnight Suns, Marvel Rivals, Marvel Snap, and Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, reimagine them alongside the larger universe of characters, keeping them present in the gaming space. For fans, there is still hope that Motive Studio’s Iron Man and Skydance’s Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra can bring a bit more sheen to the Avengers characters in gaming. If they can pull that off, it could set a new precedent for games adapting Marvel’s premier superhero squad.