Primarily based on the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron, LEGO Marvel’s Avengers also serves as a tribute to the superhero team as a whole, featuring many characters from the group’s history and a nod to the comic books in general. No matter if you are a LEGO, Marvel or fan of comic books in general, this game merits being right up there in your wish-list.
With the game about to officially hit the shelves, Mark Pilkington caught up with Game Director Arthur Parsons at the title’s recent London launch…
GameWatcher: Having been at TT Games for 18 years, what titles have you worked on previously to LEGO Marvel’s Avenger?
Arthur Parsons: Everything from the Crash Bandicoot series to Finding Nemo, but since we started making the LEGO games, I’ve worked on LEGO Batman 1, LEGO Batman 3, LEGO Marvel Superheroes, the two LEGO Harry Potter games, and I’ve helped out a bit on LEGO Indiana Jones and a few others. The superhero games are my bag really. I’ve got a brilliant team around me, and we all have a shared love of comics, so we work well together.
GameWatcher: I was going to say, it must be a given that you’re a big fan of the superhero and comic book genre…
Arthur Parsons: Yes definitely. To be honest, growing up in the UK, I didn’t really have access to many Marvel or DC Comics. So for me it was mainly Dan Dare and The Mekon from Eagle comics. As I got a bit older I managed to watch some of the cartoons and the 80s Hulk TV series, so I’ve known about Marvel from an early age. I’ve always read comics and I still do. This game especially was an education because we’ve got some characters that are really quite diverse. It’s been great to research about characters like Spitfire, who are really cool but not many people would have heard of.
GameWatcher: LEGO Marvel’s Avengers loosely follows the plotlines of Age of Ultron and several of the other recent Marvel films. But is it fair to say this game is also about the Avengers as a whole in regards to their comic book history?
Arthur Parsons: For me, when people ask if I can explain what LEGO Marvel’s Avengers is, on the face of it you might just think it is about the Avengers movies. But it really isn’t. This is like the Marvel Universe told through the eyes of the Avengers. Put Avengers goggles on and look at the Marvel universe, and this is what you get. You’ve got everything from comic books, cartoons, TV shows and even Stan Lee himself in this game.
GameWatcher: There’s a Stan Lee cameo?
Arthur Parsons: Of course, I mean without Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, none of this would exist. For us, it’s a case of going into every single area of the Marvel universe in order to create a game. We also have other movies in here such as Thor: The Dark World and Captain America Winter Soldier, along with TV show references such as Agent Carter and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. It’s what people come to expect from these games, especially the superhero licenses.
GameWatcher: So how many characters can you unlock and play in this game?
Arthur Parsons: We actually ended up breaking 200, which is a huge credit to the character team. Having said that, I think there are about 8,000 Marvel characters believe it or not, so we still only skimmed the surface. We pretty much got everyone we possibly could from the Avengers side of things. There are so many in there, it’s a true A-Z – so you have everyone from Absorbing Man to Baron Zemo. And of course, each of them has got their own personality and abilities, so they have the same powers as they do in the comics. I can promise each one is great fun to play.
GameWatcher: Speaking of fun, the cutscenes in LEGO games are famous for their sense of humour. How do you decide on the jokes and what Easter eggs to include?
Arthur Parsons: It’s more of a collaborative thing with the whole team. The cutscene directors are brilliant – they really know how to parody a story. As designers, we also have a load of things we want to get in. A good example of the cutscene at the end of Age of Ultron, where Hulk gets in the Quinjet and flies off… So we included the ‘Lonely Man’ theme as reference to the old 80s TV show. All these tiny Easter eggs and little nods all help to make the game so much better.
A homage to the comic books as it is to the movies, combined with the winning LEGO gameplay formula, it really is time to Assemble those Avengers!
